EMZ = Early Morning Zumba! EMZ.. has become my life. I love ZUMBA! It is truly like a party not an excersie class. After my surgery I was told I didn't eat enough to exercise. I couldn't stand it. After pacing the floor and driving myself crazy plus I hated the meds they would give me and I hated not moving. I decided this is bull...So I begged my doctor and I did exactly what the doctor said try a little and if it works ok. Doctor also said; " But I don't think you will do well." I started over a year ago, back to working out and I haven't stopped. I love it! I eat drink & live it! I use Zumba & running as my drug instead of whatever they give me. It may not always clear the pain but it helps more then anything. It is better for my body and it helps my soul. The above picture is of Sinai Pauni. The amazing lady that started EMZ. She started with just a few ladies (friends & family of hers) and it has grown to about 200+. Every morning at a stake center in Glendale ladies and gentle men get up and get ready. They come from far and near to work out together. Our class is free and it gives you more then you ask for. Health, friends and fun ok and a great workout!
I think back to the day that Sinai showed up at a Zumba class to invite us to go to EMZ. I wanted so bad to try it but didn't know if it was something I could really feel comfortable at. Would I fit in, would I be able to walk in and do it. Yep social-phobia kicks me down most of the time, cant go alone. I woke up a couple mornings and never did it until one day when my friend Lila asked if I would come with her. She was going to start going on Thursdays. The first time I tried it I was hooked. I remember going home wishing I could go more often, wishing I could be up there teaching. I still wish I was up there maybe someday. But with no car and no way to get there I would just go when I could. Hopefully we would go again. We started to go every Thursday. It became part of my life.
There was something there for me and I never could figure it out. I started inviting others to go. To be honest at first I was worried about inviting others but.... I did and soon Thursdays turned into Thursday & Fridays, then into Wed, Thursday & Fridays, then into Monday thru Friday. Now, I cant miss. I have even went sick, I have went in total pain cried through most of it. It is something I have grown to love. Not only for the things it helps me with but the friends the love & the blessings it gives everyone. I have grown to love everyone and the new friends I meet everyday.
I prayed for good positive friends over and over and I think the lord answered my prayers. I have been blessed with some very amazing friends. I love that he brought me here. They teach me something every day. Sinai and the other instructors are so UN-selfish and are willing to give of them self daily. They have taught me so much. I can't thank them and the Lord enough for bringing me to this spot. I love my EMZ friends and the time I spend with them. I am sure since I am blogging EMZ will be a part of many post. Sinai started a very good thing. Plus you just have to watch her to see the beauty she sends out. She captures people with her heart & soul. I love watching her teach. She grabs you and pulls you in. Sinai is amazing I can't say enough about her. They posted a story on KSL & Deseret News about EMZ to inform everyone of what Sinai started. You can read this hear http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705395148/One-womans-determination-leads-to-a-healthier-Polynesian-population.html and I will post article below after pictures.
I stand by these ladies daily and they give off such amazing energy! There beautiful smiles make you want to just hug them.
This picture was taken at our old building when I first started coming.
This is our car pool group, we have grown. Started with just Lila & I We all ride together, except for Brenda she drives in from Bountiful.
So many others I could add but another BLOG right!
Here is the News Paper story that was posted on KSL & Deseret News. Some of the pictures I posted are from the newspaper pictures from the paper where taken by Scott G Winterton, Deseret News other photos are mine.
One woman's determination leads to a healthier Polynesian population
By Wendy Leonard, Deseret News
GLENDALE — It's 5:30 in the morning and a fairly significant group of ladies is ready to dance.
With as much vigor as they can muster before the sun comes up, the women exercise together at least three times a week in a somewhat stale cultural hall at the neighborhood's decades old LDS stake center.
Another two days each week, dozens of women gather in Kearns for a similar workout, incorporating fast-paced music and hip-hop-like dance moves in high calorie-burning exercise. So many are benefiting from the classes that there's even talk of expanding to the Draper, Magna and Bountiful areas.
