Next Steps
Resources to Sit Less and Move More
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Want a friendly nudge to sit less? Follow us on social media! New posts are added several times a week. No spam, just regular updates, helpful tips, and motivational quotes to inspire you to keep moving!
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Creating New Habits:
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Sitting is a habit and sitting less requires developing new and better habits. Creating new habits is easier for some people than others. Fortunately, our understanding of habits, how they are formed, regulated, and how they can be changed, has improved significantly over the last two decades. If you are determined to sit less, these resources can help you make lasting, sustainable changes.
James Clear Through his free newsletter, James Clear writes about the science of changing behaviors and adopting new habits and practices. He's also produced and makes available a free e-book on Transforming Your Habits. Other newsletters may get overlooked or deleted once they reach your inbox, but not James Clear's. It's that good. He has compiled his years of extensive research on habits into the book, Atomic Habits, now a New York Times bestseller. Highly recommended! The Habit Guide: Zen Habits’ Effective Habit Methods & Solutions by Leo Babauta Well-regarded habits practitioner Leo Babauta has developed this terrific e-book guide to understanding how habits are formed, effective methods for overcoming obstacles to building new habits, and solutions to the most common habit problems. Through his Sea Change program, Leo also provides a month-long online program devoted to building frequently desired new habits. Tiny Habits Noted habit researcher and Stanford psychologist BJ Fogg has created an excellent framework for quickly adopting small, yet impactful new behaviors. His Tiny Habits program is entirely on-line, free of charge, and is easy and fun to do. Over 30,000 people have successfully used the Tiny Habits program. New classes start each Monday. The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg Pulitzer prize-winning reporter Charles Duhigg has synthesized reams of information regarding what we now know about habits, cravings, and willpower. He then applies this research to a string of engaging stories of how individuals, corporations, and societies have transformed habits for their own purposes and how we can use this new information to make beneficial changes to our lives and communities. |
Reminders to Move Apps:
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One of the best tools to nudge you to sit less and move more is a smart phone app or website that reminds you at regularly scheduled intervals. Many smart watches and activity trackers have this functionality built in. The University of Missouri System has compiled a good list of sit less apps and websites. Although many such apps exist, we have tested and use Move Your App! and can recommend it.
If you have a dog, you have an automatic reminder to move. Now your dog walks can become walks FOR a dog. Wooftrax's Walk for a Dog app turns your daily walks into donations to your local animal shelter. You don't need to be walking a dog either in order for your miles to count: any walk, bike, or run as long as it's at least once a week will be tallied towards a donation. Very cool concept! Check it out! |
Books:
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No Sweat: How the Simple Science of Motivation Can Bring You a Lifetime of Fitness
by Michelle Segar, PhD Do you hate to exercise and just can't motivate yourself to do it? Would you rather have a root canal? You are not alone. But what if “exercising” is the real problem, and not you? Built on decades of research, behavioral psychologist Michelle Segar can help you "exorcise exercise" and find joy in staying active. Highly recommend this book! Move a Little, Lose a Lot: New N.E.A.T. Science Reveals How to Be Thinner, Happier, and Smarter by James A. Levine, MD, PhD This step-by-step workbook and guide is a great roadmap to living a more active, movement filled life. Written by one of the foremost authorities on obesity and NEAT (Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis), this 8 week plan, can help anyone, even the most sedentary, lead a more active, rewarding life. Scared Sitless: The Office Fitness Book
by Larry Swanson If you think there's not much you can do to reduce your sitting because of your desk job, think again. This book is a terrific resource for reducing office sitting, addressing such core issues as office sitting habits, routine movements, ergonomics, posture, and office exercises. Scared Sitless is also exceptionally well researched and documented. Read a review of Scared Sitless. Sitting Kills, Moving Heals: How Everyday Movement Will Prevent Pain, Illness and Early Death --- and Exercise Alone Won't
by Joan Vernikos, PhD Written by the former Director of NASA's Life Sciences Division, Joan Vernikos spent years studying the adverse health impacts experienced by astronauts in space. Based on her research and that of other experts, she sees similar health consequences from sedentary lifestyles that do not make regular use of gravity. Her book is a useful step-by-step guide for developing good "gravity habits" that improve health, fitness, and slow the aging process. |
Online Courses:
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The University of Edinburgh has created a terrific online video course through Coursera called Sit Less, Get Active. This 3 week course is designed to help participants monitor their activity levels and set realistic goals to become more active. It will also provide examples of how physical activity can be increased in different settings, such as your neighborhood, home or work/office. The time commitment to complete the course is about 1 hour per week. Sit Less, Get Active is offered several times a year. We highly recommend this course!
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Health Coaching:
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Would you like a partner to help you become more active and transform your health and life? A Health Coach can help you do just that. And we know just the person, Jen Sturm of Get With It For Life. Jennifer is an Integrative Nutrition Health Coach; a Life, Health & Fitness Coach; a certified Holistic Health Practitioner and an NASM Certified Personal Trainer with specialties in Women's Fitness, Senior Fitness and Corrective Exercise Science. Contact her by website: Get With It For Life.
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Recommended Websites:
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Move It Monday! Shake off that sedentary weekend with a pledge to be more active this week starting with Monday. This international campaign provides fitness routines, tips, and inspiration to get moving and make even Monday more enjoyable. Website Facebook Twitter
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