Farm girls are meant to be naturally fit

Girls who make their living in the country are often blessed with natural fitness. They spend all day outside doing chores, checking livestock, building, fixing, tinkering, feeding, moving, stacking, digging, sorting, etc. Or, if they are "inside" country women, they spend their days scrubbing, fixing, feeding (humans), weeding, mowing, painting, folding, washing... you know what I mean. Women in the country don't need gym memberships to be fit and fabulous. It comes naturally.

Women who live in town and work office jobs go to the gym. They know where walking trails are in town, go for runs in the park, ride bikes on paved sidewalks or take workout classes with their girlfriends. They understand yoga and Pilates and find “inner peace” after a hard workout. Some country girls are suited for these things, too.

I am not one of them.

I am clumsy, awkward, unbalanced and don't have a lot of rhythm. That pretty much limits me to walking and jogging in big, open spaces with minimal spectators to fulfill my fitness goals. But it’s cold out. And I get bored easily.

So this morning, I attended my second session of ZUMBA! at the YMCA. Without even knowing what it is, you can pretty well guess a name like that is going to make a clumsy country girl look stupid. Take a gander at what goes on in ZUMBA!:



I look like none of these women. I move like none of these women. And I certainly don’t smile and look seductive while sweating like these women. This is not my kind of fitness.

But it is fun. And I’m getting the hang of it. I flail my arms around and move my feet as fast as I can, usually in no correlation to what the instructor is doing. I haven’t fallen down yet. And the hour-long session seems to go by in no time.

I’m sticking with it, but only under one condition: my friends are NEVER to let me think that I am actually good at ZUMBA!. I know that someday, in a flash of classic-Laura-awesomeness, thinking I am an advanced ZUMBA! student will inevitably lead to showcasing my ZUMBA! skills in public, probably on a dance floor somewhere.

Nobody wants that. Trust me.