YOUR FRIENDS' ACTIVITY

    The Single Best Thing You Can Do for Your Health

    By | Healthy Living – Mon, Dec 19, 2011 10:53 AM EST

    By QuickieChick Laurel House
    QuickieChick Laurel House walking her pup
    If this doesn't motivate you to do SOMEthing today, I'm not sure what will. Especially because it is just so simple.

    Preventative medicine can mean anything from cancer screenings to eating healthy food, drinking and smoking less to keeping cholesterol levels down. But really, what type of preventative prescription has the biggest impact? Dr. Mike Evans, founder of the Health Design Lab at the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, an Associate Professor of Family Medicine and Public Health at the University of Toronto, and a staff physician at St. Michael's Hospital, created this short illustrated lecture spoken in total layman's terms about the type of preventative medicine that has been shown to have the most substantial impact on your health. More so than pretty much anything else. So what is it? Well, first I will tell you that this treatment has been shown to:
    REDUCE:
    Knee Arthritis Pain
    Alzheimers and Dementia
    Diabetes Risk
    Hip Fractures in post-menopausal women
    Anxiety
    Depression
    Risk of Death
    Fatigue
    Obesity
    READ 5 Excuses to Smoke and How Exercise Can Help You Quit
    IMPROVE:
    Quality of Life!

    So what is it? It's Walking. Yes. Walking. Not intense Exercise. Walking for 30-60 minutes a day. Now, this isn't a prescription to fit into your skinny jeans or drop to a size 4 dress size. This is about being healthy and improving your quality of life.



    If Exercise is the Prescription, What Is The Dose?
    More activity is better, but after 30 minutes a day, the "rate of return" is decreased. The biggest difference is for people who go from zero activity to some activity. Example? In a nurse's health study, women who went from zero activity to just 1 hour a week reduced their risk of health disease by half. But the average healthy person should really do between 30-60 minutes a day. So what should you do? Live a fit lifestyle. A few ideas:
    -Couples can take a half hour walk in the morning or night to check in, touch base, and get healthy together.
    -Get a dog! 67% of dog walkers walk 158 minutes a week just by walking their dogs.
    -Take the stairs.
    -Walk to work.
    READ 20 Workouts You Didn't Know You Were Doing

    Do you have "Sitting Disease?"
    We know that being sedentary is bad for your health. How bad? Compared with people who watch no TV, those who watch 6 hours of TV a day live 5 years less. Shockingly, the average adult in the USA watches 5 hours a day of TV. In other words, your TV watching habit might be a disease that is stealing 5 years of your life.

    Do THIS Couch Potato Quickie Workout While Watching TV