节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2012-12-07
难易度:High
关键字:statistic, staggering, treadmill, option, obese, endorcrinologist
Welcome back.
I hope you had a great break.
Well, medically speaking, the reason why sitting too long is bad for us is
because it triggers unhealthy changes in our body's process of getting and
making energy from the food we eat.
The good news is there are things we can do to prevent these changes from
happening even if we work at a desk eight hours a day.
Let's continue reading now on line 7.
(Music).
Can Your Desk Help You Lose Weight?
Levine, who walks on a treadmill while he works and believes in "walking staff
meetings," said similar studies have suggested that employees can burn up to 350
additional calories per day,
reduce their health care costs and perform better at work by replacing two hours
of sitting with standing each day.
To test that theory, Levine and his team dropped in on the Minneapolis offices
of Caldrea, a maker of environment-friendly cleaning supplies.
The desks of 30 employees have been replaced with adjustable "work-fit"
stations,
developed by the St. Paul, Minnesota-based company Ergotron,
that gives the employees the option to sit or stand while working on their
computers.
(Music).
All right.
So we've seen a study now of people looking into whether or not sitting at your
desk can actually improve your health.
There might be a new way to do it.
That's right.
Is it hurting your health? Yes.
We know that sitting too much can cause you to gain weight because you're just
not active enough.
So we're looking at... we're looking at some studies about lifestyle diseases
and how that affects you.
Exactly. And we saw even just a small increase in physical activity can really
improve your health.
Now we're looking at a gentleman named James Levine, and he is talking about the
sitting disease.
He is an endocrinologist.
He studies diseases.
Well, he's trying to find ways to help improve your health even in a work
situation.
OK. He says he walks on a treadmill while he works and he believes in walking
staff meetings.
OK. So he walks on a treadmill while he's at work.
Now a "treadmill" is actually an exercise machine that is... stays in one place.
But it has a track or a piece of material that goes around and around, and you
walk or you can run on it, and you can control the speed.
So it's a great way to exercise in one place.
OK, friends, you probably see these all the time.
You see people running on them in one place and exercising on a machine.
That's right.
Now he does this while he's at work.
He also believes in walking staff meetings.
OK. Now a staff meeting means that staff, who are the people in charge of a
company or work at a company, they get together and discuss stuff.
Well, usually they do that around a table.
That's right.
Usually you sit and you discuss; or you go to lunch when you discuss.
But here he encourages them to get up and walk while they have conversations.
He said that similar studies have suggested that employees can burn up to 350
additional calories per day.
So he's talking about studying lifestyle diseases and that if you really get up
and start moving,
just take time to walk during the day, he's finding it can really help.
OK. Now they're talking about burning calories here, and this is important if
you want to lose weight.
Calories is the measurement of how much energy your body gets from food.
But the more calories you eat, then the bigger you can become.
That's right.
If you eat too many calories, you gain weight.
So you need to be burning or getting rid of calories throughout the day.
Well, this can help reduce your calories, can help reduce health care costs.
And people perform better at work by replacing two hours of sitting with
standing each day.
All right.
So this is really what the article is about is instead of sitting at a desk the
whole day, just use two hours of that day to even just stand.
You don't even need to run, just be standing while you're working.
That's right.
It makes you more physical.
You probably move around a bit more.
I know that when we teach while we're standing instead of sitting, I tend to
move a lot more.
And that's what he's encouraging you to do.
Even if you're at a desk, and you're supposed to be working, stand up! It helps.
OK. Well, this is their theory.
They wanted to test this theory.
And so Levine and his team dropped in on the Minneapolis offices of Caldrea,
which is a maker of environmental... environment-friendly cleaning supplies.
OK. To test the theory means they're going to... they have an idea, they want to
see if it works, so they test it.
They try it.
OK. And so they tried it with this company called Caldrea.
And the company here manufactures, or makes, environment-friendly cleaning
supplies.
Now usually cleaning supplies are... have a lot of chemicals and are bad for the
environment.
But this company, their goal is to make them healthy for the environment.
All right.
Now Kaylah, I see a little phrase in this sentence that says they "dropped in."
What does that mean?
Now "to drop in" means they go to that place.
They go visit it.
Usually it means it's for a short visit, or maybe even the visit wasn't planned.
But they go because, well, there's a very specific reason.
Right. The desks of 30 employees there have been replaced with adjustable, they
call this, "work-fit" stations.
That's right.
And this was developed by the St. Paul, Minnesota-based company Ergotron.
Now what this means is it gives the employees an option when they want to sit or
stand while working and while working on their computer.
So this gives them a place to test their theory.
OK. So these desks are adjustable.
They can change and that gives them an option to either sit or stand.
It says "work-fit" in quotations.
That means it helps them decide what to do.
And we said that they get an option in that.
Now an "option" means they can choose between... two different possibilities.
They have a freedom to make that choice.
You can sit or you can stand while you work.
Exactly. Even when you're working on your computer, you can adjust or change the
desk to stand.
That's right.
So that way you don't bend over to work on it, but gives you the option to stand
up.
We'll see if their theories are true tomorrow.
Right now let's watch today's skit.
All right.
I can do this.
But I need your help.
Who are you talking to?
My desk.
Your desk.
You're talking to your desk?
Yes.
The doctor says I have a serious problem.
Yes. You're talking to your desk.
No, not that.
Statistics say one in three adults is diabetic.
Are you?
No. That's not it.
One in four is obese.
Not me.
So, what's your problem?
I have... the sitting disease.
The sitting disease!
Oh, no. That's the underlying ailment of other diseases.
I know.
It's a lifestyle disease.
I know! But I'm trying to tackle it with the help of my desk.
So that's why you're talking to your desk?
Yes.
Even a modest increase in activity could help me improve my health.
Increase in activity like biking, running, exercises?
No, like standing instead of sitting.
Oh. So you need a desk that will encourage you to stand.
Right.
So what do you think, desk?
Will you help me?
We can do this, right?
Hi, everyone. I'm Michelle.
(Chinese).
And I guess we have to say goodbye now.
Keep up the good work, and I'll see you tomorrow.
Thank you, Michelle.
We appreciate that.
Stand-up desks are actually not all-that-knew of a concept.
In the past, great thinkers like Thomas Jefferson,
powerful politicians like Winston Churchill and famous writers like Ernest
Hemingway have all used stand-up desks.
People claim that stand-up desks increase energy levels and they reduce back
pain, thereby making time more efficient and productive.
Well, friends, how about you?
Do you think better on your feet?
If so, maybe it's time to think about getting a stand-up desk.
OK, friends.
Please join us tomorrow for day two of Can Your Desk Help You Lose Weight.
Take care.