do to keep fit. “On my own, I was trying to work out. But it’s hard to stay motivated,” she said. “I truly do love going to these classes. Once you go to three classes, you get the steps down. I get really into it and exaggerate the moves and I am just sweating. It’s a good workout for your core. With the Latin moves, you’re really using your hips. At the end of 45 minutes, I am ready for bed.” “Zumba was new to me,” Lim recalled.

“I was getting bored of the same routines. I had to concentrate, to learn new routines, new songs. It brought back a lot of my inspiration.

I’m happier now.” That doesn’t mean she liked it when she first tried it, however. Lim’s first exposure to the new fitness routine was when she had an instructor on as a guest on her local-access cable TV show, “Fitness Motivators.”

“I said `Oh, my god, I feel stupid doing this,’” Lim said, laughing. In her role as an instructor, Zumba was a whole new dance.

Instead of one continuous soundtrack, she had to compose routines to individual tracks, keeping with the classes’ dance-party feel. “It was extremely difficult for me to get used to it. I didn’t like it at first. It was intense. But then I got to know it. You get used to the Latin music.”

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.