8 reasons children should un-sit their lives

The more the sitting time, especially television watching time, the increased likelihood for children to have:

1. increased weight / Body Mass Index as active time is replaced by TV time and there is more opportunity to eat more calories and, as studies show, food of poor nutritional quality

2. decreased fitness 

3. lowered scores for self-esteem and pro-social behavior 

4. decreased academic achievement 

5. less healthy eating patterns that continue after TV watching  time as children’s eating preferences are influenced by ads for high calorie, poor nutrition foods and drinks and parents are pestered into buying them

6. poor biomarkers that in adulthood may significantly increase the risk of major chronic diseases particularly type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and breast and colon cancer

7. potential for foot problems for children with excessive weight

8. poor established sitting habits and TV watching/snacking habits that carry into adulthood.

Un-Sit Your Life http://tinyurl.com/un-sit-your-life

Is sitting hitting your bottom line?

Is sitting costing your business money? And, is it time to un-sit your business and preserve the bottom line?

On the one hand, sitting is the cost of doing business. In the workplace of the 1980s, office workers spent 70% of their time sitting. Today it’s 93%. On the other hand, there are real expenses related to the cost of employees sitting all day at work.

Increasing health care cost

Sitting on the job is related to weight gain, diabetes and cancer, as well as musculoskeletal discomfort, pain and problems. Health care costs linked to on-the-job sitting may not be immediately evident but over time, as the work force ages, costs increase.

• A significant portion of the increase in body weight by men and women in the US is attributed to sedentary jobs. A sedentary jobs means fewer calories are expended in the workplace, 100 fewer calories a day according to one study. The accumulated effects over the years closely match the weight gain for 40-50 year old men and women. Obesity is related to diabetes, heart disease and cancer.
• Jobs with the most sitting double the risk for diabetes (112%), double the risk for heart attack or stroke (147%) and increases risk of death linked to cardiac disease (90%). 

Prolonged periods of sitting are linked to 21% of breast cancers, 54% of lung cancers and 66% of uterine cancers. Sitting time is associated with 30% of colon cancers. Sitting on the job for 10 or more years doubles the risk of colon cancer and increases the risk of rectal cancer by 44%. It is implicated in increased risk of endometrial, ovarian, prostate, kidney, pancreas, and lower esophagus cancers.

• The typical office worker has more musculoskeletal problems than any other industry-sector worker, including construction, metal industry and transport workers. Addressing musculoskeletal problems is the number two medical expense for General Electric. Years of sitting impairs mobility and creates potential for injury while moving through the day and participating in sports, exercise or other activities. Later in life prolonged sitting creates potential for falls and lack of mobility.

Lessening the efforts of your company’s wellness program

Wellness programs encourage preventive efforts by employees. Yet the employees’ seated jobs and failure to address the impact counteract these efforts. For example, some wellness programs track abnormal metabolic biomarkers (blood pressure, cholesterol, triglycerides, glucose  and waist size). As sitting time increases so too does the risk for abnormal biomarkers. Abnormal biomarkers are lined to lifestyle conditions such as obesity, metabolic syndrome, diabetes and cardio-vascular disease.

Lost productivity and impaired cognition

• Sitting hour after hour is linked by research to reduced productivity.
• Moving=manufacture and transportation of food to the brain. Brain food (glucose) is created as postural muscles are used to stand and walk. Transportation of glucose through the blood stream is encouraged as postural muscles are used to stand and walk. Lack of movement interrupts the flow of food to the brain impairing cognitive abilities. A lifetime of sitting accelerates cognitive decline natural to aging as well as contributes to dementia and Alzheimer’s.

Absenteeism

Musculoskeletal problems are linked to absenteeism, lost productivity and health care costs. In the UK more working days were lost to musculoskeletal concerns such as back and neck pain than any other cause.

Bottomline

Un-sitting your business can rescue your bottom line from employee health-related expenses, absenteeism, and lost productivity. In addition un-sitting can bolster the proactive efforts of company wellness programs.

Un-Sit Your Life

Un-sit for Weight Loss

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 2 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 sitting habits, change the way your body works and change your life.

Un-Sit Your Life

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Why I left my comfy couch

Jeanene

It’s always good to hear from you. You always go to the heart of the matter and in such an entertaining way. We’ve answered your question below, what we do once we leave the comfort of the couch. 

