The Quarantine Social Media Weight Loss Challenge

Gaining weight during quarantine? Spending more time on social media? It’s time to combine the two for the social media weight loss challenge. The challenge: can you lose that weight you’ve gained during quarantine imposed inactivity by using your social media time to expend calories walking around your house or apartment?

It’s easy. Get up and get moving. Make sure you’ve got a clear path. Consider how steady you are on your feet. Keeping track of how long you’ve been moving or how many steps you’ve taken. Just over 15 minutes of walking is 2,000 steps or 100 calories expended.

Too hazardous to move and be occupied? Try the rocking chair solution. The rocking chair becomes your exercise equipment as you rock and text or scroll. It’s 150 calories expended per hour of rocking. 

Books by Kunz and Kunz

Research Books

Medical Applications of Reflexology: Findings in Research About Post-operative care, Maternity Care and Cancer Care
Evidenced Based Reflexology Research: For Health Professionals and Researchers
Medical applications of Reflexology:: Findings in Research about Cancer Care

Bestselling Books

 Reflexology: Hands-on Treatment for Vitality and Well-being
Complete Reflexology for Life: Your Definitive Photographic Reference to the Best Techniques and Treatments  
 

Intermittent Moving Books

Intermittent Moving: How I Lost My Pants and Mastered My Weight
Un-Sit Your Life: The Reflex "Diet" Solution

Intermittent Moving: The Stairs: Your New Found Quarantine Gym

By JFDBosMa - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=64813422

Quarantine shut down makes it impossible, difficult and/or unappetizing to go to the gym, take a walk or jog. There may be an exercise resource readily available to you: the stairs.

Really? Stairs? Yes. Use them to lose weight, as a quickie fitness tool and, as a special bonus, you’ll live longer.

To get an idea of the potential, visit https://www.stepjockey.com/health-benefits-of-stair-climbing

The British non-profit aims to make stair climbing a wellness tool for use in office buildings but the information has something for all of us to use:

“By raising our heart rate, stair climbing helps protect against high blood pressure, weight gain and clogged arteries. This lowers the risk of developing chronic conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, vascular dementia and even some cancers.

“Stair climbing also exercises our bones and muscles, improving strength, bone density and muscle tone. This is especially important for women in sedentary office jobs as they have a significantly higher osteoporosis risk than men.

“Incidental physical activities like stair climbing are also associated with improved mental health. They cause our bodies to release endorphins, the so-called feel-good hormones. They also provide time think and reflect - key factors in managing everyday stress and tensions.”

Stair climbing can be done in little bits throughout the day and you can track the calories you use. Seeking to lose weight, one enthusiast found she burned 481 calories in a week climbing up and down the 100 stairs to her fifth floor office three times a day. 

Keeping count of calories? 3.95 calories are expended per floor of stairs climbed. 

Books by Kunz and Kunz

Research Books

Medical Applications of Reflexology: Findings in Research About Post-operative care, Maternity Care and Cancer Care
Evidenced Based Reflexology Research: For Health Professionals and Researchers
Medical applications of Reflexology:: Findings in Research about Cancer Care

Bestselling Books

 Reflexology: Hands-on Treatment for Vitality and Well-being
Complete Reflexology for Life: Your Definitive Photographic Reference to the Best Techniques and Treatments  
 

Intermittent Moving Books

Intermittent Moving: How I Lost My Pants and Mastered My Weight
Un-Sit Your Life: The Reflex "Diet" Solution

 

“The book is wonderful”

“The book is wonderful” says Lulu who lost 20 pounds using the ideas inIntermittent Moving. With her previous attempts to lose weight, “I was under a lot of stress rushing from walking fast to cycling to swimming,” all while working full time, raising two teenage daughters and caring for elderly parents. And, she didn’t lose weight. Now, “I pace my walking, changed my diet and meditate. Ten pounds to go. My daughter lost weightin three weeksusing the book. My neighbor’s next. And, I want to re-read the book.”

The Feet: Weight loss devices

The Feet: Weight loss devices

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Ah, the feet. Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. Faster than a speeding bullet. 

