Time to Cure Couch Potato Syndrome

There you are, sitting on the couch again, watching TV instead of
exercising. You know you should get up and get to the gym, or even
just take a brisk walk around the block, but something's stopping
you. You're deep in the clutches of the evil couch potato syndrome.

Physical inactivity (often referred to as "Sedentarism") is a major
factor in heart disease, osteoporosis, adult-onset diabetes and
cancer. If you're sedentary, you're doing too much sitting, and it
may be putting you at risk.

Too many of us are doing too much sitting these days. Consider a
recent study that found that more than 79.5% of men and 87.3% of
women are "sedentary" -- expending less than 10% of their daily
energy in performing moderate or high-intensity exercise. Among
active men and women, two fairly basic activities (sports and
walking) were the main exercises performed.

So if you're one of the ones who don't exercise enough, take some
of advice from the ones who do. Moderate exercise can be easy and
fun to integrate into everyday life, and can include activities
such as biking, walking, swimming... even gardening. Get off that
couch and do something about your health. It's one of the best
decisions you'll ever make.

Bernstein MS, Morabia A, Sloutskis D. Definition and prevalence of
sedentarism in an urban population. American Journal of Public
Health, June 1999: Vol. 89, No. 6, pp862-67.