Can Improving Your Health Really Be This Simple?

What if I told you deciding to get up from your chair to walk over to the printer instead of rolling your chair over could actually help you live longer?

What if we let go of the idea that we have to hit the gym or get to a fitness class every day and instead focus on bringing movement into your everyday life. 

Why? Because movement is what matters most. 

Picture this...

I’m sitting in my office at my computer, typing away. I’m fully into what I’m working on and have totally lost track of time. The next thing I know, the lights turn out and I’m sitting in the dark. At first I think, did the power go out? And then, I realize that no, my computer is still on. In fact, I had been sitting so still for so long that the motion detector determined no one was in the room. Has this ever happened to you?

What I want you to think about when you’re sitting down is the fact you’re giving that same message to your body. You’re telling it, “Hey, no-one’s moving around. Go ahead and shut down.” When you’re sitting for hours without getting up, you’re telling your muscles that you don’t need them. They can go ahead and break down — and they will. What you don’t see is that this inactivity causes an internal chain reaction. When our muscles aren’t in use, they can’t initiate the signals our bodies are looking for — telling it to process the fats and sugars in our bodies. Instead, the build up throws our bodies out of whack. This is when we see an increase in risk for developing type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, as well as a number of other health concerns - and in fact just an overall increase risk for death from all causes. 

Lowering the number of hours that you’re sitting or not moving throughout the day will have a significant positive impact on your fitness and, therefore, your health. This is the kind of low-hanging fruit that doesn’t take any extra time or money to bring into your everyday life.

Speaking of fruit...

I found this visual helpful. I like to think of this as your body with excessive sitting and lack of movement over time. Just to be clear, we want our bodies to be most like one of the top two bananas pictured here! 

A visual of what happens to our bodies when we don’t move them!

#fitstyleyourlife

How can we avoid turning into the brown banana?

By moving throughout our day. The simple movement of getting up and sitting down multiple times a day allows our bodies to use muscles, work against gravity to strengthen our bones, and put us in better moods.

The simple activity of standing up 30 to 35 times a day (which is akin to a squat) is enough to maintain your health and prevent the decline of a sedentary life. (NASA, Vernikos).

According to Dr. Vernikos, former director of NASA’s Life Sciences Division and author of Sitting Kills, Moving Heals, “The key to lifelong health is more than just traditional gym exercise, three to five times a week. The answer is to rediscover a lifestyle of constant, natural low-intensity non-exercise movement that uses the gravity vector throughout the day.” 

Ok, but what does that mean? When you move, you increase the force of gravity on your body. Anti-gravity environments, like sitting in place for too long, speed up cellular deterioration….remember that brown banana?

Another study by University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus and Johnson & Johnson showed that “when workers in their study rose most often, they reported greater happiness, less fatigue and considerably less craving for food than on either of the other days. Their feelings of vigor also tended to increase throughout the day, while they often had plateaued by early afternoon after walking only once in the morning.”

“Once people are up and moving, they never go back,” says James Levine, M.D., Ph.D., professor of medicine at Mayo Clinic. “This is a fundamental shift in how we function, but health gets better with movement, productivity gets better, and people enjoy their jobs — and lives — more.” 

And isn’t that ultimately what we want - to have and enjoy life to the fullest!

Let’s get moving and fitstyle your life. 

Was this blog post helpful? Or have other questions about how to fitstyle your life? Leave me a comment below.