MATTSPLAINED [] MSP132 [] #AtHome Hacks: Doomscrolling & Successful Sitting
The terrible ‘20s have seen the most radical changes to our society in a generation. As MSP moves into a post-Jeff world, we examine some at home hacks designed to keep us healthy until the world reopens.
Photo by Unsplash. Glitching by Kulturpop.
Hosts: Matt Armitage & Richard Bradbury
Produced: Richard Bradbury for BFM89.9
TRANSCRIPT
Ballooning weight gain. Crisps. And doom scrolling. 2020 has not been kind to MSP’s Matt Armitage. Following the do as I say principle, MSP has been experimenting with some ways to stay physically fit and mentally healthy in these strange times.
You want to start today by telling us about your morning routine?
I’ve had a very similar routine for much of the last four years.
I open my eyes and I reach for my phone and thumb to my news site of choice to find out what Donald Trump has or hasn’t done during the eight odd-hours I’ve rolled fitfully on a mattress.
So, far, to his credit, he hasn’t done anything that might directly kill me.
So, even before coronavirus came around, I was waking up every morning expecting the worst.
That can’t be very healthy?
It’s not. But it’s symptomatic of something wider.
To give you some context: I’m generally quite anxiety prone.
And quite a lot of smaller surveys and anecdotal reports from health professionals and the anxious themselves, seem to concur that those with anxiety have coped with the coronavirus quite well.
Possibly because a lot of our anxiety comes from uncertainty in our interactions with the wider world.
So, on the contrary, lockdowns and procedures have provided a certain amount of certainty for the anxious in dealing with the threat.
Plus, many of us already have coping mechanisms to deal with - basically - life.
So it’s been a busman’s holiday?
For those of you unfamiliar with 1970s British sitcoms, a busman’s holiday is the idea of doing the same thing for a holiday as you do for work.
But yeah, I coped with the restrictions of the first phase of Malaysia’s MCO pretty well.
Someone tells me I’m not allowed to go anywhere or interact with people - suits me, I generally don’t want to go anywhere or interact with people.
How does that relate to your morning routine?
Well, like many of the anxious, I’m coping with reopening less well than the closing down.
Being around groups of people freaks me out.
Eating in restaurants feels uncomfortable and weird.
My wife goes out far more than me and I scream super-spreader at her every time she comes home.
So far, most of my clients are still on lockdown protocol, so work contacts are still all virtual.
I haven’t had to worry about face to face contact with people to date.
But I’m scared of the day I will.
So I’m scouring the web for stories about how safe it is to eat out. To meet clients.
How to mitigate risk. The stories about the situations where it all went wrong.
Like the news about this week about a religious gathering in a place called Warrior Creek in Alabama, where 40 people, the pastor reckons pretty much the entire congregation have tested positive for coronavirus.
So you’re doomscrolling?
Yeah. And I’m not alone. In fact, most people hadn’t heard or used the term until this year.
It wasn’t common currency. I think it’s been around since about 2018.
But I’ve been doomscrolling President Trump for four years.
And you’re still alive…
Hence it’s the scrolling that’s kept me safe.
Schrodinger’s orange cat.
And until recently, I limited my doomscrolling to international politics.
Obviously, I’ve been reading about the coronavirus but mostly scientific and News based stuff.
Research for the shows and other work stuff.
Fairly dry and academic. I stayed away from most first-person accounts and human interest type stories.
And no COVID social media.
Not engaging conspiracy nuts at the moment. No patience for that.
Jeff did mention you were a little long-winded about getting to the point…
You could just have said that I was a little off-tangent.
I’ve no idea what the tangent even is…
I can see that your breaking in period is going to be long and painful.
And best conducted in a sound-proof room.
Busman’s holiday, mate…
Fair enough. I’ll have to do some hellish imagining.
Which is essentially what Doomscrolling is about.
This year, people have been doomscrolling in earnest.
If you’re not familiar with the term you’re probably familiar with the behaviour.
It’s essentially the compulsion to endlessly scroll your news and social media feeds.
Starting in bed when you wake up and ending when you do the same thing in bed at night before sleeping.
Punctuated by long periods of doomscrolling during the day.
Doomsurfing is another variant - falling into a rabbit hole of link surfing into the darkest regions of the web.
As I said - I think we’re all a little guilty of it.
I can arrest the COVID stuff a little but largely because I already have my political doom-diction to serve.
Doom-diction?
I’m trying it out.
Addiction to bad news.
But there are genuine negative health impacts that can result.
Scientists have noted that we are instinctively drawn to negative news.
