UNSIT YOURSELF

Written by the UnSit Team Paul Byrne, Rob Jacobs, Lee Schneider, Kate Durocher, Terry Nguyen

Graphic design by Jennifer Bumba

Published by UnSit

Produced by Red Cup Agency

Copyright 2017 by UnSit. All Rights Reserved. http://www.unsit.com/

Dedication

Dedicated to Dr. James Levine and to all the people who have walked before us.

We hope this book will UnSit you.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Getting Started

What This Book Is About

The Perils of

Who Has Time to Walk?

No Time to Exercise?

Change Your Life by

Why Beethoven, Steve Jobs, and Others Took Long Walks

Habits of Successful People Who Walk at Work

How Much Exercise Do You Need?

The Power of Taking Breaks

Creativity

Find Your Creative Spark

Walk Your Way Out of a Creative Rut

Walk into Your Creativity

Learning and Happiness

Make Learning a Moving Experience

Happiness

Wellness at Work

Get Away from Your Desk

Fitness at Work as a Hiring Inventive

The Healthy Company

Tips for Using a Standing Desk with Treadmill

Wrapping Up

Don’t Walk Away Yet

What This Book Is About

We were designed to move. Long ago, that capability allowed us to gather food, hunt, and flee predators, but over time mechanization and the drive for efficiency has taken the labor, i.e. movement, out of the majority of our days. In most Western societies, only a small minority work the fields or walk the factory floor.

While progress has made our lives much easier, the resulting lack of movement has had a significant negative impact on our health and well-being. We sit almost ten hours a day, resulting in a host of complications. and are at near-epidemic levels. For the first time in two centuries, the next generation is expected to have a lower than that of their parents. Most of us fail to take action to mitigate the damage.

In this book, you’ll learn what this lack of movement is doing to our bodies and our health. You will also learn that undoing that damage is easier than you might think, and that it comes with huge side benefits like enhanced productivity, creativity, and sense of well-being. We know the excuses – “I don’t have time,” “it hurts to exercise or move too much,” and “I don’t know how,” just to name a few. We know we should do it, but we manage to talk ourselves out of it. Contrast that with your car: you follow the maintenance schedule, change the oil, and get new tires, because you know if you don’t you will pay dearly later. But for some reason, when it comes to our bodies we choose to avoid doing what’s necessary. All of us were issued only one body. It’s our transport vehicle through life, and the extent we choose to take care of it will, to a large degree, dictate how well we move through life and maximize the gift we were given.

Getting back on track does not require hours at the gym. It’s a matter of choosing your time and wisely approaching how you use it. Read on.

The Perils of Sitting

If you work in an office, your worldview probably originates from behind a desk, while you are sitting in a chair. You probably spend fifty to seventy percent of your day sitting. Unfortunately, a growing collection of scientific research contends that it's a bad idea to spend your day in a chair. Writers, scientists, and experts have warned of the health dangers of hours of sitting. The watershed book on this topic, and the one that first got us working on how to UnSit the world, is not only a great read, but is also backed by original research. It's Dr. James A. Levine's Get Up! Why Your Chair is Killing You and What You Can Do About It.

Dr. Levine uses a personal narrative, interesting cases, and his own research into the causes of obesity to come to a compelling conclusion: in today's chair-dominated world, we don't use our bodies as they were intended to be used. A stark consequence is a decline in our health. Levine says that long-term sitting over the average workday is a leading cause of diabetes, , and heart disease. He also believes that our switch to sedentary behavior has reshaped much of our lives, from office and classroom design to social interactions.

Wait. There's an easy fix. All you have to do is move.

Levine advocates taking regular breaks when sitting down for long periods, and he is a fan of both standing desks and treadmill desks for daily use. Standing desks take up about the same amount of space as a regular desk. You can adjust the height to full standing or, if you need a rest, to sitting. If you want to keep moving, try a treadmill desk like UnSit's WALK-1. Over the course of a day, it's easier to walk than it is to stand still, so a treadmill under your desk might be just the answer for better health.

For most of us, the challenge is not a lack of desire – we all want to be healthier and live longer. Our biggest challenge is a lack of time. We all need more of it, and still there are only twenty- four hours in a day. Next, we’ll cover how to get some of that time back.

Who Has Time to Walk?

Walking for your health seems like such an obvious activity that you might even take it for granted.

“I already walk every day,” you tell yourself. "Isn't that enough?" But no matter what your inner “angel voice” might be telling you, you may be surprised to learn that we need to take from 10,000 to 15,000 steps every day for our own good. That tracks out to around five to seven miles.

“Impossible!” you might retort. “I sit at a desk all day. There is no way I can get a couple of miles of walking done.”

Before you make that pronouncement, you might want to know that a large body of research says that sitting behind that desk of yours is almost certainly damaging your health and is probably killing you. Ouch. Fortunately, there is a solution, and it's simple.

One of the most transformative moves of your entire life would be to get up and get moving during your workday. The reasons for doing this begin with enhanced creativity and productivity, and end with extending your life – serious stuff for anybody. Not all of this book is deadly serious, though. Let's not forget that walking at work can be fun, and we’ll show you how. We will share our own story and those of our customers, and will introduce you to the latest research and inspirational thinking about moving for health. Let’s get started.

No Time to Exercise?

You might obsess about money and love, but time is likely your most valuable commodity.

If you have kids, your day is certainly full. If you are pursuing a challenging career, your day is probably stressful. If you commute to work, you might subtract two hours in traffic from available time each day. Everything takes time, and there is only so much time in the day.

If you’re a farmer, beautician, or construction worker – wonderful! You are on your feet all day and burning lots of calories already. For the rest of us who work at desks, sitting in chairs for most of the day – how will we take the daily steps we need?

Only twenty percent of Americans exercise regularly. We might grab a pickup basketball game on a Saturday morning or chase our kids around the park for half an hour. You might do yoga, play tennis, or go on a run a couple mornings a week. Some of you might hit the gym after work. Unfortunately, according to Dr. Levine and other researchers, none of it will be enough to counteract a day of sitting.

The solution is to revamp your workday – not drastically, but in increments. As you progress you’ll be surprised how easy it is to get 10,000 steps in while you work. If you still want to visit the gym after that, fine, but know that you’ve done more for your health while walking at work than you’ll accomplish with all the equipment a gym has to offer. Over time, you’ll feel better, lose weight, and become more productive, all while saving valuable hours to allocate any way you wish. The biggest changes start with small decisions. Here are a few suggestions.