But we’d like to address your unasked question: why leave my comfy couch? It really strikes at what’s important: motivation to get outside the comfy couch zone. So, here’s our stories.

Why I left my comfy couch (Barbara)

The short answer is: I’ve always been an active pursuer of good things for my health, following a good diet, exercising and doing reflexology. I want a good quality of life both now and in the future. I want to avoid all sorts of dread diseases. 

I read the studies about prolonged sitting. I was interested. I was concerned. I was alarmed. My interest, concern and alarm were both professional and personal. Here were these results (see below) and bad health things were happening because, from my professional perspective, people weren’t getting enough pressure applied to their feet as they sat too much.  I’ll skip the professional concern—people should know about this—and go straight to what motivates me personally because I think that’s what you’re really asking here.

In reaching the decision to leave my comfy couch, I realized I wasn’t covering all my bases in seeking good health. I discovered (1) sitting too much is related to risk for many dread diseases and (2) diet and exercise doesn’t overcome the negative impact of sitting. Once Kevin started losing weight (see below), I had the satisfaction of knowing I was on the right track to being the healthiest I could be. Ok, concern for physical appearance is there too. I’ve maintained my weight and sitting-too-much exercises are allowing me to reclaim my figure.

Sitting too much is linked to increased risk for: 

obesity, heart disease, stroke, heart attack, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, depression, cognitive decline, dementia, Alzheimer’s, erectile dysfunction, decrease in longevity, musculoskeletal pain, falls and walking stability in the elderly, infertility, low sperm count, cancer (breast (21%), colon (30%), lung (54%), uterine (66%) as well as implications for risk of endometrial, ovarian, and prostate cancers)

Leaving the comfy couch

Here’s what we done when we leave the comfy couch as taken from Un-sit Your Life.

Kevin’s Strategy

For Kevin un-sitting his life originally included a standing work station for some working hours and a standing station for use during the evening while watching television and using his IPad. He placed a reflexology mat underfoot at these times. Kevin was seldom standing still, preferring to shift from foot to foot. He usually stood on his mats for one and a half hours per evening. Since then he’s revised his program and is wearing a tracker to measure 12,000 or more steps a day. He takes a walk each morning, bounce-steps on a mini trampoline for 15 minutes after meals, and takes breaks from sitting every hour. Kevin prefers to use a timer to time his activities.

Barbara’s Strategy 

When Barbara’s sitting at the computer during the day, her feet are on a vibrating foot platform. She takes 2 minute breaks in sitting every 15 or 20 minutes, timed by the foot platform turning itself off. A two minute break is timed by noting 200 steps on the VivoFit. She walks on a reflexology mat for 15 minutes after meals timed by casually noticing the time on the clock. In the evening, the television may be on but while she’s walking on a reflexology mat after dinner and, when seated in a rocking chair, an electric foot roller or vibrating foot platform is underfoot. She’s usually reading and frequently applies hands-on foot and hand reflexology techniques. Two-minute breaks continue through the evening. Timing two hours more (of up and about activity) throughout the day is done by noting steps on the wearable fitness tracker. By the end of the day, she’s taken 12,000 to 14,000 steps measured on the tracker. To compensate for years of sitting, she follows hip flexor exercises.

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Un-Sit Your Life

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unsityourlife.com

Sitting kills: Chair dweller meet paleo metabolism

Sitting is a killer! And it’s because we are our paleolithic ancestors (physically anyway) living in a chair bound world.

There is a mismatch between what the body does all day and what it is intended to do. As a chair dwelling lifestyle meets a paleo metabolism, the result is a cascading series of events leading to weight gain and back pain as well as risk for stroke, heart attack, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, cancer and more.

The body is pre-programmed by paleolithic ancestry to be up and moving yet most of humankind lives and works in a chair bound world. What can be done to mitigate the effects of this sedentary lifestyle? Research by the Kunzes has discovered the answer.

Every footstep is a potential “nutrient” feeding the body the nourishment missed as one sits too much and too long. Move two hours more a day including breaks in sitting every 20 minutes. Un-sit and re-set are metabolism and muscles. Lessened is risk for the lifestyle conditions listed above. 

