While I often talk about the therapeutic benefits of our hobby, doing any kind of stitching or needlework or sewing means we spend a lot of time sitting. And if you’re like me and have a job that also has you doing a lot of sitting, you might be feeling a little sedentary and struggling to get fitness worked into your day.
You likely can’t give up your job, bills need paid and you have to eat after all, and you certainly don’t want to give up your stitching. I know I personally find myself wondering how I can get more activity into my days without giving up sleep or slacking on the other things that need to get done.
Honestly, I struggle with this a lot. I do a lot of sitting. For work I’m a transcriptionist and I also manage a handful of websites. That equals sitting. I set reminders on my computer to get up and take a break, step away, move around and stop looking at a screen for 10 or 15 minutes. (Note: eye health, equally important here, if not more important.)
When it comes to hobbies and relaxing, trying to wash away the stress, the top three things I enjoy all involve more sitting; stitching, reading, movies. Okay, I confess sometimes reading involves laying on a pile of pillows in bed, but that’s not exactly better than sitting. Exercise in most traditional is not fun or interesting for me. I have a stack of auto immune disorders so I opt for low impact activities when it comes to exercise, like yoga and walking.
My current secret weapon in the battle against sitting is my Fitbit. At first I thought I was being reasonably active, all things considered. But seeing the actual number of steps taken in a day made me realize I was doing way more sitting than I ever realized. Despite my efforts to take breaks and get up from my desk throughout the day, I wasn’t moving much at all on a lot of days and that had to change.
Here’s my current 28 day Fitbit report:
Here’s my profile if you’re a Fitbit user and want to be friends over there.
I also set up a Stitches & Steps community group over there so we can work on these goals together.
Not the best example of high activity, but definitely improving a little at a time. The green bars are the days that I met my goal, which is currently set to 7,000 steps per day. I’m working my way up to hopefully have 10,000+ steps per day during the summer.
This post is part of a previous blog hop. Join us [here] and share your tips on staying active with a sitting hobby.
Very interesting article; I loved it!
But I like sitting and stitching! LOL But you are right. I definitely need to get my butt up more and start exercising. But that is a whole subject I try to avoid, so I am off to go look at your blog more 😉
I have a desk job, fortunately it requires a LOT of trips to the copier/front office. I’ve been thinking about putting a new battery it my step-counter thing…this just gave me the extra push to do it!
I love my fitbit too. It does remind me to move it move it. You gotta move it move it.