If you’re still sitting at work:

Don’t Get Stuck on Your Screen

Look away from your computer and into the distance every few minutes. Set a timer if you need a reminder. Get up and walk around at about the same intervals. These small choices will very likely give you a taste for more movement. You might be inspired to break up your workday

with a brisk twenty-minute walk or a longer workout.

Office Yoga

Desk Yogi is a video series designed for people who work at desks. It will encourage you to move at (or near) your desk every day.

From Standing Desk to Treadmill Desk

A standing desk will free you from your chair. This is a good first step, as we will discuss in the coming sections. Know that it’s best to make your path to standing a conscious one – begin by standing for short twenty-minute intervals, later building up to standing for hours at a time. Most people find their legs aching after about fifteen minutes of standing, and soon discover that they can’t stand all day. Your legs ache because they are not moving. Moving legs act as a pump that helps the heart keep the blood in the legs flowing against gravity. Without movement, the blood pools and the legs ache. The only way to prevent achy legs is to keep them moving, by walking.

Your next step? Adding a treadmill under your desk. It’s a great way to help you stay up and out of your chair all day.

As the publisher of this e-book, we are proud to recommend our own WALK-1 treadmill desk. If you've read this far, you already know about the value of standing and moving during your work day, but there's another factor to consider: your time. Most of us are concerned about not having enough time in the day – time to do our work, enjoy family, or just have fun. Studies show that a trip to the gym won’t undo the damage done by sitting all day, but taking at least 10,000 steps at work is likely to prevent that damage in the first place. If you skip the gym after work, and instead gain several hours a week by using a treadmill desk, you can have that precious time refunded.

Change Your Life by Walking

Walking your way to health sounds good, right? Not only will you save time by walking at work instead of going to the gym, you will also become more creative and productive. (You'll find out how in later sections.)

You might also discover that walking becomes the leading edge for lifestyle changes that will benefit you even more. Walking can be the start of a beneficial feedback loop that can change your life. You might find yourself rearranging your schedule so that you can get more sleep, eat better, and relieve stress. Coming up are some tips about how to do all of that. Before we begin the journey, know that you're following in the footsteps of many great thinkers and doers, from Beethoven to Steve Jobs.

Why Beethoven, Steve Jobs, and Others Took Long Walks

In an age with easily accessible and efficient transportation, it might seem to you that you don't need to take long walks. Instead, many of us don't take walks at all, and if we do, it's only for a short period of time.

If you're not walking very much, you might want to rethink that decision, because walking is the secret sauce of many a creative person. What do Steve Jobs, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Charles Dickens have in common? They walked to help with their creative process. Those visionaries used walking to help them take productive breaks from work and build on their creative vision.

Sitting at a desk while working on a project or task can be both mentally and physically exhausting, not to mention uncreative. In a Canva blog post Andrew Tate wrote that Beethoven frequently took short breaks to stretch his legs, strolling around Vienna, his home for a major part of his composing career. It was believed that many of his best works were influenced by these walks, and he would bring along a writing utensil and paper to jot down any creative inspiration that came to him. Beethoven's 6th Symphony was said to have been influenced by the countryside and the rural elements he discovered during his walks.

Beethoven, however, was not the only famous composer to find walking an enjoyable creative stimulant. A Slate article related that Pyotr Tchaikovsky and Gustav Mahler also took walks, which were “essential to their creativity.” The notes they wrote down would later be developed through their music. Charles Dickens famously created captivating, complex characters in his novels, which were inspired by the experiences he encountered while sauntering across London.

A more modern example of the creative connection to walking can be seen in Susan Orlean, the New Yorker Magazine essayist. Orlean is a self-proclaimed runner, but after suffering several injuries she opted for a treadmill desk, which greatly helped her multitask while working. Although it was difficult for her to find time to walk outside of work, walking while working was

a good fit for her.

When she wrote about her treadmill desk experiences for The New Yorker, she walked on her treadmill as she interviewed Dr. James Levine, who was also at a treadmill desk during the interview. As she described it, the two of them "spoke for about a mile." Orlean wrote that “sitting puts muscles into a sort of hibernation, cutting off their electrical activity and shutting down the production of lipoprotein lipase, the enzyme that breaks down fat molecules in the blood. Your metabolic rate drops to about one calorie a minute — just slightly higher than if you were dead.”

Phone meetings are an easy activity to carry out while walking on a treadmill desk. Creative people confirm that walking helps them develop their creativity and is essential to their daily workflow.

Take Steve Jobs, for example. Jobs was well known for taking "walking meetings," and Walter Isaacson, in his biography of Jobs, describes many such conferences. The walking habit is also emulated by Jobs' chief designer, Jony Ive. Inc. reports that Ive would be seen taking “brainstorming walks” around the Apple campus.

These brainstorming walks come with scientific support: when you walk, blood flow improves brain performance, stimulating creativity levels. According to a Stanford study, walking can boost a person's creative output by sixty percent. The researchers measured creative thinking both while their subjects walked and while they were sitting. "The act of walking itself, and not the environment, was the main factor," reported the Stanford researchers.

Here are some key takeaways to help you use walking to your advantage.

Walking Helps You Solve Problems

Since the act of walking helps increase blood flow and brain performance, taking a walk helps you solve problems. Oxygen intake is increased during physical movement, helping you gain a clearer mind and reduce stress.

Charles Darwin reportedly walked laps around a path near his home. “The number of laps Darwin did depended on the difficulty of the problem at hand,” wrote Tate in the Canva blog. Darwin is a historic example of a “walk it out to work it out” individual, but taking a walk – whether alone or with a companion – can also aid in conflict resolution.

Walking Meetings Make for Inventive Discussions

Although many creatives tend to walk by themselves rather than with a friend, the “walking meeting” has grown increasingly popular. A walking meeting is certainly less formal, opening the doors for deeper discussion and insight that might not have been discovered in a conference room.

Mark Zuckerberg has apparently taken up the Steve Jobs habit of holding moving meetings. A TED Talk by Nilofer Merchant, a former technology executive, discusses the benefits of the walk-and-talk meeting and why companies and individuals should pursue this means of discussion.

