Oct 22 Weekly Challenge: Making Sitting Less a Habit
themedalist
Posts: 3,211 Member
Theme: Exercise and Movement
Challenge: Making Sitting Less a Habit
As we know, our daily habits have a tremendous impact on our health and wellbeing. In fact, small habit changes and tweaks to your daily routine are the most sustainable and, as such, can have a big impact on your life. Eating a few more fruits and veggies, decluttering around the house, cultivating gratitude, and setting aside a few minutes a day just for you, are small actions but they multiply in impact and become life changing when they are woven into your daily routine.
This week's challenge is no different. This week, let's focus on sitting less and moving more, through small, incremental changes. As part of "Sit Less Boot Camp", I've scoped out quite a few Trigger-Habit-Reward loops for sitting less. Maybe 1 or 2 would be a good fit for you this week? They are posted here:
https://www.quittingthesitting.org/trigger-habit-reward-loops-for-new-sit-less-habits.html
Alternatively (or maybe in addition to?), Dr. Mike Evans has a terrific concept he calls, "Let's Make Our Day Harder" He advocates looking for opportunities to be more active throughout the day....taking the stairs, parking further away, and adding a few more steps here and there. With a little practice, it's easy to do. And it can make a big difference in our overall health. Let's extend his great idea to a full week! (video below).
This Week's Challenge: Whether you try out one of the Sit Less Habit Loops suggested above or watch Dr. Evans' video and then find and implement ways you can be more active throughout your day, let's all make a real effort to sit less and move more this week!
Make it a great week!
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Our monthly challenge, This October I will..., continues! Please tell us how you are progressing and how it's going for you!
Challenge: Making Sitting Less a Habit
As we know, our daily habits have a tremendous impact on our health and wellbeing. In fact, small habit changes and tweaks to your daily routine are the most sustainable and, as such, can have a big impact on your life. Eating a few more fruits and veggies, decluttering around the house, cultivating gratitude, and setting aside a few minutes a day just for you, are small actions but they multiply in impact and become life changing when they are woven into your daily routine.
This week's challenge is no different. This week, let's focus on sitting less and moving more, through small, incremental changes. As part of "Sit Less Boot Camp", I've scoped out quite a few Trigger-Habit-Reward loops for sitting less. Maybe 1 or 2 would be a good fit for you this week? They are posted here:
https://www.quittingthesitting.org/trigger-habit-reward-loops-for-new-sit-less-habits.html
Alternatively (or maybe in addition to?), Dr. Mike Evans has a terrific concept he calls, "Let's Make Our Day Harder" He advocates looking for opportunities to be more active throughout the day....taking the stairs, parking further away, and adding a few more steps here and there. With a little practice, it's easy to do. And it can make a big difference in our overall health. Let's extend his great idea to a full week! (video below).
This Week's Challenge: Whether you try out one of the Sit Less Habit Loops suggested above or watch Dr. Evans' video and then find and implement ways you can be more active throughout your day, let's all make a real effort to sit less and move more this week!
Make it a great week!
....................................................................................................................................................
Our monthly challenge, This October I will..., continues! Please tell us how you are progressing and how it's going for you!
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Thank you!0
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This week I am going to use my Fitbit to help me monitor sitting less. I have been using the 250 steps/hour piece for about 3-4 weeks now and it has made me so aware of how easy is is to be busy while sitting and let the hours go by without realizing that I’ve barely gotten out of my chair. I recently discovered another feature I had been unaware of and that is where my Fitbit measures the percentage of active/stationary time each day. Even when I get a 10/13 hours of 250 steps, some days my active percentage is pretty meager🤪 to put it mildly. The plan is to increase my average percentage by 1%. Why 1% when I could/would normally go for a number that would make a big change right now? Because I might be able to make that huge number for awhile but it might not be sustainable. I can do 1% each week with no problem until that 1% has turned into ... who knows what I might be capable of!?! (Here’s a funny side note... Autocorrect said that my plan was to increase my RECENT AGE by 1%. NOOOOOoooo!!!!!)!2
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The video is really good! The past few years I have been parking farther away from the entrance to places instead of circling the parking lot multiple times. I will now think of the label in the video when I do that!! My husband used to say he’d drop me off closer to the door and he’d park the car. Now I say walking is good and we walk in together. I generally don’t like change, but sometimes change is good🙂0
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This week I am going to use my Fitbit to help me monitor sitting less. I have been using the 250 steps/hour piece for about 3-4 weeks now and it has made me so aware of how easy is is to be busy while sitting and let the hours go by without realizing that I’ve barely gotten out of my chair. I recently discovered another feature I had been unaware of and that is where my Fitbit measures the percentage of active/stationary time each day. Even when I get a 10/13 hours of 250 steps, some days my active percentage is pretty meager🤪 to put it mildly. The plan is to increase my average percentage by 1%. Why 1% when I could/would normally go for a number that would make a big change right now? Because I might be able to make that huge number for awhile but it might not be sustainable. I can do 1% each week with no problem until that 1% has turned into ... who knows what I might be capable of!?! (Here’s a funny side note... Autocorrect said that my plan was to increase my RECENT AGE by 1%. NOOOOOoooo!!!!!)!
