Surviving The Fitness Chica

"Are you Joe?"  It's 8:30 in the morning on North Broadway in White Plains and me and my buddy Mikey B are trying to find a way into the White Plains Presbyterian Church where I was supposed to take my first ever Zumba class.  "I looked you up on Google so I knew it was you". We walked over to the car and there she was, the "Fitness Chica" Melissa Lopez, destined to be the first Zumba teacher on my newly planned  road to Zumba For Life. 





We followed Melissa into the Zumba room and had an opportunity to chat with her while she set up for class.  Melissa has a contagious personality and was the first instructor to come on board for Zumba for Life.  I filled her in on what we were planning to do and as she had indicated to me before, she was all in.  As people came in we told them about Zumba for Life and I am pretty sure we will have some new recruits for our event. It didn't take long for the room to fill up and it was obvious from the looks me and Mikey B (my media coordinator) were getting that it was time to explain to the group what we were doing there.  Melissa explained about my blog, and also let the class know that this was to be my first class.  I received supportive applause and made my way to the back of the room, my self-imposed position in exile, so I could tackle this Zumba thing without interfering with class by either passing out on the floor in front of them, bumping into them, or distracting them to the point of laughter by being in their field of view.

And away we go.  Melissa commands the room like a champ and she clearly is the "Fitness Chica"  The music, which is not found on my normal radio station rotation in between Sinatra, Buffett and Cash, is fast, fun and furious.   My plan was to try and  learn as many of the moves as I could, not push myself to do what  I clearly had no business doing, keep moving and survive the class.  And I did it all!  Now more often than not, I was 6 seconds late for a move, or just plain confused, but I did at times manage to keep up (in my own mind at least).  I couple of times I even cut my normal delayed reaction to 2 seconds.  There were however some times when I couldn't even figure out how to command certain parts of the body that were supposed to be moving to move.  On me, there are just some locations that  can't move independently of a whole limb. 

Here are the top ten things I did that I was proud of.

1.  I showed up of my own free will.
2.  I left on my own two feet.
3.  I never stopped moving.
4.  I warmed up faster than any human in history (code for I was sweating in 45 seconds)
5.  I shook my booty.
6.  I shook my booty.  (I listed this twice because I have a big booty)
7.  I managed to smile whenever Mikey B. put the video on me.
8.  I promoted Zumba for Life and the American Cancer Society.
9.  I made some new friends.
10. I had fun.  Yes, I had fun!

When the class ended everyone clapped and I like to think there was at least one extra clap for me because I had made it.  My wife's taunts of "You'll never make it" and "You're gonna die" had not come true.

Thank you to Melissa and her class for having me. I am so glad you are on board with Zumba for Life!

To all my followers let me leave you with this. 

I am ZumbaDaddy and I am coming to a Zumba class near you!