21 days

They say it takes 21 days to make a habit.  It's the 21st day into the New Year.  How many people who committed to start a diet, join a gym or quit a bad habit are still on track?  

The holidays were definitely a time of over indulgence for me with not a whole lot of exercise thrown in.  If I'm going to be honest here, it wasn't just over the holidays.  It's really been for the past four months that my eating habits got a bit out of hand again and I was exercising less and less.  Life got busy and I just made excuses.  So I along with thousands (or so it seems) of others, I went back to the gym this January.  And you know what, I still love it.  I didn't go to run on the hamster wheel (aka treadmill). I have one of those in my basement,  I went to lift. 

Lifting weights is where it's at for me.  My fingers wrapped around the cold steel metal, lifting to build a stronger, leaner me.  Training allows me to achieve that complete body transformation that doing endless hours of cardio just won't give me. Weight training rewards you with beautiful, lean muscle. 

And trust me, if your a girl, weight lifting won't give you big, bulky muscles.  You see that picture of me below.  That took a good solid two years of HEAVY lifting and very clean eating to get that amount of muscle.

So here's my kick in the pants/reminder when I just don't feel like going to the gym after work every day...

I lift weights...

to lose body fat

to gain strength
to build stronger bones = decreased risk of osteoporosis
to reduce the risk of heart disease
to reduce the risk of diabetes
to raise my metabolism (burn more calories when at rest!!!!)
for psychological benefits = gaining strength can be empowering and it's a real boost to one's self confidence and self esteem

So let me just say, if you're reaching for the pink dumbbells, it better be your warm up. 

Lift heavy.  Be strong.