That may be evolutionary - the search for information that threatens us.
But it can also colour the way we view the world.
Since the 1970s we’ve identified what’s called the mean world syndrome.
The idea that the world is a terrible and dangerous place to live in.
Which we can get from movies and books, news reports and, of course, now, social media.
You’re telling listeners to this show to ignore dystopian messaging?
A least I tell people it doesn’t have to be like that.
Admittedly, after I’ve painted a picture that makes the Red Wedding look like a day out at a water park.
The algorithms of our social feeds can seem to amplify this messaging.
Once we disappear down a rabbit hole, they serve us up more of the same kind of content.
Which is why my YouTube feed is now largely unwatchable.
I got recommended a cop car chase reality show called The Interceptors last night.
Did you watch it?
Just as research for the show. To prove a point.
But once the algorithms have a hold on you it can be difficult to break the pattern.
But there are strategies you can take.
NYT tech writer Brian X Chen has published a few doomscrolling pieces himself after falling into the same trap that many of us find ourselves in.
So he spoke to a bunch of health professionals who helped him to come up with some methods to break the habit.
Is it a structural thing?
Partly. or at least it is according to neuroscientist Adam Gazzaley.
The way he describes it is similar to a dieting plan.
You sketch out a plan for meals. You control what you consume.
So one way to bring back that sense of control is to structure your day.
Like work?
Exactly. So, we had a chat earlier in the week and you mentioned that BFM’s rotation strcutures really work for you.
You find yourself overall happier and more productive being able to work from home one week in 2.
So you have the best of both worlds - the structure of office life one week and the relative freedom of working from home the next.
I know a lot of people are back at their physical work places - at least part of the time - but we’re still a little constrained.
Most of us are still spending more time at home than we were a year ago.
And our leisure activities are somewhat curtailed.
So it can help to plan out your days in the same way as you would a working day.
Are you a planner?
As somebody who charges by the hour - no, not like that - I’m pretty self-disciplined about this stuff.
So i have a mental plan, yes. But even with that I fall into that pattern of doomscrolling.
So Adam Gazzaley suggests scheduling pretty much everything.
Work times, meal times, quality time with loved ones and breaks.
Aren’t breaks where we doomscroll?
When you look at breaks from a work perspective - we take them frequently throughout the day.
Some are quick pauses - a run to the bathroom or grab a glass of water.
Others are longer.
And they’re more than just time away from the screen and tasks and meetings.
They’re a chance to socialise with colleagues. Catch up on the human stuff like brownie recipes and why cats beat kids.
That’s an aspect that WFH and social distancing are making harder.
Cats beating kids?
If only that was a YouTube channel.
But yes, that social aspect. We still interact with people but without the friendly edges.
I’ve been working with a group of people who have just started working at a company.
And forging those personal relationships has been really challenging.
Some of them are yet to meet each other face to face, let alone grab a coffee together.
But you can overcome it.
I was reading the Twitter feed of venerable British tech writer, broadcaster and thoroughly nice man Bill Thompson this week.
He said he’s taken to hanging around at the end of Zoom meetings to see who else is slow to log off and he just grabs a few minutes to chat with who ever is hanging around.
Because we forget how important those chance encounters are for sparking new ideas and concepts.
When we come back. More ways to control your doomscrolling habit and - believe it or not - Matt believes you can sit your way to health.
BREAKS
We’ve been following Matt’s daily routine on today’s show. Do you ever get out of bed?
I will admit that the coronavirus has been an excuse to sleep late and do a lot of my initial stuff from bed.
But I am up and about.
We were talking about plans, and one of the reasons we often fail at intentions to diet or change other habits is that we overplan.
We come up with a structure that isn’t realistic.
Me working from bed for an hour in the morning is realistic.
I don’t drink coffee and I’m not hungry when I wake up.
So it’s a quiet time for me to get organised and plan the day.
Then I get up, exercise, shower, eat and hit the computer.
I was wondering when we’d get to the exercise…
More about that later when we get to the sitting, conversely.
For now, yes. Another way to break the doomscrolling is to put the screen down and do something physical for 15 minutes.
Go for a walk or a run.
If you can’t get out do some yoga.
Meditation and mindfulness work for some people.
They don’t work for me - I never feel more anxious and short of breath than when I’ve tried to meditate.
So, it really is about finding the methods that work for you?
Yeah. Chen also spoke to the author Dr Vivek Murthy, a former Vice Admiral and Surgeon General under Barack Obama.
