Weight Watchers has been going well for me but after an extended plateau this fall I re-evaluated what I was doing and decided to add more exercise to the mix.
I joined a gym and started going 2-3 times a week. I saw immediate results. Everything “they” told you about exercise is true. You lose weight more easily. The more you do the better you feel, it relieves stress and it promotes a positive body image. I even found a workout buddy from my time at PT. I feel so on my game!
I’ve been working up to an hour on the elliptical trainer. It ain’t real pretty, I’m just not physically graceful, but damnit I can burn 600 calories with the best of them.
The best of them is the aerobics class I watch on Sunday mornings during one of my regular work-out periods. My time straddles their two hour step aerobics workout. Technically it’s two classes but I don’t see many people falling out at the one hour mark and she doesn’t do any stretching or loosening up exercises at the start of the second hour.
These women move like swans with the synchronicity of the Rockettes. I am not exaggerating. The class is choreographed like a recital with the women flying over their step-ups, arms outstretched or gracefully arched. They must all be regulars because except for a couple of people in the back everyone knows the entire two-hour routine and they spend only about half the time facing a mirror. They all keep up facing every direction. A few of them add little ankle twists or hops to increase the difficulty level as they go.
I had 2 1/2 years of aerobics in high school and 2 years of water aerobics in my 20s but never in my life would I have been able to keep up with this class. Hell, I don’t think I could even learn the routine much less do it on pace. I studied Tai-chi, too, and at the end of 10 weeks I barely had it memorized.
I could say this is a college town and most of the participants are college students and that would be true. But there are women in their 30s and 40s in the class and the instructor is in her early 40s. I could tell you there’s a regular in the class whose form isn’t terrific and that would be true, too. But really? I watch the damned Rockettes performing in a little Lansing gym every Sunday morning.
But calories burned are calories burned and I’ll take my 600 and run with it.
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