Another choreography coming your way soon!

New Zumba warm-up coming soon!

New Zumba warm-up coming soon on my youtube channel to Omi's Cheerleader!! Please check it out and subscribe! Thank you :)

Licensed Zumba Instructor !

Hi everyone!!  I'd like to share some news I'm very excited about!  This week I became an officially licensed Zumba Instructor!! Yay!  

I haven't started teaching any classes yet, and it will take another week or so for my ZIN (Zumba Instructor Network) membership to be active so I'm still in the planning stages right now :)   I have created a youtube channel here where I will be sharing some original choreographies, and videos on other topics I'm interested in (like food, nutrition, and cooking)!

Yesterday I created and filmed a choreography to Ricky Martin's song "La Mordidita" which is on the new channel... check it out here !  Hope you like it, and feel free to leave a comment, subscribe, and let me know what you think :)

A group shot after the training - we are all licensed instructors now! :D 

Pics of the week

Monday - Catching up on my reading

Tuesday - Love Jimmy Fallon!

Wednesday's Dinner - Shrimp, Corn and Tomato Salad

Thursday - Train ride home after work

Friday - Freshly cut watermelon :)

Saturday - Lazy day at home

Sunday - I have to do Zumba again!; haven't done it for a while :S

Up Close with Zumba's Tanya Beardsley

I love Zumba, so I wanted to share this interview (taken from Shape Magazine's website) about some good fitness tips and information about Tanya Beardsley, (a Zumba Education Specialist and one of the top Zumba instructors!).

Fitness for Food...Zumba-Yogathon!

Today we went to the first annual Fitness for Food Zumba-Yogathon event organized by the Food and Clothing Bank which raises money/collects canned items or clothing donations.  It was held in the music hall at Hart House, and it was soo much fun!!  The only downside was waking up early on a Sunday morning, but it was worth it :D  

First of all we signed in, dropped off our donations, entered our names to be drawn for prizes later on, and collected our yoga mats.   We started our day with an ice-breaker activity - talking to people and writing down something which was inspiring about them; then the fun part came... Zumba!!  It was such a fun workout, although sometimes you had to watch out for someone slapping or kicking you since we were so close to each other :S   

We then had a break, and some light lunch was provided: butternut squash soup which was delicious; assortment of cheeses; grapes and oranges; a healthy high fibre granola bar; raisin muffin; and juices!   I completely forgot to take pictures of the food, but everyone was crowding around the buffet table so there wouldn't have been an opportunity to do that anyway!  

After everyone was done eating, we came back to the event room and they drew winners for various prizes... my name was drawn for a free cyclefit membership but since I was a student (and we get free membership anyway) my name was put back and I didn't win any other prizes...hmph! :P  But I'm used to it by now... I never win anything anyway haha   We then moved onto yoga!  I had done a class a long time ago, but I didn't remember stretching as much as we did... some moves were a little difficult to hold, but overall it was very relaxing.  I'm definitely going to try and sign up for some more yoga classes soon :)  

To end the day, they offered free 5-minute massages.... a perfect way to end the event!  

Back in Dubai

I'm back in Dubai for a while now, so I should have time to get back to posting!  The day after we arrived, we went to have breakfast/brunch at 'Zaatar w Zeit' which offers a variety of lebanese breakfast dishes, and 'mana'eesh' (a lebanese wrap of cheese or zaatar)... it was so yummy!

I have also been doing a new exercise program called "Zumba"... it's a latin-dance inspired fitness program, and it's much more interesting than going to the gym everyday and working out on the treadmill or eliptical machine.  It was created by Alberto Perez, an aerobics instructor in Colombia, when he forgot his aerobics tape one day and had to use a music tape he had in his car, for the exercise class.  Zumba is much more fun and effective than going to the gym, and can burn around 500 calories per hour - depending on how hard you work!

Photos from Zumba website; Zaatar w Zeit site