Last night, my friend Meghanne, her friend Lindsey and I decided to try something new and completely different. Well...new and different for me. Meghanne had done it once, and Lindsey several times. What did we do? We signed up for a pure barre class and exercised our butts off. Or at least that's what it felt like last night. This morning I can attest to the fact that it's very much still there due to my aching muscles.

I obviously didn't take any pictures while at the class, because that would just be weird. No one takes #workoutselfies in a class of six people with a ton of mirrors, and honestly...no one wants to see that anyway. As a result, I can only give you a mental picture.

At one point in life I thought that I could pull off a "passably graceful" status. NO. Pure barre has taught me that I cannot look smooth and flowing when lifting a sand-filled ball above my head while simultaneously pulling my knee up to my elbow. In addition, it's very difficult to extend your leg out to a 90-degree angle from the rest your body. I know this because I attempted it and reached about a 60-degree angle instead.

By the end of class I could barely wobble out to the car, and I felt like I'd gotten a very good workout. Hence the wobbling - the result of the best type of workout, I say. Despite my lack of gracefulness, I'll probably be back. Also, we felt so good about our worked muscles and burned calories that we celebrated with a trip to the Cheesecake Factory.

Oh, you want to see a photo of just the glorious, once-time-per-year peppermint cheesecake? BUT OF COURSE.

Pardon the lighting. The Cheesecake Factory doesn't specialize in brightly lit spaces.

I'm sure we had burned off all of the calories that we consumed, right? Isn't that how exercise is supposed to work?

Woodstock Writings