January adjustments

With the beginning of the new year, it's a given, that more people start going to the gym. I've been going to the gyms for years, and know the drill. However, our Zumba instructor is so popular, that her classes are always super crowded. Especialy Sunday mornings... I prefer to be in the back right corner, as that is the way my brain has chosen for me to read the zumba routines the easiest way. But with the many newbies, I often find myself in a new spot, because they all want to be in the back.

 I remember the feeling of going to Zumba for the first time. It makes me proud when I think about how Zumba changed my life 2½ years ago! I always look at the newbies and think "I wonder if they will stay at it like me.." Zumba is keeping me busy and I love it. When I think back on how my life was before zumba, it makes me sad. I remember the dayly trip to buy chocolate on the way home, then sitting down in front of the tv for the rest of the day. Now I hardly ever watch tv, cause I'm never home. I simply keep myself busy and it's the only thing preventing me from getting back to my old habbits. Instead I allow myself the treats now, because I go to the gym. I lost a lot of weight within the first 6 months and have been able to keep it off for 2 years. But that's not all. People say I look more happy now. Someone even told my mom that I had so much selfesteem now, which is something I never seemed to have before, so that made me realy proud. To know that other people can see that I like being me now, is such a great feeling. I'm not afraid of what people think of me anymore, because I know that I work hard at the gym every week and am damn proud of it!

I must admit, there were 2 weeks after Christmas that I didn't go to zumba. but I didn't feel bad about it, cause I knew  would get back once I found the time for it again and as I had been sick for a while, with a cough, that may have been the cold flu, I think my boddy was begging me for a break. I know allow myself breaks!! I'm not super woman so anything I feel like doing or not doing, I decide.

As Zumba class on Fridays was taken off the program, I felt the need of another 1 hour work out. As dancing seems to be the only thing I realy enjoy, I was pleased to see that there was a new Dance Fit class on Tuesdays, which normaly would be my "day off." I must admit, that dance fit class is very boring, but as I find myself thinking time flies fast, I decided to stick with it. Because I have such a busy schedule after work, I had to write down exactly which bus to take where and when, to make it to the gym in time. Without that, I would be lost.

Here's my January work out schedule:

Monday: (Too lazy to leave the house after 19...)
Tuesday: 1 hour Dance Fit
Wednesday: 2 hours salsa freestyle (salsa work out)
Thursday: 1 hour Zumba
Friday: (Sadly no more Zumba)
Saturday:
Sunday: 2 hours of Zumba
- So with 3 "Non work out days," I've still been able to work out 6 hours a week :)

Because we don't have zumba on Fridays any more, our instructor promised to me some zumba events every now and then. So January 25th. we had a 1½ hour "Zumba pop songs edition" event. It was a lot of fun.

The last week of January, I didn't get to do any work out at all. this time it wasn't because I was ill, but because my instructors were. That's what happens. Luckily every instructor was working again this week and I've enjoyed 6 hours of work out.. I know it could've been 7, but I decided to skip Tuesday's dance fit. I plan on going to all scheduled classes next week. There is a risk that my salsa will get cancelled, though.. But I hope my instructor will find a new location for our salsa before Wednesday.

Keeping busy with busy on top!

It's been some pretty rough weeks, with the 2 hours of zumba every day, to say good bye to our instructor. Every Wednesday after the two hours of zumba, me and one of the other women rushed to salsa in the other end of the city. It's been hectic, but we didn't want to miss any of the classes.

The last day we had zumba with our instructor, we asked him to chit chat with us after zumba. We gave him a small present, that I had arranged. It was a framed certificat saying he was the best instructor in the world and I decorated it with some pictures of us all. The gift was a small keychain with a group picture and the name of our regular zumba place. From the look in his eyes and the big smile, I think he liked the surprise!! The last couple of days, we were allowed to video tape his choreographies to use as home work out dvds. For the fun of it, I had made a dvd cover and presented him. Sadly, at the time, we didn't have any dvd ready to put in the cover. I just thought he should see how it turned out. Well, a couple of days later, he asked me for a copy of the video footage, so I made him a copy of my bad recordings. I just put my camera in one place and didn't move it at all... so at times you can't see his feet and sometimes he's not even in the picture... But oh well. With my memory and what I can make from the recordings, I should be able to work out the choreographies!

