No Pain, No Gain... for Charity

Well, I did it!

Surprisingly, jazz is one of the styles we didn't do.

On Sunday morning I got out of bed at stupid o'clock, dragged myself (and the largest coffee I could find) to the corner of Hillside and Quadra, and then danced for 9 hours. I'd have to check with a certified psychologist, but I think my willing participation may be grounds for committal. AbunDANCE was a great success (and not just because I participated)! I was holding off on this post because I was hoping to state how much we had raised but that's yet to be fully tabulated, so I'll just say that I know one person raised over $800, and two other people raised over $150. Makes my piddly little $90 seem, well, piddly, but $90 is $90 and every bit counts so I'll be happy with that.

The best part about AbunDANCE was getting to try out a million different dance styles (fine, not a million, seven) for a $15 registration fee and minimum $40 of pledges. Even if you just pledged yourself $40 (which some people did), that was a great deal. We started the morning with Yoga Dance (which is yoga set to beats of music instead of number of breaths with some Bhangra thrown in. I don't really count it as a 'dance' style although it was a good workout) so we all had a good stretch before moving on Flamenco, Bollywood/Bhangra, Salsa, Polynesian, Afro-Colombian, Hip Hop and West African. For the record, I'm definitely pursuing classes in Flamenco and (once I'm in better shape) Salsa. I'm holding off on the Salsa mostly because all the teachers I have found in Victoria are thistiny and I don't need a constant reminder that I'm not. (The Flamenco teacher on the other hand was a tall, solid, yet curvaceous woman who is a constant reminder that you don't need to be thistiny to be sexy. I have a bit of a girl-crush on her.) Afro-Colombian beat my a$$ into the ground, but if Danny was to ever start teaching in Victoria again (he's moved up to Shawnigan) I would take a class (but I'd hide at the back because it's hard!) Our final hour of dance was a doundoundba (Guinean circle dance where dancers enter the circle to do a few of their favourite moves and then return to the circle) which was a lot of fun. For the first time ever, I actually entered the circle by myself. It was a great way to cap off the day (well, that and going for dinner with a bunch of the other dancers). Was I tired? Yes. Was I sore? Yes. Did I fear that sitting down would mean I'd never stand again? Yes. Did I fall asleep on the couch, halfway through an email once I got home? Yes. Will I be back next year? HELL YES!!

I'm back from my week off and will be running again. I was hoping to go on Monday, but 9 hours of dance on Sunday made that a big, fat no-way-Jose. To help with the whole 'be healthier' thing, I'm joining WeightWatchers... in about a month. I keeping trying to hold myself accountable for my food choices, but the truth is, I suck at it. I have zero willpower when it comes to food so putting me in charge of it... dumb, dumb, dumb. I've found meetings that work for my carless-wonder self, but with my current schedule I will have to wait a few weeks before jumping in. I 'did' WeightWatchers (which means someone gave me all the books and I followed it) and was very successful at it but then I moved to Germany/Switzerland, the lands of chocolate, cheese, Schwarzwaldtorte (Black Forest Cake), mochas in cereal bowls, Susi's home cooking, the Irish Times Pub, and the Apfeltasche (Apple turnover) breakfasts. I never really recovered. It's time to change that and WeightWatchers seems like the way to go. If I'm serious about the half-marathon in October then I can't just train for it by running.