Ok, now I'm thinking about the PCOS-weightlifting thing more seriously because I have it too! I was drawn to weightlifting in my early twenties, and I put on muscle easily, *and* I loved the way it felt to do it! My youngest sister has it, too, and during junior high/high school, she was a champion in javelin in Jr Olympics, and she and I have always muscled up very easily, esp upper body, though pretty much anywhere nowadays. I was really into the weightlifting in my early twenties, and actually did one competition as a bodybuilder, though of course didn't place but it was a fun experience! In the gym, I pump up really fast after I start my workout, and I love to look at the muscles rippling where I'm working out that day! I like the feeling of strength and I like pushing hard into it till the failure hits, and it's positively exhiliarating! I get such a rush from it!! With cardio, I like pushing so hard that breathing is pushed, and I get sweaty and red, and long enough that I get that *runner's high*. I like getting to that point, and I feel like a winner crossing the finish line! I like seeing all the veins in my neck and arms and even across my chest and through my legs get pumped up as I push the cardio and everything feels tight by the time I step down! And then the tremendous relaxation that I feel after I'm done, cool down, and wind down from it is the best! I have so few people that I know that can relate to my love of weightlifting, and many of my friends think that women shouldn't love it like I do, but they also say, "Oh yeah, that's why you look so good in clothes!" when they find out that I am a bodybuilder/weightlifter. But they can't imagine why a woman would *want* to be in the gym doing that stuff. And I am the only woman at my gym who trains like I do. The rest are guys, muscle dudes, and also some average guys, lots of bodybuilders, but all men. Just aren't women around much that really love lifting weights, even if they can visibly see the benefits on my body. The stereotypes of weightlifting are hard to get past, even in this day and age when it is acknowledged among the entire medical community that resistance training is critical to the health of all people, not just cardio. It's important for a ton of things that range from maintaining bone density with aging, to supporting metabolism and more!. I don't know whose idea it was to develop forums that were not strickly WLS here to share common interests among WLSers, but it was very clever indeed! With kindest regards, Donna E.

Welcome aboard I hope you find what you are looking for, stick around and post often. I seriously did not lift regularly until 8 months, now I am steady, but still not too crazy(Yet). In some ways I am lifting heavier than any other time, and some areas have become very weak (Not because of surgery) due to atrophy from being a tube head.

I just wanted to stop in and say hi! Thanks for being on here and having this forum. I thought I was the only woman who liked to lift heavy. I am an odd ball at my gym. All the skinnies.....hmmm....I am just getting started on my wls journey. I had my info. seminar and now I have my consultation scheduled for the 28th of Feb., I have my psyc. eval on march 23 and hopefully I will have success with my insurance company! I am at 280 and ready to lose all this weight for one final time. I am excited and really nervous! I am glad to read in someone's journal that he and his wonderful wife are like teens again!!! I have seen quite a bit of divorce on OH. Congrats! I was wondering how long you had to wait til you were able to lift like you wanted. Anyone's answers would be great. Also, I have PCOS and I am going to the ob/gyn tomorrow because of the pain!!! Any suggestions??....guess this one is for the ladies....sorry.... Have a great nite and thanks again. Stacy thanks for the info!

I will have to check into that. We are so limited as to what we can and can't do. I know that the IS department most likely has all the goodies and we just get "watched" by Big Brother. I barely have time to do my posts at night! teenage daughters usually monopolize the computer and I am going non stop at work most of the time. I am usually out and about in the clinic seeing patients all day. I am still a good ol fashioned face to face person I guess! I would probably keel over if I couldn't talk anymore!

Well, a lot, actually. But what I really like the most is that I get to just be me, not the *in charge* person all the time, not *on duty* all the time, and I actually get to talk to you guys about stuff that's really important to me, and it helps me to feel like the whole me is engaged here, just as *one of the guys*. I can't tell you how nice that is! I work with support groups all over NC, and I love doing it, and I love sharing info with people and I hope that it is helpful, and I hope I am able to do it for a long time to come! But here, I can just let down my hair (well it's short now so that's easy! ). In the WLS world, I am done with the weight loss, I have been maintaining for a long time, there isn't a lot I need to learn about the surgery or myself having it anymore. I do find discussions interesting, but I'm not the one needing it in order to get my health back. But I do have this bodybuilding and lifting weights and that goes on and on and this place gives me a place where I can share that with other folks who've also been walking a mile in my shoes, and are choosing weightlifting/bodybuilding as a part of lifestyle or getting healthy, etc. So I am still on this part of my journey now, and I really am grateful to have folks like you *****ally understand and that we can share in the joys and struggles together, and it's really a struggle but a good one! Nobody else understands where I've come from and where I am now, and what all that can mean emotionally and physically, to struggle through tremendous adversity with illness against tremendous odds, and to now be standing here! Wow! And it's still a struggle and it's still difficult some days and I still stumble sometimes and I still make progress, but I know that there are some people in this forum that understand that, both physically and emotionally, and can relate to it in some ways unlike many of the guys I train with/around at the gym. Thank you thank you for being here and sharing this part of our journeys together! It means a lot to me! Hugs, Donna E.