Such a great plan, @nebslp. Getting steps in hourly is important, but still too is looking at your overall active vs sedentary time throughout the day. And I LOVE your 1% improvement goal. Small improvements are much more sustainable!
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My goal this week is to stand up when I proofread an email just before I hit the send button. I send a lot of emails at work and this ensurers I will be up and standing a lot.1
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I love the video! Parking further away is my magic elixir! I even park a couple blocks away from the gym. On work days, I park all the way across campus, which gives me a 10 minute walk just to get to my first class. At the grocery store I pick out a spot at the end of the parking lot, and when I'm finished unloading my cart, I walk it all the way back to the front of the stores. Circling the lot for a better parking place is stressful, so I figure the walk is a stress reliever.2
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Great video. I will work in more movement this week. I am a person who requires outdoors and fresh air. This morning to trimmed trees and made a bon fire and burned the branches. I dread winter and being stuck indoors. This week I will get out more and get more movement while enjoying the fresh air.4
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I’ve been analyzing my Fitbit data and have decided my goal of 1% less sitting has lots of variables and is too hard to calculate. So I made a chart to keep track of my active/stationary time and see that I will be able to use that to measure sitting less. Using Sept 1 as my start date, I see that my longest stationary time per day has gone from 2 hour, 54 minutes to yesterday’s number of 2 hours, 14 minutes. That’s a 40 minute reduction without even being aware of it. Now that I know my “danger zone” is after 6PM until bedtime, I will be able to make a change. So my 30 day goal on Nov. 1 will be 2 hours 13 minutes. I think I can beat that, but time will tell. I don’t like math, but I find statistics fascinating!
I cleaned our pond today and put in fresh water. I have 2 tiny tadpoles, one of them with hind legs, and I’m not sure what I’ll do with them. Guess I will do some research, or does anyone have any ideas?1 -
i loved thinking about the motto 'let's make our day harder' today, and it motivated me to sweep, take out the trash, and tidy up in-between my normal work-from-home day.
I also discovered i sit less when i hydrate well, because so much pee.4 -
I’ve been analyzing my Fitbit data and have decided my goal of 1% less sitting has lots of variables and is too hard to calculate. So I made a chart to keep track of my active/stationary time and see that I will be able to use that to measure sitting less. Using Sept 1 as my start date, I see that my longest stationary time per day has gone from 2 hour, 54 minutes to yesterday’s number of 2 hours, 14 minutes. That’s a 40 minute reduction without even being aware of it. Now that I know my “danger zone” is after 6PM until bedtime, I will be able to make a change. So my 30 day goal on Nov. 1 will be 2 hours 13 minutes. I think I can beat that, but time will tell. I don’t like math, but I find statistics fascinating!
I cleaned our pond today and put in fresh water. I have 2 tiny tadpoles, one of them with hind legs, and I’m not sure what I’ll do with them. Guess I will do some research, or does anyone have any ideas?
No suggestions on the tadpoles, but @neblp, a great reduction in sedentary time! Go you!1 -
I have been working on my yard, cleaning my house and out and about. Parking furthest from the door is a habit i learned on this group. I went to the library yesterday and got some books and instead of sitting down to read all the time I will switch between sitting and standing between chapters, or I could take a walk once I am done a chapter.
@nebslp that is great information. You are doing awesome. Sorry, no help with the tadpoles.
@gojolida welcome! That is a great point about staying hydrated.
@PinkyPan1 you are my hero!!2 -
Shameless plug, but all in the interest of helping people sit less.
I've had a long-standing interest in raising awareness of how bad "sitting disease" is for our health. My website, Quitting the Sitting has a lot of information about sitting less and building new habits. If you're a Facebook user, I post twice a week what I hope are friendly nudges to encourage people to sit less. If you're interested, the page is here:
https://www.facebook.com/quittingthesitting/
Many of you have supported me in this effort from Day 1, helping me launch Quitting the Sitting in 2015 by sharing your stories of how moving more has changed your life, by participating in Sit Less Boot Camp, and by liking and sharing the Facebook posts. I appreciate your support and am so grateful for it! The FB posts have reached over 10,000 people this month!
I always feel the need to say this. I derive no income whatsoever from Quitting the Sitting. I absorb all the operating expenses myself, something my middle-class husband raises an occasional eyebrow about. But what's he going to do?
I just feel so strongly about getting the word out as to how deadly excessive sitting is. We can't live our lives to our full potential if we stay plunked in a chair. QTS is my contribution to the global effort to get people moving.
Since sitting less is this week's challenge, I thought I'd mention it.
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@themedalist , I love Quitting the Sitting! It's such an awesome resource!1
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I have been making positive changes in my habits slowly and gradually because of QTS. The encouragement and ideas are awesome! @themedalist Congrats on the Facebook success. This group wouldn’t have lasted this long if there wasn’t value in it, so thanks for your dedication and hard work. It is appreciated by many.2
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8/13 hours today. I was on the road when I realized my hour was almost up and I hadn’t gotten my steps in so I stopped at a park and walked around a bit. Also walked around the Walmart parking lot awhile after shopping for over an hour without the steps registering on my Fitbit. I might be getting a little obsessive with this but I’m ok with that for now😏2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whPuRLil4c0