I know that it will be hard work to get as much from zumba as he gave me. Zumba instructors are all different, but I will always try to remember what he taught me. To put all my energy into every move, strech out the way he taught us and never give up. It so happens, that one of the gyms I go to, is offering zumba as of this up coming week. With 4 gyms and another one opening October 17th., there will be plenty opportunitys for zumba. I looked through their schedule and came up with the gym near the bus central in town, which is nice cause I will only have to take 1 bus. The local sport's club (outside my window) is offering a cheap membership and it still fits in my tight program, so I will sign up to support them and to take advantage of zumba next to my home. However, whenever I'm done there, I will have to take a bus or train to salsa in the other end of the city.

This is how busy I'll be in the future:

Monday: Latin Mix & Dance Fit
Tuesday: Nothing - this is when I go to the movies with my friends etc.
Wednesday: Zumba (where I live) & Salsa (freestyle - no partner)
Thursday: Zumba
Friday: Zumba
Saturday: 2 x Zumba
Sunday: 2 x Zumba

Taking advantage of 4 gyms. I wonder if I can get used to that. With this busy schedule, I also allow myself to skip classes. The classes Saturday and Sunday are morning classes, so I can still do other things those days. But as you see. I'm keeping busy with busy on top.

October will be even more busy. I will attend the master class with Beto Perez himself, when he stops by Denmark on October 1st. There is a party bus leaving from my city and I signed up to go with them. It's gonna be a long ride, but I asume it's gonna be a lot of fun, too. After the master class, there will alsp be an after party. I signed up for that as well. I don't exactly know anyone who's going, but I just think, that if I don't go, I will regret it. The bus returns home after the after party. I hope I can get some sleep on the bus.

The next week end, I bought a ticket for a zumba marathon supporting the breast cancer society. I attended the "Pink Saturday" last year, to celebrate my mom being cancer free for 10 years after breast cancer surgery. Well, I still want to support the case, so I will go this year as well. I even bought a new zumba top to wear in the month of October - breast cancer month.

The matching socks came along for free.. But they're absolutely too warm for me to wear for zumba. I use them as every day socks ;) Guess I can wear them on the bus ride in case I want to take my shoes off, but want to keep warm.

In the end of October, there is another zumba event in town. This time the money will go to the kids cancer department at the local hospital. Well, if I have the energy, I will go to that event as all.

Again. Keeping busy with busy on top, but also remembering to take care of myself. I know when my body needs rest!

Cancelled Zumba Event, friends and outdoor zumba

Monday I had my usual hour of latin mix and dance fit. This time in dance fit, my ancles were pushed to the limits again, but luckily I'm now aware of that as it happens, so I made sure to take my breaks and not over do it. Wednesday's Samba classes has turned into latin mix, so I went for a class of that.

Thursday I was suppose to attend a Zumba event in the morning, due to the Holyday. As I got to the bus stop, I realised I couldn't make it to the gym as the bus would drive on Sunday's schedule. Then I had to call up my dad and make him drive me. That resultet in me being there very early, so I took some time at the library, which is in the same building. As I wanted to sign in for zumba, I was told it had been cancelled as the instructor had just called in sick. What a bummer. In a village near by, they were trying to beat a record with as many people doing zumba at the same time, as possible. People had asked me if I would join them, but I would rather attend my usual zumba class.. Well, what a bummer. Noone wanted to go with me. Later on, I heard in the news that only a couple of hundred showed up compared to the 3000 who had signed up. I'm glad I didn't sign up, then. Too bad, though, as it seemed like a fun thing to do.

Instead I went home and prepared for going to my aun's birthday party in the afternoon.

I've spent some lovely days with friends these past couple of days, as Thursday was a Holyday and I took Friday off from work.

Looking at the gym's schedule yesterday, I noticed that my instructor now offers zumba out door on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Awesome. Here I thought zumba season had reached it's end, when it's actualy coming up with more posibilitys than before! I just hope the weather will be nice. Looking at Thursday's weather forecast, they predict rain. Oh well, I don't believe it till I see it!

When schedule fails...

Well, Nathan and Maria are running late due to a delayed flight from either London or Copenhagen, so I figured... What better way to kill time, than to write here, right? Atleast it's in the zumba spirit ;).
I went to the children's carnival the other day, with my friend and her daughter. The little girl loved it. She was dancing all day.. Around 2 pm it started raining. I decided that the outdoor zumba event was not that important to me afterall, so I went home to relax on my sofa instead.

