Dancing to Keep Fit and Feel Beautiful

I absolutely detest exercises but after having spent considerable sums of money in alternative methods, the truth is that there is no good substitute for diet and exercise. Slimming salons programs and diets may help to give you that first push but these are not sustainable without diet and exercise. Most fitness gurus will advise 30 minutes of moderate physical activity 5 times a week, with an additional 10 minutes of weight training (give or take).

In my younger days, I was fortunate in that I could lose weight easily and didn't have much problem maintaining my weight. All that changed about 6 years ago and there were another couple of years of denial and trying alternative methods before I finally accepted that there is no lazy way out.

A couple of years ago, I joined a Latin Jam Aerobics class and voila! I found my perfect answer to exercise - with good music and good moves. I have since expanded my sessions to include ballroom and latin dances with my dear hubby. It took many many years of persuading to get hubby to learn dancing with me but thanks to Richard Gere's and Jennifer Lopez's "Shall We Dance?", he decided to give it a try. I'm sure he is enjoying this now (though he won't admit this out loud).

I now do dance classes 3-4 times a week and throw in a little weight training (still a chore) but for those who struggle with maintaining an exercise regime, I would say try dancing. Choose something with sexy moves and great music - never worry about having two left feet because you can only get better at it over time. I do a combination of dance aerobics for cardio exercise and dances like rhumba which are great for maintaining the waist line.

Don't forget to dress up though - that's part of the fun and it just makes you feel beautiful while losing weight.