“Walk the talk,” Merchant advised in her lecture. “You'll be surprised at how fresh air drives fresh thinking, and in the way that you do, you'll bring into your life an entirely new set of ideas.”

Habits of Successful People Who Walk at Work

Arianna Huffington has always been curious about the relationship between productivity and well-being. You might know her as the founder of HuffPost. After selling the news website to AOL for $315 million with a personal gain of around $21 million, she founded the productivity platform Thrive Global and published an accompanying book, Thrive. Both the book and the website dig into the connection between work and life. Huffington believes a healthy workplace environment is the key to maintaining a balance of wellness while juggling the unpredictable elements of work-and-life stress.

Huffington has always been a proponent of treadmill desks and standing desks. “At our offices, all the desks can be adjusted to become standing desks, and we also have a treadmill desk and a nap pod,” she revealed in an interview with Lifehacker.

Although it is a bit of a stretch to attribute success to owning a treadmill desk alone, consider that Huffington's testimony is not unique among highly successful individuals. Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel and former Cosmopolitan magazine editor Joanna Coles are also treadmill desk enthusiasts. While owning a treadmill desk won't guarantee your own talk show or magazine, judging by the lives of these successful people, it's clear that positive habits and lifestyle changes can arise from walking while working. Following are some habits of highly successful people who walk while they work. Take a look – with a treadmill desk (like the WALK-1) you can implement these beneficial habits into your daily life.

Successful People Focus on Personal Health

Huffington and many other successful individuals have attributed their personal and professional growth to their focus on health. Research from the Harvard Business Review also shows that if individuals overly prioritize work and neglect their health (through sleep deprivation and lack of exercise), their workplace mentality and attitude will be negatively affected.

Social media, email, and an "always on" mentality have conditioned employees to expect

themselves to work around the clock. While being constantly available may seem beneficial, it can wreak havoc on your well-being over time. Shifting your focus to personal health and making it the foundation of your lifestyle, both at home and at work, can lead to unparalleled creative and mental growth.

Successful People Distance Themselves from Distraction

Are you a "grinder," the kind of worker who likes to dig in and grind away at a task until you find a solution? You might not be working as efficiently as you think. Consider the Pomodoro Technique, a time-management style with a funny name (pomodoro means “tomato” in Italian) that can produce positive results. The creator of the technique, Francesco Cirillo, used a kitchen timer in the shape of a tomato in his early research. You set the timer to partition your work into twenty-five-minute intervals separated by short breaks. Whether you are a writer, lawyer, developer, parent, teacher, or student, you can focus on the task at hand during those twenty-five minutes, and then relax briefly before the next focus period. Breaking large tasks into smaller steps like this works really well to combat idleness and fatigue.

The way many of us work, by staring at a screen all day, is not very productive. Taking breaks at regular intervals to move around, or better still, walking while working, allows you to not only move your muscles, but to also get your mind flowing alongside the physical movement.

By structuring work into shorter "sprints" we preempt distractions that can arise from checking websites and social media. (A study commissioned by CareerBuilder found that the Internet and social media are a few of the top ten distractions in the workplace.)

Sitting in a cubicle is also number ten on CareerBuilder's list of workplace distractions, which is strange because so many individuals spend their time working in just that manner. Getting up and moving around every twenty minutes or so (or using a treadmill desk to keep in motion while you work) disrupts some of the workplace monotony and stimulates productivity.

Although walking at a treadmill desk might not curb your social media usage, walking engages an individual's mind, even if he or she is doing work simultaneously. Research has shown that light exercise can rejuvenate your mind and provide the basis for a stronger, more productive

work ethic.

Successful People Plan the Day's Activities

To be successful, one must always look ahead, whether it’s one day or one year into the future. Chinese philosopher Confucius once said, “A man who does not plan long ahead will find trouble right at his door.”

By planning out the day's activities, you can easily envision how to start your day and accomplish what you set out to do with a motivated mindset. It also creates a sense of commitment to finishing your to-do list that might not be present if you did not plan it out beforehand.

Although this habit is true for many who might not walk while working, walking helps your thoughts flow from your brain to your laptop, and can therefore help you build out your ideas into an attainable goal.

Ferris Jabr, writing in The New Yorker, explains that, “When we stroll, the pace of our feet naturally vacillates with our moods and the cadence of our inner speech; at the same time, we can actively change the pace of our thoughts by deliberately walking more briskly or by slowing down.” If you are in control of your thoughts and have a set list of goals to accomplish at the start of your day, walking while working will heighten your sense of productivity and help you move one step closer to success.

Here's a tip: before digging into email, checking voicemail, or returning calls, take a moment to envision the one task that will make you happiest if you accomplish it today. Come up with one such anchor event for each work day, then create a list of three to five steps to reach that big goal.

If you like apps, explore the use of one like Timely, which gives you a visual representation of your workflow. If you'd like to create your own visual of your workweek, try using Trello, which works in a way similar to virtual index cards. At the end of your day, consider using a reverse to- do list. This is a list of things you were proud to accomplish that day. A simple journal will work,

but if you prefer a digital method, look into IDoneThis or Day One. Both are elegant, simple interfaces that make task tracking and journaling fun and productive.

Successful People Walk While They Work

Getting into the habit of walking while working fosters a mindset of productiveness and efficiency. Although walking on a treadmill may initially appear to require physical multi- tasking capabilities, being able to walk while you work is already a step toward increasing productivity. A study conducted by the University of Texas, the University of Minnesota, and the Mayo Clinic found that over time treadmill desks boosted productivity.

“Walking on the treadmill didn’t come at the expense of being a productive worker,” the Huffington Post reports, according to a researcher and professor at UT Arlington. In fact, she contends that the results of the study revealed that walking actually augmented productivity.

Even without scientific studies to back up the practice, those who walk or are active during their working hours appear to be more energized and enthusiastic about their work, boosting work performance overall. The UT Arlington study mentioned above revealed similar findings.

How Much Exercise Do You Need?

“How much exercise do I really need?”

That's a question that has surely popped into your mind, especially during busy days with no time to hit the gym, weeks at work when you're confined to your desk, or simply bouts of laziness that can't be helped. (You know how it is.)

