I Don't Have the Right Words

I don’t have any pretty food to show you today. But I do have something to say that I really couldn’t help myself from sharing with you immediately. For some reason, despite this being the busiest week I’ve probably ever experienced, I decided it was a good time to go and get a pass at our school’s gym and take a fitness class. I am not that person who has been working out since teenage years, or that person who’s addicted to going to the gym at 5am every day, or that person who has natural athletic ability and has a blast playing sports. I can’t throw or hit ANY sort of ball to save my life, and I don’t think I’ve ever run farther than half a mile ever. But today, for some reason I decided to forget about all that and just try.

When I walked up to the building and saw what you see above, I was thinking “Oh dear God, what have I gotten myself into…” When I walked inside and saw literally a hundred different exercise machines and dozens of energized and sweaty college students milling around, I honestly almost turned around. I felt ridiculously out of place and didn’t want to embarras myself. But for some reason I decided to continue in. I got a membership card and signed up for a Zumba class that was starting in a few minutes. When I got out, I was feeling like this:

In case you can’t decipher exactly what that face means (c’mon, can’t you tell??), I’ll try and explain how it went, but I don’t feel like I have the right words. I sweat more than I ever thought I could, was outdanced by about 30 white girls in the room, had no idea what the right moves were…and it. was. awesome. While I was feeling kind of incompetent and completely out of my element and VERY out of shape, I also felt strong and excited and proud and totally exhilarated by the energy in the room and inside myself. The entire time I was in there dancing my butt off I was thinking “What was I so afraid of? Why didn’t I do this sooner?” And I’m really glad that for whatever crazy reason I decided today that sooner was better than later.

My body is so confused right now. In a TOTALLY amazing kind of way. 😀

Am I sounding way too dramatic? I don’t care, it sure feels dramatic to me.

Thanks for reading!

-Lauren

P.S.- I would be remiss if I didn’t say that I owe the healthy living blog community so much for helping me make this decision to start being physically active. The community gets ragged on for a lot of reasons, and I know it’s not perfect (what is?), but I have learned so much and been deeply inspired by some really amazing bloggers and that is something I can never forget. More on this later. 😉