Fit by 14 {Week 4} | Strength Training

I am entering week 4 of my Fit by 14 Series!  It started off as a link up, but I'm still new to this blogging thing, and couldn't quite figure it out, and it somehow messed up my entire blog design, so now it's just a plain old series! 

We have only SEVEN weeks left until 2014 comes barreling in!  How is that even possible??? 

So far I've shared some health tips dealing with drinking water, and to Stop Eating Crap. 

Drinking water is SO important.  It helps flush toxins out of our bodies.  Being dehydrated affects every aspect of our health!  I KNOW that it's getting to be winter and it dreadfully cold outside, which makes it harder to drink enough water, but do what ya gotta do to get the water in! 

My Mr's personal trainer told him that 80% of being fit has to do with what he eats, and basically called bull on the people who say, "I work out so I can eat whatever I want....".  Of course I don't take anybody's word, so I had to look it up myself.  One article that I read said something that stuck with me...."Unless you are running marathons every day, you can't out run your fork, and you can't out train a bad diet."  And my own personal favorite is a quote from "It starts with food", The food you eat either makes you more healthy or less healthy, those are your options.  I'm also calling bull on the people that say "everything is okay in moderation," but that's another post for another day.

This week's Tip:

Add in Strength/Weight Training

 

I've never been much of a strength and weight training kind of girl.  I'd much rather just do some cardio because it makes me feel like I'm actually doing something....  And lifting weights makes me feel like a pansy. 

 

Unfortunately for me, while I still think that cardio IS important, Strength & Weight Training is Just as, or even more important.  One of the trainers at the gym we go to told me that lifting weights will get you where you want to go 2-3 times faster than cardio alone.  THAT got my attention! 

 

This is something that I've just started learning about!  The past 2 weeks I've been using the weight machines at the gym, but I feel like they just aren't cutting it....What REALLY got me wondering about it is that my MR's physical trainer doesn't have him using any of them.  They do squats, and dead lifts, and weighted step-ups, etc... So I'm researching into it and asking questions, but I have a feeling that the gym weight machines are going to be a thing of my past, and I'll have to keep you posted on my progress as I learn!

 

What about you?  Do you incorporate Strength & Weight training into your workout regiment?  What do you do for your strength training?  

 

Weekly Stats:

 

Current Workout: C25k, finally finishing up week 4 tonight (run 3 minutes, walk 1.5 minutes, run 5 minutes, walk 3 minutes, Repeat once.) and will be moving on to week 5, which I'm pretty sure is going to be the death of me:

Day 1: Jog 5, walk 3, Jog 5, Walk 3, Jog 5.

Day 2: Jog 8, Walk 5, Jog 8

Day 3: Jog 20.

I don't know HOW they go from jogging 8 to jogging 20...but I'm pretty sure it's going to kill me.

# of workouts: 5/7.  I ended my 12 day workout streak on Saturday, and then decided to skip Sunday as well!

Weight Loss: -12.6 lbs from start of #fitby14, (but a total of 21.6)

Inches Lost: I Finally remember to redo my measurements on Sunday.  I've lost a total of 7.5 inches! 

Best Workout: It would have to be Monday's.  I did my C25k (week 4), Monday Morning, but repeated the set twice instead of just once.  And I didn't hate it.

Thoughts towards running/working out: While I don't exactly hate it anymore, I don't love it either.  I still prefer my morning workouts, but the days that I workout in the evenings are nice because I have more time and don't feel rushed, but that means that we get home later in the evening!