Nope…not Cirque du Soleil ready yet, but in a one person show of Cirque du Suzanne, I would be the star!  Ok…not many tickets would be sold, but I could still pacify myself with saying that I have top billing…

BUT I am off the ground a little easier each time!  When I did a roll up today, I actually did it myself (Will says I did it all by myself, but he was right there…hard to tell if I had any nudges while I was struggling to pull myself through the silks…).  But not only did I roll up, but I unrolled rather smoothly (for me!).  Yay!

And today’s surprise success was getting into a new move, the side plank, not once, but a couple of times!  I even did the last one all by myself!  My right forearm will be screaming at me tomorrow as I was having a little bit of trouble catching the left arm wrap right away.  But here it is:

Just in case you cannot tell what’s holding me up, I have my right foot locked in one side of the fabric while my left foot rests on top of it; that is supporting about half of my weight.  The remainder of my weight is primarily held by my right arm on the other half of the fabric because I don’t have my left arm at enough of an angle to better share the burden.  I mention these things because the bulk of my body is suspended in between my right arm and my foot…and I have gained enough STRENGTH to hold myself in this position long enough for a photo op!  Certainly not of the Superman variety, but I am so much stronger than I was just a month ago…

And before this Challenge is over, I WILL get into that inverted ball position if it kills me!

Also, the ladies and I measured ourselves at this half-way point…so far, I have lost one inch from my waist, another inch from my belly, an inch from each thigh, and an inch and a half from each my arms!  That may not sound like a lot to some people, but to someone like me, it’s a MIRACLE!

Oh, yeah… OVER ONE MONTH WITHOUT SMOKING!!!!!!!!!!