Ok, so maybe that’s Superman’s feet. But for all of us the feet provide feats every day as they move us from place to place on the two pegs we call legs.

However, there’s an even more interesting use for our feet: their contribution to losing weight.

At least that’s what reflexology author Kevin Kunz and many others have found. Using his feet and taking more steps than usual every day led to weight loss as he discovered when his pants unexpectedly fell off in the driveway. He was taking more steps for health benefits, eating and exercising as usual when the unusual (for him) happened—weight loss. He had previously tried all sorts of diets and weight loss regimens to no avail. 

Actor John Goodman had a similar experience. He lost 100 pounds over a year dieting and exercising—and taking 10,000 steps a day. Professional artist Edward lost 23 pounds when he started placed his easel on a sit-stand device that allowed him to work from a seated or standing position. One stay-at-home mom lost 4 1/2 pounds her first month taking 15,000 steps a day.

Why feet help us lose weight

Why would using our feet to take steps everyday contribute to managing our weight? Sure there’s calories expended but it’s also about helping our metabolisms work better. You see, our metabolisms go to work when we stand up and shut down as we sit for a long time. Stand up for 90 seconds and your metabolism resets. Sit for an hour and your metabolism shuts down. Take advantage of these facts to lose weight.

Use intermittent moving, a pattern of moving frequently enough to control your weight and waistline, to take full advantage of how the metabolism works. Take steps and you create the benefit of a better working metabolism.

How to do it

Your feet can help you lose weight. Just use them to stand up and move. Best practice: 10,000 steps a day; 15 minutes of walking after each meal; breaks from sitting of 2 minutes every 30 minutes or at a minimum every hour. Want to lose more? Do more.

Get up and walk as you check social media or talk on the phone. Time yourself or use your step counter as you walk & check social media. How many steps can you take? How many calories can you burn? (Every 15 minutes=2,000 steps or 100 calories)

For more ideas about controlling your weight, see Intermittent Moving, How I lost my pants and mastered weight control, Move More • Sit Less • Master Your Weight. https://amzn.to/33AdwA8

The Secret to Weight Loss: It’s about time

The Secret to Weight Loss: It’s about time

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There is interval training, intermittent fasting and now intermittent moving or random acts of movement during the day. It is all about timing. 

Interval training alternates between high intensity movement with low intensity movement timing it to most effectively impact your metabolism. Intermittent fasting times the consumption of food to most effectively burn calories. Intermittent moving harnesses the timing of our casual movement to most effectively consume calories. 

All three requires a conscious effort to time exercise, eating and movement to spur our bodies to maintain our proper weight. 

Intermittent moving, planning small amounts of moving throughout the day, helps you accomplish this as you: spend more calories, reset your metabolism, control your appetite and reduce food cravings.

Small amounts of moving throughout the day take place as you take breaks from sitting, taking a fifteen minute walk after eating a meal and accumulate 10,000 steps a day. 

Take breaks from sitting on a schedule. This will impact your metabolism. Wish you could boost your metabolism and burn calories at a higher rate? A five minute break from sitting every hour helps reset your metabolism. Want to supersize that order? It turns out your metabolism slows down by 90% with 30 minutes of sitting. Rev it up with a 2 minute break every 30 minutes. Use your Smartphone as your timer.

Take breaks from sitting at work. Burn up calories. The two minute break after 30 minutes of sitting leads to such a goal. Over an eight-hour work day, 59 additional calories are expended as a result. Once again, want to supersize? A 132 calorie expenditure results taking five minute breaks even 30 minutes.

Not that many calories you might think but consider: one study showed Americans’ average weight gain over the years resulted from expending 100 fewer calories each day while on the job.

Take breaks from sitting at home as commercials play on television. Burn up calories. It’s easy. The commercials do the timing for you. When a commercial comes on, stand up and start walking. Step in place, walk around the room or walk to the kitchen for a glass of water. In one hour, you’ll have eaten up 148 calories. That’s 70 more than if you were just sitting there. Just so you know what to expect: there are 16 to 24 minutes of television commercials shown in one hour.

Less craving for food is another benefit of those breaks from sitting at work. Five minute breaks each hour have been shown to result in considerably less craving for food.

