Muscle Mama

Before I started really lifting weights I was doing ALOT of cardio.  Crazy hard, metabolic training, make you wanna puke, cardio.  Now that I think of it, I was probably overtraining a bit, going HARD most days of the week because I was teaching a lot of classes that required me to do that.  I was eating about 80% healthy and 20% not.  I am always conscious of how my body will feel if I make certain choices, but I love a cocktail or glass of wine now and again.  I want to enjoy my life, what I eat and how I workout and let the body that follows that, be my body.   I LOVE sweets and have a bit of chocolate most days.  I eat a ton of fruit, veggies, healthy protein and sweet potatoes.  Love my coffee in the morning and talk myself out of it in the afternoon. 
In the below red short pics, I weighed about 162 lbs. and I am 5'8 and was 22% body fat. 

I started training at Shine Fitness in February 2013 (6 months ago).  I work with three women who love to lift heavy and look fantastic.  All three have different body types but are all very lean, strong, feminine and can lift more than most men.  They quickly taught me the Shine training philosophies and I adapted them for myself.  I started to lift heavy weights properly twice a week.  I didn't change my eating much, I feel good with my relationship to food.  I am a bit more strategic in my lifting and my cardio training and have 1-3 rest days a week.  My goal was to tighten up, feel strong and firm, and make my workouts effective and hard core.  If I am feeling 4 workouts in a week, that is what I will do but I will give them total focus.  I lift two times a week using the Shine philosophy of training.  I recently took some pics of the changes and although I weigh the same or maybe a little more, around 162 lbs., I can feel and see the slight changes.  I feel tighter and I can totally see it in the pics.   Granted, the first pics were in January so I am totally pasty, lol.  So sad that a tan really does make things look so much better.  :)  I am pretty sure you will see what I am talking about here.  In the pink sports bra pics, I weigh 162lbs. and am 20% body fat.  My % went down 2% since adding in heavy lifting 6 months ago.



I wanted to share these pics for a few reasons.
1. Whatever the scale says, I am at a weight that works for me.  It doesn't feel like I am going crazy to maintain it, I feel strong, healthy and fabulous in this weight and that is what matters to me.  I was able to get tighter, just by adding in heavy lifting and not changing much else besides resting more.
2. Strength training really does tighten everything up.  Muscle is leaner, tighter and harder than fat. 
3. The scale is dumb.
4. You don't have to be drastic, feel deprived or like you are chasing some crazy goal to make you feel worthy of loving your body.  You define what feels good to you.
5. Being in the fitness industry adds another level of pressure to look a certain way and I am always battling that a little bit on the inside.  I constantly remind myself I don't need to be the skinniest, I don't have to weigh any certain number.  I need to decide what feels healthy to me and own it.