FitTip FriYAY: Taking a Stand: Overcoming the Sedentary Lifestyle Challenge

Imagine spending just 2% of each day to improve your health and well-being dramatically. Sounds impossible, right?

But wait till you hear what I have in store for you. This captivating discussion explores the detrimental effects of a sedentary lifestyle, akin to a ticking time bomb. We dig deep into the chilling statistics that reveal how sitting is the new smoking and how it can drastically put you at risk of life-threatening diseases like heart disease, diabetes, and depression.

But it's not all about the dire consequences of sitting. In the second half of our discourse, we focus on how you can incorporate effective strategies to add more movement into your day and shift away from a sedentary existence. From standing desks to workouts, I share my journey and the initial challenges of adapting to this healthier lifestyle.

For those seeking a supportive community, I introduce the 2% Collective Community, where we offer free workouts, tips, and strategies to help you stand more, sit less, and supercharge your health. So, are you ready to take charge of your health? Please tune in, and let's embark on this life-changing journey together.

👉👉 If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe, share, and leave a 5-star review on your favorite podcast listening platforms.

🌟 AND be sure to JOIN the 2% Collective - a free community where you can connect with like-minded whole health champions and get many free resources, challenges, action guides, and much more. Go to www.2percentcollective.com  

TEXT ME here - Have a question? Comment? Feedback? I’d love to hear from you.

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A Message from Dai, host of the 2% Solution Podcast:

Hey there, you fantastic listener! 👋

As we wrap up another episode of The 2% Solution Podcast, I want to throw a massive, confetti-filled THANK YOU your way.

As we launch this podcast, your support is like getting an extra espresso in your Venti Americano—unexpected and refreshing!

Your reviews? They're like high-fives to my soul. Your shares? They're spreading more joy than cat videos on the internet. Subscribing? You're officially the coolest in my book.

Meeting in the 2% Collective Community? It's like watching a garden of awesomeness bloom – and you're all the sunflowers making it happen!

Keep being the amazing, 2%-improving rockstars that you are.

🌟 Stay fabulous, stay tuned, and stay 2%! 🚀

Love, laughs, and much gratitude,

Dai M.

P.S. I'm primarily active on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Feel free to connect and start a conversation. If you're searching for inspiring, motivational, educational, and healthy living content, check out my over 1500 articles at DaiManuel.com - I enjoy writing, okay? lol

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hello, hello, my favorite listeners, diamond Well
here, your host of the 2%Solution Podcast, and I'm
excited.
This has been one heck of atumultuous week, at best, as you
can imagine, with the launchthis previous Monday, lots of
cool stuff happening, lots ofgreat connections, lots of great

(00:25):
comments, great feedback.
It's been a heck of a week andon top of that, it's been my
47th birthday.
I know I'm 47, can you believeit?
I can't believe it.
47 laps around that sun of ours.
As you know, every week onMondays, there's Monday
Motivation.
We usually release an episodeon Wednesday, which might be a

(00:47):
solo episode or an interviewwith an amazing guest that's
going to be dropping wisdombombs.
So all of us can take away newstrategies on how to best
leverage 2% of every 24 hours tocreate dramatic results in the
changes that we want to see inour whole life, health and
well-being.
Whoa, it sounds like a mouthful, doesn't it?

(01:08):
But anyways, today's Fit TipFriday, and I've got something I
want to share with you,specifically around this idea of
sitting.
I mean, let's look at our lifenowadays we spend a lot of time
sitting, and if you haven'theard of the term sitting
disease, it was something thatwas put forward probably about a
decade ago Actually, it mightbe a little bit more than that.

(01:30):
It was right when standing deskreally becoming very popular.
There's lots of products likeBerrydash independent desks that
have these workstations thatadjust automatically and there's
been a lot of actual studiesand research coming to speak to
the benefits of standing versussitting or, more so, trying to

(01:52):
find balance between the twomodalities throughout our days.
So here, to get right to thepoint, sitting is the new
smoking.
The more you sit, the more yourhealth will suffer.
We love to sit as humans, don'twe?
Whether we're in our car, we'reat the desk, on the couch, even
at the game.

(02:12):
New research shows that sittingand inactivity are linked to
increased risks of heart disease, diabetes, cancer and
depression.
Stated simply, our bodies aredesigned to move.
A recent study showed that ifwe spent less than three hours a
day sitting, our lifeexpectancy would increase by two
years.
Furthermore, reducing TV timeto less than two hours per day

(02:35):
can increase your lifeexpectancy by 1.4 years, as a
total of three and almost a halfyears more of your life just by
not sitting.
So much.
Does that not make you want tostand up and read or move or do
everything from a standing placeright, even just while pacing
around the room, maybe listeningto this podcast?

