Strong Is The New Skinny

I hate lifting weights. Between my weak arms, the intimidating steroid pit at my gym, and you know the part where I actually have to lift the weights it just sends me over the edge. Luckily, my gym has a barbels class that I attend religiously (like lapsed-Catholic religiously) with my partner in crime – I mean my accountability partner, Sara.

Sar and I take the 5:30am class on Mondays. Yes that’s 5:30 am. On Mondays. Am I painting the picture for you? To say I am sleep walking for most of the class gives the impression I am much more bright-eyed and bushy-tailed than I actually am. So if I tell you I was inspired this last Monday you do understand how awesome the inspiration would have had to have been, right?

The instructor in said class must be somewhere in her forties (early-midish, I’m bad with age). And this girl is strong. Oddly, you’d probably walk right past her on the street and just think “pretty girl” instead of “she must be one of those MMA fighters.” But I am fairly certain she could make most MMA fighters cry. This woman can lift serious weight. So I love her because she is both accessible and you know she’d easily kick my a** if I didn’t. And last Monday my love grew to levels previously reserved for my favorite high school teacher and my dog Rupert when she rocked a shirt that read: “Strong is the new skinny”

Can I get an Amen?

As I stare forty square in the eyes (to the point where I actually want to skip thirty-nine and be forty twice. I mean thirty-nine – what is the point, really?) I find that skinny isn’t so much an option for me anymore. I mean, unless I stop eating which isn’t an option since I love food too much and also don’t want to go to prison for murder which is where having significantly low blood sugar for a prolonged period of time would land me. Really no matter how much I run, or lift weights or cut the carbs it turns out my hips are just not in the spots they used to be before I birthed two babies.

But the coolest thing I’ve learned through all my fruitless attempts to get back to the waif look by exercising like a fiend is that I like being strong. Having physical strength just feels good. Unlike starvation which feels, you know, like you’re starving. And the next coolest things that I’ve learned through my journey is that there is like this secret sisterhood of strong chicks. Yes just like the movie “Skull and Bones.” Except instead of a bunch of privileged Ivy League frat boys these are all pre-menopausal or menopausal women who could kick those frat boys a**es.

Like my friend Julie who in her early fifties (sorry hon) who can run circles around me. Literally. I mean this girl can run three miles as a warm up before she meets me, then run either “slowly” with me, or run up and back to me (there’s the circles part), and then leave me at my car while she runs another five miles. Just for fun. Or my friend Tina who looks like a teeny sweet little doll (I believe she tops out at 4’11”) but can lift freakish amounts with her legs. Which are solid muscle. I know because I’ve actually asked if I could pinch her thigh because I couldn’t comprehend how such a teeny person could be so strong.

And there are women like this all over the place. You just wouldn’t know because unlike the juice heads lifting free-weights in the gym these women are silently strong. That’s the whole point of a secret society. It’s secret. So I’m blowing their cover in the hopes that they inspire the rest of us to stop starving ourselves, or beating ourselves up about our birthing hips (come on, I can’t be the only one, right), and start embracing the concept that it’s okay we don’t have fourteen-year-old boy bodies anymore. We want womanly hips, strong arms, and solid thighs of muscle. Let’s redefine what it means to be a beautiful woman. Because once our external strength matches our internal strength who’d be dumb enough to argue with us anyway?

If you like my blog you’ll love my book. Buy The Working Mommy’s Manual on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Working-Mommys-Manual-Nicole-Corning/dp/0615637418/ref=cm_sw_em_r_dp_6ZRcqb0QFT7P8_tt