My SisIL and I try to share a portion of a piece of desserts. She started it and actually the first few tastes of any dessert are the best part for me anyway. We especially do this at buffets and if the dessert is TRULY spectacular, we will treat ourselves to a full-size portion of the BEST dessert. We waste less this way too.
Then you didn’t have a very good instructor.
Actually I am a Zumba instructor and have been for 8+ years. And I also am a veteran of the old-school aerobics classes of the 80’s. They are not supposed to be the same. Zumba is meant to be “dance based”. And by “dance based”, it does NOT mean that you need to be a dancer (I am definitely NOT a dancer). It means that the flavor of the dance steps should come through in the choreography. Mostly latin, but not all…Salsa, Cumbia, Reggaeton, etc. If you like music, are not too uncomfortable letting go and messing up (because, who really cares??) you might like it. I’ve been told time and time again, an hour of Zumba goes by waaaayyyyyy quicker than an hour on the treadmill/elliptical. A good instructor will show modifications that make it possible for someone of any age/size/ability/fitness level to succeed, have fun, and get a good workout. I’ve had participants tell me they’ve burned 750 calories or so in class (measured with one of those calorie burn measuring watch thingys)
PS. @oregon101 , if you want to do Zumba on a carpet without torquing your knees, put some duct tape around your sneakers, around the ball of your foot…
My vice? The hour after I walk in the door after work. Cannot. Stop. Snacking.
My body? I keep telling people, I feel like my a$$ is creeping up to my neck. Ugh.
Maybe I’ll try Zumba! I’d probably do the youtube videos at my home. I work from home at a desk all day but try to get up and stretch & walk & even take a quick bike ride now in the good weather. In the winter I’ve been known to run up & down our stairs several times. I know I’m not doing enough. I try to walk & ride bikes often, three times a week but I really need to do more. Maybe swimming. I’ve tried the eliptical and can’t do more than a few minutes. I’m pretty out of shape. 
I really enjoy Zumba. I have been doing it for the past 5 years and have had several different teachers. Most are great and give options to modify the moves for different levels. I don’t care for Zumba Gold- too slow and too low impact for me. I make sure to get my heart rate up. Once you go to a few classes then the basic Latin dance steps are easy to mimic and most of the songs use them. I find it very different from the aerobic classes I took in the 80’s and 90’s.
Thanks! Looking for the duct tape now! I will give it a go as I really agree–goes fast a lot of calories for the effort
I have grown to love Zumba classes, too. Once I got over my self consciousness over the fact that I am not a good dancer, I realized that most of my fellow classmates weren’t either. It really doesn’t matter. Just keep moving, and you’ll get a good workout.
If you try a class and don’t like it, try one with a different instructor. The choreography and music are different for each teacher. They also have their own styles of giving verbal cues which make their routines easier or more difficult to follow. Once I found a teacher that didn’t do hip-hop moves or twerking, I was happy - lol.
Get a good pair of aerobic dance shoes, too. They are less grippy than other styles of athletic shoes, and will allow your feet to slide when necessary so that you don’t injure your knees.
Tried two gallon size Zip Lock bags over my shoes and works fine on the carpet! So Thanks! JMom
Use a cardiobelt with your eliptical --makes a difference!
I am seriously thinking of getting a fitbit. I Have been tracking my steps on my phone app (which is somewhat of a pain at work b/c most of my dress pants don’t have pockets). I am surprised/dismayed that even with a long (4 mi) or 2 shorter (2 mi) walks per day I rarely reach 10,000 steps. That is way too much sitting! I do make an attempt to get up at least once an hour and walk around, but clearly I need more.
“The average person’s stride length is approximately 2.5 feet long. That means it takes just over 2,000 steps to walk one mile, and 10,000 steps is close to 5 miles. A sedentary person may only average 1,000 to 3,000 steps a day.”
If you are taking a 4 mile walk outside of your everyday movement you should be getting close to 10,000! Are you using a pedometer app on your phone @FallGirl or the “Health” app on your iPhone. I do look at the health app on my iPhone but I also know that I don’t have my phone in my hand (and I don’t do pockets much) for movement at work and around the house, etc.
I hit 12,000 - 15,000 steps at work every day. But I don’t count that as exercise. But thanks @abasket for the mileage estimates. My goal is to walk 9-11 miles per day. I added 4.5-5 mile walks 4 times per week as exercise.
I am right at 2000 steps for a mile. If you walk 4 miles and don’t spend the rest of the day in bed, you should be easily hitting 10000 steps.