(02:56):
Do it now, stan.
When I first started reading upon inactivity and especially
the amount of time NorthAmericans spend sitting, I
immediately bought a standingdesk.
Much of my book, the Whole LifeFitness Manifesto, was written
while I stood at my desk.
When you sit for long periods,your body adapts to the reduced

(03:17):
physical demand by slowing downyour metabolism.
This means you burn fewercalories and that extra energy
is stored, typically as fat.
Men who sit more than six hoursa day have an 18% increased
risk of dying from heart diseaseand a 7.8% increased chance of
dying from diabetes, compared tosomeone who sits for three

(03:38):
hours or less per day.
Today's North American10-year-olds are the first
generation expected to have ashorter life expectancy than
their parents.
According to the AmericanMedical Association, just 150
minutes of moderate exercise perweek ongoing is enough to
drastically reduce the risk ofsedentary lifestyle illnesses

(03:59):
such as obesity, diabetes andheart disease.
Globally, 20% of early deathsare preventable with moderate
exercise and, for the first timein history, inactivity-related
illnesses killed 5.3 millionpeople worldwide.
More than smoking, many healthexperts are thinking of
inactivity as an illness, withsome doctors in the US pushing

(04:21):
to make lack of exercise andmedical diagnosis.
And the US adults sit for anaverage of 8 to 10 hours each
day.
This makes the Americanlifestyle one of the most
sedentary in the world.
After long commutes and hoursat our desk, we can hardly blame
ourselves for taking a load off.
But getting more exercise is alot easier than most of us,

(04:41):
especially when we really adoptthis idea of 2% everyday,
non-negotiable self-care.
Right, because about this,non-negotiable, you know really
taking charge of your day andsaying listen, I matter, my
health is important.
I want, not a matter of need,but I want to dedicate some time

(05:06):
to moving my body with purpose.
Now, again, I'm not going to beso quick to prescribe what you
have to do.
Of course, we're going to beproviding lots of examples.
If you haven't joined the 2%collective community yet, please
go ahead and join2%collectivecom.
And if you want to find thelink, also, if you go to the
podcast page or my website,diamondwellcom, you will also

(05:30):
find links to join that group.
And in that group we've gotlots of free workouts and
workout examples as well asdifferent strategies for, let's
just say, sitting a little bitless, standing a little bit more
and moving our body with alittle bit more purpose daily,
because that's one of theeasiest ways to tap into our
total mental, physical,emotional, spiritual well-being

(05:53):
Movement.
So don't worry so much aboutquantifying it.
Think about qualifying it.
Quality over quantity.
Every single day.
To get started, you watch.
It'll probably be hard to stop,because as you create that
momentum for yourself, you'regoing to start to see positive
things happen as you adapt tothis healthier way of being.

(06:16):
Once you start feeling better,you're going to start thinking
differently.
And as you think differently,you're going to start to adapt
differently.
This is how change manifests.
So with that, remember,everything starts with one step
or, in this situation, one squatright, one step, one squat up
from our chairs, get into astanding position, try to
alternate back and forth betweenstanding and sitting throughout

(06:39):
the day.
You may want to take a page frommy book, not literally.
Well, I guess you could, if youown the book, go ahead and tell
her no, but from metaphoricallyspeaking, think about it this
way If you can maybe stand 20minutes and then sit for 40,
that might be a great way tobegin, because I do know that
when I first started standing atmy desk, there was a lot of

(07:00):
adjustments and adaptation thatmy body had to go through
because I just wasn't used tostanding so much.
So don't worry, there will bean adaptation period.
Stick with it.
Start with smaller chunks everyday, so maybe every hour you're
standing for 20 minutes,sitting for 40 minutes, and then
slowly increase that week afterweek until eventually you get
to maybe 45 minutes standing, 15minutes sitting.

(07:22):
Either way, you're going tofind a nice little balance.
You're going to gain a lot ofhealth benefit.
You're also going to see yourmetabolism stick to the level
that it should be at, lessslowing down.
With that, have a great weekend.
Enjoy, get out there and movethe purpose, and I'll be talking
to you soon and real quick.

(07:42):
If you found value in today'spodcast, please like, share,
subscribe and I would love,absolutely love, it.
I'm just getting started downthis journey.
I know how important thereviews are on Apple, spotify or
anywhere you listen to yourpodcasts.
If you don't mind leaving afive-star review, it certainly

(08:03):
helps me out.
It also fills the awareness ofthis podcast, so other people
will start discovering it too.
I get to thank you, honor to bepart of this community, part of
this tribe, part of this group.
All about energy 2% every day.
Take care of your best lives.
Touch you soon.