What a difference 7 lb. can make!

Last Monday, I accomplished something I would have never dreamed of a year ago. Or 2 years ago, or 10 years ago. I finished all 7 stages of a weight lifting plan, designed for women to learn how to lift heavy weights. Before April of this year, my heaviest dumbbell was a lime-green 5 lb. set. I didn't know the difference between a dumbbell and a barbell (seriously!) and I didn't know what a deadlift was. So obviously I had never done one. I also thought I'd never be able to do a full (straight-leg) pushup, or ever lift anything in the free weights area of my gym. To be 100% honest, it had been about 10 years since I had even set foot inside a gym. So no-one was more surprised than me when I decided to join a gym in March 2012. I started out like most women seem to, in the cardio zone. An hour spent on some kind of cardio machine for about an hour/day, and for the love of chocolate, it got boring. Fast! So I put out a request for how I might add weights to my repertoire, and a few people recommended I check out Lou Schuler and Alwyn Cosgrove's "New Rules of LIfting for Women." So I did, and I liked what I read, so I decided to give it a shot. And I started on April 16, 2012. A few weeks into stage 1, I decided I should probably take a set of "before" pictures. I weighed 190 lb.

Seven months later, I finished all 7 stages. And lost *only* 7 lb., but if you had ever told me that 7 lb. could make a difference like this, I would have done this a looooooooong time ago. Especially if you told me I'd also gain enough strength to do that pushup on the floor, with straight legs (no knees touching the floor). Or a 2-minute+ plank. Or a 120 lb. lat pull-down. Or 100 lb.+ squats & deadlifts. Or even that I'd be able to do HIIT running intervals for 1 minute at 8+ mph. For the first time in my adult life, I'm experiencing every noticeable benefit of exercise, including better sleep, more energy, and more self-confidence. But after posting my before & after picture in the NROLFW group, one of my friends there suggested that I should post it here too.

So if anyone still believes that lifting heavy will make women "bulky" or that the scale tells the whole story, I hope my experience will help you reconsider those beliefs: