I didn’t know it would happen as quickly as it did. Heck, I didn’t even know it would happen at all.

But it hit me. Oh, boy did it hit me faster than a middle aged woman shakes her groove thang during a Zumba class at our local wellness center. (And that’s actually faster than you’d think!)

After years of hearing about how great it would be, and especially after this past year of hearing coworkers talk about it, I decided to give it a try. At first I was nervous. What if I looked silly? After all, Zumba is like 80% booty shaking salsa dancing. At least I’d have my coworker chicks to support me, right?

Nope. Apparently this was the one day that not a single girl from work went to Zumba. So I was on my own, but I quickly made friends (because of my compulsive need to talk to another human being), and sandwiched myself behind a fitness instructor who teaches Zumba in a different city but recently moved, and next to one middle aged woman and one super nice pregnant lady.

I was still a bit nervous. I mean, let’s be honest, I imagined class looking like this:

And I of course thought I’d look like this:

That is…until the class filled up almost 90% of women over the age of 40. Some even whipped out sarongs with jingly coins on them.

I no longer felt self-conscious or silly.

And the coolest part about these ladies is that they danced like they were in a club/Cowboy cheerleaders/ belly dancers/ like they just didn’t care.

It. Was. Awesome. The more they shook, the more I shook. It was quite liberating. I actually would liken it to something similar to the way I wasn’t allowed to dance in high school– but tastefully of course, and in the name of fitness. The girl who I met who was a fitness instructor somewhere else said that Zumba can burn between 500-700 calories per class depending on the amount of effort you put in.

I, my friends, put a lot of effort in. Dripping in sweat, I checked my FitBit One and it had added THOUSANDS of steps to my counter. When I went a second time that week (Oh yes, I definitely came back), I had earned more than 7,000 steps.

I. Love. Zumba. Sure, it won’t be my only workout, but there’s one thing for sure– I’m going to be shaking my booty off. And Shakira was right. My hips don’t lie. They keep reminding how great of a workout this dance aerobics class is. Every day.

And the best part? The Hubs has a spin class he can attend during my class? Win. Win. Nothing like healthy couple outings after work!