Making the Decision to Lift Like a Girl!

I’ve made the decision to start lifting. I’ve been following a Paleo diet for a while now, initially I lost a lot of weight but lately I have been really struggling to lose anything. So I revisited my workouts.

I’ve been heavily focussing on cardio – 30 minutes a day, either running or on the cross trainer or stepper. I hate running, but previously it did work in helping me to lose weight, so I persevere. I am not fast and I do not have much stamina, I am also not fit! These things combined mean I’m not good on the treadmill. I’m not a ladylike gym-goer, I sweat and I was once told I run like a duck. You’re building a pretty flattering picture of me right now aren’t you?!

But with the lack of weight loss recently I looked into whether there was an alternative I could do with my workouts.

Everywhere I looked said that women should be lifting. Not just the little pink rubber 1kg dumbells you see in the girly section of the gym but lifting heavy weights just like men. I read more and more about how women would have to take a massive amount of steroids to bulk up, which is obviously  a huge concern for most women who are looking to lose weight not get bigger.

Research on lifting weights for women

The more I read and researched, the more benefits I saw, I won’t repeat them here but here are some of the resources I used which helped to convince me this was the right path:

• http://www.simplyshredded.com/the-ultimate-female-training-guide.html A great article for a newbie, detailing the benefits and how to get started.
• http://www.Instagram.com search: #girlsthatlift    Inspiration from women who have made the shift and now look amazing!
• http://www.pinterest.com/explore/female-weight-lifting/ The mentality of ‘strong is the new skinny’ is something I can truly get behind. I’m never going to be skinny but I can be fit and strong.

A few things to understand before you start lifting

A few watchouts I’ve realised:

1. Your body weight may not change at all. Some of the women’s stories show a dress size change of about 3-4 (downwards) but their weight may have only changed by around 5lbs. I think as my starting weight is quite high, I should expect to lose weight, but as I get towards a healthier weight it may not change significantly.
2. To get really ripped takes years. But you can make a difference in a short amount of time. I don’t have much time (I get married in 7 months) so I just need to do as much as possible in the time I have, which means getting dedicated to this approach (sticking with it) and making time to do it (getting up earlier to fit in more at the gym).

Wish me luck :)
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