Zuma! at last

I've been meaning to take a Zumba class since... well I joined NYSC in Westchester for the summer.
Every week I would peer in while waiting for body conditioning class. While it looked fun, I spent my summer days working as a dance counselor at a day camp. My entire day was cardio dance, jumping up and down, being a motivational dancer and encouraging kiddies to move. I was far more interested in running and weight training when I got to the gym.

I signed up to for a 1 day workshop to become a certified zumba instructor. is it silly to sign up to become a teacher in something I had never done? yeah, but hey I am a dance counselor at camp, I should love it and be good at it!

So today, was finally my day.
Working out at 10AM f is not exactly what I would want on a sunday, but I spent all of last night pumping myself up for finally taking a Zumba class.
I was a bit nervous, I have a background as a dancer with lots of years dancing but very little technique. I always feel embarrassed at these dance classes when I can't pick things up as fast as I feel I should be able to, and I look like the awkward white girl who should just stick to musical theater.

Doing Zumba at Crunch union square I still did look ridiculously white, I always sweated and had a blast. The hour long class flew by. Basically the class is non-stop dancing for the full hour, following easy to copy dance moves from the instructor, and the moves repeat throughout the songs. The music was a mix of my favorite songs from the summer (Give Me Everything Tonight, obsessed), and latin flavored music. While this isn't the music I would listen to on my ipod, I could care less and was super into perfecting each dance move. For someone uptight and incredibly stressed out, this was the perfect easy to follow exercise class that I needed in the midst of a crazy week.
The class was packed with people of all ages (as usual in life, I was probably the baby of the crew) and people who were not necessarily dancers, but loved Zumba as a form of cardio. I highly recommend that everyone tries it, its super fun, and honestly about yourself and not judging the people around you. Let yourself go wild, and sweat it out.

I'm already hooked and hope I can attend class again next weekend.

and now its the final week of fall semester, went by incredibly fast. at this time next week I will be home in Westchester.
however, before I am allowed to leave this wonderful city, I have to write an essay, have musical rehearsal every night, go to class every day and do 4 performances of our kickass musical. so close, but so far...

hot yoga, by accident, and by procrastination.

Its finals season here at NYU...
I love procrastinating by working out-- it is both terrible and wonderful at the same time. Instead of anxiously sitting on facebook thinking about that essay I need to start writing, I put that anxious energy into working out. Its far more productive in the end and when I come back to the work I feel more relaxed.

In the midsts of all this end of year craziness, I promised myself I would work out today to make up for being lazy all weekend with the boy, and not having time yesterday. Despite knowing I had to work on my essay and memorize a monologue and 2 songs for class, going to the gym is also important.

I've been craving yoga for some odd reason... and I don't really like yoga. I always tell myself I like yoga, but then end up going and silently whining to myself all class while my wrists feel like they are going to snap.
But I do like the "yoga-high" i get, and despite wanting to cry during the class, I always leave feeling refreshed and energized. This is exactly what I need right now.
... and it also helps that my package from lululemon arrived today with beautiful new yoga tops.

I decided to try out "Enlightened Yoga" at crunch.
After feeling a bit queazy and dehydrated all day, I wanted to do something that would leave me energized and ready to do a marathon of essay writing in the library, so spinning and weights were out of the question.

Turns out, enlightened yoga is a hot yoga class. I've been meaning to try hot yoga, but have shied away for fear that I will die during the class. Well, there was no turning back

The 90 minute class felt intimidating at first, I was drenched with sweat and my usual wrist problems were horrendous early on.
 My mind did its usual "oh my god I hate yoga, why do I come back dance" for a decent amount of the class.
But then it stopped.
And my body started feeling good. and the oppressive heat started reminding me of vacations in Mexico, and why I applied to almost all warm weather schools for college.

By the end of the 90 minutes I felt accomplished, relaxed and energized. My joints felt amazing, and I was honestly proud of myself for literally enduring the heat instead of giving up mid class. I firmly believe in mind over matter, and the fact that I told myself all class with every breath that I was energizing myself, I was in fact energizing myself.

 While yoga may never be my true love, I think everyone can benefit from what it has to offer. As far as hot yoga goes, I enjoyed it more than I expected to and plan on returning. I'm shocked how great I still feel, almost 6 hours later. I came home and was able to focus on memorizing, and even started writing my final paper in the library after that (with no caffeine, something rare for me)

So I encourage all stressed out college kids to procrastinate with me. even if its for only 30 minutes go on the tread mill, walk around the city, take a yoga class. Do something physical for yourself in the midst of the stress and craziness to alleviate the anxiety.