Getting healthy or not

I became fed up with my yoga instructor and started looking for a new way of getting some exercise. I've done yoga for about 6 years now (with lots of different instructors), a habit I started when I was in grad school and in serious need of some de-stressing activity.

Now I am 20 pounds heavier than I was in my grad school days, thanks to motherhood and my baking addiction. I started my "get fit routine" at Benefitness where I got a $15 class pass. Best $15 I've spent on a class in years! I walked out barely able to walk - the instructor was that good at getting me to move and burn some calories. And it showed me just how far I have to go to get myself back in shape.

Low and behold, a week after I realized that a path to body salvation lies in a gym near me, a friend sent a Groupon (group coupon) for the Healthworks group of gyms in the area: $24 for 24 day passes. That's right - $1 per day - to be used anytime between Feb and Apr 29th. It's 2 days a week, for 12 weeks. I am determined to get at least 1 day in a week before the coupon expires and I've been on track so far.
For those of you not from Boston, Healthworks is a group of 4 or 5 gyms for women, with everything from a sauna to a full class schedule to personal training, a spa, massage sessions and other fun stuff.

Here is a list of classes I've taken:

Fitness Flashback: A movement class with no props - basically, jump and move to the beat with the instructor to 80s music. Probably my favorite aerobic class so far, since it does not require me to be coordinated.

Hoop: I thought to myself: "How hard can this class be? I hooped all through childhood" Well, this class was a complete disaster. First of all, it turns out that there is a primary direction to hoop and a secondary direction. I cannot hoop in the secondary direction. Also, the hoop is weighted, with the weights forming bead like bumps on the INSIDE of the hoop. I am not sure what this is meant to accomplish, but as the instructor warned us - I had bruises all around my mid section after the class. Instead of feeling a good workout and a good burn, I felt beaten up and sore.

Body Pump: "The Original barbell workout". When I ventured into this class, I had only a vague recollection of what a barbell was. It's a bar, which has some weight to it, onto which you put more weights, and then clips on the ends to hold it all together. I am really glad that there are no men at this gym. The last thing I needed to see was some jock lifting his body weight like it was a feather. Needless to say that I learned just how weak my arms are in that class. I kept going down and down in weight until I was at the bare respectable minimum and I still was hurting. And I remember thinking to myself - oh god, even the leg exercises require you to hold the bar with your arms.

Step Express - a 30 minute step class. This gave me flashbacks to high school, where I took step after school for a year or two. For some reason, every instructor feels the need to create their own moves, which leave me baffled for long enough to lose my step and be out of step with the rest of the class. It's a good workout - both for your coordination and your body.

Slow Flow Yoga - I have never attended a fast flow yoga class, if something like this exists, but this is the basic yoga class, taught by a very tall soft spoken joke cracking British gentleman who says "Good" while you are doing a pose that is making you want to cry, and all of a sudden, with his words of encouragement, you feel good. And you really can do more...

Ironically, I've gained 2 pounds since I've started this fiasco, but I'm telling myself that it's all muscle weight. Yeah body pump!