Take a fifteen minute walk after each meal. Take a walk around the house as you watch television; a walk around the workplace after lunch or move outside for your walk. Parts of your metabolism will improve as well as your meal will digest quicker. 

For more ideas about incorporating more moving and less sitting into your life, see Intermittent Moving, How I lost my pants and mastered weight control, Move More • Sit Less • Master Your Weight. https://amzn.to/33AdwA8

Appetite Out of Control? Intermittent moving to the rescue

Appetite Out of Control? Intermittent moving to the rescue 

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Is your appetite out of control leading you to eat and eat and gain weight and then gain more weight? Do you eat everything that’s in front of you with no stopping? 

There is an answer: intermittent moving, leaving your chair behind and moving in small intervals throughout your day. That’s right. Getting up and moving can help bring an end to the never-ending nosh.

The good news? Every step you take adjusts your appetite for the better. Actually it’s our legs doing it. Who knew? As we stand and when we walk, cells in the long bones of our legs help manage our appetites for reasons undetermined as yet by science. Just think about that: every step you take improves your appetite.

This is why the couch potato in all of us can pile on those pounds. Sitting there on the couch or comfy chair means our legs aren’t up and moving, sending out the message to adjust our appetites.

For more ideas about controlling your weight, see Intermittent Moving, How I lost my pants and mastered weight control, Move More • Sit Less • Master Your Weight. https://amzn.to/33AdwA8

Take 10,000 steps a day the easy way with a weight loss bonus

Take 10,000 steps a day the easy way with a weight loss bonus

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Looking to lose weight as you take 10,000 steps a day? But do you find it tough to take the 10,000 steps a day? Not so if you break your steps into intermittent moving, little chunks of moving time throughout the day. 

Not only that but, just as interval training helps take best advantage of time spent exercising, intermittent moving helps you take best advantage of those 10,000 steps to lose weight.

Enhance the weight loss effectiveness of those steps by timing them throughout the day. Timing those steps contributes to weight loss as intermittent moving helps reset your metabolism and appetite.  

First, consider taking breaks from sitting throughout the day and into the evening. This helps reset your metabolism which shuts down as you sit. A minute of walking is about 100 steps and adds up to 3,200 steps (2 minute breaks every 30 minutes over an 8 hour work day) or 4,800 steps if you take breaks into your evening.. 

Next, take a 15 minute walk after each of 3 meals you eat during the day. This helps adjust parts of your metabolism. A fifteen minute walk is about 1,500 steps. Taken three times a day, you’ll accumulate 4,500 steps. 

There. You will have taken 7,700 steps or 9,300 steps for the day depending on breaks from sitting.

Then there’s the social media challenge. Get up and walk as you check social media. Time yourself or use your step counter as you walk & check social media. How many steps can you take? How many calories can you burn? (Every 15 minutes=2,000 steps or 100 calories)

With such a strategy of intermittent moving not only do you get closer to 10,000 steps for the day but you also get the benefit of weight loss helpers: calories expended, metabolism re-set and appetite adjusted for the better. 

For more ideas about controlling your weight, see Intermittent Moving, How I lost my pants and mastered weight control, Move More • Sit Less • Master Your Weight. https://amzn.to/33AdwA8

The Secret to Calorie Counting: Lose weight by counting the calories in what you do

The Secret to Calorie Counting: Lose weight by counting the calories in what you do

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We’ve all counted the calories in what we eat with an eye toward losing weight. But have you ever considered counting the calories in what you do everyday to reach a weight loss goal? 

Intermittent moving, moving in small amounts throughout the day, makes it easy to do this.

First, keep track of how much you walk. If you’re counting steps with a step tracker, you can keep track of calories burned. With every 2,000 steps taken, approximately a mile, you burn 100 calories.

Taking breaks from sitting is another example. Two-minute breaks every 30 minutes through out the work day result in 59 additional calories expended. Want to supersize? A 132 calorie expenditure results from taking five minute breaks even 30 minutes.

Not that many calories you might think but consider: one study showed Americans’ average weight gain over the years resulted from expending 100 fewer calories each day while on the job.