Experts from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention say you should aim for around thirty minutes of at least five days a week.

Are you getting that much cardio now? Maybe not. Although this dictum is supported by research, many question whether a one-size-fits-all workout prescription is sensible for individuals of all shapes, sizes, and lifestyles. What is right for you?

If you are sitting a lot at work, know that those hours add up in a truly detrimental way – the long-term effects of sitting could negate your workout benefits. What? Yes, it's true, as revealed by research from the University of Texas Southwest Medical Center.

Each time unit of sitting cancels out eight percent of your gain from the same amount of time spent running. The example provided by the study was shocking: if you run for one hour in the morning, and then sit for ten hours at work, eighty percent of your morning’s workout benefits will be invalidated.

Oh, man. What are you supposed to do about that? Easy – walk more.

Walking can contribute to the suggested amount of daily cardio, as well as mitigate the “canceling out” effects of sitting too much.

Any small bursts of activity, whether walking or doing a few crunches, could be helpful in contradicting the harmful effects of prolonged sitting. Even if you are confined to a desk for most of the day, you can still make small, crucial changes that will improve your overall health and fitness.

“People who don't exercise can be healthier even if all they do is reduce the amount of time they sit," said Jason Matuszak, a sports medicine specialist to the American Academy of Family Physicians. In addition, he also shared that even people who exercise can be healthier by decreasing their sedentary periods.

An expert statement released by the British Journal of Sports suggests that Americans should start dedicating two hours of their eight-hour work day to sufficient movement, in order to decrease health risks. The Washington Post reports that American workers should gradually try to spend half their workday in “light-intensity activities” to reduce their sitting periods.

Although it's important to sit down and take a break once in a while, the average office worker spends around ten hours a day sitting behind a desk. Tack on a few more hours for commuting, Netflix, and Internet browsing, and it amounts to potential serious health crises.

Having an active lifestyle is especially important, in addition to the recommended amount of exercise. Individuals who might not exercise as frequently or vigorously, but who are mindful of their sitting habits, could have drastically different health and fitness results than those who are unaware of the effects of sitting.

Exercise should be consistent in your daily life, in accordance to sitting habits, eating habits, and body size. Overall consistency might not produce the desired effects of a perfect beach body, but in the literal long run, your health could be impacted for the better.

There is no perfect amount of exercise for every person; we are all different, but what's important is maintaining a mindset of mobility and healthy living. Although it is difficult to find time to exercise in your busy day-to-day schedule, we’ve got an idea for you: try a treadmill desk like the WALK-1. You get to keep the benefits of the run you took in the morning, punch through your to-do list, and research shows you’ll live longer.

The Power of Taking Breaks

Hour after hour of sitting puts your metabolic system to sleep. Circulation is decreased, and the effectiveness of insulin (the hormone that regulates blood sugar) decreases as much as seventy percent after an hour of sitting. The musculoskeletal system suffers damage that is hard to reverse, even with yoga or exercise, and the psoas (the two large muscles in your pelvis that hold your back up), along with the disks between your vertebrae, begins to deform. Dr. Christiane Northrup, a leading authority on women’s health, has called the psoas "the most important muscle in your body," affecting your posture and stabilizing your spine. The psoas is the only muscle that connects your spine to your legs.

Dr. Northrup points out that your psoas muscle shifts out of balance when you sit for long periods of time. If you must sit, she recommends that you try to get up and move around for five minutes once every hour to stave off the problems caused by sitting. Hours of uninterrupted sitting cause irreversible damage.

Creativity

Exercise is the single best thing you can do for your brain in terms of mood, memory, and learning. - John Ratey, MD

The body and mind work together, sometimes in complex ways that may surprise you. Dr. John Ratey, author of Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain writes that exercise is as effective as certain medications for treating anxiety and depression. A Duke University study shows that exercise works better than Zoloft at treating depression. Exercise not only influences your mood, but it can also help you learn faster and retain more information. Finally, exercise creates a positive feedback loop in your mind. You feel good about yourself after you exercise, and that will make you want to exercise even more.

We'll give you some good reasons to experience all of those positive effects in the next sections of the book, which explore the body and mind.

Find Your Creative Spark

With Dr. Ratey's help, let's dig into why movement helps you become more creative and productive.

“If you want to turn on your brain, exercise,” says Dr. Ratey. “It turns out that moving our muscles produces proteins that travel through the bloodstream and into the brain, where they play pivotal roles in the mechanisms of our highest thought processes.” That's amazing to consider – moving not only makes you feel good, but also affects your highest levels of thought. Exercise contributes to what scientists call cognitive flexibility – the ability to think outside of the box and be truly creative, instead of providing rote responses.

Why does movement have this positive effect on the brain? Because the brain thrives on new information. Ratey contends that “physical activity counts as novel experience, at least as far as the brain is concerned.” Exercise can not only help you be more creative, but it can also help you feel less stressed. “At every level, from the microcellular to the psychological, exercise not only wards off the ill effects of chronic stress; it can also reverse them," Ratey writes. "Studies show that if researchers exercise rats that have been chronically stressed, that activity makes the hippocampus [the part of the brain that is believed to be the center of long-term memory and spatial navigation] grow back to its pre-shriveled state. The mechanisms by which exercise changes how we think and feel are so much more effective than donuts, medicines, and wine. When you say you feel less stressed out after you go for a swim, or even a fast walk, you are.”

Dr. Ratey argues that aerobic exercise "lights a fire on every level of your brain." Let's look at how exercise helps you learn better and faster.

Walk Your Way Out of a Creative Rut

Are you stuck in a creative rut? Hey, it happens. Have you tried walking your way out of it? It may sound like amateur advice, but researchers say it works. A 2017 study conducted by researchers at New Mexico Highlands University found that the act of walking creates impact on an individual's feet and increases the amount of blood circulated to the brain. Although that particular study did not prove a link between increased blood flow and enhanced creativity, past research has shown that exercise and walking both enhance cognitive performance. To cure the creative blahs you'll need to get off the couch and start moving.

Here's where the facts get interesting in the Stanford study we’ve mentioned often in this book: it is the act of walking itself that helps people become more creative. You don't even have to walk outside. Simply pacing around – indoors or out – produced results that showed a boost in creativity. The results also continue moments after you stop moving: the study found that creativity levels remained consistently higher than average after a healthy bout of walking.

