Are you Living a Sedentary Lifestyle?
You may be surprised to read this, but there’s a chance you aren’t moving enough each day. There’s no doubt workouts are wonderful and can greatly improve one’s health. However, there’s more to embodying a healthy lifestyle than just working out.
One workout a day isn’t sufficient. What are you doing the rest of those hours outside of the gym or that workout? The moments and movement in between matters.
We aren’t meant to sit around all day. Majority of us go from sleeping to sitting in front of a computer for eight hours. If you still go into an office, add sitting in the car to and from work as well.
Our ancestors walked and walked. All. Day. Long. Our bodies and brains are still programmed for that type of movement.
Something to think about is your NEAT which stands for non-exercise activity thermogenesis. This is basically all movement excluding exercise, eating and sleeping. The calories you burn during non-exercise adds up to your NEAT.
According to a blog post from No Cheat Day Needed, one hour of exercise is only four percent of your day while your NEAT makes up 63 percent (if you sleep eight hours). This means that NEAT burns more calories. It stresses the importance of implementing more movement into your day.
Ensure that you are moving each hour. If you sit all day for work, start setting a reminder that goes off every hour to get up and move. This can be a lap around the office; walking to refill your water; going up and down the stairs; etc.
Ways you can implement more movement into your daily life:
Cleaning or tidying a space/room
Doing a load of laundry
Going for a walk
Taking the stairs instead of the elevator
Parking further away
Stretching after waking up and before going bed
Dancing
Pacing while on the phone
Walking during meetings
Playing with your kids
And much, much more
You’ve probably heard that you should reach 10,000 steps a day. That number doesn’t really mean much. In reality, the goal should be 7,000 steps where the actual benefit occurs.
From there, it levels off. It's such a slow, gradual increase of benefits leading to 10,000. There’s no real benefit at or over 10,000 steps.
Now, if you naturally hit 10,000 or more because of your job or going on runs or for whatever reason, that’s great. However, there's no sense in stressing, forcing or struggling to hit 10,000 steps a day if it’s not something you can easily accomplish. That only adds friction to your life.
The Here to Evolve podcast covers this topic of movement and steps beautifully in this episode starting at 18:30.
So, what should you do?
Think about your daily habits and routine. Where can you add some extra movement? Identify a moment (or even better, moments) in your day where you can make an addition(s).
Getting up to go to the bathroom? Do five squats. Waiting for dinner to be done? Dance around the kitchen. Missing a friend? Schedule a walk to catch up. Make it fun, easy and simple for you to achieve.