Sitting your way to disease

Just take a moment and calculate the amount of time you spend sitting in a day. How many hours of the 16 hours that you are awake are you sitting? Shocking right! The number can actually go up to 10 to 14 hours. So, our movement is restricted to about two to six hours a day! Now that’s something to seriously think about…

Doctors have actually coined a term – ‘Sitting Disease’. Sitting is surely and slowly killing us. We are not designed to sit. Our early ancestors were always on the move and with advent of television, computers and desk-jobs, we are becoming lazy bums.

This trend has fuelled obesity, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, blood pressure and more. The opposite of sitting is standing, of course. Did you know that standing has some of the benefits that walking has? It also increases concentration, focus and overall productivity. Read on for tips to reduce sitting time…

• Keep consciously moving every hour Either for a water break or a short stretch or a jog or a conversation with your colleague. Use your mobile alarm to remind you get up!
• Take your dog for walks – a dog is a great exercise machine!
• Keep your alarm far away from the bed
• Make your own meals – or at least one meal a day
• Get into household chores Clean your home, do the dishes, dry the clothes, do your own errands, wash your car, do some gardening
• Schedule a daily exercise routine
• Take the stairs and not the lift
• Walk to work, to the store or use the bus or the train.
• Park your car far from your destination
• Instead of going to coffee shops, schedule walking dates with your friends or have walking meetings!
• Adopt a hobby that makes you move Join the marathon or cycling clubs or a dance class or go swimming or get into gardening, painting!
• Walk while talking on the phone
• Go for long walks on the beach or park