Our ancient ancestors were always on the move. Their daily routines didn't involve sitting for prolonged periods of time.
The concept of the Paleo diet is that we haven't changed much genetically from our hunter and gatherer days, so we should eat what our ancient ancestors ate for optimum health. What to eat exactly for optimum health has been an active debate in the nutrition world. An extension of this Paleo concept is that we should also have an activity level similar to our ancient ancestors. That activity didn't involve sitting around for hours on end.
Over 50%of American men, and 60% of American women, never engage in any vigorous physical activity lasting more than 10 minutes per week. This is happening despite a growing body of research clearly showing that "exercise deficiency" threatens your overall health and mental well-being and shortens your lifespan.
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The irony is that even if you at the top of the other half of the population that exercises, you may still endanger your health simply by sitting too much.
In 2012, the findings from 18 studies were analyzed and the conclusion was that those who sat for the longest periods of time were twice as likely to have diabetes or heart disease, as compared to those who sat the least. Worse yet, it appears that vigorous exercise can't even compensate for the damage incurred by prolonged daily sitting!
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Engaging in virtually any physical movement throughout the day is critical for health and longevity. It even appears to be more important, in the grand picture, than a regularly scheduled fitness routine. Of course the ideal situation is to keep moving and have regular vigorous exercise.
Besides increasing your risk of metabolic problems, researchers warn that the combination of sitting too much and exercising too little can more than double the risk of heart failure in men, as reported by USA Today.
Government statistics show almost half of people report sitting more than six hours a day. 65% say they spend more than two hours a day watching TV. "If you've been sitting for an hour, you've been sitting too long," says James Levine, co-director of Obesity Solutions at Mayo Clinic in Phoenix and Arizona State University.
A reasonable goal is to get up four times every hour or every 15 minutes while you are sitting. Once you are engaged in a project, it is really difficult to remember to do this so an alarm might be helpful.
The XNote timer that can be downloaded for free http://www.softwaregeek.com/download/xnote_timer.html
Once you download the program you can go to the "More" section at the bottom of the program and click "Always On Top" so the application doesn't get buried on your computer. You should then click on "Timer" and set it to 15 minutes. You may then click "Start" and when the timer goes off there will not be an alarm sounded, but a flash will appear on your screen to remind you to stand up and move for a minute.
These "interruptions", even though they take time, can actually increase your overall focus and productivity, as well as reduce body aches too! You can just walk around for a minute, or do some brief more vigorous exercise.
If you are watching television, it is good idea to get up and do some exercise during the commercial breaks, which are more frequent than every 15 minutes.
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