Zumba lives up to its hype, though perhaps not its price (RL)

I'm suspicious of anything that is sold on an infomercial, so originally I wrote Zumba off. I knew it was being taught in gyms, but that didn't counter my infomercial wariness. However, when I saw a sign up at work for classes, that was finally enough to make me think it might be something real and useful. (I work in Silicon Valley for a big tech company, there's not usually a high level of belief in bunk floating around.)

Unfortunately most DVD Zumba sets are $70, which is way more than the usual price of an exercise tape. Luckily there are ways around that, and I borrowed a copy of a beginner set.

It really is a fun workout -- fun and hard, which is a really good combo. It takes all the good parts of the dance workouts I was already doing (samba, bollywood, bellydancing, hiphop) and puts them into one place. The music was fun and made me want to move (bonus!), and the instructors were good to look at without being distractingly attractive.

That being said, I can't say it's worth $70. I'd certainly pay the usual workout tape price ($20-$30) for it, but not more than twice that. (Rereading this and thinking about it more, I'm not sure if this is fair to say. I'm intending to make this my new go-to workout, doing it every day until I get bored of it... can you put a price on an exercise you're okay with doing every day?)

Zumba on wiki, in case you're not familiar with it.

Zumba lives up to its hype, though perhaps not its price (RL)

I'm suspicious of anything that is sold on an infomercial, so originally I wrote Zumba off. I knew it was being taught in gyms, but that didn't counter my infomercial wariness. However, when I saw a sign up at work for classes, that was finally enough to make me think it might be something real and useful. (I work in Silicon Valley for a big tech company, there's not usually a high level of belief in bunk floating around.)

Unfortunately most DVD Zumba sets are $70, which is way more than the usual price of an exercise tape. Luckily there are ways around that, and I borrowed a copy of a beginner set.

It really is a fun workout -- fun and hard, which is a really good combo. It takes all the good parts of the dance workouts I was already doing (samba, bollywood, bellydancing, hiphop) and puts them into one place. The music was fun and made me want to move (bonus!), and the instructors were good to look at without being distractingly attractive.

That being said, I can't say it's worth $70. I'd certainly pay the usual workout tape price ($20-$30) for it, but not more than twice that. (Rereading this and thinking about it more, I'm not sure if this is fair to say. I'm intending to make this my new go-to workout, doing it every day until I get bored of it... can you put a price on an exercise you're okay with doing every day?)

Zumba on wiki, in case you're not familiar with it.

Drinks and RP

I don't know if it was because I was having just an awful day, or because I was dehydrated (drank less than a third of what I should have today -- was having such a bad day I couldn't make myself care enough to), or because elo_sf posted about drinks with empty calories, but darned if I didn't want a Slurpee. Drinking a Slurpee would be really, really bad. Pure sugar, and a whole lot of it. A ton of utterly empty calories. But I want one so badly. I didn't want a shake. I didn't want a soda. I wanted a cold, sweet, icy drink.

I pulled into the 7-11 parking lot lying to myself. I said I'd "just go in and look". Really, I actually said that to myself. I went in, and wonder of wonders, one of the flavors was Crystal Light Strawberry-Banana. Strawberry-banana would not have been my first choice, but Crystal Light! I was saved! I got a big one and boy did it make my day better. A full-sugar one would have just left me depressed and angry at myself all night, but this one was mostly guilt-free! (I know artificial sweeteners aren't good for you, and they do still mess up your body's handling of food, but they're a whole lot better for me than a full-sugar drink would have been!)

I may just go and get another one tomorrow. Such a big, long-lasting treat! It took me two hours to drink the whole thing!

RP: Oh my god, second time saved today! RP IS BACK IN SILVERMOON CITY. So happy! I went there tonight and it was like the old days: I couldn't walk two feet without tripping over a scene! HAPPY. No more endless hours of hateful archaeology to fill my time, I can have fun!

I was so very amused at the first scene I got into. Backstory: My character (Keen) had a "drug" (fel, magic) problem. He spent months getting off it, aided by a very controlling paladin with way too many rules for Keen's liking. Of course they were rules with a purpose. Example: Keen wasn't supposed to go back to his old haunts (namely: SMC).

Tonight Keen broke the rule, went to SMC, and the very first person he met there was a "half-felblood" person. That's what they had listed as their race, ha ha! The person had so much fel in them that it changed their race? :P Lore issues aside, I did enjoy the scene quite a bit. Person was a WoW-average RPer -- not great, but not so awful I wanted to run away and never come back.

He wants to RP with Keen again, and I'm OOCly open to that, but I just worry lots... Keen going back to fel would ruin his life, but... look at RL me. I couldn't even resist a darned Slurpee. Ha. Maybe Keen needs sugarfree fel? :P

Drinks and RP

I don't know if it was because I was having just an awful day, or because I was dehydrated (drank less than a third of what I should have today -- was having such a bad day I couldn't make myself care enough to), or because elo_sf posted about drinks with empty calories, but darned if I didn't want a Slurpee. Drinking a Slurpee would be really, really bad. Pure sugar, and a whole lot of it. A ton of utterly empty calories. But I want one so badly. I didn't want a shake. I didn't want a soda. I wanted a cold, sweet, icy drink.

I pulled into the 7-11 parking lot lying to myself. I said I'd "just go in and look". Really, I actually said that to myself. I went in, and wonder of wonders, one of the flavors was Crystal Light Strawberry-Banana. Strawberry-banana would not have been my first choice, but Crystal Light! I was saved! I got a big one and boy did it make my day better. A full-sugar one would have just left me depressed and angry at myself all night, but this one was mostly guilt-free! (I know artificial sweeteners aren't good for you, and they do still mess up your body's handling of food, but they're a whole lot better for me than a full-sugar drink would have been!)

I may just go and get another one tomorrow. Such a big, long-lasting treat! It took me two hours to drink the whole thing!

RP: Oh my god, second time saved today! RP IS BACK IN SILVERMOON CITY. So happy! I went there tonight and it was like the old days: I couldn't walk two feet without tripping over a scene! HAPPY. No more endless hours of hateful archaeology to fill my time, I can have fun!

I was so very amused at the first scene I got into. Backstory: My character (Keen) had a "drug" (fel, magic) problem. He spent months getting off it, aided by a very controlling paladin with way too many rules for Keen's liking. Of course they were rules with a purpose. Example: Keen wasn't supposed to go back to his old haunts (namely: SMC).

Tonight Keen broke the rule, went to SMC, and the very first person he met there was a "half-felblood" person. That's what they had listed as their race, ha ha! The person had so much fel in them that it changed their race? :P Lore issues aside, I did enjoy the scene quite a bit. Person was a WoW-average RPer -- not great, but not so awful I wanted to run away and never come back.

He wants to RP with Keen again, and I'm OOCly open to that, but I just worry lots... Keen going back to fel would ruin his life, but... look at RL me. I couldn't even resist a darned Slurpee. Ha. Maybe Keen needs sugarfree fel? :P