It's my first time at this new zumba place. It's in an industry area and this is the only sign of zumba when you pass by.
The location is creepy. The changing room is so small, yet in ok condition. The bench only fits 1 person. Luckily I changed into my zumba clothes at home, but had to change my shoes and socks and put on my ankle supporters.

Well, the good thing is. The dance room is huge!

Oh here comes bad news. Nathan and Maria will not show up for another 2 hours due to the Icelandic ash clouds..

They have some warm up instructors who will make us sweat while we wait. Good thing I brought 2 tops ;)

This is my waiting position ;)

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Zumba week-end recap.. Finaly

I had been looking so forward to Saturday, as it was the big day.. First a zumba class and then off to the big Zumba Event.

Although Saturday morning zumba is early in the day (11am), and it's still early in the Spring, the heat is already starting to show it's signs in the zumba class.. We always get heated up within 10 minutes in the zumba class, even during winter... Imagine 30 sweaty women cramped togethed in a small room that will barely fit more than that. With Spring and plus degrees celcius, it gets so hot that sweat is now dripping, which I find disgusting. The gym has some new outdoor facilities that we will begin to use eventualy, but I'm not sure when exactly it will be.. But I can  already imagine how pleasent it will be to work out outdoor.. Only downside I see, is my Spring fever.. So far I haven't had a problem with it... But I'm pretty sure that once the Birch trees realy starts to drop it's pollen, you will find me sneezing with runny eyes. I do have tablets that I will take once needed as it varies a lot from year to year how much it will effect me. Worst case, I will be doing zumba wearing sunglasses. I'm game cause I'm getting tired of being in that sweaty room.

After the morning zumba class, we rushed to change into some dry gym clothes. I took down my sweaty hair hoping it would dry as much as possible on the way to the other gym. The other gym was a 20 minute drive away, but of course we ended up taking a wrong turn on the highway which let us to do a detour. Of well, we made it till 1 PM which was when we planned to be there. We brought our tickets to the entrance and we got a sandwhich, an apple, a snackbar and a bottle of water. As we were quite hungry after zumba class and it being lunch time, we sat down to relax for 5 minutes, eating a bit and building up energy to join in the zumba that had already started. I like that it's ok to walk in and out from a zumba class during the events like these.. We got up from the floor and joined in the others that were already at it. It's so easy to spot when some of the other zumbanistas know the instructors teaching class, cause they seem to know the moves better than others. I like to be a bit prepared, but it's ok. I do my best and laugh if I'm doing something totaly wrong. That's what zumba is all about. Having fun even if you mess up. Noone will judge you, but yourself, and you realy shouldn't, cause by doing zumba you're doing something good for yourself!
We were the last ones to get there, so we had to stand far back... It was ok, if it hadn't been for the chairs and the wall being so close. So we changed spots quite a few times, but it was never a problem. It was in a sports arena that is used for handball, which was easy to see as the floor had grease spots... I even saw full hand prints on the floor.. So disgusting. And from previous zumba events that I have been to, I know that grease can cause you to twist your ancles as it will stop you right away if you step on it during a step.. So I always tried to avoid those spots.
While we were at it, our zumba instructor from the mornig class, arived. He was there to teach a master class. I think 5 or 6 from our local zumba class were attending and then a couple of the other staff members of our local gym. During break, as we were eating and just relaxing, he came over to chat for a bit. It was funny. He never tells us which routines we'll be doing at Events, cause it's suppose to be for the fun of it he says.. So on the way up there, we were talking about which routines we would probably be doing.. And the 4 we talked about was also in his masterclass.. One of the girls asked med how I knew he would pick those 4... And I said... Easy. They were routines that had show potential. And a couple of the routines he changed some of the steps this morning, so yeah, there had to be a reason behind that, as he seemed to be making the routines easier that morning. Most of the girls/women in his class has been there since the beginning, so we're ready for advanced zumba.. However some of the advanced things he comes up with, is too tricky for my brain to figure out. Like how to spin during 2 salsa steps.. Seems so easy, yet I need to see it a couple more times. Lately we also had some new people join our zumba class, and they came to me asking howcome we all knew his steps.. I told them,  not to worry. Give zumba a chance and once you have seen the routines for 5 times, you will also be able to do those tricky steps, so I guess I will take my own advise and see if I can do those weird salsa spins after a couple of more times. In our normal zumba classes, we have been doing a routine quite a few times. It's a fun dance that involves dancing in line. We had to do the same at the Event, only instead of making people dance in line, they just had to turn to the side.. But the 5 of use were already standing in line, so we decided to do the dance like we're used to.
This is the song that we use for that routine, of course he changed the steps, but it's still a lot like in the video

