N.E.A.T. - Just Keep Moving

This is a post I've copied from my Yoga With Your Slippers On blog - from 2012, illustrated by Jon Lander. I've decided not to edit it, though things in my family have moved on. My adult children are now well into their thirties, and haven't plumped up at all, and my lovely mother (thin to the last) died in 2022. I'm still 'plump'!

In my family the young people are thin, but over thirty we tend to plump up a bit. Not my mother, who uses N.E.A.T. for weight control.  When I stay with my parents she demands that I sit while she answers the phone or the door.  She insists that I sit while she puts on the kettle, the washing, sometimes even my bath.  I do try, but I just can't move as fast as her.  (Jon's illustration captures the feeling vividly.)  She is in her 80s and I'm in my 50s. 

Over Christmas we all had a lovely relaxing time at my parents' house.  My mother was the last to sit at mealtimes, striding round the dining table double checking that everyone had some of everything.  Then she jumped up constantly to get new things from the cupboards and fridge or fresh supplies from the kitchen table.  The washing machine is in the garage, underneath the house.  Whenever she encountered a single bit of clothing that might need freshening up she took it to wait its turn, down and up the stairs to and from the garage at least 10 times each day.  She was in and out visiting 'elderly' neighbours who need company and help.  She was in and out to the supermarket.  She cleaned, tidied, ironed, sorted, prepared meals.  When she sat down to talk or watch television she found reasons to hop up again repeatedly.  

A while ago I said to my daughter “Rose, could you pop up and get my glasses darling?” to which my mother responded “Don’t move, I’ll get them”.  My mother and daughter were slim; I was not.  I had accidentally set up a support system to do my moving for me.  I've emailed this account to my parents and my mother says that I see her through rose-tinted spectacles, that I'm thin too and I don't get other people to do things for me.  I'm not the only one with the pink glasses.  However, there are also drawbacks to being a highly N.E.A.T person.  My father would love my mother to stay still for longer periods and relax more.  Think about the people you know.  The ones who do the errand-delegating most efficiently may not be the healthiest.  The ones who jump up and do the errands may not be the most relaxed.  

It was an old friend who told me I had ‘discovered’ N.E.A.T.  Her husband is a consultant in Diabetes and Endocrinology and was interested in the idea, first named (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenisis) by James Levine at the Mayo Clinic.  Here is an information link: description of James Levine's idea.  I love the theory of N.E.A.T and its vocabulary, for example "chair-enticing environment".  It's about movement outside structured exercise, the movement that occurs in our daily working and relaxing lives.  

So I try to mindfully suppress my inclination to ask others to run little errands.  These tiny journeys make a difference, though fidgeting doesn't, I am sad to read today.  Levine says instead that fidgeting is a message from your body that it needs to get up and move.  We often build a 'time and motion study' effect into normal life, making piles of objects on the stairs so they can all be carried up at once, forming human chains to stack clean glasses instead of walking the few yards from the sink to the cupboard.  We economise on effort when we would be so much better off recklessly expending it.  There are ideas about making major changes to chair-based work such as installing pedals under the desk to work the calf muscles constantly or balancing your computer above a treadmill.  These sound fun, and I'm not saying I wouldn't love to try them, but meanwhile we can simply move more, more often.  Perhaps some people 'naturally' burn more calories, and there's much research in this area, but it doesn't matter whether that's true or not, we can all up our N.E.A.T. by emulating my mother and resisting that enticing chair.  

‘Deliberate’, more extended exercise is good too – my mother does a 22 minute fitness video starring Anthea Turner most days.  But it is often difficult in a working life.  A perfect method is one that naturally fits, like cycling to the office, even going to the gym if that's fun for you, plus lots and lots (and lots) of N.E.A.T.