【快讀】How to型文章：Sitting is the New Smoking

教人改善健康、工作技巧、面試訣竅...這樣的"How to"型文 章，你應該盡快找到What, Why, How，不需要太多對字句的反芻，真有特別漂亮的句子，把它畫下來，講英文、寫英文的時候試著用出來。

Sitting is the New Smoking

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 (1)prevalent, but very few of us know that there are serious health consequences to it.

According to a research conducted in New South Wales, Australia, sitting increases the risk of dying prematurely, even if you (2)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 Medi- cine at Cleveland Clinic's Wellness Institute. Some people even call sitting the new smoking of our generation.

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 (3) 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 (4)hunching over. You might also find yourselves taking more breaks and walks around the office after adopting the approach.

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 (5) 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 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.

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。

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。

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。

妮洛佛・莫晨特是一名商業創新者，協助許多企業發展事業。她建議我們將一對一會議、正式會議改成「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。

 

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