Lately I’ve become very aware of how sedentary our society is — at work, at school, at home or wherever else we might be, it seems like all we do is sit! For me, it’s gotten worse year after year.
In high school, I was at school from 7:45 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. and every 50 minutes, I would get up and walk around for 5. For about 30 minutes every day, I would be moving around in gym class. After school, I had poms practice for 2 hours. I was spending 185 minutes a day moving around. And that’s just a minimum — even when I actually sat down to do my homework, I’d get distracted and start choreographing combinations in my room.
Since my schedule is so different everyday, I wouldn’t even know where to begin to count how much I move on average — but I know it’s definitely not a lot. Between sitting in lectures, sitting at my desk doing homework, sitting in the car while running errands and laying in bed while writing, I spend a lot of time being productive, but physically lazy.
I know a lot of my weight gain can be attributed to being less active, but I only really thought of that in terms of dance up until now. I never realized that just the amount of sitting I do compared to standing walking around now could be making a difference. Since the weather is getting nicer, I want to start walking more often.
Earlier this week, Max and I walked to the grocery store instead of driving because we only had to pick up a few things. I felt good about making a little change to be more active. With about 5 weeks left until my Lose the Freshman 15 time is up, I plan on incorporating walking into my life in little ways much more.
This weekend, my mom is in town and we have been walking everywhere! Since I don’t want to ditch her to do cardio (and since the Jump Start Diet allows me to skip cardio twice a week), I’ve made it a point to make up for it by walking around. It’s been nice to spend the time with my mom and to be a little more active.
I challenge you to walk around more too! I’ll tweet whenever I make a change to be more active, and you should tweet at me if you are too! Whether it’s walking to a class that you normally drive to or standing while getting ready instead of sitting, let me know when you’re making a healthy change like me!
Dreading sitting down to dinner tonight (would it be socially acceptable to stand?),
Samantha