Sitting with a purpose and moving with a plan describes a new “diet” approach. Sitting, standing and walking used in appropriate amounts normalizes metabolism, keeps weight in check and makes muscles happy. It is possible to target specific lifestyle conditions by considering how much and how often to be up and about.  

A chair is a tool to be used wisely. Un-sit and save your life.

Un-Sit Your Life

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Why would two reflexology authors write a book about sitting too much?

Why would two reflexology authors write a book about sitting too much? And, how can it help you and your reflexology practice? 

We’ll begin at the beginning. For Barbara it started with a newspaper article noting how those who sit more, die earlier. Hmmm, she thought, those people are not getting enough pressure to the bottoms of their feet as they sit so much. For Kevin, who un-sat his life by getting rid of his desk chair by day and easy chair by evening, it started when he realized this new chair-less lifestyle caused him to lose weight—and it would become over the months 40 pounds and 4 inches off his waistline.

We were hooked both professionally and personally. For Barbara it became a quest for dosing—how much and how often one needed to move about to impact chronic degenerative conditions liked to sitting too much. This list includes: weight, stroke, heart attack, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, cognitive decline, dementia and more.

Kevin began telling his clients how our culture’s chair dweller lifestyle did not benefit our cave dweller metabolism. We are our paleo ancestors, inhabiting bodies designed over eons to be up and about moving most of the time. 

We saw a similar pattern to what we saw in reflexology: pressure to the bottoms of the feet caused a profound change in one’s well being. The reflex actions involved in moving are linked to metabolism and more. By using pressure to the feet as you stand and walk, you can take control of your body.

When we sit too much, move too little and do the same things over and over again, the reflex actions involved in moving us about don’t get the workout for which they were designed. Metabolic and other processes are not practiced adequately to maintain the operation of the body as it is meant to be. 

Un-Sit Your Life

PRWeb 

Weight loss solution: take breaks in sitting and expend more calories

Taking breaks in sitting at the office expends from 24 to 132 calories during an eight-hour day depending on how much of a break you take each hour: 

• a 1-minute break every half hour results in the expenditure of an additional 24 calories over an 8-hour time period 
• a 2-minute break every half hour results in 59 extra calories expended 
• a 5-minute break every half hour results in an 132 additional calories expended.

Take “commercial” breaks while watching television in the evening and expend more calories. If you stand up and step in place (or go to the kitchen) during commercials, you’ll be eating up 67 more calories an hour than if you had stayed seated.

Why would this be? It’s all about moving time and sitting time. There is a mismatch between what our bodies do all day and what they is intended to do. As a chair dwelling lifestyle meets a paleo metabolism, the result is a cascading series of events leading to weight gain.

Un-Sit Your Life

PRWeb Press Release

Weight Gain? Blame paleo metabolism + sitting too much

Does it seem like you gain weight despite your best efforts to diet and exercise? Time to blame your paleolithic metabolism and the sitting lifestyle common to the workplace and leisure time entertainment.

When we’re up and about as much as intended by our body’s paleo design, the mechanisms that keep weight in check are able to go about their work. Metabolism causes fats and sugar to be consumed instead of stored. Over-eating is reined in as the appetite control mechanism matches feelings of hunger with food needs.

These natural mechanisms go astray over a lifetime of sitting. Getting up and moving about the house or office not only consumes more calories but also re-sets / re-boots metabolic and appetite control mechanisms thrown off by sitting too much. 

It’s all about moving time and sitting time matching the body’s paleo needs. For those seeking to lose weight, the formula is moving two hours more a day and taking 2 minute breaks in sitting every 20 minutes. (If this sounds like a lot to fit into the day, consider, one hour of moving is accomplished as 2-minute breaks are taken over 10 hours.)  Researchers have found this does two things: re-sets metabolism and causes more calories to be expended. 

Two who lost weight when they found the right amount of moving time and sitting time are author Kevin Kunz and researcher Dr. Avi Patel. Both lost 40 pounds (and kept the weight off) by un-sitting their lives. Kevin got rid of his office chair, creating a standing desk as well as a standing station his IPad during the evening. Dr. Patel parked further from the office, walked 1/2 hour during lunch and walked more around the office.

Un-sit your life

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