Sitting is the New Smoking 久坐＝吸菸？

閱讀暖身

從早上八點坐進辦公椅，到下午六點，上班坐8-10小時，下班後坐在各種社交場合2小時，回到家坐在沙發上看電視又坐了3小時，人平均一天坐超過10小時，上班族成了不折不扣的“久坐族”。過去，大家認為吸菸是健康一號殺手，這個一號殺手的寶座，拱手讓給「久坐」。一起來看怎麼避免久坐。

進入本文前，請先想想怎麼表達以下單字： 

a)    盛行; 普遍的

b)    駝背

c)    跳脫框架的 

Have you ever calculated how much time you spend sitting in a day? According to statistics, people spend an average of 9.3 hours sitting- more than the 7.7 hours we spend on sleeping per day. Sitting is remarkably a) prevalent, but very few of us know that there are serious health consequences to it.

你曾計算過你一天花多少時間坐在椅子上嗎? 根據統計，一般人每天平均花9.3小時坐著，甚至比一天的睡眠時間 7.7小時還長。久坐已是現今非常普遍的現象，但少數人知道這會為我們帶來嚴重的健康後果。

According to a research conducted in New South Wales, Australia, sitting increases the risk of dying prematurely, even if you 1) engage in regular daily exercise. What’s more, sitting can “cause anything from lower back pain to high cholesterol, diabetes, and obesity,"said Mladen Golubic, medical director of the Center for Lifestyle Medicine at Cleveland Clinic's Wellness Institute. Some people even call sitting the new smoking of our generation.

根據澳洲新威爾斯的一項研究，即使每天從事運動，久坐仍會增加早亡的風險。 美國克里夫蘭診所, 健康協會生活方式醫療中心的醫學主任穆雷登認為: 久坐會造成許多健康問題，從下背部疼痛到高血壓、糖尿病、肥胖問題。」 有些人甚至將久坐比喻為這世代的吸菸行為。

There are two creative ways that help reduce sitting time at work. First, you can set up a standing desk at your office so you are able to stand while you work. Cia Bernales, web producer at Fast Company, wrote an article on how she 2) persisted in standing and how the new working posture made her healthier although her body was not used to standing for hours at first. Her feet went numb and her lower back hurt at the end of the day. However, after a year of standing, she decided not to go back to sitting anymore. While this might sound a bit extreme, it does avoid slouching and b) hunching over. You might also find yourselves taking more breaks and walks around the office after adopting the approach.

這裡提供兩種創新的方法來幫助減少工作時坐著的時間。首先，你可以在辦公室打造「站立式辦公桌」，讓你能夠站著辦公。Fast Company的網站製作人希雅, 寫了一篇文章分享她如何堅持站著工作。雖然一開始她的身體還不習慣站立這麼長的時間，一整天工作結束後，她的雙腳發麻，下背部也會疼痛，但新的工作姿勢讓她變得更健康。 一年的時間下來，她決定再也不回去坐著辦公了。雖然這個方法聽起來有點極端，但的確可以讓你工作時不再無精打采，也可以改善駝背問題。採用這個方法後，你會發現你開始讓自己多休息，也會多在辦公室走動。

Nilofer Merchant is a business innovator who is helping companies grow their business. She advises that we turn our one-on-one coffee meetings or conference room meetings into “walking” ones. “You will be surprised at how fresh air drives fresh thinking,” she said. She has walking meetings 3) to the tune of 20-30 miles a week and it has completely changed her life and work style. She mentioned that “walking meetings” itself is an c) out-of-the-box idea, which leads us to think “out of the box” at the same time. In this way, it might help us to look at things and solve problems with different perspectives.

妮洛佛．莫晨特是一名商業創新者，協助許多企業發展事業。她建議我們將咖啡廳或會議廳一對一會議改成「走路會議」。她說：「你將會驚訝地發現新鮮的空氣如何帶給我們創新的想法，」妮洛佛每週會進行長達20-30英哩的走路會議。她也提到走路會議本身就是一個創新的想法，在進行的同時也會帶給我們跳脫框架的思維模式。這樣一來，它或許可以引領我們用不一樣的觀點來看事情和解決問題。

口語字彙

1.      Engage in 從事; 進行。

You will have to make sure what career you would like to engage in before looking for a job.找工作前，你要先想清楚自己未來想從事的職業生涯。Andy is engaging in psychological research. Andy現在正在進行一個心理學研究。Engage變成形容詞，engaging，可解釋為「動人的; 迷人的」。He has a crush on the new girl in the office because she has an engaging smile. 他喜歡新來的女同事，因為她的微笑很迷人。

2.      Persist in堅持

Persist 常和介系詞in一起用。Jessica sets strict demands on herself, and she persists in working hard to achieve sales target.  Jessica對自己要求非常嚴格，而且堅持一定要努力達到業務目標。Persistence 是名詞 ”毅力”的意思。“Energy and Persistence conquer all things.”- Benjamin Franklin.能量和毅力可以征服一切。-班傑明．富蘭克林

3.      To the tune of 總計

Tune是歌曲的「旋律」。She wrote a tune and hummed it to me. 她寫了一段曲，然後哼給我聽。但to the tune of 這個片語和音樂沒有關係, 這裡當總計的意思，常用在金錢方面，表達數量總計。The company performed well last year. They had profits to the tune of $100 million. 這家公司去年的表現不錯，獲利總額高達1億美元。

參考資料：Fast Company & TED Talk     

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