Okay, first of all, yes, I know you're supposed to do both. But since April, when I started losing weight, I've just been walking for an hour a day. A brisk walk. I've gone from about 5800 steps to 8200 steps walked in the same amount of time, changing my route as necessary in order to put in roughly the same amount of time every day. At this point, I am doing a mile in a little over 15 minutes.
But now it's cold, and I was listening to a fitness podcast where they said your exercise routine should be built on strength training rather than aerobic. And it got me to thinking - I've done aerobic for 8 months out of the year, with several false starts for starting strength training (I never have enough time to figure out the exercises), what if I just did strength training and pilates and yoga and such during the 4 cold winter months? I would still walk at least once or twice a week, weather permitting (I can handle cold, just not snow and ice). But that way I could finally learn the strength training exercises and I would probably be able to do them on a maintenance level (say 2 days per week) during the warmer 8 months of the year.
I don't have the $$$ for a gym membership, and I'm a SAHM so taking my kids out for a walk in the cold is not an option, so I'm stuck either getting up at the crack of dawn (also the coldest part of the day) and going before my husband leaves for work or I can go when he gets home from work but that throws a wrench into our whole evening because then I don't have time to fix supper or if I do, it's late. I've had gym memberships before, and I love my walk every day, but I can't stand working out on a machine, so even if I could fork out the cash, I would be seriously dragging my feet.
So the question is, in reality, I've only been doing aerobic exercise, not strength training, for 8 months. Would it be the end of the world and really mess up my diet/fitness plan if I did 4 months of strength training with little or no aerobic exercise, especially considering the type of aerobic exercise I have been doing? Muscle burns more calories and makes it so you can do more, so in the long run I can see how it might be good. But I don't want to gain ten pounds just because I quit doing my daily walks. I've already been on a plateau for three months, I don't want to start gaining it all back.