There's the science for you. What about intuition? Does walking make you feel more creative? Walking encourages the mind to wander, and that's a positive mental ability, despite what we’ve been conditioned to believe in terms of workplace productivity. This is the kind of mental state that studies have linked to innovative ideas.

Walk into Your Creativity

We know that people are more creative while walking, and we’ve experienced that in real life.

Ever been stuck on a problem, then solved it while on a walk?

Something magical happens when we start walking. It’s like we’re freeing up our brains to really think. Research from Stanford University backs this up, reporting that people are sixty percent more creative while walking. Experts in creativity, like writer Elizabeth Gilbert and psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, have discovered the positive effects of movement on one’s imagination.

What are the best conditions to bring on creativity? The elusive quality we all seek is called flow.

A Few Words About Flow

Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi coined the term flow to describe optimal experiences that are truly gratifying. During flow, people experience creativity, enjoyment, and a total involvement with life. The practices of brainstorming, stepping outside your usual routine, even daydreaming, and certainly walking can all increase your chances of experiencing flow. If you’re interested in the science behind this, check out Csikszentmihalyi’s book, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, or listen to his TED Talk.

What Is Creativity?

Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love and Big Magic has said in her own TED Talk that instead of thinking of the rare person who is a genius, she prefers to think of us all as “having” genius. What sparks that genius and creativity? For Gilbert, it starts with curiosity, and also a little magic. Taking the pressure to be creative off yourself is a good start, and acknowledging that the source of your creativity might come from outside yourself can help you tap into that source and access it more often.

In an interview with New York magazine, Gilbert said, “I believe in evolution, I believe in

vaccinations, I believe the world is round. I am here with everyone in the modern world. But I also think it’s a benefit to keep a piece of ourselves open to the creative process as something that’s a little mystical and magical."

Learning and Happiness

Exercise helps you learn. It starts in the part of the brain associated with long-term memory. Regular movement and exercise expand the hippocampus, according to researchers at the University of British Columbia. Exercise also reduces insulin resistance, reduces inflammation, and releases growth factors, which are chemicals in the brain that affect brain cell health. Exercise also promotes the growth of new blood vessels and even helps new brain cells survive.

Dr. Wendy Suzuki, a neuroscientist and professor at New York University, agrees that movement helps parts of the brain important for attention, for memory, and for mood, and it does this by performing actions like changing the anatomical structure of the brain – it actually increases the size of some of these areas and enhances their physiological responses.

Exercise also helps you be happier.

Make Learning a Moving Experience

When you think of school, do you think of sitting? We might argue that it’s been ingrained since our early years that school – and, likewise, education and learning – takes place in a sedentary setting, complete with neatly-ordered wooden desks and rows of tables. If you’ve read this far in this book, however, you know that learning happens on the move. A study written by retired teacher Paul Zientarski suggests that using a treadmill or standing desk will enhance the learning experience.

In Zientarski’s study, he cites that movement – or lack of it – is directly connected to the academic behaviors of children. Researchers in West Virginia analyzed the exam results of students in grade five and followed up on their performance two years later when they were in grade seven. Their findings revealed that the children who scored the highest were those who were deemed physically fit at the start and end of the study.

Companies like StandUp Kids have also emphasized the necessity of movement for a better learning experience. They make stand-up desks for school use, and they argue that movement at school will inspire the next generation to be doers, not sitters. Scientific studies reveal the harm in sitting for adults, so why do we condemn our kids to a life full of it?

This may amaze you: school-aged children give the impression of having boundless energy and endless physical activity, yet the average US student sits for about four and a half hours during a school day, according to the Small Schools Coalition.

The Alexandria Country Day School in Virginia is one of the few innovative schools that have begun implementing standing desks in their curriculum. Although they’ve only received three desks to be shared among the three different third-grade classrooms in the school, the standing desks have helped students control their energy levels and channel them toward creativity and learning.

CNN reported that the school's head, Scott Baytosh, has been using a standing desk for six years already, and he gladly gave his students the opportunity to reap the benefits of standing when the

school came across extra funds. In an interview, Baytosh said, “Kids at this age need to move and so often in education, we tell them to stop moving, sit still, sit up, pay attention. Here we are, allowing them just enough movement to be more comfortable and focus so that they can focus their mental energy on what the lesson is asking them.”

Mark Benden, an associate professor at the Texas A&M Health Science Center, says that too much sitting can lead to attention deficit disorders and obesity. When children were given the opportunity to use a standing desk, Benden describes a positive response in their behavior and activity levels. “We quickly realized they are more active, they are burning more calories, at the standing desks. And they’re not necessarily standing the whole time,” Benden told KQED News.

Eric Jensen, in his book Teaching with the Brain in Mind, cites a simple but overlooked connection between the mind and the body. “The part of the brain that processes movement is the same part of the brain that processes learning,” Jensen wrote. When you move, your cerebellum (the part of the brain that deals with motor control) stimulates areas of the brain involved with memory, perception, and attention. Therefore, this essential link reveals that learning is, truly, a moving experience.

Happiness

People are constantly searching for ideas, quick fixes, and methods to help make them happier. We buy dozens of self-help books, seek the advice of trained professionals, adopt animals, and do everything imaginable to find more happiness. A simple way to increase happiness and enhance mood, though, is often overlooked: exercise.

Exercise makes you healthier, thinner, stronger, faster, and even smarter. And, it turns out, exercise can also make you happier! We all know that when you work out, your body releases feel-good hormones, otherwise known as endorphins. Sport and exercise psychologist J. Kip Matthews, PhD, says that endorphins are similar to the drug morphine, as they activate opioid receptors in the brain, which work as a natural painkiller. These endorphins also create a sense of euphoria and well-being, he says.

Also, when you exercise, your brain increases production of serotonin and norepinephrine, which are neurotransmitters that send messages throughout your nervous system. When exercising, those messages are positive and happy. On the flip side, exercise reduces stress hormones in the body, further leaving you in a good mood.

On top of providing almost instant benefits, exercise can also help protect you from chronic conditions such as depression. Consistent exercise produces longer-lasting treatment of depression than even antidepressants can.

