Starting a business is stressful, and it makes having health insurance more important than ever. Working hard to brow a business might require quite a bit of legwork, but more often than not, an entrepreneur will find themselves sitting at a desk for hours upon hours a day. Depending on how much of your work requires you to sit and how late you work each night, it’s not unrealistic for a hardworking individual to stay seated for 10 to 12 hours every single day. Shockingly, this sedentary lifestyle isn’t great for your health, but until just recently, the real risks associated with sitting for hours on end weren’t clear.
If you’re working from home or spend lengthy periods of time at your desk otherwise, your sedentary lifestyle could increase your risk of diabetes, heart disease, and even some forms of cancer. The increased risk isn’t negligible either, with sitting being associated with a 21% increased risk of lung cancer, 24% increased risk of colon cancer, and a whopping 32% increased risk of endometrial cancer. Numbers like that can give way to panic, but there are four simple steps you can take to lower your risk, improve your health, and even get your creative juices flowing better than ever before.
1. Sit smarter
I know it sounds like an odd thing to say, but how you sit can have a huge impact on how bad sitting is for you. Do you fidget or wiggle around a lot? If so, keep it up! That little bit of movement lowers your risk of developing complications because your constant movement actually counts as exercise (just don’t count on wiggling to give you a six pack). It also boosts brain function, makes you more efficient, and it’s just fun to wiggle around all of the time!
2. Walk and talk
Wiggling is great, but it’s still a pretty minimal level of activity, so if you’re ever talking to someone on the phone, take advantage of your freedom and walk around a bit. If you don’t have a wired phone, you can walk around all you want, getting those creative juices flowing and staying healthy in the process.
3. Plan tiny workouts
You’re probably a busy person, and it’s hard to find 30 minutes to fit a full exercise routine, so instead of skipping lunch to crunch, just take more frequent, smaller breaks. Your brain will appreciate the rest, your body will appreciate the activity, and you’ll feel great. Set an alarm if you need to, and just take a few minutes out of every work hour to do some jumping jacks, crunches, pushups, or yoga. Get your blood pumping, and check out some free health quotes online to see if all of that exercise could lower your insurance premiums!
4. Don’t take the easy way there (or back)
There are plenty of opportunities in day-to-day life to make things a little more challenging. Take the stairs, park at the back of the parking lot, or maybe have a nice dessert of pushups after lunch. It may not sound like a lot of fun, but making small changes to the way you go about your day can add up to a much lower risk of potentially life-threatening diseases.
Follow these four steps, and you won’t have anything to fear. Simply creating more small opportunities to be active adds up fast, and before you know it, you’ll be in better health with lower risks.
What’s your favorite way to stay in shape? What small, ten-minute exercises do you recommend for small breaks? Let us know in the comments section below!