Then there’s stair climbing. It can be done in little bits throughout the day and you can track the calories you use. Seeking to lose weight, one enthusiast found she burned 481 calories in a week climbing up and down the 100 stairs to her fifth floor office three times a day.

There’s also smart sitting. Rocking in a rocking chair burns twice the calories of sitting still. That’s 150 calories in an hour as opposed to the 75 calories just sitting there.

For more ideas about controlling your weight, see Intermittent Moving, How I lost my pants and mastered weight control, Move More • Sit Less • Master Your Weight. https://amzn.to/33AdwA8

Climbing Stairs: Intermittent Moving Weight Loss Strategy

Climbing Stairs: Intermittent Moving Weight Loss Strategy

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Weight loss strategies come in all varieties. There are many ways to lose weight by adding intermittent moving, small amounts of moving throughout the day. But some find a good thing and stay with it.

Take, for example, the stair-climbing, intermittent moving weight loss strategy created by Holly, a 24 year-old London marketing assistant who lost 13 pounds.

For Holly dieting attempts had not worked but a desire to shape up for her pending wedding drew her interest to a group in her workplace. Members of the group took stairs instead of the elevator when possible. In addition, they spent part of their lunch hours doing mini-workouts on the stairs.

“ ‘Stair climbing proved to be an easy exercise to lose weight, it fitted in with my day, didn’t feel like exercise and I didn't feel at all self-conscious. I downloaded the StepJockey tracker App and by climbing up and down the 100 stairs to my fifth floor office three times a day, I was burning 481.8 calories a week! It wasn’t long before I was looking for more stairs to climb. I started climbing the stairs rather than taking the escalator at either end of my commute and clocked up an extra 814 steps a week (and escaped the overcrowded lifts).

“ ‘I burnt an extra 195 calories a day by just climbing the stairs. Overall this added up to 44,905 calories over the year, which is the equivalent to 22 days of food or 4.99kg of fat. I was amazed by the results, my BMI dropped and I went from being overweight to a healthy weight. Better still, I had an amazing wedding day!”

For more ideas about controlling your weight, see Intermittent Moving, How I lost my pants and mastered weight control, Move More • Sit Less • Master Your Weight. https://amzn.to/33AdwA8

Why some people never gain weight—how it can help you

Why some people never gain weight—how it can help you

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We’ve all known them, the people who seem to eat anything they want and never gain weight. Why would this be? And how can it help you?

Some people just move more. It turns out, as discovered by research, that this describes lean people. Heavier people move less.

And why would this be? This may happen because of heredity. The idea is that lean people are prompted by their bodies to get up and move more often than heavier people. 

As noted by the researchers, “What it (the results of the research) means is that the brains of people with a tendency towards obesity don’t respond to signals from their muscles or brains that tell them to move. And the more they sit, the fewer signals there are (prompting more sitting).”

For those of us with a tendency to sit, there is an answer. 

Move more often. Keep it up for 21 days and your brain will change, helping your body to remind your muscles to get up and move. 

Aim at five minute breaks from sitting each hour. Use a fitness tracker to keep track of how many steps you take and build to 10,000 steps a day.

For more ideas about controlling your weight, see Intermittent Moving, How I lost my pants and mastered weight control, Move More • Sit Less • Master Your Weight. https://amzn.to/33AdwA8

Sprain an Ankle, Battle Weight Gain

Sprain an Ankle, Battle Weight Gain

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Is a sprained ankle more than a sprained ankle? Does it impact your weight, potentially for life?

Sure, we can see possible weight gain as recovery and “resting” the injured ankle means sitting around for weeks and even months. But what about after the ankle is good to go? 

Research has bad news for those of us who have had the experience of a bad ankle sprain. The effects of a single ankle sprain can alter how well and how often we will move for the rest of our lives. The effect of such changed movement can translate into taking 2,000 fewer steps a day. 

It doesn’t sound like much but taking 2,000 fewer steps a day translates into 100 fewer calories expended. One hundred fewer calories expended a day is seen by another study to have resulted in Americans’ weight gain since 1970. Fewer calories have been expended as Americans increasingly work at jobs requiring them to sit throughout the day.  

