First of all, joy = this little one…
who is already six months old. Oh, my heart is so very full. Is it just me, or is she the cutest baby ever born into this world??
But, my main point today is that joy = brave sweat. Oh yes, for two days in a row, it does.
In the last six months, I’ve walked and gone rollerblading some. I actually went to a stroller exercise class once, and decided I desperately needed a better sports bra. However, even with those attempts at calorie burning, I haven’t felt like I’d really taken up exercise again. I’m almost at my pre-baby weight, but my body is NOT where I’d like it. One stinkin’ bit. Granted, my pre-baby weight was up about 15 pounds anyway, but still…I do not look like I did pre-baby. No, sir. It’s time to do something, and I’ve been trying to figure out what to do. It seems silly to start a running plan, since the weather will soon be too temperamental to carry it out fully. I refuse to leave baby girl in the gym nursery where I currently workout. No way. I figure the kids that work in there probably just got fired from working at the tanning salon next door. I stopped by tonight (I’ve never even seen inside) – there were a handful of 5-8 year olds all watching TV and one girl working. My mommy gut says “absolutely not!” I might consider leaving her with the childcare at the Y, if I switched to the Y, and after she is crawling and can play more independently. We’ll see. In the meantime, I concluded that my only option is to go workout at night.
Yesterday evening, I did a step class. The whole thing. I pretended I was on Biggest Loser and had Bob and Jillian yelling at me in my head. YOU’D BETTER NOT STOP! YOU DON’T NEED WATER! KEEP GOING UNTIL YOU PASS OUT OR DIE!!! And, miraculously enough, I did keep going (ok, I did get some water…but no long water breaks at all) and I didn’t pass out or die. Hurray for me! I just wanted to tell every single person there that this was my first workout post baby, but I refrained.
Tonight, I was really, really brave. I went to the Hip Hop class at the gym. Just saying that makes me want to laugh. I’m the whitest non-hip hop gal there is. And now, I also carry the label of suburban mom….just to top it off. But, a workout in the form of dance sounds like fun…so off to Hip Hop class (he he he) I went. And I did it…pretty darn well, if I do say so myself. The instructor even complimented me on my dancing ability and guessed that I used to dance, which was a little hard to answer given my varied dance background. I did it. Go me!
There’s more to the Hip Hop story (yo…that feels like there needs to be a “yo” there) though… I get in there and it ends up just being me and ONE other GUY. Oh my dear goodness. Seriously!?!?!? And he was totally Mr. Hippity Hop guy. Big baggy pants, big hoodie. And me – Miss overweight, awkward hair (not quite long enough to pull up yet), uncoordinated, suburban mom….who hasn’t worked out in six months. The setup of this was enough to make me laugh. I think I really did. I thought for a half second about leaving, but decided to stay. I can do this….I’m there, I’m doing it. It went pretty well. We learned sections of a dance routine and just kept building on it and then we’d start from the top and do it all. Basic dance training stuff. I started doing better when I got over the feeling that I was in Flashdance or something….it didn’t help that it was just a gal teaching me and one other guy. I just kept thinking about Flashdance or Dancing With The Stars and I would want to laugh out loud. And it’s hard to be hip-hoppish when you are laughing out loud, so I made myself stop thinking about Flashdance. The only other distractions where some of the moves….the Charleston, the grapevine, the Mashed Potato, and a foot kick thing we did at Jr High dances in the 7th grade (which made me want to yell out “OPP? Yeah – you know me!”)….that all were done a little more hip-hoppy and had different names. What goes around, comes around, I guess. It helped me out though… she was all impressed with me, and I was like… yo hip hop gal, that’s just the Charleston (which we also used in Step class yesterday). The one thing that wasn’t there was the New Kids On The Block move that we did in step class yesterday. Bummer, cause I killed at that one yesterday. I was right on it….oh yeah.
So, the last couple days have provided for an entertaining journey, but I feel great and am so proud of myself for getting back in the heart palpitating swing of things.
ever joyful 