Barre Class, Part 3

Before Barre class, I stressed. I stressed about the fact that I had three huuuuge zits on my face and wondered if I should wear concealer. I stressed that I had a stain on the workout shirt I had available to wear that night. I stressed about these things because it took my mind off the insanity of the upcoming barre class. *shudders*

For the record, I didn’t wear concealer. What’s the point in making yourself look better when you’re going to leave the class looking like hell no matter what, amiright? And I figured the stain on my shirt would be unnoticeable when I sweated all over it. Unfortunately, when I showed up to class, there were two other girls wearing the EXACT same thing as me. Why the hell does this happen to me? The one day where I don’t want my outfit noticed, everyone is like, “OMG, all three of you are TWINNING! Oh, by the way Kristen, you have a stain on your shirt.” Seriously, this is MY LIFE.

Anyway, the class was definitely more difficult than last week but not as difficult as the first class. Don’t get me wrong though, this barre class was rough. I am talking constant squatting. Squatting on one leg, squatting on your tip toes, squatting with one leg curled behind you. Squatting, all class long. At one point I wondered if the instructor was a hallucination brought on by suppressed guilt. It was as if I was torturing myself for all the crimes I committed as a stubborn and incorrigible toddler.

The thing that I don’t understand, is I looked around the class at one point and saw that people were smiling. There were even some who had thrown their head back and were singing to the song like it was karaoke night at the club. I tried to copy them thinking maybe if I smiled too, I’d find as much joy in barre as they did. Then I saw a reflection of myself in the mirror and realized my smile was coming off more as a grimace and went back to my usual haggard self.

The thing about Barre though, is that once it’s over, I actually do feel happy that I attended class. It’s for that feeling that I keep going back.

I came home and made myself chicken and vegetables. WTF right, who was I? When I realized I had made a healthy eating choice, I swear I had an existential crisis. I was worried that future me would shun bacon and take to drinking kale smoothies on the regular. To stop the downward spiral I ate a chocolate pudding and everything in my world felt right again. As they say, Rome wasn’t built in a day.

Read my other barre posts here: Part 1, Part 2

Image by Anupam Mahapatra from Unsplash