Honestly, there are few things I dislike more than exercising.  One of them is sweating. Getting hot enough to sweat is another. As you might imagine, these dislikes pose quite a challenge to my desire for an active lifestyle.

In truth, I abhor an active lifestyle. If I had my druthers, I’d spend every available hour on my ever-expanding ass in front of the television eating pizza, fried chicken, and every imaginable flavor of ice cream.  But alas, after giving that lifestyle my best shot for a number of years, I discovered it wasn’t really working for me.

I’ve tried to be more active before. Riding my bicycle has been the only form of exercise I could even pretend to enjoy. If I could get out before it got too hot and it wasn’t raining, the ride was almost pleasant. The trick was to pedal fast enough for the breeze to keep me from feeling hot. Unfortunately, bike riding is not a year-round activity. As the days grew shorter and cooler, I started looking for an option that would keep me from gaining back all the weight I lost over the summer.

I went to my first Zumba class August 30.  Loved it!  Since then I’ve tried to make it to at least two and usually three classes every week. Yes, I get hot. My sweat-soaked clothes go into the washer as soon as I get home. I enjoy the classes so much that getting hot and sweaty doesn’t bother me. Well, it does, but I endure because I’m having fun.

For the uninformed, Zumba is just dancing to Latin-flavored music. The basic steps come from dances like the merengue, salsa, reggaeton, cumbia, quebradita, and calypso, with a little bellydancing and hip hop thrown in for good measure. Some of the steps are harder to pick up than others. You don’t have to know the basic steps or master the choreography to have fun. Just keep moving.

At first, I mostly did my own thing. Slowly but surely I learned the steps and started catching on to the choreography. I still get lost and sometimes can’t figure out what I’m supposed to be doing. But those moments happen less and less frequently.

Before I joined the gym, there were usually three guys in my Zumba class: me, my partner, and the instructor’s husband. Then I joined the gym. Until my partner joined and started coming to class with me, I was the only guy. Even though he’s quite a bit better at it than me, I am the undisputed Zumba King of my gym.

You laugh, but it’s true. All the trainers and sales dudes come to the window to watch me get my Zumba on. They laugh, but I know they’re secretly impressed.  They’re great at lifting weights and stuff, but a few have a hard time walking and chewing gum at the same time.  Or maybe they’re just watching all the women. We wouldn’t know anything about that here in…

My Glass House