Yesterday I spent most of the day rearranging my office so I could again stand while I write.
The impetus is at least two-fold:
The more I read the more I realize and experience that sitting for hours, even getting up every ten minutes just isn’t good for us. This article, Taking a Stand for Office Ergonomics in the New York Times (just skip the ad to get to the article) sums up the research well.
This is also the first step to creating a treadmill desk. I really need to knock off some weight. I have a friend who is roughly my age.Ellie, who blogs at Minding the Middle Aged Middle, moved to Oregon to raise goats! In the process of building her goat farm she’s lost a ton of weight.
This is after both of us had tried various strategies with minimal success. Postmenopausal women simply have a tougher time losing than younger women and than men. She and I figure that a major part of her weight loss is the increased activity – you know, fence building, garden building, painting – you name it and she’s been doing it.
When you think about it, our ancestors, even back a generation or two, moved much more than we tend to do. I’m hopeful that the new setup will result in some weight loss for me. Of course, with the treadmill I still won’t be working as hard as Ellie does – maybe I’ll start raising a few chickens. And if it doesn’t work for weight loss I know I’ll feel better just because I’m moving more. Our bodies are meant to move and I’ve been an almost athlete often enough to remember the feeling of fitness.
In fact, I’m already moving more at the standing desk. I find I want to sit when the phone rings so I take it to the living room and sit, then come back. My feet get tired of one position so I shuffle a bit. I’ve even been trying taking tiny marching steps to see if I can indeed write while my feed are moving, and yes I can! [click to continue…]
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