Extended Sitting In Office Unhealthy Even For Healthy People

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Common wisdom is that sitting for extended periods of time in your office isn't the greatest thing to do to your body -- though the temptation is there to do so, in order to get work assignments done (or out of sheer boredom, or some combo of both). Another bit of common wisdom has been: well, if you go to the gym every day and stay physically active in your non-work hours, it will all balance out.

WRONG.

According to new medical research, long-term sitting at your 9 to 5 damages your health regardless of what physical exercise you fit in during the rest of the day. If you're a gym rat but are still putting in hours sitting at your desk, you are still unhealthy. As reported in The New York Times:

Wil Wheaton Opens Up On Depression

Wil Wheaton image from Wikipedia

"I haven’t ever talked about this in public, but today’s a good day to start."

Inspired by a post on suicide by Jenny Lawson,  actor and blogger Wil Wheaton opened up on his own thoughts about -- and experiences with -- depression. What followed was a frank and inspirational snapshot of his own struggles and triumphs:

5 Reasons To Wake Up Early

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I've made it a habit to get up earlier nowadays, around 5:30 in the morning. Doing so, I'm following in the footsteps of what apparently a number of successful people have done and do every day; this post from Business Insider lists 23 such individuals, including Disney CEO Bob Iger (4:30), Benjamin Franklin (5:00) and Brooklyn Industries CEO Lexy Funk (4:00).

It might seem hard to get up earlier -- but I've found no great feeling of "sleep deprivation" by doing so. Which is to say, I don't really "miss" the extra hour or two of sleep I don't get.

Here are five reasons waking up early can be to your advantage:

Getting "Clean" And Kicking The Toxins Out Once And For All

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Over the past several years, I found myself settling back into a routine I thought I had left behind: eating poorly, relying caffeine and sugar as my "fuel" for the daily work grind, and kicking back at night with alcoholic beverages. My daily "ritual" didn't seem to be that much different than that of large sections of my peer group: it was all "normal" ways to stay productive, unwind, and generally "enjoy life."

My body was crap. It felt like crap.

Two months ago, I decided to attend a free "wellness" evaluation at my place of work. Blood test, body mass index, weighing, blood pressure, etc. And what the registered nurse told me shocked me. No, actually it didn't shock me at all. But it was bad:

Learn When To Sway: Lessons Learned From Hurricane Sandy

World turned upside-down, roots coming to light

I haven't updated this blog in a good long while...so long, in fact, that I was actually embarrassed to go back to it. Like a cat who trips or accidentally walks into a wall, then acts like it meant to do it. "Oh, I had started this thing, but then it dropped off the map like so many things do..."

Traffic Noise May Be Dangerous To Your Health

image by Oran Viriyincy on Flickr

These research findings were particularly interesting to me, in that I find traffic noise -- especially that of the subway trains I take twice daily for almost an hour a pop -- very draining and stressful!

A Danish study has concluded that being exposed to traffic noise may increase the risk of heart attack by 10 percent per 10-decibel noise increase. 57,053 Copenhagen and Aarhus residents between the ages of 50 to 64 were surveyed over a ten-year period, and researchers kept track of their exposure to car and truck traffic.

In particular, the study suggested traffic noise that happened at night, disturbing sleep, might be the most dangerous.

Zombie Fatigue: Should We Avoid Reading The News When It's Too Dark?

Must...read...more...newssssssss.... (image by Digital Sextant on Flickr)

"Zombie Fatigue"
The last week or so has been a ratings bonanza for various news outlets, what with news of "cannibals," "zombies," "Canadian zombie cannibals," and so on. It seems like each day brings stories on some new over-the-top horrible affront to humanity; many of the readers of these gory tales comment that it seems as if the world is ending, that we are in the grip of some terrible fire-and-brimstone Apocalypse. It makes people feel incredibly fearful and without any control in their lives.

Rationally, I know that we are not in the midst of the End Times, or some sort of zombie outbreak. I think these sorts of horrible things have been happening -- even in "civilized" modern society -- just about forever. Rather, the News -- and by extension, us -- have been focusing on these types of stories more often, picking them out of the wilderness of police reports and local coverage. If the "Miami Cannibal" story did gangbusters hits on various websites, they are going to do their best to extend the news cycle with follow-ups and similar stories. I'm in the media myself, and I totally get this.

When It's Time To Declutter: My Story

Photo by spykster on Flickr

Yesterday, me and my husband went through our collection of comic books and chose over 700 to give away/recycle. If 700 sounds like a large number, you can only imagine how many comics we started with!

We are both in the comic book industry, and in addition to getting comp books through our work and through friends, we spent a significant amount of money on the publications each week as new ones arrived at the store. I was by far the more avid collector than my husband.

