If you do a lot of sitting, you could easily sit your way to an early grave.
This has been a recurring theme on this blog probably because I’m a work at home mom. Of course it’s impossible to do too much sitting if you have two kids under 2 years old in the house but I still manage to get my own quota in.
The truth is, work at home mom or not, if you have a job where you spend a lot of time sitting with little or no moving around, you are at high risk of dying early. A new study showed that “Those who spend 11 or more hours a day sitting are 40 percent more likely to die over the next three years regardless of how physically active they are otherwise.”
These statistics are serious. They mean that you can’t afford to dismiss this any longer. For those in nine to five jobs, you are probably wondering how you can break the cycle; how can you stand up a bit more while you’re working?
Well, there are several ways really.
Dr. Suzanne Steinbaum, director of Women and Heart Disease at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City and a spokesperson for the American Heart Association suggests that because many people must sit for long hours at their jobs, they should make sure a greater portion of their leisure time is spent standing, walking or engaging in other movement.
“Yes, you have to work, but when you go home it’s so important you don’t go back to sitting in front of the computer or television…After the 8-hour mark, the risks go up exponentially. It’s really about what you’re doing in your leisure time and making the decision to move.”
In other words, it is what you do after work that really determines how much at risk you are. What I do is I take a 15 minute walk every evening with my family.
What you can do at work is take short breaks. Go chill with a macanudo cigar or something. Seriously though, go for a short stroll around the office. Eat your lunch outside and make it a walk to where you will eat.
Sometimes, it’s the little lifestyle changes that go a long way to improving our health and quality of life.
If you’d like to, you can read more about the study here.
