Episode #10: Dr. Scott Lear: Why sitting and being sedentary is detrimental to your health and how you can alter your environment to move more

Imperfect Progress with Anne Guzman

Have you caught yourself deep into a Netflix binge, wondering where the hours went? How about fixated on a project at your desk while day turns to night, barely having moved? You ask yourself, "Where did the time go and when is the last time I stood up?" I can definitely raise my hand here.

Although long periods of focus clearly have some benefits, from a health perspective, remaining immobile for hours on end on a regular basis has negative implications on our health. The good news? It's never to late to change and to learn how to incorporate more movement throughout your day.

Today's guest Dr. Scott Lear, Professor of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University, has some excellent insights into the physiological changes that occur in the body due to excessive sitting or sedentary lifestyle. With over 25 years working in the clinical and research areas of disease prevention and management, he is an international expert on healthy living.

Today we discuss:

• How fat and carbohydrate metabolism can be altered due to sedentary behavior
• NEAT - non exercise activity thermogenesis, what it is and how it can contribute to calorie expenditure
• Are standing desks superior to sitting? Why or why not?
• Tips on moving more within your home during the day
• Maximizing your geographical environment to promote more daily movement
• Closing thoughts from Dr. Scott Lear on Imperfect Progress, dealing with criticism and pausing emotional reactions and why this is a good life practice.

Dr. Lear's obvious expertise in knowledge translation makes this podcast episode very accessible to anyone listening, whether you're a scientist or not. He leaves us with several actionable tips that we can incorporate today and shares many others on his website Feel Healthy with Dr. Scott Lear.

The pandemic has impacted many of us in different ways. If you're one of the people exercising more, perhaps consider others in your life who may be struggling and share this episode with them. If they hear one thing that inspires them to take that 2 minute walk or leave the car and walk to the corner store it will be worth it. The little things add up and that's what we are going to learn more about here today.

To learn more about or from Dr. Scott Lear visit these links:

Website: https://drscottlear.com/

Podcast: https://drscottlear.com/category/podcasts/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/DrScottLear

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drscottlear/

Thanks for listening and being a part of this community. Please consider subscribing through Apple podcasts if you enjoy these episodes and leaving a comment on what you enjoy or how I can improve my podcasts for you. If you have topics you'd like to see on the show, share this too. Lastly share this episode with one friend who could benefit. The reason I do this is to help people and if Dr. Lear can help ONE person to move more with this podcast, that's one more healthy person on the planet and that's a success!

Thanks to David Langstaff for the original music.