WEEKLY ARTICLE
Warning: Sitting May Be Hazardous To Your Health We love being active here at Wholly Macro. We just love the days when our bodies feel pain free, loose, relaxed, flexible, and limber. 
We take full advantage of those days, enjoying moving, stretching at every opportunity, bending often, and just more or less thriving on the very freedom and privilege of being able to move. Couch potato-ing it is just not for us. We feel terrible when confined to basically sitting. And not to mention names, but when we are with non-movers, whose activities center around sitting, we really feel stir crazy because our bodies are so used to moving. Even on "ache and pain" days, (and we all have those), we have no choice but to continue moving here at Wholly Macro. And the very act of moving moves us right through the pain, and past it to the other side. Ah. Freedom.  Thankfully we have very few achy days here at Wholly Macro due to our steady daily level of seriously active activity. We have found that it is far easier to move consistently, and make it a normal part of your daily routine, than to succumb to the innate desire to "sit".
Modern (unhealthy) life begets sitting. Sitting at the computer. Sitting at your desk. Sitting while talking on the phone. Sitting in front of the TV. Sitting while the dishwasher does your dishes. Doing healthy things require movement. Working at Wholly Macro, living the Wholly Macro lifestyle that we write about each week requires a lot of movement gratefully and thankfully. We have learned to consciously be aware of, and LOVE to move! The bottom line: We can all markedly improve our health and life span if we simply stop sitting so much. 
Current research finds that sitting for long periods of time increases the risk of obesity, diabetes, cancer, and early death, even for people who exercise daily. According to Federal Government statistics, Americans now sit for more hours per day than they sleep. Think about that. Are you guilty? The American Cancer Research Institute is urging Americans to reduce sitting by even as little as five minutes an hour each day, in addition to what we hope is your thirty or so minute regimen of moderate exercise each day, because some research indicates that scheduled daily exercise blocks are still not enough to protect you from an otherwise sedentary lifestyle. An American Cancer Society study found that women who sit for more than six hours a day (not including while at work), have a 34% higher risk of death than those who sit less than three hours extra a day. This was true even for women who exercise regularly. And Men: In a University of South Carolina study, 64% of physically active men were still more likely to die of heart disease if they sat for more than 23 hours a week in front of the TV (the TV part is per the study, I swear!!), than those who sat for 11 hours a week or less. As compared to other risk factors for mortality, here is how sitting stacks up: Excessive Sitting creates a 35% greater risk of mortality compared to Smoking (15 cigarettes a day) which creates a 55% greater risk of mortality, compared to Being Overweight / Obese, which creates a 24% greater risk of mortality, compared to Drinking two to three alcoholic beverages a day, which creates an 18% greater risk of mortality. Excessive Sitters: You know who you are! Prolonged sitting has metabolic consequences too, which means that it disrupts processes that break down fat and sugar in the blood. It literally changes the very way in which our bodies were originally designed to metabolize such components as food, toxins, stress, oxygen, etc.  Negative hormones such as the stress hormone cortisol concentrate in belly fat in the abdominal region. Sitting perpetuates stagnation in this region, while standing, walking, climbing, stairs, and other such movement activates the abdominal region, promoting digestion and elimination.
An Australian study suggests a link between a sedentary lifestyle, and several key indicators of cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease risk, such as insulin resistance, inflammation, and body weight. So please: Think of ways to build physical activity into your workday and leisure time. View minor chores as an opportunity to prevent disease, prolong your lifespan, and improve the quality of your life. You can do this by: Reducing TV time, or at least standing up and moving around every time a commercial comes on.  Walking while you talk. It might not work for all calls, but enjoy the opportunity to take a walk, even if just around your house or yard, when you have a few minutes to return a call to a friend, and at least stand up at your desk / walk around your office for all others.
Delivering messages to housemates or colleagues in person when possible rather than texting or emailing. Using stairs, not elevators.
 Placing everyday items across the room instead of right next to you. Parking further away and walking to your destination. Less sitting that way. It uses up a lot more sitting time (in your car) searching for a "good" parking space, than it does to park quickly a little further away, get out of the car sooner, and simply walk a few steps further. This is just a plain and simple bad habit most of us are guilty of. Lets break it right now!! Doing house and yard work yourself. It is great exercise. Our gardeners were here today, with their leaf blowers of course. We find the noise so disruptive. Who doesn't? Jaime said, "I wish they would invent a better way to remove the leaves". I s aid, "They already have, it is called raking!" Now we just need to tell the gardeners to leave the leaves and rake them up ourselves!! Hmm. Cooking is also great exercise, even simple cooking. Think arm muscle workout. So is doing the dishes. Come help us do our dishes and you will see! These are just a few ways to build physical activity into your life, and decrease the very real health hazard of prolonged sitting. We are sure you can come up with many more! And of course, as always, diet plays a major role in over all health. No amount of physical activity / decrease in sitting can ever overcome an unhealthy dietary intake. Speaking of sitting, I am going to get up now and take a break from sitting myself! And speaking of healthy food, you will find the February 1, 2012 super healthy Wholly Macro Delivery menu below. Our Very Best to You. Gayle and Jaime / Wholly Macro | 