Comic books can be a hoarding nightmare. They are thin but quite plentiful, and they really add up in bulk. Because there is so many of them -- and new ones every week! -- trying to keep track of, and organize, them becomes a constant chore. At some point, you start to give up, shunting your new finds to the side on top of an ever-larger pile that you never really read, much less file away into some meaningful order.

You Gotta Fight For Your Right For Wellness

I think one of the biggest mistakes I've made regarding the quest for my own personal wellness is assuming it is something that comes smoothly and naturally -- without effort. "Simply find time during the day and meditate," is the advice commonly given. "Just integrate greater physical activity into your day." "Be happy -- if you be it, you *are* it!"

That isn't terrible advice in-and-of-itself, but it is incomplete. It doesn't speak of the dark nights of the soul one experiences on the way to wellness -- that week *after* you've seen the light and everything is golden. What about when you're stressed at work and have eaten that particular cupcake mostly to feel better and have more energy -- and then feel *horrible,* as if you've destroyed your entire diet?

What about all the excuses we make *not* to have that precious *me* time each day -- rationalizing that it isn't really important, and that we can make it up later? We have to literally *fight* for those moments each day, demanding (usually to ourselves) that they be spent focusing on ourselves and our own wellness.

I wish there were more self-help books that stressed this element. In this world, in this society -- unless we live in the woods in a log cabin -- there are so many demands on us to *not* engage in wellness tactics. And even when wellness initiatives are offered at our workplace or in our immediate neighborhoods, we sometimes feel so bogged down with other stuff that we either ignore them or minimize their importance.

5 Excuses We Use To Give Up

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I think we all have the best intentions. I think we all have it within ourselves to stay on the path to a more fulfilling and healthy lifestyle. It is no hyperbole to say that we can achieve almost anything we put our minds to. But sometimes the biggest obstacles we face aren't really that big at all.

People, here is the real enemy: excuses.

5. It won't matter anyway because the world's probably going to end.
Hand to God, I've used this many times, moreso with it being 2012. Why kill myself trying to achieve some lasting legacy when global warming will probably turn New York into a fishbowl? Or try to invest in anything (life insurance, good teeth, stocks) when a meteor could wipe out life as we know it at any time?

The Media really does a great job, apocalyptic movie after apocalyptic movie, to reinforce these fears...fears that, honestly, I cannot say are 100% irrational. Yes, something bad, literally Earth-shaking, could happen, at any time. But it also may not happen. More importantly, what we really get out of pursuing the goal are all the life experiences and knowledge we gain along the way -- not the prize at the bottom of the Cracker Jack box.

7 Easy Steps For Better Health

Photo by Darwin Bell on Flickr

I was going to add the sub-head "That I Often Don't Do Because It Seems Too Easy" -- because that's the  truth! What follows is a list of dead-simple additions to one's routine that are hard to do because they're too simple to do. "Drinking more water will make me much healthier? Drinking any water will make me healthier? Lies, lies, and crazy-talk!"

7. Eat Vegetables. 
Seriously, eat some damn vegetables. Not just veggies that have been boiled or fried within an inch of their lives...but add some fresh vegetables in there. I've gone long periods of my life barely eating any vegetables, unless you consider potato chips a valid veggie portion. My skin was literally grey from unhealthiness. And yet as crazy as it may seem that someone would go through life without getting plants in their diet, I've known plenty of people like this. The worst are the ones who insist they are getting enough nutrients from heavy meat-eating so that they don't need vegetables; those must be some really unhappy intestines.

6. Get Fresh Air and Sunlight.
This is particularly aimed at those who work in the Cubicle Nation, though some artists and writers tend to become unhealthily housebound as well. Many of us are blessed to work in progressive offices where every amenity is provided to you, including a wonderful cafeteria filled with countless (and healthy!) food choices. One may be tempted to never leave the building during the 9 to 5. But that's really, really bad -- not only because of the relatively stale air and lack of vitamin D-producing sun rays, but because such a practice seriously reduces your perspective on life. Think about it: you have this wonderful hour to yourself that you could spend doing non-worklike things, and you choose to stay in the Work Zone. That's 5 hours a week you could have used going to the library or eating at a new restaurant or meeting up with friends or dancing in the grass in your bare feet.

Taking Time For *You* Is Essential

Photo by Alice Popkorn on Flickr

Do you have such a busy schedule that you've forgotten who you really are? If you strip away the part of you that's related to work and social engagements, does it seem like there's nothing left? Or that what does exist there seems almost foreign to you?

I've recently started to get up earlier each morning in order to have quality, undisturbed *me* time. Time to think -- to check in with myself and evaluate how things are going. Time to write and read about stuff that's important to me. And time to do nothing but relax. Surprisingly, the biggest hurdle here is not making up for the missed hour or two of sleep, but struggling with a sense that I'm being selfish or too self-absorbed by indulging in this "luxury."