Your Personal Paleo Code: The 3-Step Plan to Lose Weight, Reverse Disease, and Stay Fit and Healthy for Life (24 page)

Too much exercise may harm people in less obvious ways as well. If you get up a half-hour early to exercise to offset all that sitting, that’s better than doing nothing, of course, but you’re also cutting into valuable sleep time. You may simply trade one problem (too much sitting) for another (chronic sleep deprivation). As you’ll see in the next chapter on sleep, that’s not a good trade! Some research suggests that people who exercise intensely (like marathon runners) are actually more likely to be sedentary when they’re not exercising. They may assume—incorrectly—that their exercise regimen protects them from the harmful effects of too much sitting.

So how do we find the sweet spot and ensure that we get enough—but not too much—physical activity? Once again, we can look to our
ancestors for clues on how to be naturally active throughout the day: sitting less, incorporating more movement into our daily routines, and engaging in moderate-to-vigorous exercise periodically.

The best way to accomplish this is by becoming what Dan Pardi of Dan’s Plan calls an Enduring Mover. The Enduring Mover framework involves three elements that can be expressed in the acronym SWAP: Stand, Walk, and Push. (Please see my website for a great infographic that Dan created to inspire the Enduring Mover in you and a link to Dan’s Plan, where you can find additional information about this approach.)

To undo the harmful effects of sitting, stand up! Standing engages postural muscles that increase helpful LPL activity, among other benefits. Standing and walking slowly increases energy expenditure by two and a half times; employees who stand while they work burn up to 75 percent more calories per day than people in sedentary jobs. An analysis by Dan Pardi showed that simply standing and engaging in light activity throughout the day burns as many calories over the course of a week as one to three intense spinning classes!

Studies show that the more breaks you take from sitting, the lower your waist circumference, body mass index, and triglycerides and the more stable your blood sugar. In fact, some research suggests that regular light physical activity throughout the day—including standing and walking—is more effective than short periods of vigorous exercise in reversing the harm caused by too much sitting.

If your day typically involves sitting for long periods, here are a few ways to reduce your sitting time:

Again, let’s keep it simple: Walk more, sit less. Of course, light physical activity, such as gardening or performing household chores, is also beneficial. In fact, all that fidgeting your parents and teachers told you to knock off—pacing around, being restless, doing a whole lot of nothing—is actually good for you. Studies show that fidgeting alone can increase energy expenditure by 50 percent when compared to sitting motionless; that translates to burning off an extra 350 calories a day—that’s thirty-five to forty pounds a year! Besides, it’s easier (and cheaper) to integrate a low-intensity activity into your daily life than an intensive, formal workout (like that pricey class at a gym you have to drive to).

You don’t have to do intensive exercise to improve fitness. Even a relatively low to moderate level of physical activity will lower your postmeal blood sugar, insulin levels, and triglycerides, as well as reduce your waist circumference. People who are lean tend to be physically active for more than 50 percent of the day, whereas people who are obese tend to be active for less than 40 percent of their day. The benefits of incorporating more activity and walking don’t stop with fitness. For years, I suffered from back pain and persistent muscle aches. I tried numerous treatments, from acupuncture to anti-inflammatory nutrients like curcumin to yoga. Nothing worked. When I started writing this book, the pain got even worse, since I was now spending two or three additional hours a day sitting at my computer—and I was only on the first chapter! I also had a fifteen-month-old daughter, a busy private practice, and several other obligations encroaching on my exercise-and-physical-activity time. I had to do something.

My first step was to install a standing desk in my office, and I began alternating between standing and sitting as I wrote. (I’ll talk more about the benefits of this routine later in this chapter.) It took me only about half a day to get used to writing while standing. My back pain improved slightly, but my muscles still ached. So I installed a treadmill under my standing desk. In the beginning, I averaged about eight thousand to ten thousand steps a day as I wrote. I felt a little sore at first, simply because I wasn’t accustomed to walking this much. But I also noticed a decrease in muscle pain at other times of day, and my back pain was significantly reduced. Encouraged, I slowly increased the amount of time I spent working at my treadmill desk. After a couple of weeks, I settled into an average of between fifteen thousand and eighteen thousand steps per day.

The improvements were nothing short of miraculous. Back pain? Gone. Muscle pain? Gone. I noticed other benefits as well, from an increase in mental clarity and sharpness to an improvement in the quality of my sleep.

You don’t need to match my steps to see a major improvement—just aim for ten thousand steps a day for optimal health. Walking that distance—about five miles a day—might seem impossible if you commute by car to work and spend most of the day at a computer, but here are a few tips for increasing your steps:

Push
here is short for push yourself. The goal is for you to include intense physical activity in addition to standing and walking throughout the week.

Modern research has confirmed that intense, intermittent exercise results in reductions in weight and improvements in blood-sugar regulation similar to equivalent amounts of lower-intensity continuous activity. In fact, some studies suggest that high-intensity, intermittent strength training is even more effective at improving resting metabolic rate (which helps burn fat) than lower-intensity, traditional strength training.

However, our ancestors didn’t overdo it. They instinctively conserved their energy, strength, and stamina for the daily tasks they needed to perform to survive. As one researcher put it, “Retirement was not an option for hunter-gatherers.” Studies of contemporary hunter-gatherers indicate that they likewise alternate difficult or strenuous days with easier rest days whenever possible. Modern research suggests that following a strenuous-workout day with a less demanding workout the next day leads to superior fitness and lowers risk of injury.

With this in mind, I recommend following Dan Pardi’s guidelines for moderate-to-vigorous activity:

Moderate exercise, vigorous exercise, and highest-intensity exercise are defined as follows:

I use these percentages because one person’s moderate activity might be someone else’s all-out highest effort. If someone has been completely sedentary, he might consider even a leisurely jog or a yoga class high intensity, whereas a fit person would likely classify the same activity as moderate intensity. A set of squats or bench-presses performed to failure—that is, until you can’t do one more repetition—would always be considered highest intensity, since by definition you’ve exerted maximum effort.

You can do your Push activity in designated workouts or simply integrate it into your daily routine (see “How to Strength Train in Your Home or Office,” below). I incorporate SWAP into my day through working at my treadmill desk and taking regular micro-and macro-breaks. I use micro-breaks to look away from the computer monitor and give my eyes a rest and to do some light stretching; during longer macro-breaks, I do some sets of pull-ups or other exercises, or I go outside and jump rope. By the time my workday is done, there’s no need for me to go to a gym!