Good morning everyone!

Today, I am posting on how weight-lifting has made me love my body more.

I started Jamie Eason’s 12-Week Workout Program 8 weeks ago. When I started, I had one fear, which I think many of us women have: bulking up.

I told myself that I would do the Program for 12-Weeks, and if I didn’t like the results, I could always go back to what I was doing before: cardio only.

I have 4-weeks left of this Program, and I am so happy with the results!

Here are 6 things it has helped me with:

1. Mindset

Lifting weights has helped me to further shift my mindset from exercising for my physique, to desiring to be stronger and healthier. I mean, come on, in High School, I won “Best Physique” my Senior year, and I didn’t ask for it. Can you imagine the pressure I felt to stay thin? I felt like every person I knew noticed my weight loss, and was counting on me to stay small (although, now, I am sure that couldn’t be further from the truth). Side note: it feels weird sharing that with all of you, but I think it’s important to help express the amount of pressure I really did put on myself (I was the one that allowed this pressure to affect me).

2. Strength

Weight lifting has giving me more physical, and mental strength. The physical strength, I might add, is anything but bulky! Here’s something straight from Jamie Eason:

“As we said before, women need to lift heavy, challenging weights in order to gain muscle. Lifting heavy weights will not cause women to get big and bulky like men because women produce a fraction of the testosterone that men do. When women begin working out, their goals are to tone up and gain shape/curves and following this program will accomplish just that!”

My legs feel so much more toned, by booty is lifted (thank you squats), my waist shape has changed, and everything feels tightened. My mental strength has improved with weight-lifting from challenging myself. When I lifted weights before, I would always stick to the 3’s and 5’s because I didn’t want to get bulky. Now, I’m using 15’s and 20’s and and enjoying it! It gives me confidence knowing that if I put my mind something, I can accomplish it.

Fail is a four-letter word. Challenges bring change, and change brings results! {click to tweet}

3. Body Image

Yes, my body has changed, but in a different way. It’s not like “I have a new body, and so now I feel great about it.” It’s that I appreciate what my body can do. I can always lift the things I need to lift. It can move, heal, and is capable of getting me from point A to point B. I realize more than ever now, that not everyone can use their body like this, so I make sure to fully appreciate every day that I am able to move my body.

Also, 12 months ago I let go of the scale. I had started a weight-lifting routine, and noticed the number on the scale climbing. It scared me half-to-death, and I stopped weighing myself and weight lifting all together. This time around, I didn’t have that attachment to my scale, and it hasn’t been a problem at all. My pants all fit the same, if not better, but I can tell you almost for sure that if I were to weigh myself, the number would be higher. Never, ever weigh yourself while lifting weights – unless you like seeing the number go up. It’s just plain mean, and false.

Note: after I wrote the above part on not weighing yourself, I had a friend tell me that she loses weight when she lifts. So, like anything else, this is specific to your body. I’ve even had a young girl share with me before that at first, she gained, and then she lost (because muscle holds onto water, especially at first). So, who knows, maybe if I would have stuck to it before I would have watched the number go back down. Still happier with my decision to not weigh myself – for me, it’s one of the best things I have let go of. 

All this being said, if you do weigh yourself, and the number goes up, don’t be discouraged. It’s just a number, and you have to keep believing that you’re doing great!

4. It’s Fun!

Weight lifting is new, and fun for me! It gets me excited to hit the Gym, and has me in a routine that is  do-able!

Monday: upper body and Cardio

Tuesday: lower body and Cardio

Wednesday: OFF

Thursday: upper body and Cardio

Friday: lower body and Cardio

Saturday: morning Step Class

Sunday: OFF

The cardio I do varies. Somedays, I’ll do 20-30 minutes on the elliptical, treadmill, or stepper (10 min on stepper with high intensity). Others, I’ll walk for an hour or so with a friend, or my Mom. Somedays, I’ll do weights and Step, because I enjoy Step so much!

5. Enhances My Mood

When I exercise (any exercise), my mood is immediately boosted. This is the only thing that can lift my mood in a matter of minutes. Weight lifting helps with this, because it motivates me to get in the Gym. Before, when I was only doing Cardio I sometimes felt like I had to drag myself to the Gym. Now, I look forward to my workouts more! Don’t get me wrong, there are still times that I have to push myself, but it’s easier now that I’ve added in a routine that I enjoy sticking to.

There is nothing worse than having to stick to something that you don’t enjoy. Find exercise that you enjoy! {click to tweet}

6. Improves Creativity and Brings Inspiration

There is nothing that get’s my creative spirit flowing like exercise does. Sitting in the office for a few extra hours trying to get creative is a waste of time for me. Spending a couple hours at the Gym? Great use of time! I think of new ideas, things I want to try, things I want to write about (I thought of writing this post while in Step this morning), ways to encourage others, etc. During a work out is also a time where I appreciate myself the most, and I have thoughts cross my mind like “I love myself too much not to do this.” THIS being anything that I care about – whether it be going an extra 5 minutes in my exercise, giving myself a reading break when I get home, enjoying an hour to myself after a workout, getting dressed up for the day, just to spend time pampering myself, etc.

Just a side note, when you click on Jamie Eason’s link, you’re going to see a lot of stuff about ways to control your food, calories, etc… Skip over that stuff, and scroll right down to the workouts. That’s the part I use 🙂

I hope this was helpful! If you have questions, post below!

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