When I tell you that I watch a lot of TV, I mean it: from keeping up with Sofia Vergara's pregnant antics on Modern Family on Wednesday nights to seeing how Sara Ramirez is going to cope with her wife's anger over losing her leg on Grey's Anatomy on Thursday nights, and practically every show from today until next week. Well, I'm a little astounded to find that my 3-hours-of-TV-a-day habit is actually cutting 66 minutes out of my life expectancy every single day. Yikes!
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According to a new study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, researchers in Australia have determined that if you're over 25 years old, then every hour of television is shaving 22 minutes off of your life expectancy. That means, if you're like the average American who watches 35 hours of TV a week, you're losing about 26 days of your life per year.
Since avoiding exercise (basically, having a sedentary lifestyle) is just as bad as smoking or being obese, this is definitely very, very bad news for those of us that love to watch our telenovelas and trashy TV dramas (or reality shows). Not going to lie, I'm pretty upset. While I do try to get to the gym more often than not these days, that's still apparently not helping my just-watch-TV-and-eat habit after I get home.
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So what should we do? Here's my plan: Either cutting back on TV or actually making your TV habit work FOR you instead of against you. If you're sitting down for a couple of hours of watching the tube, how do you keep yourself active? Here's what you do: during EVERY SINGLE commercial break, get off the couch and MOVE! Take a jump rope and jump, run in place, do some crunches or push-ups, even try some yoga-like stretches.
Don't just keep sitting there and watch the commercial about the animal shelter that's just going to make you cry anyway, actually DO something with the time in between that show that you just can't stop watching. All of those little 3-minute breaks will really add up in the long run, equaling a longer life AND a smaller waist line! And that's a win-win, right?
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