Then there’s the impact on metabolism and appetite control of moving less. As if that’s not enough, sitting more increases risk for “lifestyle” concerns such as stroke, heart disease, diabetes, obesity, Alzheimer’s, lessened life span and more.

For more ideas about controlling your weight, see Intermittent Moving, How I lost my pants and mastered weight control, Move More • Sit Less • Master Your Weight. https://amzn.to/33AdwA8

Appetite out of control? What you can do about it

Appetite out of control? What you can do about it

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Always hungry? Can’t stop eating? Gaining weight as a result?

What can you do about it? Intermittent moving is the answer.

Our bodies have the natural ability to control our appetites, matching how much we eat with how much we need to eat. 

So why doesn’t it seem to be working right for many of us?

These appetite controls need to be told to go to work. That happens as we get up and move. Move enough and appetite controls set themselves. Sit too much and and appetite controls don’t go to work.

What are these natural appetite controls? 

• An appetite control in the brain takes measurements as blood that circulates through it. What’s measured? Indicators of how much our muscles are moving, gauges of the amount of fats and sugar providing the energy that fuels moving muscles. 

• Cells in the long bones of the legs send messages about how much weight they’re bearing. The weight they feel as we stand are a part of the body’s calculation of how much we weigh and if it has changed. Our bodies somehow (as yet unknown to science) use such information to make alterations in our appetites and eating patterns.

How can you use this to get your appetite under control? First imagine: as we sit no messages are sent about muscles moving or leg bones holding us up.

Get up and take some steps. Now imagine your legs, muscles, blood stream and brain working together to move you forward and make decisions about your appetite, how much you need to eat.

Finally, there’s the matter of taking enough steps today and tomorrow and every day to re-set your appetite controls. How many? Research estimates two hours more a day of moving than you do currently. If you can do it for 21 days your brain will change,  helping your body to remind your muscles to get up and move.

For more ideas about controlling your weight, see Intermittent Moving, How I lost my pants and mastered weight control, Move More • Sit Less • Master Your Weight. https://amzn.to/33AdwA8

Master Your Weight: My intermittent moving success story

Master Your Weight: My intermittent moving success story 

https://amzn.to/33AdwA8

I (Kevin) felt like I would never change. I was stuck with the weight I was. I was stuck with the waistline I had.

I lost four inches off my waistline and just over 40 pounds in a year. Almost four years later, it’s still gone and so is 10 more pounds and 4 more inches. I didn’t change my eating habits. I didn’t exercise more. After all, neither had helped before. It even seemed like dieting was counter-productive. Whatever I lost, I’d gain back and then some.

What happened to change my life? I became interested in my wife’s research about the health perils of prolonged sitting. In response, I un-sat my life. I created a standing desk for work hours and a standing platform to hold my IPad during the evening. Underfoot as I stood were mats with raised surfaces— reflexology mats.

As time passed, the unexpected happened. My pants were looser. One day they slipped off—as I was standing in my driveway (apologies to my neighbors). My diet and exercise habits hadn’t changed—un-sitting was having a profound effect on my weight and waistline. I wanted to do more and I did.

Most curious, I felt like I was shaping up—from the inside out. Not only is my waistline reduced, it’s firmed up. I’m seeing abdominal muscles instead of flab. It’s magic to someone who had tried almost everything to no effect. Then there’s the reduction in my appetite. It once was I had food in front of me and I’d eat it with no stopping. Now I actually feel full and stop eating

Every time I tell this story to someone who, like me, has struggled to lose weight, it strikes a cord and I hear: That’s the way I feel. I’ve tried everything—I even flunked out of Jenny Craig.

Then I tell them about what sitting too much does to the body, how our bodies are not designed for it and how it dis-regulates the metabolism of the body — among other things. And, it suddenly makes sense to them—why their efforts to keep weight off are doomed to failure.

Change your moving habits, change the way your body works and change your life.

For more ideas about controlling your weight, see Intermittent Moving, How I lost my pants and mastered weight control, Move More • Sit Less • Master Your Weight. https://amzn.to/33AdwA8

Exercise “snacking”

Exercise “snacking”

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Don’t have much time in your day to exercise? Do you have 20 seconds? You might consider exercise “snacking,” defined by researchers as going up three flights of stairs (60 steps) as fast as you can one step at a time holding onto the hand rail. Done in the morning, at lunch and again later in the day over six weeks it has been shown to increase aerobic fitness by 5%. 

