Get Off Your Butt

Get off your butt!

It needs to be said.  Put your hands up, step away from the computer and get your rear in gear.

Okay, so chances are you are spending way more time at your computer than you should, and your health is sure to suffer for that.

Here are some fun facts, courtesy of the Mayo Clinic:

• Up to 70 percent of people spend 6 or more hours a day sitting.
• Up to 35 percent of people spend four or more hours a day watching TV. (I’m not sure about the accuracy of this one. Who has time to watch that much TV?)
• Research shows that the more sedentary you are, the more at risk you are for things like type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and certain cancers.

Sitting too much is actually being compared to smoking because the detriment to your health is just as bad – as a matter of fact, “sitting disease” is now a widely used term among the medical community.

Also, consider this: the more you sit, the more out of shape you get. Your muscles get weaker and your body gets lumpier. Before you know it, you’ll be the stereotypical “work from home” gal/guy sitting at their desk in just a T-shirt because your pants are too tight.

If we’ll look and feel better, why don’t we move more?

Entrepreneurs are workaholics. There’s a pressure to be always “on,” to never miss a customer or client. To be sure to catch any problems that arise before they get too big. So we spend 24/7 in front of one screen or another.

Then we start to burn out and finally decide to take some time for ourselves. What does that time look like? Sitting on the couch binge-watching Netflix! I love Netflix too. I get it. However, time watching Netflix is time spent sitting on your sweet cheeks. And once you’ve gotten to that point, you’re probably not wearing pants. (I’m not looking in your window. Your mail lady told me.)

The good news? The cure for sitting disease is simply not sitting. And there are many ways to do that.

Get your butt out of the chair. Set a timer on your phone to go off every 30 minutes or install an app to pop up on your screen to remind you. Move around for just 5 minutes. If you do that every half hour, you’ll squeeze a little more than an hour of movement into an average 8-hour day.

Do things that require you to move more. Park as far away from your destination as possible and walk farther. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Pace while you’re on the phone. If you must be at your desk for extended periods of time, get a standing desk, or even better, a treadmill desk.

Most importantly, unplug. Set a time to shut down your computer every evening, stick your phone in a drawer, and be finished for the day. Your body and mind both need that break to function at optimal performance no matter what type of shape you’re in.

In the case of sitting disease, small changes make big effects. And for crying in the soup, if your business is so consuming that you don’t have enough time for tiny exercise breaks, a virtual assistant can happily take some work off of your plate.  Your butt, health, and sanity will thank you.

As always, thanks for reading.

Until next time,

Angie