If you're looking for some ways to boost your mood, and all of the above sound pretty good to you, then achieving all of that is simple. According to researchers at the University of Vermont, just twenty minutes of exercise can create mood benefits that last for over twelve hours. Those few minutes out of your entire day are only a small tick in your busy schedule compared to all of the benefits you stand to gain.

Gretchen Rubin, the creator of The Happiness Project, reveals that “research shows being happy energizes you, and at the same time, having more energy makes it easier for you to engage in activities—like socializing and exercise—that boost happiness. Studies also show that when you

feel energetic, your self esteem rises.”

For Rubin, taking the time to exercise and making sure to always be moving helped her boost her energy and, as a result, improve her mood and happiness.

“Although I’d already known that sleep and exercise were important to good health, I’d been surprised to learn that happiness— which can seem like a complex, lofty, and intangible goal— was quite influenced by these straightforward habits,” Rubin said.

Want more happiness in your life? Consider these common habits of happy people. (This list comes from The Pursuit of Happiness.)

Express your heart. People who maintain one or more close friendships are happier.

Cultivate kindness. Volunteering and caring for others will help you be happier.

Exercise. Regular exercise has been associated with improved mental well-being and a lower incidence of depression.

Find your flow. As mentioned in our section on creativity, when you become deeply involved trying to reach a goal, using skills that you value, you can reach a state known as flow, and that will make you happy.

Discover Meaning. Studies demonstrate a link between spiritual and religious practice and happiness. Searching for meaning in your life can make you happier.

Focus on your strengths. Discover your unique strength and celebrate it. You might be persistent, great at critical thinking, or friendly – recognizing those aspects of yourself, being grateful for them, and celebrating them will make you happier.

Stay Positive. Be grateful, be positive, and cultivate a mindset of hope.

Wellness at Work

So far in this book we've shared ideas to enhance personal health and well-being. This section is for those of you who hold the responsibility of making the workplace better for your colleagues or employees. You might be in the human resources department of your company, or the CEO, seeking to discover the secrets of workplace wellness.

The good news is that workplace wellness programs are becoming more common. According to a RAND study, ninety-two percent of larger employers offer them. They are intended to help employees exercise more, stop smoking, and lose weight. Here's the bad news: fewer than twenty percent of eligible employees participate in the wellness programs that are available to them.

Can that be fixed? We believe that any company, from a small home-run business, to a start-up, to a large corporation, can craft a great wellness plan with a little bit of research, inspiration, and effort.

Get Away from Your Desk

Your job and your health don’t have to be in conflict. All you have to do is get away from your desk, and it’s not that hard. With a WALK-1, your trip to the gym is optional. Besides, an hour at the gym cannot undo hours of sitting at your desk. Walking at your desk will help you lose weight, boost your energy, and support your back. Taking 10,000 steps is easy with a treadmill desk.

Dr. James Levine has written in his book Get Up! that “for every hour we sit, two hours of our lives walk away - lost forever.”

Sitting, as he points out, is supposed to be done in short batches to break up the motion of a dynamic day. “But,” he writes, “the opposite has become the modern way; we sit for thirteen hours a day; sleep for eight and move for three. Living all day on our bottoms wrecks our health.”

Why Can’t an Hour at the Gym Undo a Day of Sitting?

Dr. Levine is an obesity researcher who wanted to know why some people gained weight while others didn’t. He studied how much people eat during a typical day and the difference in how much they burned off just by digesting food, by sitting around, and by being active.

He found that people burn calories by both purposeful exercising and non-exercise activity thermogenesis, which he called “NEAT.” If your job is completely chairbound, as it is for many people, you will burn only 300 NEAT calories per workday. If your job is upright and you get to move around, you can burn 1300 NEAT calories each day. If your job is physically active, you can expend 2300 NEAT calories daily. Low NEAT is linked to weight gain, diabetes, heart attacks, and cancer, while high NEAT is linked to good health.

Here’s the kicker: Dr. Levine discovered that when individuals walked gently at two miles per

hour, they tripled their calorie burn.

“Compared to being at complete rest, watching TV burns five calories per hour, folding laundry 100 calories per hour and going for a stroll 200 calories per hour,” Dr. Levine wrote.

Do the math. Walking at an easy two miles per hour is pretty “NEAT.”

Fitness at Work as a Hiring Incentive

Google is consistently ranked as one of the top places to work in terms of employee satisfaction, and the company's unique ways of investing in their workers’ health plays a huge role in that distinction. From ping pong tables to a swimming pool, the tech giant exemplifies how every company should provide their workers with wellness plans.

But, unfortunately, workplace wellness programs often do not experience such a high level of success like Google’s. This failure is due to many factors.

First, businesses often forget that wellness options need to be offered outside of the office walls. People need to be able to continue their pursuit of health and fitness once work is over, so programs, seminars, classes, and more should be added as after-hours options in order to further promote wellness when work is in session. Google, for example, offers classes ranging from management and public speaking to kickboxing and parenting.

Next, many companies try to improve workplace wellness by creating games to engage their employees. In one episode of the popular sitcom The Office, all of the employees were challenged to lose weight, and the team with the highest net weight loss won in the end. While the show was merely comedic fiction, it is these types of wellness programs that lead to failure. Instead, programs need to constantly promote wellness, instead of just gamifying it for a short period of time.

In the same breath, providing wellness options that focus on incentives can also be negative. Employees may work hard to win the prize, but once the competition is over they go right back to their unhealthy habits. Working to make wellness programs more engaging will help lead to the formation of healthier habitual behaviors, instead of just a one-time fix.

Finally, wellness programs have a tendency to forget the people who need them most. Often, such programs focus on the employees who are already decently healthy. The games, competitions, and wellness options can be intimidating or more difficult for those who truly need

the lifestyle improvements, which only pushes them away and allows the already-healthy to rise ahead. Thinking outside the box on ways to include everyone can make a huge difference in a workplace's success when it comes to wellness.

When implemented correctly, workplace wellness programs can mean happier employees, a higher hiring rate, and more efficient workflows.

It's safe to say this is why Google employees rate the company 4.4 out of five stars on Glassdoor (an anonymous company-review website for employees), CEO Sundar Pichai is the highest-rated CEO on the same site, and the company has added 9,000 new jobs in the last year.

When employees enjoy heading to the office and are given tools and methods to help them better their lives, the effect is seen and felt by everyone.

