Don’t Let Sitting Dominate Your 9 to 5

Ugh… sitting all day is THE worst! I constantly complain how life after college is a whole lot of “hurry up and… sit” in the workplace. But, complaining certainly won’t help, so I’m determined to change that.

Perhaps even more of a reason to alter sitting habits is all the recent research that shows just how bad our sitting too much is for our health. In fact, we’ve been hearing that sitting is the smoking of our generation. I find this particularly concerning because the research has found that even people who work out regularly still need to sit less throughout the day. Horrifyingly, sitting all day can cancel out the effects of what you thought was a productive workout!!! I refuse to let that happen.

This CNN article provides a simple piece of advice to help you sit less: be aware of how much your are sitting. Trust me, I know how easy it is to get caught up in what you are doing at work, and suddenly, you’ve been sitting for 2 hours straight without a break. So, I was so excited when I discovered a few new ways to know when you need to get up and walk around for a few minutes – I’ve been trying out these apps for a few days and have been loving them so far.

For MAC desktop: Stand

For PC desktop: BreakTaker

For iPhone: Stand Up!

The concept of all three are pretty much the same: they provide alerts throughout the day to remind you to stand up and walk around. If you want to be reminded to get up for a walk break every 45 minutes – you can set the preferences for that timing, and when 45 minutes rolls around, you can accept the message to take a walk (it will reset the timer) or snooze it if you are really in the thick of things. BreakTaker for PC actually provides small little incentives or ideas for what to do for your break, which I love, and I actually get kind of excited for my next break.

All apps are free! So, try them out, and see which one works best for your workday.