Written 17
June 2016
Yesterday was
Day 413 of my dancing challenge and I did Dance workout No. 148. So many things
pull me away from my 3-times-a-week goal, that the frequency has dropped
dramatically. But I refuse to give up. I love dancing, it makes me happy, and
I’ll keep at it. With my new job, I come home about two hours later than when I
was teaching. This not only means I have a lot less time in the evening to
achieve everything, but I’m also a lot more tired, especially after the one-hour
drive home in peak-hour traffic (which I find rather stressful).
The truth is,
I’m still trying to find my equilibrium. I’d given myself three months to get
my act together, but some things take longer than we think. I just need to be
patient. The latest complication is the biting cold weather. When you’ve left
home in the dark, worked a full day, and returned in the dark, cooked supper, spent
some family time, ironed clothes and made lunch for the next day, all you want
to do is have a hot shower and get to bed. My big time-guzzler is Facebook – I
have to set my alarm in order to tear myself away from it. I recently decided
to skip Facebook every now and then, even for two consecutive nights, because
it cuts into the time that I could be doing something else.
Like I’ve said
in so many other posts, dancing makes me incredibly happy – it’s just hard to
get started, especially on a week night. Or a cold night. The thing with exercise is,
even if you’re freezing when you start, after you’ve warmed up, you don’t even
feel the cold. For me, sticking to my dancing goal requires a lot of
discipline, and sometimes I find it hard to prioritise dancing around my room
when my body’s clamouring for sleep.
Another
complicating factor is any commitment between work and home that adds even an
hour to my day – it just messes up my evening. Getting home after 7pm
automatically means there’s no time to dance. Do that more than once a week, and
the whole week feels wrong. I need routine in order to fulfil my Trudy agenda –
which means scheduled sessions to dance, play my guitar, write and read. Four
things that mean the world to me, and that make me feel balanced. When I
haven’t done one of them for a long time, I can feel myself moving away from my
essence. Not a nice feeling.
But when I do
dance, I feel like I like to feel – as free as a bird, and in tune with my
essential self. I’ve always loved exercising to music.
For now, this is
my workout playlist – called “Dance, Mama, Dance”. J The
first seven tracks are from the soundtrack of the movie, ‘Chef’ – lovely, rhythmical
salsa:
1.
Track 1 – Pete Rodriguez – I
like it like that
2.
Track 7 – Roberto Roena - Que Se Sepa
3.
Track 8 – Louie Ramirez – Ali
Baba
4.
Track 9 – Gente de Zona –
Homenaje Al Beny Castelllano
5.
Track 10 – Nickodemus & Quantic
– Mi Swing Es Tropcal
6.
Track 15 – Perico Hernandez –
Oye Como Va
7.
Track 16 – Perico Hernandez – La
Quimbumba
8.
Donald Fagen – Florida Room
9.
Marvin Gaye – What’s Going On?
10.
Natalie Cole – Good to be back
11.
Jamie Cullum – What a
difference a day made
By the time I
get to the end of song no. 7, I’ve done 30 minutes. On nights when I’m
super-tired, I go from that track straight to Jamie Cullum, for my cool down.
When I get through the full playlist, it’s a 52-minute workout.
Tonight’s not a dance
night, but tomorrow is.
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