New year, new choices

How many hours a week do you spend at work? And how many hours a week do you spend doing leisure activities? When you add those hours together, how many of them do you spend sitting?

In a study in the American Journal of Epidemiology, it was reported that men who sit for six hours or more a day in their leisure time had an overall death rate that was nearly 20 percent higher than men who sat for three hours or less, in a 14-year follow-up time period. Women who sat for more than six hours a day had a death rate that was almost 40 percent higher. It was seen that dedicated exercise had no neutralizing effect.

Another study in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity indicated that higher volumes of sitting time are significantly associated with diabetes and chronic illness, independent of physical activity and other cofounding issues.

As you can see, prolonged sitting is not good for our overall health. It's time for all of us to get moving - at home, at work, and during our leisure time. What will you choose this year to get you moving?

Everyone has different challenges in their life, and we have to figure out what works for each of us, but here are some simple ideas to get us started at home and work.

The first thing that needs to happen is to create an overall atmosphere at home and work that encourages wellness, from the food you eat to the activities that you commit to every day. Be verbal about it with your spouse, kids, and co-workers, and tell them the goals you are trying to achieve. Because we are relational beings, better fitness and wellness gains are achieved when there is accountability. So, choose partners in your wellness plan who are motivated and willing to slowly change their environment to become more active.

After you have a small group of people together, choose a fitness app such as MyFitnessPal or LoseIt! that will allow you to communicate with each other. Consider a fitness-tracking device such as the Fitbit or UP, or the traditional pedometer, to track your steps per day. This is used to encourage you with your activity level every day. You can merely look at it and see if you are close to your daily goal.

The next step is to cut your calories by 500 to 1,000 per day. This is the hardest part I feel at times to regulate, so that you are still eating a balanced diet. You need to get rid of processed foods and control snacking. Your protein intake needs to increase and your carbohydrates need to decrease. Again, the fitness apps help with this because they help you figure out the amount of calories in the food you are eating throughout the day and tell you how many calories you have left to consume, or if you are over your amount and need to engage in further exercise.

Then, think of increasing your activity level on a daily basis. Maybe it is by parking further out in the parking lot and walking, or taking the stairs instead of the elevator. Maybe start a group at work that walks at lunch, or an after-work exercise group that has a goal of running Bloomsday in the spring. At Johnson & Johnson, the idea of creating a culture of becoming active really took hold when a group of employees who were waiting for a meeting to start decided to take advantage of the few extra minutes by taking off their jackets and walking the hallways with each other; part of the fitness environment they were trying to instill had become a reality.

So, welcome to the New Year and your new choices. The staff at our office is going to take this challenge with you, so take courage: we are in this together. Your health matters to us!

Sheree DiBiase, PT, and her staff can be reached at Lake City Physical Therapy in the Coeur d'Alene office at (208) 667-1988 and in the Spokane Valley office at (509) 891-2623.

If you need a fitness group to participate with, call or email us at [email protected], we are setting up our group now.