I recommend the Garmin Vivofit 2. I have the original Vivofit and I really think the Garmin technology is best.
Good morning, everyone. I missed my workout last night … after-work errands took a lot longer than I expected. But not beating myself up…I’ll go tonight.
I’m down 3 lbs so I thought I would try on one of my favorite “too tight” dresses. Wow, still too tight.
3 pounds gone is 3 pounds gone! Maybe it’s your ab ripples that are making the dress tight!! 
Keep it up Missy - you’ve got things in motion (literally!!)
Re: Fit Bit. I can only speak for the FitBit One, as that is the model I have. In addition to tracking steps & miles walked, as well as flights of stairs climbed, the device displays your active & sedentary hours as pie charts and bar graphs. Compelling enough to prompt me to never take a phone call sitting down.
I don’t know if it is as accurate as other devices, but as I may have stated earlier, I think it is consistent, so I don’t really care if it is under or over-counting as long as it measures the same from day to day.
Congrats on the three pounds!
If you have a full-time desk job, it’s really hard to hit 10K on the weekdays, at least that’s what I found. My work hours are rigid, so I can’t stretch my lunch hour to 90 minutes to accommodate both walking and eating lunch. And I can’t take 20 or 30 minute breaks. Even walking a little at breaks and lunch, I’d have to devote a big chunk of my evening to walking. The fitness routine has to work with your life over the long haul, or it won’t work at all.
^^LasMa, how much of a lunch hour do you get? 30 or 60 minutes? Can you use some of that for walking or other exercise?
And yes, you do often have to devote a “chunk” of your evening to walking - can you find 30 minutes?? That would be a couple of miles perhaps. What’s a reasonable amount of steps if not 10,000 - can you do 7,500.
The purpose is to set a goal and reach it. People across the world have full time desk jobs but many remain active and fit. It’s partially BECAUSE of that sedentary time during the day that we MUST find time for activity elsewhere.
I am using the health app on my phone. It seems as if I am at 2000 steps /mile for me. Like LasMa, I work full time, but only take 30 min for lunch. When it was cooler at midday I was walking that 30 min and eating lunch at my desk.
Congrats on the 3lbs missypie.
A few suggestions for those trapped in low-activity jobs:
*walk up and down stairs instead of using the elevator
*park farther away from the door
*use a bathroom that’s farther from your desk
*walk around the block before getting in your car to go to work; walk around the block after getting out of your car at the end of the day
*if you need to meet with someone one-on-one, suggest going for a walk to talk instead of sitting at a desk
*leave your lunch in your car so that you have to go to your car (at the far side of the parking lot) to retrieve it
@abasket, I have 60 minutes for lunch, of which I could use maybe 30 minutes max for non-eating activities. Two problems with using it for exercise – first, I like to use that time for quickie errands, so that I don’t have to do those in the evening, and second, I’m a sweater, so I’d have to spend my afternoons with the aroma and feeling of dried sweat. Yuck. If I walk slowly enough that I don’t work up a sweat, I don’t see that it’s doing a lot of good. And the sweat problem is compounded by our too-hot-for-comfort weather about half the year.
I did start a walking program last winter, and I got about 4000 steps in 45-50 minutes. So, taking into account my enforced sitting all day, I’d need to walk an hour and a half in the evening to make 10K. That would mean my life would be: Get ready for work, work, come home and change, prep/eat/clean up dinner, walk, maybe an hour for EVERYTHING ELSE including some winding down time, then bed. This just isn’t sustainable over the long term. My evenings are already too short.
But I’m plenty active. 
I do intense strength training 3 times a week – 2 weeknights, so that’s only 2 nights I have to make a big time sacrifice, instead of 5. The other weeknights (and one weekend day), I do a 20-minute circuit at home, so that fits a lot more comfortably into my evening.
For sure I’m not getting all of the many benefits of 10K per day (although I do work in more walking than I used to, parking farther away, taking the stairs when possible – few places that I go to are above the first floor!). But I am getting cardio at least 3 days a week, I work up a great sweat 6 days a week, I’m building muscle and losing weight and (most importantly for me) helping my bones. Compared to a year ago – when I did zero exercise and weighed 15 pounds more than I do now – this is huge progress. Like I said earlier, it has to work, and this works for me.
LasMa, I totally hear you about the desk job. I am trying my best to do some kind of activity every evening after work, be it the gym or the pool or a walk around the block. I realize that if I am not able to form some kind of habit, when the time changes and it is dark when I get home from work, I will be on the couch most evenings. It is VERY difficult for me to get out of the house after work when it is cold and dark and I am tired.