Hi Guys, I am very curious to hear what/ who got you into the weight room.

About 12 years ago I had been going to aerobics classes and eating a very high carb (Fat Free Cookie!) diet and was well...what they call skinny-fat.
Not sure I was even aware of anything besides fat grams. I wasn't out of my reccomened weight range (or not by much anyway). My Jane Fonda-ing was helping keep my weight down but I wasn't getting any...you know..firmer, it didn't seem.
My girlfriend and I joined a gym. I knew very little about what all this strange equipment was for and was quite intimidated. I met with someone at the gym who consulted with me about what my goals were. I wanted to be toned and firm and have a flat tummy, like all women..But I did not want big muscles!
He explained (I'll shorten this) that basically muscle is hard, fat is soft and that well....shocker! being 'toned' means having muscle. Just to a lesser degree than say.. a professioanl BodyBuilder or whatever.
He decided to put me on a weight training program. I was very concerned about getting big muscles and looking like a man to which he gently assured me "Don't you think if it was easy to get too muscular, that it would be even easier to just get toned? So why isn't everyone at least toned if it is so easy to get too muscular?"
OK...I thought. Good Point.
He taught me about protein grams, good carbs, importance of water etc. and suggested that there was really no such thing as healthy junk (ie: Fat Free cookies and cakes..). He convinced me that I will only exagerate and accentuate my feminine curves (read:muscles).
Well I listened and I did it. My body did "tone-up". Eventually I married this wonderful man and we have since had two beautiful children. We were married a year and a half after I met him and will celebrate our 10th Anniversary in a couple weeks. I have imagined on occassion where I would be(the kind of shape I would be in) if he hadn't 'turned me onto' the gym lifestyle. I barely remember what it was like before...
I have had the two kids and had weight to lose after they were born. I would like to drop some bodyfat right now and am trying to clean up my diet but I know, for sure ,that if I hadn't been given the gift of excersise as a commitment, I would be far worse off.
Interestingly, my 'taste' has changed as far as how much muscle is too much on a woman....
I still have my limits on what I think is attractive!! but I have broadend my ,once, very narrow view.
I have thanked him many times for giving me such an amazing and valuable gift.
Luv it, luv it cant get enough of it!!
What is your story?
XOXO
L2L

I love your story L2L. I was living the same lifestyle when I first got a little taste of weight training. I was doing 15-20 g of fat a day, vegetarian, and was losing a 100 lbs for the first time In my Chest and Abs of Steel (I did aerobics an hour a day 6 days a week ) we did light weights, you know flyes, chest press, and push-ups. My BIL came down and said girl we need to get you hooked up. He brought me down some free weights but I had not a clue what I was doing.

After a 145 lb. weight gain and a new job I got a gym membership with a trainer. We never talked much about nutrition but she taught me to use the machines and the free weights, and I found a new high. Got my booty down to about 175 lbs. But too much was going on.

My latest brushes with weight lifting in the last 2 years has been Mrs. Jim and LWL inspired. She encouraged me to do research and try to understand all the dynamics. Like Mel says, "Abs are made in the kitchen". The high from the weightlifting always gets me to come back, but before I broke my elbow last fall I was spending 2-4 hours a day in the gym, and my ED was out of control. I was gaining weight and it wasn't all muscle. So I appreciate all I learned now I have to learn to apply it in the context of my bullimia.

So thats my story.

Chris

I've never actually been skinny, let alone skinny fat Since I had been overweight all my life and always enjoyed walking, swimming, biking and various physical activities, I had pretty well developed leg muscles.

Overall, my interest in using weights has been in stages. When I was in high school, I started on The Firm workout which used weights and I enjoyed that but I was eating really badly at the time (hardly nothing and probably mostly carbs for what I did eat). When I was in high school, I took a weight lifting class as well which showed me how to use the various machines but I was never really dedicated though I did enjoy them for the most part. Didn't do much with weights throughout college but after college, I joined a gym, got a personal trainer, relearned the machines and other various exercises. After a 9 month plateau, I stopped going to the gym. Then I joined up with Bally's a few months later and met a wonderful personal trainer, a very strong female, mentally and physically. She inspired me to try different things and helped me always to keep coming back to the gym even when I would have breaks for various reasons.

After that, I moved to a different state and went to the gym off and on. I then dated a guy for quite a few months who had drastically changed his shape with weight lifting which was a good example though for various reasons, I didn't start seriously working out until after we broke up. I then injured my knee pretty badly but when that happened to me I realized that I shouldn't take my health and mobility for granted and that I would start seriously going to the gym. I went to a physical therapist who said that strenghtening my leg muscles would help my knee and that I should do so and since cardio hurt (walking hurt, ellipticals hurt, biking hurt), I decided that I'd start with just weight training. That was about 3 months ago and I've seen more dramatic results than I ever have before in my previous efforts so I'm pretty much loving it. I also in general think it is fun.