Draper, Inc., for example, offers employees access to the Draper Wellness Park that includes a track, workout stations, and tennis and volleyball courts. Owing largely to the park, the Indiana- based manufacturing company was voted the healthiest workplace in the United States in 2014 by Healthiest Employers LLC.

Online retailer Zappos offers their employees options for gym memberships, fitness classes, a nap room, and more.

"It's about getting people to want to do things voluntarily, not forcing them. Success programs are the ones that get team members energized versus forcing it on them,” said wellness coordinator Kelly Maher.

When properly implemented, workplace wellness programs can be the deciding factor between whether or not a potential employee applies for a job, and can also be an incentive for current employees to work harder, leading to company-wide benefits in productivity.

Here are three tips to help you create a wellness plan for your company, inspired by an article on Mashable that outlined wellness plans in seven innovative companies, including Google.

Encourage Employees to Track Steps and Workout Habits

Tracking your steps is an easy fitness habit now that mobile devices are widely accessible and many include this innovative feature. Fitbit, creator of the eponymous activity-tracking device, has implemented a unique wellness program in their offices, based on the company’s culture, and it ended up saving them money through reduced employee medical days and sick leaves. Fitbit has since inspired other businesses with their Fitbit Corporate Challenges, events that require both employees and employers to track their own steps and compare their activity levels to others in the workplace.

Fitbit also engages workers in a “Workout Wednesday” program, in which employees are able to take part in varying workout regimens throughout the day. The company believes in using small achievements to reach larger goals, even if that equates to taking only a couple thousand steps a day. In other words, small starts get big results. Being able to view your progress on the physical screen of a device makes it easier to be inspired to walk or move. Milestones and goals make it fun, and a little competition among employees is a motivator.

The Fitbit and most wrist-worn trackers often do not register steps taken on a treadmill desk because your arms are not swinging (they are usually typing or writing). However, the app for the WALK-1 treadmill desk counts the steps that a Fitbit misses and sends that data to your Fitbit account.

Create Collaborative Fitness Events

Not all companies can afford what Google is doing with its People & Innovation Lab to encourage employee happiness, but the overarching theme of collaboration within Google's fitness labs should resonate with all companies, big or small. Google's lab was intended to research and find ways to improve employee health. That can work for you, too. Simply researching local fitness events for employees to attend will build community and connection.

Many gyms are looking to collaborate with local companies to market their fitness programs. If that option appears a bit too pricey or out of the comfort zone of your employees, consider asking a knowledgeable friend to teach a beginner-level fitness class at your workplace. Google

offers a Googlers-to-Googlers education program for employees to host short workshops on topics of their expertise. Why not borrow that idea for your own company?

Offer Rewards Big and Small

At first blush, incentives seem like a simplistic tool of persuasion, but the fact of the matter is that they work to drive fitness programs. For example, the financial advising firm Motley Fool offered fifty-percent entry-fee reimbursements for any employee who wanted to participate in any form of race or running competition. That influenced many to attempt to train for a 5K – an activity some had never before envisioned themselves pursuing.

Surprisingly, it's not all about the monetary value of exercise incentives. A survey of the US wellness workplace market showed that the average value of incentives per employee typically ranges between $100 and $500.

Draper, Inc., a company voted the healthiest workplace in the United States, also offers smaller rewards, such as gift cards and cash prizes, for teams of employees who participate in challenges like their ten-week weight loss program. If cash prizes are out of your budget or are not aligned with your company culture, consider lunch rewards or extended breaks in exchange for meeting fitness goals. Small incentives can help with incremental gains, which add up over time.

There's no harm in starting small. Even if you're only able to give employees and coworkers some natural light, fresh air, and fresh fruit, these small gestures can pay off, setting the whole company on a path to wellness.

The Healthy Company

If your company is comprised of more than fifty employees, it's likely that it already has a workplace wellness program. About half of all US employers offer wellness promotion initiatives, and the larger the employer, the more likely they are to have them in place. Often these programs offer screening to identify health risks, and some even conduct interventions to stop health problems in their tracks. The most challenging part of a wellness program is to make good on the goal of promoting a healthy lifestyle. Healthier employees miss fewer days at work, and their healthcare costs are lower. Often, hiring and retention practices include more than just salary. People want to feel that they are part of a team (and they want a ping pong table, too).

Competition for top talent is fierce among tech companies, for example, and that's one reason why Google and Facebook offer parental leave and wellness programs.

Can it be healthier to work for one company than for another? Sure, but even though wellness programs are in play, it can be a challenge to get employees to participate.

Even when health screenings are offered for free, often fewer than half a company's employees will use them, according to a RAND study. Wellness programs are more successful when they encourage employees to exercise more, smoke less, or lose weight, but even then they usually work best when money is involved. Cash incentives of fifty dollars or more will motivate an employee to exercise or get a screening better than any other prize.

This means that paying people to be healthy works, but there is still a more effective way.

Leadership – When everyone at your company knows that the boss believes in wellness, it makes a big difference in the organization’s lifestyle habits. So, if you're the boss, you need to set an example by showing how important exercise is for everyone. Clear messaging from organizational leaders is key. Here are other factors that will lead to a win in gaining more participation in company wellness programs.

• Make wellness activities convenient and accessible for all employees.

• Leverage existing resources and build relationships with health plans to expand offerings at little to no cost.

• Approach wellness with a continuous quality-improvement attitude.

• Solicit feedback from employees to improve programs.

If you have the leverage, be inventive with your incentives. The RAND study recommends incentives “offered in a variety of forms, such as cash, gift cards, merchandise, time off, awards, recognition, raffles or lotteries, reduced health plan premiums and co-pays, and contributions to flexible spending or health savings accounts.”

Hiring – Make wellness part of your new hire process. There's never a better time to reinforce company culture than during employee onboarding. Caterpillar and John Deere do this, reminding new employees of the importance of health and fitness programs within the orientation process. John Deere sends out online reminders as well.

Reminders – Remind employees through multiple communication channels. Try a health- themed newsletter like USC uses, or hold events like health fairs and “lunch and learn” sessions like they do at the co-working space WeWork. Some companies offer screenings and assessments during these events.

If you have one takeaway from all this information, it should be this important principle: company culture matters. If your company leaders express the value of health and exercise for themselves and communicate it clearly to others, you will have healthier employees, and your workplace will benefit in innumerable ways.

