"Whether you think you can, or you think you can't--you're right."

So here's the small steps I've been taking to get to where I want to go.

• I went to boot camp on Tuesday and I'm going to go an extra day (this afternoon).  Today is a "legs" day, which I'm kind of scared of thanks to my history of shin splints, but I've been feeling a lot better lately, and strengthening all the other muscles around them will help alleviate the pain.  I will do another full week (3x) next week and then I'll drop down to 2x for the next six weeks.  The six weeks after that will be 3x.
• I have been making a concerted effort to eat better.  I am trying to look at food as fuel for my body, and if it ain't helping me acheive my goals, I don't need it.  My boot camp trainer is going to start me on a meal plan when I begin the new session with regular weigh-ins, so I'll have accountability.
• Dance-wise: my sister is going to teach me some new steps so I have new material to work on.  Once I have the steps, I'll start attending Thursday practice classes as well as Sundays.  During advanced, until I get my steps down, I'll commandeer an empty practice room and work on perfecting tricks / basics and then stamina.  I'm alternately looking forward to and dreading this.  I am going to suck at first (AND THAT'S OKAY, I need to keep telling myself).

And here are my goals:

• For boot camp: not giving up mentally midway.  I know what we're doing is really hard, and people who are more athletic than me are having a hard time with it, but I know half of my fatigue is mental.  Although I feel like the bottom falls out somewhere around minute 30, I can still do it if I dig deep.  So I need to dig deeper.
• Over the next boot camp session: dropping a dress size.  (For those who may be reading this and don't know me--don't worry, I genuinely need this.  I'm not a 2 who wants to get down to a 0 in six weeks or some other nonsense.)
• For dance: learning new material, practicing it, and mentally dancing it in my head until I know it really, really well, even if I can't dance it in practice yet.
• For teaching: becoming more confident in taking charge of a class.  Taking the time to know the dances The Teach has already taught in class backwards and forwards.

Here we go...