Great Stories girls!!

Mine goes like this... I quit smoking at 28 so that I could get pregnant. In order not to gain weight I started the gym. I did some aerobic classes but didn't really like it. I got to know the instructor Fay and her SIL Luanne (which I've talked alot about on here, we still workout together). They both did weights and we started working out together.

I then convinced some gals from work to join the gym too. They did but ALWAYS had some LAME excuses not to go. So, I just went alone. If Fay and Luanne were there we'd workout together if not I did it alone.

Even with the gym I gained #... I joined WW with my mom and lost 30# ... As SOON as I dropped the weight I got pregnant... I was 31, yes it took me a few years to get pregnant. I worked out with weights and Yoga till 2 weeks before my delivery date. Then I stayed home and the "nesting" instint took over so I washed walls, ceilings, etc... It was too funny to see a 9 month pregnant woman doing all this work...but I was in great shape. My labour and delivery for my first was 4 hours total. I was back at the gym in 5 weeks. My mom would come over to sit and I would go to the gym for an hour. My DS cried A LOT!!! My mother was my saviour for giving me those much needed breaks when DS was an infant, I could have had severe depression but because my mom was there and I was able to go to the gym made it through with flying colours...

When DD was born it was pretty much the same I worked out as much as I could in the summer, she was born in September... It was a very hot humid summer, so I balloned to over 200#, I quit looking at the doc's scale when I hit 190#, and I still had a month to go... She was born even quicker than S, get this, we left the house at 2:35AM she was born 2:55AM, yep 20 mins later!!! Thank goodness the hospital is only 3 blocks away!

I've never really gone down on the scale as much as when I was younger but I think it's because I'm much more muscular. I'm a size 8-10, which is ok, but I'm working on getting that lower...

I've never had an issue with the "getting bulky" thing... I guess it's because I'd see Luanne and Fay at the gym, and they were small and lifted to failure all the time..I just prefer to be bulky muscular than, bulky fat! At least muscle doesn't giggle like fat when I walk up the stairs!

L2L I love you DH's comment: "Don't you think if it was easy to get too muscular, that it would be even easier to just get toned? So why isn't everyone at least toned if it is so easy to get too muscular?" That should be written on EVERY single gym wall...

Great Thread Idea!!!

P.S.: I forgot to add about nutrition. I always followed the WW way of eating till about 2 years ago when I joined here and heard about Body for LIfe and Bill Phillips, 5-6 meals/day, along with a unprocessed carb & lean protein at every meal... This is the best way of eating for me. I never get ravenous and my insulin level is always even, I love that... I too have Mrs. Jim to thank for that... I bet you didn't know you affected so many people, did you Karen? Thank you for that!!

Chris:
What a wonderful story. Thank you so much for sharing it. Isn't this a great place for support? So many amazing and interesting people. What an opportunity to learn. Your story is no exception. Bless your heart

Nelie:
There must have been some spark there for you to keep coming back!
Congratulations on your progress over the last 3 months. I ,too, feel that I made more progress in a few months than I had in years of doing just areobics.

Lanaii:
Boy the blood sugar thing I am right there with ya. That makes al hte differance for me. If I am off, it is like mising my medication. Seems Mrs. Jim has touched many a life aroud here

Jack:
I didn't know that is how you met Meg! That is awesome. You totally owe her ya know What a great thing she did for you! So you started in january and now your Hacvk Sqautting 500something? Apparently you retained some mass fro the old football days

What a treat to read these.
XOXO
LL

A looooong looooong time ago, in a galaxay far away.... Oops, wrong story.

It was a long time ago. I was a competitive skiier and white water kyaker in my teens and twenties. On various teams we were forced to lift- usually in a tiny room in the basement of a university athletic facility called "the Women's Weight Room". My dining room is bigger. After I got married, I gave up everything but running and trying to starve myself to control my weight, and forgot all about how great lifting felt. Over the years, I had 1 massive pregnancy and never lost the weight or the destroyed skin, but continued to yo-yo diet, run, bike, and eat on whatever was the latest lose weight fast craze. I just slowly got bigger. Pregnancy #2 would probably have been similar to #1 except that I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes, and to avoid insulin, had to take diet and exercise seriously. I ate right, walked and swam up to the day I went into labor, and had a 10 pound baby and a 19 pound weight gain. Dropped the weight very quickly afterwards by going back to the running and swimming.