Tips for Using a Standing Desk with Treadmill

There are a number of factors to consider when using a treadmill desk.

• How fast should I go? • Should the treadmill be on an incline? • How long and how often should I use it? • How do I adjust the work surface for proper ergonomics, safety, and usefulness? • What about accessories to make my treadmill desk experience even better?

Let's start with safety. First, a disclaimer: always consult your doctor before beginning any exercise program. Walking on a treadmill desk does not tax the body in the same way a vigorous workout would, but if you are out of shape or have any health ailments, it’s a good idea to get a physical assessment and the blessing of a health professional to be safe.

The experience of using our WALK-1 Treadmill Desk is deliberately slow-paced. You will not overexert yourself, but if you are not used to walking on a treadmill there is some risk of losing your balance or accidentally stepping off the side of the treadmill. A properly designed safety- certified treadmill comes with a safety lanyard connected to an emergency pull switch. When attached to your clothing, the lanyard will pull the safety switch and will turn off the treadmill should you fall or step off. In addition to the safety lanyard, the UnSit WALK-1 has sensors to detect when you are on it. Should you step off, it will stop.

Leave a clear and safe space behind the treadmill. Make sure your treadmill is placed in an open area, with no obstructions behind it and at least two feet of surrounding open space. Move large objects, like furniture, out of the way. Should you ever fall or stumble, you must have a clear area behind you to safely dismount.

With that short safety talk out of the way, let’s get started.

What should I wear? You can wear whatever you normally wear to work. Loose, comfortable clothes will make for an even better experience. Comfortable, supportive shoes will work well; fitness or athletic shoes are even better. Women will want to wear flats, not heels. Guys will

want to avoid wearing a neck tie while on the treadmill.

How long and how often? Most people think of a treadmill desk as a place to work for half an hour to get a break from sitting. That's a great way to start, but we suggest you eventually reverse that paradigm to think of sitting as the break from working and working as a task to be done on your feet. The UnSit WALK-1 Treadmill Desk is designed to be your main desk/workstation where all of your desk needs are situated: computer, phones, and work papers. Our treadmill is wide enough for you to utilize a sufficiently sized desk surface as well. The treadmill is engineered to run all day.

If you have already been using a standing desk, then making the transition to walking at your desk will be much easier. If you're not used to being on your feet all day, you should start with twenty-minute sessions, incrementally increasing the frequency and duration of your walking. For example, begin with one twenty-minute session on the first day, two twenty-minute intervals on the second day (one in the morning and another in the afternoon), then after the third day or so, extend your sessions to thirty minutes, and then gradually to forty-five, and so on. Eventually you can add a third and fourth treadmill desk session and work up to sixty-minute intervals. Somewhere along that path you may find you're using your treadmill desk most of the day, if not all day, and you can retire your sitting desk.

How fast? You don’t have to move at a quick pace to reap the benefits of a treadmill desk. When typing, many WALK-1 users set the treadmill to a speed of only one mph, which is a gentle walk. You’ll still feel the flow of ideas at that speed. When talking on the phone or watching a video you might turn it up to two mph, which is still a gentle walk. Remember, this isn’t a sweaty workout.

Monitor height? The top of your monitor should be at eye level or one inch below, as shown in the diagram above. If you are using a laptop you'll need a laptop stand or riser of some type to get the screen at the correct height. Using a riser might trigger the need for a separate keyboard and mouse, because the laptop may be much higher than is comfortable for keyboarding. Some people feel more comfortable with the laptop up high if the keyboard is angled down toward them. The mStand by Rain Design is the best solution we've found to keep the keyboard of your laptop at a comfortable angle for the forearms. You can also use a separate keyboard/mouse connection so your keyboard can sit on your desk while your laptop remains up at eye level.

Keyboard and mouse height? Your keyboard and mouse should be at desk/writing level. That means that your elbows are bent at a ninety-degree angle, and the keyboard should be one inch below your palms. If you’re using our WALK-1 or another adjustable desk, you can adjust the desk so it is at the perfect height for you.

Try talking rather than typing. Dictation software can cut down or even eliminate the need to type. This is a personal choice, but many UnSit customers, especially lawyers, tell us they are much more productive when they dictate their texts rather than type every word. If you are working on an iPhone or iPad, Siri is amazingly accurate when used with Apple Notes and most email apps. The latest version of Mac OS will also allow you to use Siri on your laptop or desktop. If you’re not on a Mac, or if you prefer to use a dedicated software solution, Dragon Dictation is our recommendation. The application can learn your most commonly used phrases, improving dictation accuracy, and you can purchase additional vocabulary modules that cater to doctors and lawyers. Expect to spend some time “teaching” Dragon your most often used phrases. You’ll also want a USB microphone or boom-style headset so that your words are accurately picked up by the software.

Use a speakerphone. Speaking of talking, you’ll want to have a good headset or speakerphone for use with your WALK-1. The majority of UnSit customers tell us that their most enjoyable treadmill desk activity is walking while talking. Ideas flow freely when you’re on the move. If you’re the kind of person who tends to pace while talking on your cell phone, you’ll see the wisdom of this.

Hands-free phones are even more important on a treadmill desk for safety reasons, as it’s best to have both hands free for balance while walking. You might also want a good stand to prop up your smartphone. We like this mStand.

Here’s a handy accessories list for all those we’ve recommended in the section above.

• Laptop stand – mStand by Rain Design • Monitor stand – Ergotron makes some of the best • Easel/stand to hold up your reading material – such as this one • Smartphone stand so your phone is propped at the proper angle to see and use – we like this mStand • Tablet stand, so your tablet is propped at the proper angle to see and use – we like this mStand • Speakerphone on your landline or a hands-free headset • Bluetooth speaker headset for your cell phone • Power strip and USB charging station Don’t Walk Away Yet

Thanks for r eading our book about health, fitness, and the power of walking. We hope you enjoyed it.

It's been our aim all along to show you that once you start walking, you may notice other good habits beginning to take hold in your life, like eating healthier, getting more sleep, and taking better care of yourself.

Get in Touch

We are always willing to talk treadmills! Just give us a call at (800) 515-7990 or book some time to talk. You can also email us at [email protected].

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