Coping with sitting

I see a lot of information out there about how we’re all too sedentary.  Screens are ruling our lives.  We’re stuck in the car all the time.  We spend so much time at our desks that we might as well be chained there.  It’s entirely likely that all that sitting will in fact kill us.

I confess:  I like a lot of sedentary activities.  I could try to figure out how to knit and walk at the same time, but it sounds a little dangerous.  Reading does not mix well with most exercises—anything strenuous enough to feel like I’m doing something makes the pages jostle too much to read.

I happen to have several luxuries in my life:  an extremely short commute (across the yard) and a job that involves very little desk time.  When I do have to sit for extended periods, I find that I get cranky.

The solution?  How about several.  First, short attention span.  Yes, I know that we want to cultivate focus and deep thought and all that good stuff.  We just need to do it in bursts of an hour or less.  Standing up to stretch and move around refreshes the brain as well as the body.  Also, we can use the bathroom and fill up our water.

Second, put in some dedicated fatigue.  When we get that big workout over with in the morning, we are tired enough that sitting at our desks seems like a pretty good idea.  Evening workouts serve a similar purpose in letting us burn off the accumulated wiggles of the day.

Third, sneak in standing or walking whenever possible.  Weather permitting, take the meeting outside and around the block.  Stand up on that conference call.  Go by your colleague’s desk instead of calling or texting.

We need both sitting and standing to be healthy and happy.