Steve Wozniak probably isn’t long for the Dancing With The Stars world, but I think his amazingly upbeat attitude sends the world a much-needed message.

Living in a world focused on overachievement - where I see parents freaking out over academically rigorous preschools (whatever the hell that means) and drilling their kids with extracurriculars - there was something so pure and refreshing about The Woz’s joy last night. Yes, he’s an uber achiever professionally, but there’s something to be said for the manner in which he is embracing something that clearly does not come naturally or particularly well to him. At one point, in the face of the judges’ criticism, Wozniak said something along the lines of, “How can this feel disappointing? I get to dance with Karina Smirnoff. It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity!”

Credit: People.com

That simple statement stopped me in my tracks. Because for as much as I bristle against the overachieving tide and encourage Laurel (and myself!) to try new things for fun – not mired with worries of perfection or what it means for the future – I know that deep down I still have some work to do there. For example, a few weeks ago I had the ridiculously fun opportunity to sit down and interview Olympic figure skaters Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto, after which I was invited to hit the ice for their skating clinic.

I did, in fact, have my skates in the car (I’ve only been out a handful of times with Laurel, but we had such a blast that I bought a pair) but I was paralyzed by the prospect of getting on the ice. I rationalized to myself that I didn’t want to cut into the clinic time of the others at the rink, and to some degree that was true, but likely the bigger issue was that I didn’t want to make a complete ass of myself in front of Tanith and Ben. Or that I didn’t want to be the worst skater amidst the (um, 3-6 year old) beginners group.

Undoubtedly, that was my once in a lifetime opportunity to skate with Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto and I missed the fun in the face of fear. It makes my brain hurt thinking about how idiotic that is! But thanks to gleaning wisdom from Steve’s attitude, if provided a similar opportunity (or anything else fun and possibly embarrassing, for that matter) in the future, I won’t hold back.

Day #17 of the 30-Day Shredhead Challenge.

OK, so maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration since the 60 minutes included warm up and cool down, but aside from the beginning and end I was, in fact, gargling my heart.

So thanks to email with Kristen, I finally get how on demand makes some money. Levels 1 and 2 are available on demand but if you want Level 3 you need to buy it. Well, I’m too lazy (cheap?) to do that, so I explored another Jillian option today so I can stay with the program and also address my specific needs.

As I wrote previously, Jillian offers a Quick Trouble Zones 40-minute workout that I think would be pretty similar to what Level 3 might entail. But weirdly, while I dug it the first day, when I tried to return to it, a lot of the elements were really hard on my (admittedly weak) knees. I ended up spending more time thinking up alternate exercises and ultimately didn’t get a lot out of the workout yesterday.

So today I decided to go for Jillian’s 60-minute Boost Metabolism program, because I’m actually feeling OK in the strength department, and what I really need is some hard core cardio to bust up the muffin top. I loved this workout — it was hard, made me sweat profusely, and was a nice change up in that you didn’t need weights at all. Instead, arms were worked via planks and kickboxing (punching). And I must say, I loved returning to kickboxing, which I haven’t done since grad school. I have a great mental target I use…

Day #14 of the 30-Day Shredhead Challenge.

Since finishing Level 2, I’ve been flying by the seat of my pants. Level 3 isn’t up on demand and I’ve been holding out hope that it will appear once Level 1 expires (March 17). Meanwhile, I’ve been winging it with other on demand fitness programming.

Today I decided to try Jillian’s “Quick Trouble Zones” — it’s a 40 minute program (longer than the daily shred challenge programming), and I’d estimate that this program is probably a very good substitute for Level 3. Jillian drills through 3 or 4 circuits (with 5 elements each) x 2, all incorporating upper and lower body. It was killer. There were many elements where I couldn’t finish the reps.

I’ll still keep looking for Level 3, but meanwhile, I’ve got plenty to work on with this program.