I've always been a chubby kid. Regardless of how much I exercised, starved myself and no matter how much I followed those damned fad diets, I always had curves.

Post Zumba madness

As an adult, the curves still remain. To be honest, I've made peace with them a long time ago. My entire family's been fleshy and there is no point fighting a fruitless battle. Hence my aim is to be healthy, but toned. Slimmer but not ripped. I love my curves...being too skinny is terrifies me and overly defined muscles are frankly, disgusting. Eating right is also part of the regime but I cheat sometimes too LOL, I'm only human!

I hate running but because I am doing Zumba, these are my first trainers in years

Being sidelined by injury recently didn't help. I was unable to do anything for two months...I'd like to dance for a long time and hence, I knew that taking a break was vital. Am finally out of rest period and this time around, I went with a more targeted regime of body conditioning, body movement and something called SMRT-Core, just to retrain my body. For cardio, I stuck to my staples of salsa and West Coast Swing and added Zumba. For someone who has been into latin dancing and also other forms of dance, Zumba is fun. It's nothing to go mad over but it's a nice alternative to aerobics.

For someone who is allergic to the gym, this new routine works me. I do classes either alone or with friends and it doesn't feel like I am torturing myself. Or make me feel like a hamster. Bottom line is, the regime will do three things: help me get into fighting shape, minimize injury and get back into that damned salsa costume.

Three weeks down and it seems that the healing process and the cardio build up is working rather well. The pain from the rib cartiledge injury has diminished to small aches that remind me that I'm no wonder woman. I also have more stamina to dance for longer periods. All is good. SMRT-Core surprised me because it is a combination of physical therapy as well as core building exercises that really works to strengthen my body and eliminate the injury.

Well, I'm going to try to stick to the routine for a while. The results thus far, have been pretty awesome.