Somewhere in the mid-90's, the vinyl dumbells appeared along with videos. I bought a slew of them and lifted my 10 pounders frantically while I did step aerobics, daily. Result was a torn rotator cuff . As soon as I could, I was back at the vinyl dumbells. Kept it up for years. Didn't look it, because I was back to eating whatever I wanted. 3 years ago, I finally opened my eyes and took a good look. It wasn't pretty. I did a lot of research into good nutrition and weighlifting- by now we had a bench, a bar, and lots of plates as well as my vinyld dumbells. 45 pounds came off through rigourous dieting and exercise, lots of lifting, but not to failure. I lurker here at what was then the "Body for Life" forum, and asked MrsJ a million questions. 1 BFL challenge later, I was hook again, was a size smaller at the same weight, and a regular at a real gym. It was a lot safer than my home set-up!

I've never looked back- I feel antsy and unhappy when I can't lift, arrange my vacations around where I can find a gym or other fitness activity, and have switched careers because of my love for this lifestyle and the belief that I really have found the magic bullet.

Mel

I forgot to say how I got involved with 3FC. When my son (who will be 8 in 2 weeks) was an infant I stayed at home with him. I did a search for 'weight loss support' or something since I was trying to lose my post baby fat. I found 3FC. It is quite funny because I distinctly remember that there was like a 1000 members. I posted for awhile and then 'fell-off'. I came back after my 2nd baby was born (she is 5) and there were a few thousand more. I am back now with a 3rd user name and am posting by far more than I ever have, and of course there are thousands upon thousands of members. I wish I hadn't strayed before because the comraderie is so very helpful...
I'm here now, though and very happy to be
Just wanted to throw that in
XOXO
L2L

I've just happened upon this little corner of the community as I, myself, love to lift!

I got my first taste of weights in highschool. For sport one term, we were introduced to a gym and a "circuit" which included weights. I didn't like it all that much as I wasn't a big fan of physical exertion of any kind. I was dead skinny and had no need or desire to worry about it either!

I really got into it about six years down the track at another gym, the first time I ever joined one. I told the instructor that I wanted to lose some fat, tone up, etc. She devised a programme for me, a program which included cardio and weights. It had never occurred to me that I would need to do weights, but it wasn't long before that was my favourite part of the workout. I went to that gym for two months and started to build muscle quite quickly. I gave up too quickly on my efforts, not having throught them through very well ... I tried to join gyms again and always included weights. Kept slipping into poor exercise habits and baaaad eating!

In December of last year, I decided that enough was enough, and that a complete lifestyle change was way overdue! A lot of diet and exercise hiccups later, a new lifestyle of eating well and exercising began in May of this year. I started with equipment at home, and doing "body" weight exercises devised by my boyfriend's brother-in-law (personal trainer in training). Soon, I decided to give the gym another go ... I went casually just working the cardio until my programme could be written. I was ITCHING to get back to the weights. Once I did, I quickly gained back all the muscle I had lost, and in the last couple of weeks, I am now the most "lean" I've ever been. It would be fantastic if it wasn't for all the body fat still hanging around but eventually I'll whittle that away!

I love my muscles! They help me burn fat!

Love these stories! I didn't discover weight training until I was a young adult. I had hated -- loathed, actually -- any kind of physical activity in high school, because the emphasis was always on team sports. I couldn't hit the broad side of barn with a basketball, and anything that involved running, didn't involve me. Guess who was always picked dead last on any team? By the time I got to college, when I might have discovered weights and other individual sports, such as swimming, you couldn't get me to anything that resembled a gym. And back in the dark ages, no one much cared that a woman was or wasn't interested in sports.

I got out of college and went to work in my first newpaper job. Lived on coffee and cigarettes, and sat for 10 deadline-crazed hours a day. Did that for several years, then moved to NYC and went to work for CBS. Worked the swing shift -- 2 a.m. to 10 a.m. Those were the days. Realized this was doing absolutely nothing good for my health, and my weight was going up (although not as quickly as it might have otherwise, because it being New York, I walked everywhere.) Anyhow, I had read about lifting weights, so I joined a small gym near my apartment. I was about 25.

And for the first time, I realized that there was something that I could do after all. I Loved the concentration it required; I loved how it felt; I loved that it was just me and the weights; I loved that I could do it, and that I could do it well.

I've lifted on and off for years, although as I admitted here severall months ago, it wasn't until I discovered LWL that I realized I was hardly lifting to good effect. My form's always been great (or so I've been told), but I didn't push myself and I didn't ever try to lift heavy. So the last year has been a wonderful year of discovery.

I love lifting, and it's a source of frustration that my body is fighting me at this particular time. But I'm determined to resume, even if I'm reduced to using my pink dumbbells. There are worse things in life.

And pink dumbbells are better than no dumbbells. What this is teaching me is that I can only do what I can only do. I can't do what anyone else is doing; I must listen to myself and honor what I hear.

C'mon the rest of you -- these stories are like a lifeline to me!