Posts tagged ‘exercise’

When in doubt, shimmy

Posted By Merideth Mehlberg February 24th, 2012

If you’ve been with me for a while, you know that I love to dance. In fact, I plan my calendar around my beloved Dance Boogie class.

Recently we’ve been working on “All That Jazz,” a number from the Broadway hit Chicago. Not my favorite hip hop fare, but there is a place for all styles of dance in this class and in my heart.

Anywho, our instructor has been working us through the fairly complicated routine for the past few weeks. “Come on babe, why don’t we paint the town…and all that jazz!”

It’s been fun and also a bit hard to master.

Okay, “master” is a bit of a stretch.

It’s been hard to remember the entire routine! It’s a long song with lots of different moves.

The instructor calls out the steps as we go but then at the end splits us unto two groups to “perform” the full dance start to finish for the other group. Yikes!

After practicing for what feels like a zillion hours, I noticed a few places where I always forgot the steps….

By the skin of my teeth

Posted By Merideth Mehlberg October 5th, 2011

Yesterday I barely made it to Zumba class.

As the 5:30pm class time approached I kept glancing at the clock.

At 4:45pm I told myself that I needed to get my workout clothes on.

I didn’t move.

At 5:00pm, I reminded myself to get up and get dressed because I needed to leave in 15 minutes. Instead, I continued to be rooted in my chair, trying to figure out how to get some video files off my camera and onto the computer. Not an urgent task but one I wanted to finish in order to feel a sense of completion for the day.

At 5:15pm I told myself if I didn’t leave this exact moment I would not be able to find a spot in the class.

I still did not move.

At 5:25pm I realized, with a mixture of relief and regret…

How Dancing with the Stars feeds my soul

Posted By Merideth Mehlberg April 26th, 2011

Time sure seems to be in short supply these days. The hours whiz by and my To Do list is always longer than what I can possibly get done in any given day (or week). It’s a bit demoralizing, to tell you the truth.

I have a tendency to measure my sense of accomplishment based on how productive I am. Can you relate? Somewhere along the way I developed the (faulty) belief that my value increases with the amount of stuff I get done. My inner self knows that it’s not true, and I am working on changing this mindset. Looking at life from this perspective certainly has its drawbacks. One thing is for sure: it is a measuring stick I always seem to fall short on.

Why am I telling you this?

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I didn’t make Drill Team in high school

Posted By Merideth Mehlberg February 16th, 2011

It was pretty traumatic. I danced my heart out at the audition and thought sure I would make it. Drill Team was cool and I really wanted to be part of it. I was so disappointed not to make the cut.

I still love to dance, so I’m thrilled to have discovered my new favorite class at the gym, Dance Boogie.

It’s awesome because:

It’s exercise but doesn’t feel like it. The hour is up before I know it!
The teacher pairs her instruction with fantastic music (Lady Gaga, Black Eyed Peas)
We learn dance routines from movies I love

And the best part:

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