The moment when my shorts wouldn't button

Last summer, I put on a pair of my golf shorts one morning and couldn't get them buttoned.  
I was mortified. To continue the torture, I was a good 8 pounds heavier than I had ever been (except while pregnant of course). I'm not one to care about how much I weigh because as a former gymnast I have always known that muscle weighs more than fat.  I was always "heavier than average" but the combo was sending a clear message.  

Time for some change.   So I started doing "Bootcamp" workouts at a club because I realized that I had lost a lot of my strength and my home workouts obviously weren't cutting it.  Let me tell you that it took AT LEAST 6 months of strength training 3 times per week to really notice a change in my strength and in my waistline.  What happened to my weight in that 6 months?  Absolutely NOTHING.  I weighed the exact same.  

I most likely gained back 10 pounds of muscle as I was losing my belly fluff.  Life and hormones took me off my strength track.  I'm now just 3 pounds lighter than last year but I move better, my clothes fit better, I can lift more weight and I sleep better.

My message to you is to make strength your #1 priority  (Mobility is a close 2nd).

Muscle is where your metabolism coms from.  The more muscle you have, the more your heart works to cover the new real estate.  There's a study that relates larger muscle mass in the lower body to better heart health so for all of you cardio haters, there's an option in heavy leg days.

You may have a physically demanding job and you may be strong from it, but I challenge you to check if your strength is BALANCED.  If you can lift and carry heavy things, can you hang and do a pull up?
If you can climb ladders and stairs easily, how does it feel to lunge and move sideways?

We all get stuck in a rut of physically doing what we are good at.  
I challenge you to find movements you don't normally do.  BONUS if they are the exact opposite of what you're doing most often, that will keep your body balanced.