Since I've been making a concerted effort to lose the last of the baby weight I gained during my long and complicated pregnancy with my now-16-month-old daughter, I try to get out to the YMCA to supplement my walking routine. The other day I went to a Latin-themed dance class. The first time I went to it, I attended a class held in this big basketball court, packed with other "dancers." This time, I went to a class held in an aerobics room, with mirrored walls, and only three other exercisers.

This was not good.

Anonymity suits me just fine during exercise. I keep my eye on the instructor the whole time and try to follow what she's doing and I kind of forget about myself, if that makes sense. A class of four meant I felt dammed conspicuous. There was no way I could pretend that no one was looking at me. And unfortunately, with the ever-so-wonderful mirrored wall, I could look at me too.

It wasn't pretty.

First off, I was struck by how immensely FAT I looked. I know I need to lose some weight - that's why I was taking the class. But CRAP! I had no idea that, after losing 5 pounds in a couple of weeks, I still looked like such a chunk (5 more and I'll be below my "first pregnancy visit to the doctor" weight, so it shouldn't have been THAT bad). And in this class, I was a dancing chunk. After a few minutes, I was so miserable that I was thinking of leaving.

Combined with my fatness was an inability to look anything other than idiotic while doing these dance moves. Normally, I think I'm a slightly above average dancer. I took jazz classes growing up, my "moves" are complimented during the occasional wedding reception dance opportunity... I tend to pick up things pretty easily and do OK.

Not so, apparently, when the moves are Latin/African. I had "jazz hands" going on when jazz hands were just NOT called for. Again I contemplated leaving. Of course, with only four in the class, I would have had to fabricate some excuse, so I continued to dance.

When we took a break, I remarked to the woman next to me about how much I disliked the mirrors. "I know!" she said. "When we're at the other facility, I can pretend I'm dancing as well as the instructor does!" I told her that I'd like it if they used fun house mirrors so that we all looked thin while we danced around. I remarked on how surprisingly fat I looked in the mirror.

Then the very skinny and very wonderful woman dancing on my other side said, "You know, that mirror you are looking into is warped or something."

What??

"Look at yourself in that mirror and then come over here to mine. See the difference?"

I sure did! I was dancing in front of the fat mirror! I looked MUCH better in front of the (hopefully) normal mirror. I tried to scoot my way over to it during the rest of the class to admire my much-thinner self.

Unfortunately, the mirror didn't improve my dancing.