Vanocka

Pronounced Va-noch-ka is the Czechoslovakian Christmas bread that my family makes every year. Its a sweetbread with a touch of orange and/or lemon flavor, sweetened with golden raisins or cranberries. So good at breakfast Christmas morning. Mmmm....can you smell the yummy goodness coming outta Grandma's kitchen?

What is Zumba?!?!?

Wow, I got a lot of questions about what Zumba was-well let me tell you it is the newest fitness sensation to hit Canada!!! Why do I love it? It is great exercise disguised as FUN! The motto is "Ditch the Workout,Join the Party!". You DO NOT need to be a good dancer to do Zumba. (It does help if you plan to be the instructor). Zumba is appropriate for all ages, fitness levels, and physical capabilities. In fact, the class I will take in February is to help focus myself on accommodating elderly, "differently abled", and people that are significantly out of shape.


The concept is that it should feel like a party. There is supposed to be a 70% emphasis on Latin musical rhythms, and the other 30% are various world/international including belly dance, bollywood, rock and roll etc. The Latin rhythms include merengue, salsa, cumbia, reggaeton, cha cha, samba, and flamenco.

So, if you have two left feet but would love to do a dance workout its OK to go to Zumba, it is not a dance class so noone cares if you trip over your feet as long as you have fun doing it! Check out the Zumba website for a class near you! www.zumba.com

Another One Bites the Dust and ZUMBA!!!!

Months that is. We've hit 17 finally. I can remember when our DTC was first sent out that some people were FREAKING OUT because they had hit 17 months and hadn't had a referral yet, now its pretty much the norm to expect to wait 24 months, its funny what a person can get used to. I REFUSE to let myself be depressed about this at Christmas time. I have a Christmas concert to put on, dancing lessons to prep for, and am truly blessed in many ways...

So in the spirit of being positive let me tell you about my own NEW PERSONAL PASSION. You may have heard of it: ZUMBA!!!

I LOVE ZUMBA. I love it so much I went out and got certified to teach it! And I am going back in February for another level of certification. Now you have to imagine that I am NOT a size 2, 4,6,8,10, 12,14,16....oh yeah just keep going. So there I am in this class full of petite personal trainers all taking this training, and then me. THANK GOODNESS for my dance background- i was able to pull it off! In fact, I found out that just being a personal trainer does NOT mean that you know how to dance at all!!! Thank you to all the lovely latino men that taught me how to dance when I lived in Arizona..... yum uh I mean....that was great.

And, since I have been practicing so hard at getting my Zumba materials perfected (I start teaching a class in January) I have lost almost 20 pounds!!!! Now doesn't that make a girl happy?