Sinai Pauni and other instructors lead an early morning Zumba class Monday, Nov. 21, 2011 in Glendale. "There's just an amazing sense of energy that you get from working out with these people," said Sinai Misinale Pauni, who started leading her friends in Zumba classes after she lost 80 pounds participating in the popular, Latin-inspired fitness craze at her local rec center.
Pauni, a 37-year-old Polynesian woman, has defied her own genetics and has kept the weight off for more than two years. She's also become a certified Zumba instructor along the way, to give her followers a tried and true work out — all free of charge.
The gesture is done largely out of the immense pride Pauni feels for her people, many of whom don't necessarily feel comfortable going to a gym, she said. A lot of the participants in her classes also have various health issues due to carrying around extra weight.
"It's our culture to focus on families, and people tend to let themselves go," Pauni said. "They all have their own individual story. Some are dealing with high blood pressure, some have high cholesterol and are taking medication. A lot suffer with gout. And for some, it affects their self-esteem."
Nearly 79 percent of Utah's native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders are overweight or obese, according to a 2010 report released by the Utah Department of Health's Center for Multicultural Health. Less than 17 percent of the minority population report being sufficiently physically active, and while incidence of death from stroke or heart disease is low, a large number suffer with diabetes.
Word of the Zumba classes has spread like wildfire through the close-knit Polynesian communities in northern Utah, where Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders make up only 1 percent of the total population.
Some days the dance floor is overflowing with exuberance, which is one of the things that keeps Pauni going. She loves to see the participants succeed and have fun doing something that is good for them.
"Day after day, I see their dedication and it is motivating to everyone. It helps them to look good and feel better," Pauni said. "It helps me, too. I feel better than I did in high school."
Pauni's Early Morning Zumba (EMZ) crew, which began with just a handful or participants in August 2010, has grown to include more than 50 women each morning. It's a remarkable accomplishment for such a grass roots operation, said Greg Reid, public relations manager for Intermountain Healthcare's SelectHealth.
Earlier this year, Reid and his colleagues awarded the EMZ group with a $2,500 grant "to help them accomplish what they set out to do … ultimately helping more people become more healthy."
Sinai Pauni and other instructors lead an early morning Zumba class Monday, Nov. 21, 2011 in Glendale. "This was a group that was doing so much good on their own and they had an obvious need to expand and get even more people involved," Reid said. "It's not just sisters and mothers out there exercising together, you've got members of the extended family and community participating. It has a deeper connection than just exercise."
EMZ was one of 25 individual or small nonprofit organizations, selected from a pool of more than 300, that applied to receive money this year from SelectHealth. Pauni said most of the $2,500 went toward certifying additional instructors, which provides some relief for her, as she doesn't love being in the spotlight all the time.
"We want to promote healthy activities as a company and we want to recognize various groups for providing a valuable human service to the community," Reid said, adding that SelectHealth also helped one small community install a drinking fountain at a local park. "These are organizations where $2,500 really means something," he said.
Requirements of the grants dictate that the funds can't be spent on paying debts or salaries, but rather to accomplish goals. Applications for the 2012 round of grants are now available online, at http://www.select25.org/.
Pauni, who is more than modest about her huge accomplishment, credits dozens of her peers with helping her to help others drop the pounds and lead healthier lifestyles.
"Exercise is helping them," Pauni said, adding that her classes are for anybody and everybody. She doesn't charge anything for attendance because she said it precludes people from participation, as gym memberships and class fees "can get expensive and be a drain."
Sometimes, child care is even provided at the church, as lifestyles are being transformed.
It's so fascinating to see so many come out each morning," Pauni said. "There's just something about looking out over this group of people who are doing what they can to make their lives better."
The EMZ class meets at 5:30 a.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, at 943 W. 1100 South, in Salt Lake City. The pictures below (some duplicate) are the pictures that where in the news paper.
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