We are suffering somewhat of a “comfort crisis.” Which is the title of an excellent book written by Michael Easter. Never before has a civilization been blessed with the ability to live in the comfort in which we find ourselves. In many ways, this is great. Life is easy, convenient, and comfortable. We live in climate-controlled homes, travel to work in climate-controlled vehicles, and sit in our climate-controlled offices in an ergonomically designed desk chair. Coffee is at the press of a button, and all the information in the known world is but a few clicks away. Once we return to our home, we can access the entire library of entertainment content to binge endlessly. From the comfort of our sofa, we can order food to be delivered to our front door.
We live in truly amazing times. However, I wonder if the ease with which we live and move and have our being comes with a cost. I don’t really wonder (in fact, that is my premise), but I use my musing as a rhetorical prop.
Dr. Means, Author of Good Energy, suggests that over 50% of adults and 30% of children are pre-diabetic or have type 2 diabetes in the United States. Gym memberships have doubled since 2000, and yet obesity has increased by 10% during that time. Our country has the most gyms in the world, and we are among the most obese.
There is a connection, and you don’t have to have a PhD to connect the dots. Our dependence on comfort and the relative ease with which we live is directly related to our adverse health outcomes. I am only now just figuring this out. But apparently others have known this all along and have eschewed many of the conveniences of modern life.
Dan Buettner discovered this and wrote a book about it titled The Blue Zones. Check out his website in the link attached. A former National Geographic journalist, he discovered that there were pockets of populations around the world who defy aging. They are reaching the age of 100 at sometimes twice or three times the rate as the rest of the world. Once he made this discovery, he decided to see if there was any connection or if these people just won the longevity lottery. I loved his book and read it with great interest.
Some of you may be thinking, “I don’t want to live to be 100.” That’s reasonable, presuming that the last 20 years are a steady degradation of your health and activities. The people Buettner researched are fully active and enjoy walking, gardening by hand, gathering with friends, and even riding on horseback. These are not your typical centenarians, and they inspire me in ways that I cannot describe. If I could maintain my mental faculties and activities of daily living, why would I not want to live that long?
He discovered nine common themes among those living in the Blue Zones. One of them, which is at the twelve o’clock position on the Power 9 chart, is called “Move Naturally.” The idea behind move naturally is as simple as it sounds. The Blue Zone people are not going to the gym or exercising in the conventional sense, but they are moving their bodies naturally throughout their days. Unlike the average working American, who sits 80% of their waking day, they only sit about 10%. A friend who swears by a standing desk told me, “Sitting is the new smoking.” It took me aback when he said that. According to the Blue Zones, he must be right.
When I read this book, I was still working full time and sitting a lot, I had not started walking daily yet. I decided that I would introduce this concept into my life in ways that I could. Here are a few examples: I got a cordless headset and stood up while talking on the phone, I took the stairs when possible instead of the elevator, I parked far away from where I was going and walked, I rode my bike for quick errands under a couple of miles away. You get the idea. This tiny habit has now been built into my lifestyle and continues today.
A podcast that I recently listened to had a more scientific term for this, which is non-exercise activity thermogenesis, or simply NEAT. Really, any activity which is not specifically exercise (or sleeping and eating) falls into the NEAT category: Brushing your teeth, making dinner, chopping broccoli, weeding the garden, doing laundry, walking to the mailbox. On average, we burn approximately 700 calories per day on NEAT activities. The person on the cutting edge of this research is Dr. James Levine of the Mayo Clinic and author of Get Up!: Why Your Chair Is Killing You and What You Can Do About It. His premise is that we need to be more intentional with our movement.
He shares that despite obesity surging over the last several decades, our caloric intake has remained relatively constant. We are consuming roughly the same amount, but moving markedly less. This is great news, that we are in complete control over our destiny. We do not have to sit idly by (pun intended) waiting for diabetes to hit us or some other health event; we are empowered to take control and just move.
Let me be clear, I am not advocating for more exercise. If you’re doing that 3 times per week, keep going; if you are not doing that at all, simply start moving. A 15-minute walk directly after a meal reduces the blood sugar spike by almost 50%, which can reduce the risk of diabetes or pre-diabetes. Can’t commit to that? Choose your most calorie-rich meal and walk after that one.
Look for opportunities to move naturally throughout your day. If you must watch television, get up at each commercial and walk around the house until the program returns. Don’t want to walk? Fold the laundry, empty the dishwasher, get the mail, just move. Don’t let the conveniences of modern life prematurely age you. They are there to serve you, but don’t let them control you.
It’s ok to be a little uncomfortable. It’s probably good for you every once in a while. Make the conveniences that are available to you an intentional decision that you are going to utilize, not a default because they are there. And then sometimes, choose not to use them. Most importantly, focus on your NEAT. These are just simple ways to burn calories and hopefully make it to your 100th birthday.