It was so much fun to hear the women standing near by, as they commented on what our instructor was doing. "Yeah, that's easy for him to say we should do like that... But how do we do it" - and there I was, doing what he was doing and smiling to myself. It's the small victorys that count!
After the zumba master class with our instructor, there was a break again. A local bank had sponsored bottled water, which I was pleased to find out as I was very thursty from all the working out. I can't do one routine (song) in zumba class without whiping my head and neck with my towel quite a lot and drinking water. I don't know where the sweat goes on the other women, cause I never see their head being as sweaty as mine. Oh well.. I'm used to it, which is why I always like to stand in the back where I can grab my towel and water easily without interfering anything.
The last instructor on stage to do a master class, was a dancer who's famous for being in our "Dancing with the stars" (Ball room dancing). She's now a zumba instructor. It was easy to see, that she was a good dancer cause her routines were more advanced than normal ones.. But since our instructor is also a good dancer, I think I did ok. They have different ways of teaching and I think her way reminded me of the clowns in circus., saying "HEP".. That frustrated me a bit. Her master class was 1,5 hour long  so it was a tough one. As the last routine, before stretching out, she used "Proud Mary" and jumped down from the stage to turn it into a battle.
When everything was done, I went to change into some dry clothes again. I squeezed my hair bun and sweat was coming out of it. So disgusting.

We left the sports areana and were able to find our way home without using the GPS. I returned home as a proud woman after 5 hours of zumba.

The following day (yesterday), I got up early cause I wanted to take my bike to a shop near by, to buy a new stereo. The cd player in my old one no longer worked and as I saw a small and cheap one in a catalogue, I decided to get it right away. Let's face it. I love music, so I need a stereo that works. And the cool thing about my new stereo is.. I can also attach my Ipod.. My Iphone would fit in there, too, if it wasn't because of the cover I have on it. But hey, I have the same music on my Ipod as on my Iphone anyway, and the Ipod is just more simple to attach.

Speaking of my Iphone... I discovered this cool program that recognises music. If you hear a song in the radio, you just tap the phone, and the program will tell you which song you're listening to. It's perfect if you hear great music that you would like to get from Itunes. Yesterday I was at a Spring fair with my friend. I wanted her to see zumba cause I knew that there would be a small zumba show on stage. Before that, I talked with the 2 instructors as they're going to be at the Easter Zumba Event that I'm going to Saturday.. Along with the dancer from "Dancing with the stars." I told them, that my waist was hurting a bit from the 5 hours of zumba and they said not to worry, cause their routines would not be as hard as the professional dancer's. Later there would be a dance show from a latin dance school, that I also wanted to check out, as my instructor has been talking about it a lot. They were dancing salsa, zouk and lambada. My friend brought her 1-year-old daughter who wanted to get up and dance.. She was so cute that people stopped up to see her dancing. Personaly I always hated the idea of dance schools.. and I'm still not convinced. I'm just not a "couple dancing" person. I prefer dancing alone and freestyling. People always ask me where I was taught to dance anyway and well.. Apart from the new zumba steps, everything I dance is whatever comes into mind.. Probably because I always loved music, rhytm just comes natural to me. Anyway, the last song they were dancing to on stage, sounded pretty cool, so I remembered about the program and tapped it, and it came up with this one:

As I saw the result it came up with, I thought... what I surprise. That movie had been on tv this morning as I went to buy the stereo. I love the movie, so while I was shopping, I actualy bought the movie. I'm a dance freak and I now have most of the dance movies that you can get, apart from a couple. Maybe I'll do a dance movie post in a couple of dayse.. I won't do it now, as I have one more movie coming in the mail this week. The iphone App that I use for finding songs, is this one.

I'm guessing it can be used anywhere... From radio, concerts or even zumba classes. It's just a realy cool App, that I will probably be using at the zumba event on Saturday, now that I know how easy it is to use. In 30 seconds, it will tell you which song your're listening to, and it will save the song it's history so you can use it several time without the first song disapearing. It's so cool. You should check it out. I think it's also available for androids.

Today is Monday and I have today and tomorrow off from work. However, I have a latin mix and dance fit class on both days. Yep, it's going to be a fantastic Spring cause I feel so energized :)