Just Keep Moving!!
I am going to preach today! So brace your selves.
When not caring for my children and husband, writing and researching about health and weight loss, taking on my own weight management program I get to care for my husband’s parents. This is a mixed blessing.
I say mixed because I love them dearly and want to help them anyway I can. I am a fixer by nature – most mothers are. So, when I see my dear in-laws in their current failing health I just ache to “cure” them. I “know” what will help them – but the other part of the equation is = can they be helped?
Years of disuse and the choice to be inactive has slowly broken down their health. In their 70s, they have many potential years of vital living ahead of them. Instead, they chose to sit. When in pain, they chose to take medicine and sit.
They are not the only ones who have chosen to sit when it gets hard to move. But like the rest, rather then choosing a passive approach to pain and long term health, continuing to move could have helped iron out those pains and given them many more years of health.
The human spine is designed to move and bend. It isn’t designed to sit! Sitting is the stop we take between walking, standing, sleeping – moving. But it should not take up the bulk of our day.
Sitting is hard on your spine. Oh now I know that sounds screwy. But gravity takes its toll on a sitting spine. The head is heavy and comes forward. This eventually pulls the shoulders and upper back forward. To compensate, the lower back sways the other way and our rear bumps out.
Then when we stand, our backs and shoulders ache from this progression of degeneration. Which in turns causes us to sit some more. And so it goes… and that is why my in-laws are where they are. Pinched nerves, bulging discs, sciatica pain, arthritis and bone spurs, grinding hip pain, worn out knees and achy feet.
Solution: Keep Moving! Sit long enough to accomplish a task and no more than 45 minutes at a time. Out of every hour take 15 minute breaks from sitting. For those of you who have computer jobs, add a standing desk station where you can vary your position. Yes, your back may ache at first as you retrain it to stand but in the long run your body will thank you.
Oh, I mentioned the mixed blessings. The other blessing that has come out of this relationship is that the one person I can help is ME. So, guess what! I am going to keep moving!