Want to supersize? Do the three fast trips up the stairs with a few minutes rest between dashes, a total of about 10 minutes effort, and you’ll increase your aerobic fitness by 12% after 6 weeks. (Reynolds, Gretchen, “Even a 20-Second Exercise ‘Snack’ can Improve Fitness, As little as 20 seconds of brisk stair climbing, done several time a day, might be enough to increase aerobic fitness,” New York Times, January 23, 2019)

For more ideas about controlling your weight, see Intermittent Moving, How I lost my pants and mastered weight control, Move More • Sit Less • Master Your Weight. https://amzn.to/33AdwA8

Active Sitting: Don’t just sit there, lose weight

Active Sitting: Don’t just sit there, lose weight

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Don’t just sit there: lose weight. What? Yes, it’s true. Sitting actively, doing something while sitting, can lead to weight loss. 

Stories of success include the Amazon product reviewer who reported losing 15 pounds in a month using an under foot exercycle at home while watching television. There are reports of racking up steps on Fit Bits (step counter placed in sock).

How to Sit Actively 

Active sitting choices include: fidgeting, rocking in a rocking chair, using an under foot / under-the-desk device (exercycle, elliptical, pendulum, hammock).

Fidgeting

Cost: No cost. What it is (when seated): Small movements of the hands or feet. Think finger or foot tapping, toe wriggling, leg bouncing, leg swings, chair wiggling. Researched findings: Fidgeters live longer (30% longer than those who sit still), burn more calories (118 calories/hour versus 80 calories while sitting still) and have better blood flow and by extension better heart health (Research: tapping one foot for one minute out of every five minutes). 

Rocking in a rocking chair

Cost: Rocking chair cost varies. Researched results: Burn more calories than when sitting still (150 calories/hour versus 80), send more blood to brain, improve balance/mobility/walking abilities, reduce pain, normalizes blood pressure; increase circulation; provides mild form of exercise; relaxes; relieves anxiety, tension and depression; improves vertigo symptoms; speeds recovery from surgery.

Using a seated / under-the-desk machine

• Under-the-desk Exercycle
  Cost: $169-$31. Reported results: aerobic workout, burn calories. Weight loss (Reported by user of DeskCycle 2 Under Desk Exercise Bike and Pedal Exerciser)
• Elliptical device
  Cost: $349-$84. Reported results: aerobic workout while working or gaming, build leg strength and stamina,  relieve stress, burn calories. Weight loss and stress relief (Cubii Jr. - Seated Under-Desk Elliptical)
• Desk leg swing
  Cost: $59. Researched results: increase circulation, weight loss/burn 20% more calories than sitting still and improve productivity. Reported results: rack up steps on FitBit)
  
  Be a smart consumer
  Thoroughly consider and read reviews before you take the plunge to buy any product. Consider: price, will it fit under your desk and/or make too much noise in a workplace, whether or not you will use the device, whether it will meet your goals and capabilities.

For more ideas about controlling your weight, see Intermittent Moving, How I lost my pants and mastered weight control, Move More • Sit Less • Master Your Weight. https://amzn.to/33AdwA8

10 How-to Tips to Lose Weight with Intermittent Moving

10 How-to Tips to Lose Weight with Intermittent Moving

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Plan to succeed, losing weight and losing waistline using intermittent moving to move more, move often. Here are how-to tips:

