“What color do you want the walls of your office painted?”
K.B. and M.B. thought about that for maybe a second and said, “Not yellow!”
We had a good laugh at that one… the cabinets in their office are this weird yellow. It’s kind of a running joke to poke fun at them.
But they’re moving over to the new Sears Center building this week and I want to get everything just right. The Internet is up and running, phone lines are in, and we’re setting up the furniture tomorrow…
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The first people going over there are my customer service staff and the research team. And I want them to have the best work environment possible.
It’s one of the reasons I bought this particular building. It’s in a great spot.
I showed you a picture of the outside, but I don’t think I’ve shown you this: It’s a picture from above… the whole building is full of windows and sits on a peninsula on a small lake – surrounded on three sides by water.
When you come visit, you’ll get lots of sunlight and a great view. And for my staff, it definitely won’t be your typical workplace. There will be a gym right in the building, and there are some nice spots outside to eat lunch and just take a break and walk for a bit.
This is really important to me for the health of my staff. I know it’s kind of a necessity to sit at a computer these days, but sitting for long periods of time isn’t just generally “bad for you.”
It can be deadly.
To give you an idea of what I’m talking about, take a look at the harsh numbers from a recent study at the National Cancer Institute.
They looked at more than 240,000 people, ages 50-71 years old. None had cancer or heart disease when the study started. They followed the people for eight and a half years.
Now, I’ve seen what a sedentary lifestyle does to people because I treat them every day. But what they found shocked even me.
People who were sedentary for more than 7 hours a day – even if they exercised every day – had a 61% higher risk of dying from cardiovascular disease, and a 22% higher risk of dying from cancer compared to those who were sedentary for less than an hour.1
Sitting in general is associated with a higher risk of dying ALL causes.
And for people who don’t exercise at all, the risks skyrocket. A 47% greater risk of dying from all causes, and a 100% greater chance of dying from cardiovascular disease. 100 percent!
That backs up an earlier study done in Australia that looked at almost 9,000 people. It found that even after they adjusted for exercise people who sat and watched TV for more than four hours a day had a 46% higher risk of dying from all causes. The risk of dying from cardiovascular disease went up 80%.2
In other words, exercise doesn’t make up for sitting for long periods of time. That’s why I want everyone who works for me to have the opportunity to get up and walk around, and especially go outside for a bit every day.
I recommend you to do the same… at the very least, get up and walk around for a few minutes at a time every hour or so, no matter where you are. Or do like I do and spend 12 minutes doing P.A.C.E. It can literally save your life.
1. Matthews C, George S, Moore S, Bowles H, Blair A, Park Y, Troiano R, Hollenbeck A, Schatzkin A. "Amount of time spent in sedentary behaviors and cause-specific mortality in US adults." Am J Clin Nutr. 2012 Feb;95(2):437-45.
2. Dunstan D., et. al. "Television Viewing Time and Mortality." Circulation. 2010; 121: 384-391.