Exercise and I do not get along. I have never ever liked exercise. But my intelligent brain tells me I need to exercise so I have to reconcile that with the dislike of it. What can I do? Well, my solution to the problem is to find something I think is fun and work that. I tried to think of the things I like to do. Read - no good, not enough moving, surfing the internet - no good, the only work out I get is with my fingers, so I thought back to when I was younger what did I like, I loved dancing. I grew up in Oklahoma and I would go country dancing. I loved it. I lost weight because of it, it was fun and I was good at it. Well, now that I am living in Canada, not to many places to go country dancing. So I looked around to see if there was some other form of dancing I would like, BELLY DANCING jumped off the page. It is a good core work out. Strengthens the tummy muscles and the back muscles, it is fun, sexy, and you get to wear those jingly little scarves around your waist. So my friend, who is NOT getting sleeved, and I joined a 9 week class. We had our first class last night. It was so much fun and harder than we thought. But we are going to keep at it and become experts or at least try to become experts.

Well, this is my idea of exercise.

Sheila

I have been belly dancing since 1999 and I can say I agree with you155%!!!! I absolutely love it and it has done wonders for me. It is going to be hard to not dance at least a little in that 6 week period post surgery when I am supposed to just walk. In all honesty I likely will be doing some drilling and combo practices. But I will focus on legs and arm stuff I bet. But that's still a ways off.

Yes! Belly Dance is awesome and will be a great thing. It has done wonders for my arthritis and always makes me happy once I've started. I find myself practicing while I am brushing my teeth and shopping in the store! Feel free to keep in contact if you ever have any questions.

There has to be other belly dancers out here...come out come out wherever you are!!!

i would love to try that, sounds like fun. . I want to do it for the jingly things

I have been doing Zumba for the last couple weeks which incorporates belly dancing in a fun dancee kind of way. If you havent seen it on tv info mercial check out zumba.com you can order the dvds! I have to say, my first class at the YMCA, I was kinda intimated but now after about two weeks, I am learning the dances and getting more confident each time i go! I would recommend it to ppl looking for something different. I have a treadmill and get bored easily doing that.

Well last night was my first class ever. So I might have questions for you when I get more into it. I did find some of the moves a little difficult but I am assuming once I practice and get more used to it, I will be fine. I am going to continue to take classes, but I want to make sure surgery and classes are not in conflict with each other.

I guess Belly Dancing is a no no right after surgery. I will have to keep that in mind.

I am glad to hear there is someone else out there that is into this as well.

Yay!!!

Sheila

I started belly dancing in 2001, in Northern California there is a rich belly dancing tradition and several professional troupes of different styles (Egyptian cabaret, American Tribal, Indian temple, etc.) Belly dancing makes me feel ... womanly, powerful, proud. It's a good thing.

I've been belly dancing for 2 1/2 years twice a week. Im lucky my gym has a great teacher available included in my membership price. I love it so much! I like you am not "sporty". I always say, what other exercise can you do where you get to ware jewelry, go barefoot and listen to awesome sexy music? The girls in the class are really nice and we are a little team now. We actually did a public performance last summer! I partly did this surgery for the class... I knew my knees were getting worn out and I want to be able to belly dance much longer! The fitness I have achieved in class let me hike up to two glaciers in New Zealand a month ago... My body shape is so different from class... I have more "shake with those fries" and cant wait to get back to it after my 6 weeks recovery. I will probably do some drills, but I don't want to overdo it. The core will have to go without exercise for a few more weeks...walk walk walk. Have fun gals!