1. Quit being so efficient. Add steps to your day. Stay at home mom Holly lost 4 1/2 pounds her first month by taking extra steps, including walking down every aisle of the grocery store and making multiple trips when doing laundry. 
2. Take the stairs. Make it a habit; make it a weight loss goal. Bride-to-be Holly joined a lunch-time stair climbing group at her office and then did more. She lost 13 pounds to meet her wedding day goal while expending 481.8 calories a week climbing stairs.
3. Take breaks from sitting. A 5 minute break every half hour throughout the work day results in 132 calories expended. Keep it up at home in the evening to use more calories. 
4. Time your efforts. Set the timer on your phone to remind you to take breaks. Place the phone on the other side of the room so you have to get up to turn off the timer. Walk around from there.
5. Rock on! Rocking in a rocking chair expends twice the calories as quiet sitting. (150 per hour versus 80 per hour)
6. Sit actively. Don’t just sit there—do something. Any kind of fidgeting (foot tapping, leg swinging, hand movement) expends more calories.
7. Don’t sit through television commercials—get up and walk. You’ll expend twice the calories and take 2,000 steps during the 16 to 24 minutes of television commercials in one hour. 
8. Get up and move when you’re talking on the phone or checking social media. Think about it: hours a day on the phone translates into hours a day of lost opportunity to move and expend twice the calories of sitting. 
9. Use a standing desk. Researchers say it’s a chance to burn 350 extra calories a day at work. One writer lost 15 pounds in 6 months using one.
10. Use a sit-stand desk at work. Artist William lost 23 pounds when he placed his easel on a sit-stand device. He now stands to paint some of the time and sits some of the time.

For more ideas about incorporating more moving and less sitting into your life, see Intermittent Moving, How I lost my pants and mastered weight control, Move More • Sit Less • Master Your Weight. https://amzn.to/33AdwA8

One Stair Step Climbed = 4 Seconds More of Life

One Stair Step Climbed = 4 Seconds More of Life

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Each stair step climbed adds 4 seconds to how long you live. Over a life time it can add up to 2 1/2 years. 

Really? Who says so? Two Harvard MDs did the calculating.

Research shows expending 2,000 extra calories a week extends your life. That’s right, when you spend calories doing moderate exercise (walking, playing sports or stair climbing), you’ll live 2 1/2 years longer than a sedentary person. 

The Harvard MDs calculated how long would it take to spend those 2,000 calories by climbing stairs. Their discovery: Forty-one minutes average time was required over a 6-day work week. (2,000 calories are expended when climbing 228 flights of stairs, 22 steps per flight). 

(For those interested in the final calculations: “101.6 days spent climbing stairs to gain the 916.2 extra days of longevity. That’s a net gain of 814.6 days or 13,034 waking hours or 782,040 minutes. This gain requires climbing 228 flights a week, 52 weeks a year, for 45 years. That’s 533,520 stories. Dividing minutes gained by stories climbed works out to 1.47 minutes of waking life gained for each story climbed. At 22 stairs per story, each step increases waking life by about four seconds.”)

There you have it: each step climbed is worth a 4-second addition to your life. While the two doctors admitted to “tongue-in-cheek calculations,” it’s worth considering: every step we take has consequences of a positive kind.

How do you add an extra 2,000 calories a week taking steps? Taking 2,000 steps burns approximately 100 calories. The average American takes 5,000 steps a day. If you take an additional 6,000 steps a day (approximately 11,000 total a day, 40,000 a week), you will expend an extra 2,000 calories in a week.

(Study: Haney, Daniel Q., “Each Stair Climbed Increases Life by 4 Seconds,” Associated Press, August 6, 1986; https://apnews.com/47f84bf2c83a1bb2b4452462fad79036)

For more ideas about incorporating more moving and less sitting into your life, see Intermittent Moving, How I lost my pants and mastered weight control, Move More • Sit Less • Master Your Weight. https://amzn.to/33AdwA8

Activate your anti-obesity system: Stand up!

Activate your anti-obesity system: Stand up!

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Did you stand up? You’ve done it! You’ve launched your anti-obesity system! 

What’s going on? According to researchers, standing is related to anti-obesity while spending too much time sitting is related to obesity. 

Why would this be? Researchers found that an appetite control device is activated when we stand. That’s right, cells in the leg bones adjust our appetites — but only as we stand or move. 

As we stand or move the cells act as “body (weight) scales,” sensing our body’s weight and sending the message to our internal appetite controls. Hmmm, you may be thinking, my body scale is not doing its job considering my weight problem. The key here is that when we sit too much, the system isn’t put into action. Too much sitting means such signals are not send out with weight gain as a result.

