I am getting ever more confident as the days pass. Lately, I'd felt myself slipping into those old hopeless feelings ("I'll never lose this weight" and "I'm just destined to be fat", but I've forced myself to take some proactive steps and am encouraged by the fact that I stepped on the scale this morning and showed a loss - so it must be working. I just need to be more patient with myself, I think... one good day, followed by another good day, followed by hopefully another good day, and it'll all start to add up to lower numbers on the scale. But the important part is this: ONE DAY AT A TIME. I'll get there.

I started bellydance lessons yesterday, and boy was it fun! I was the only person in the class yesterday evening, which is wonderful as many people pay huge amounts for one-on-one lessons, and for a first lesson, I thought I was extremely fortunate to have all that personalized attention. It's much, much harder than it looks; it's actually quite physical in that it requires the isolation of many muscle groups, including those all-too-important core muscles. But apart from being an excellent workout (everything between my neck and my knees is sore!), it's a beautiful, artful way to dance, and I'm looking forward to getting good at it and showing it off to my friends! (when I'm skinnier, of course!)