Increasing Activity, a challenge for 8/26/11 - 9/2/11

I've been thinking about something the past few days. The average American spends 4-5 hours a day watching television and 1-3 hours a day on the internet. We sleep on average 6-8 hours a day. That's basically 11-16 hours a day being inactive (I realize that there's some overlap for many people, myself included, in internet and television time). Many of people work a sedentary job, as well. And then there is the commute time we spend when going to work, running errands, etc. I'm not knocking anyones job or lifestyle. This is just where we are at as a society and culture. But I honestly don't think most of us would be (or would have been) overweight if we had lived prior to 100 years ago (I'm very grateful for all the scientific and medical advances we've made, too... but sometimes our technology and advancements hurt, as well). People were much more active then. They didn't have all the distractions that we have now. Just day to day life required that you be more active. You washed your clothing by hand, you cooked 99% of your food., and if you lived in a rural area you often grew your own food. You walked nearly everywhere you went. You would have lifted heavier objects more often. I realize there were exceptions. There were still obese people prior to 100 years ago (though the percentage was drastically lower).

I've been reading a lot of stuff lately about how metabolism and activity are related (I've also been getting into the Primal Blueprint which really goes into how primitive man kept fat off by doing low level aerobic activity... mainly foraging for hours a day). It's great whenever we can get in dedicated workout time (the more the better... strength and cardio). But what about the rest of the day? Anytime you have moments of activity, even small amount of activity, you have small spikes in your metabolism. I'm sure this isn't an original idea, but I honestly believe that these small spikes are what most people are missing (including myself) when it comes to pushing past plateaus where we just can't seem to lose weight or increase our fitness level.

I want to create a challenge for myself. If anyone else would like to play along, too, that would be awesome. For me personally, I think I probably spend about 4-5 hours a day being sedentary (tv, internet, working on jewelry, reading, etc). I'm not going to stop doing those things (well, less tv and internet would be a great idea but I'm starting small), but I want to add more little moments of activity. I think what I'm going to do is try to get up and move around for 10-15 minutes during each of those 4-5 hours. I could dust something. Maybe wash a few dishes. Check on the laundry. Go for a mini walk. Maybe do some light stretches or a few basic yoga posses. Stop and do 20 extra crunches. Park further away when I go places. Maybe cook one more meal a week instead of going out or getting take out quite as often. I don't want to add anything too strenuous (though a lot of evidence suggests that having two or three intense 15 minute workouts scattered throughout the day is better for our metabolism than one longer intense workout). Just something that gets me up and moving a little more than I am. I really believe those 10-15 minutes of light activity scattered throughout the day will make a big difference in my overall metabolism. I may even get a pedometer (I've seen them as cheap as $5 at Walmart and Target) and just try to increase my average daily steps by 2-5%. I'm going to start today and vow to do it everyday for the next week. I'll reevaluate and go from there.