Lose the Clutter, Lose the Weight (63 page)

10
Stationary Squats While Holding On to Your Desk

10
Knee Lift/Crunches While Sitting on Your Office Chair

10
Triceps Dips
(use a stationary chair, not a swiveling office chair)

10
Wall Pushups

In addition, while you're deciding whether to keep documents or toss them out, remain standing (or march in place) instead of sitting down.

Today you finished decluttering the place where you work hard to keep your household running. Now it's time to take on something completely different—the areas of your home where you enjoy your leisure time. While this week the tasks were intended to make your life easier, next week the idea is to adjust some rooms of your house so they give your life a healthy challenge.

Chapter 13

WEEK FIVE: YOUR LIVING AREAS (FAMILY ROOM, LIVING ROOM, DEN)

L
ately, news headlines have been proclaiming that “Sitting Is the New Smoking.” In the sense that they're both linked to a lot of health threats, and health experts are very concerned about both, then yes, sitting and smoking
do
have a lot in common.

Here's where they
aren't
alike: Smoking is much less widespread. More than 80 percent of American homeowners now refuse to allow smoking in their home. But sitting is far more acceptable. You can go do that anywhere. In fact, it's become the new national pastime.

And that's a problem.

No matter where we go, it's extremely easy for us to sit. In many places, we
have
to take a seat, like at work. A 2011 study found that today's workers are much less likely to do even moderate exertion at their jobs compared to how our parents and grandparents worked 50 years ago.

Back then, jobs that burned a lot of calories through manual labor were more common, like logging, manufacturing, and mining. Nowadays, most jobs either require workers to do just a little standing, lifting, and walking around, or to park themselves at a desk for 8 or more hours a day.

As a result, compared to workers in 1960, men now burn an average of 140 fewer calories each day at work, and women burn 124 fewer. That's the
equivalent of about two chocolate chip cookies a day or a Big Mac and a few fries every workweek.

After a long day of work, surveys show that many people just want to come home and sit some more.

Adults watch about 2 hours and 45 minutes of television every day, according to 2013 data from the US Department of Labor. That's the biggest single use of their time after sleeping and working. (The
fourth
most time-consuming activity of the day? Eating and drinking. That takes another hour or so, generally sitting down.) On average, people reported just 18 minutes a day of sports, exercise, and recreation.

In another poll from 2013, Americans reported their favorite leisure-time activities. For 42 percent, watching television topped their list. Watching TV is one of the most inactive, least calorie-burning things you can do aside from sleeping. A 185-pound person will burn a little
more
than 1 calorie a minute while watching TV and a little
less
than 1 calorie a minute sleeping.

A sizable 36 percent of adults reported doing
no
physical activity during their leisure time in 2008. None. If upward of one person out of three is refusing to get up and move around for the fun of it, please make sure
you're
not that one person.

All this sitting seems to be playing a very active role in the nation's poor health and fitness. Spending too much time on your backside may make you more likely to encounter:

Obesity.
Australian researchers found that adults who spent more time sitting had a higher body mass index and waist size. The same was true when they looked at TV habits. More watching equaled a bigger belly.

Another recent study followed a group of more than 158,000 older adults. Those who spent more time sitting down at the beginning of the study—or more time watching TV—had a bigger increase in their BMI over the next 9 years.

One reason why you may gain weight from sitting too long is because you're missing out on big stretches of the day when you could be burning the calories you've taken in that your body doesn't need.

Here's another reason: People tend to eat while they're sitting. But it's not just
any
food. When you're idly watching TV, you're more likely to be eating junk food rather than healthier alternatives. Eating salty, greasy snacks in
front of the TV may be a habit you've been developing for decades. You may not fully realize how many calories you're taking in during your TV time.

Serious diseases.
Each additional hour that women watch TV each day has been linked to a 26 percent higher chance of having metabolic syndrome. This is a collection of problems like high blood sugar, high blood pressure, and a big belly, which can make you more likely to develop diabetes and heart disease.

Too much sitting may also raise your risk of cancer. German researchers reviewed 43 earlier studies that looked at people's cancer risk in relation to the time they spent sitting. Those who passed the most time watching TV or sitting down had a higher risk of several cancers, including colon cancer and lung cancer.

An early death.
Another study followed more than 120,000 men and women for 14 years. All were healthy at the beginning. Those who sat for 6 hours or more daily were more likely to die than the participants who spent less than 3 hours seated. Even if those people who sat for 6-plus hours were physically active during other times of the day, they had a higher risk of dying.

Did you catch that last part? Even if you exercise every day, sitting around too much can still be harmful to your health and your waistline. Researchers noticed this while tracking a group of more than 4,000 Australian adults who exercised for the often-recommended 150 minutes per week. Even though they were physically active for 30 minutes on most days, as their time in front of the TV went up, so did their waist size and blood pressure. In women, more television time was also linked to potentially harmful changes in their cholesterol.

This is a lot of worrisome information—especially if you were expecting this chapter to just show you what to do with all those magazines piled up on your coffee table. I will get to that soon enough. But since this book is devoted to both improving your health and changing the way you use your home, we have to talk about what you're doing with the rooms you devote to leisure—namely, your living room, family room, den, home theater, or “man cave.”