For more ideas about incorporating more moving and less sitting into your life, see Intermittent Moving, How I lost my pants and mastered weight control, Move More • Sit Less • Master Your Weight. https://amzn.to/33AdwA8

How to Re-boot the Healthcare System

How to Re-boot the Healthcare System 

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It’s boots on the ground to re-boot the healthcare system, America. 

If we all get up and move more, we can re-boot the system and save health care costs.

The World Health Organization says a sedentary lifestyle is one of the 10 leading causes of death and disability. It accounts for 300,000 premature deaths each year in the United States alone. These deaths are mainly from cardiovascular disease.

America has 5% of the world’s population yet pays 40% of the world’s costs for inactivity, $117 billion/year in health care costs. Inactivity increases risks for: obesity, coronary heart disease, diabetes, Alzheimer’s and dementia. Approximately 60% of all Americans age 18 and older report that they are physically inactive.

Here’s a breakdown of costs:

Alzheimer’s costs $277 billion/year: An estimated 39% of risk for Alzheimer’s is related to inactivity.

Cancer costs $158 billion (2020): More than 90,000 (of 1.7 million) new cancer cases a year in the United States may be due to physical inactivity and prolonged periods of sitting. 

Coronary heart disease costs $200 billion/year: Approximately 35% of coronary heart disease deaths (the leading cause of death in the United States with over 700,000 deaths annually) are due to physical inactivity.

Diabetes costs $327 billion/year: Inactivity doubles the risk for diabetes

Obesity costs   $147 billion/year: inactivity doubles the risk for obesity

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Rocking Chair Therapy

 Rocking Chair Therapy

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Pull up a rocking chair, have a seat and rock your way to feeling good and being healthier. The rocking motion soothes and improves all ages.

For infants being rocked the rhythmic motion also provides stimulation to the vestibular apparatus of the ears, the balance center, promoting the baby’s ability to be alert and attentive as well as helping with the development of balance mechanisms. So crucial is this stimulations that a charity, the Rocking Chair Project, has been created to provide disadvantaged mothers with rocking chairs for to aid development during the crucial early months of an infant’s life.

The comforting motion of a rocking chair helps calm ADHD children. They are able to move as they read, listen and learn which seems to improve concentration and focus. The net result is a calmer child who retains more. Rocking chair use for children in general is growing at schools, child care centers and homes.

Quality of life was improved when individuals with dementia rocked. Anxiety, depression, and pain medication decreased for residents of a dementia facility rocked. Averaging 101 minutes throughout the day, those who rocked the most, benefited the most. 

Fifteen minutes of rocking twice a day helps improve balance and walking abilities for seniors. Rocking also helps a problem common to seniors, vertigo or dizziness.

For more ideas about incorporating more moving and less sitting into your life, see Intermittent Moving, How I lost my pants and mastered weight control, Move More • Sit Less • Master Your Weight. https://amzn.to/33AdwA8

A Diet of Movement

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A Diet of Movement

A diet of movement? I know what you’re thinking: diets are about eating food. However, when you think about it, diets are about losing weight (or trying to). 

Intermittent moving is moving harnessed for a purpose, helping one of lose weight, trim waistline, reset metabolism and gain control over appetite.

When we move, helps our metabolisms work better. You see, our metabolisms go to work when we stand up and shut down as we sit for a long time. Stand up for 90 seconds and your metabolism resets. Sit for an hour and your metabolism shuts down. Take advantage of these facts to lose weight.

Intermittent moving is a pattern of moving frequently enough to control your weight and waistline, to get the most out of them and take full advantage of how the metabolism works.

How to do it

Best practice: take 10,000 steps a day; walk 15 minutes after each meal; take breaks from sitting of 2 minutes every 30 minutes or at a minimum every hour. Want to lose more? Do more.

Get up and walk as you check social media or talk on the phone. Time yourself or use your step counter as you walk & check social media. How many steps can you take? How many calories can you burn? (Every 15 minutes=2,000 steps or 100 calories)

For more ideas about incorporating more moving and less sitting into your life, see Intermittent Moving, How I lost my pants and mastered weight control, Move More • Sit Less • Master Your Weight. https://amzn.to/33AdwA8