He has shifted a lot of his Zoom and other calls to when he’s out walking, which stops him sitting and leaning into a camera.
I do something similar - I take all my video calls and meetings at a standing desk.
I find it helps me to feel more comfortable, more natural and less tired.
And I’m naturally a little bit further from the screen.
Dr Murthy also suggests that we follow a Japanese practise called a Moai.
This is a small group of trusted friends and associates who get together regularly and can speak candidly and in confidence.
Do you have a moai?
Yes. Dr Murthy has two friends in his. They speak once a month for a couple of hours.
Mine is a little larger.
Jaff, Brushtail and Trooper.
Those are cats, aren’t they?
People are problematic.
Apart from Jaff, who is mine, they’re all neighbourhood strays.
They’re great listeners and they know everything that’s going on.
The point is, it’s a support structure that works for me.
Jeff warned me that getting sense out of you would be nigh on impossible…
Perseverance.
Another thing that has been a feature of our rather less active lifestyles of late has been our increasing waistlines.
I’ve had to massively cut my carb intake just to keep my weight at a stable level of unhealthy.
Still fighting that crisp addiction?
Yes. Worse than doom scrolling, that one.
What we’re seeing as countries struggle to reorient to a potentially long term accommodation with coronavirus.
Is governments pushing the idea of at home health as a way of reducing pressure on health systems.
Because we have a two pronged problem.
Firstly, we know that people with underlying health conditions like heart problems and diabetes are at a greater risk of serious complications with the virus.
Second, that forcing people to stay at home, or restricting and controlling their exercise options, increases the risk of some of them developing conditions like diabetes.
Back to your crisp addiction?
So, things like low carb diets certainly seem to help people lose weight in the short term.
We’re less sure of their long term effectiveness simply because many of these diets are relatively new.
We haven’t had the physical time to run long term tests.
We know that a lot of people can shift weight by dieting but that they have more trouble preventing the weight from creeping back on.
This is the case for more and consistent exercise?
Obviously, exercise is good for a whole host of reasons.
Burns energy, regulates mood and mental health. Can help to stabilize blood sugar levels.
Exercise is definitely good.
You should follow medical advice concerning what level of exercise is suitable for you.
But there’s no clear link between exercise and weight loss.
It can certainly help to prevent weight gain.
So this is leading some countries to look at more drastic solutions to keep potential second waves of coronavirus at bay.
The UK - to which I can give my own anecdotal evidence - has a growing problem with obesity.
Is considering massively increasing the access of British citizens to surgical solutions to their weight management problems.
Like gastric bands?
Yes, so the New Scientist has reported that British PM Boris Johnson, probably no stranger to the seductive power of the potato chip himself,
Is considering making surgical options more widely available on the NHS.
How effective is gastric surgery?
Certainly gastric bands and bypass surgeries are effective in that they reduce how much food can either be consumed or digested.
So they are effective, if radical, in reducing weight.
They’re not without plenty of issues.
It’s a major operation - any major surgery has health risks.
Absorption of vitamins and minerals.
The process of eating itself can become more difficult and less pleasurable.
And, according to NS, there is also evidence that a percentage of recipients simply swap the food addiction for something like alcohol addiction.
So there are also mental health support requirements that come along with the surgery.
So, this isn’t one of your recommended hacks?
Definitely not.
It really is something that only a physician should recommend and probably only after you’ve exhausted all the far less drastic options to control your weight.
This is not a medical advice show.
It’s to illustrate some of the hidden risks we face by sheltering in place.
To which I’ll add another hidden danger in our homes.
At this point I’m at a loss - household cleaning products, whiplashing guitar strings, lego on the stairs?
All of those things are valid and good points.
But I was thinking more of the couch.
Stream n chill has been an enormous part of our lives over the past 6 months.
And chairs are just so comfy.
Daytime napping is fun, too...
It is. So many slothful delights that the past few months has turned into habits.
As I mentioned a couple of minutes ago, we know the health risks that sedentary behavior poses.
All those lovely illnesses I won’t repeat.
And we may have limited options for the time being.
Not everyone can get a standing desk to work from home.
Or gym equipment that can mitigate the risk a little.
But on thing we can do is change the way we sit.
We’ve mentioned Tanzania’s Hadza People on the show before.
One of the few model hunter-gatherer societies left on earth.
In terms of their relatively low levels of disease and long life spans?
Yes. A lot of the studies so far have looked at their health from the perspective of activity.
They have a lifestyle that requires them to be physically active many hours a day.
But the activity didn’t explain all the differences between people in developed countries - where average weights are increasing, people are getting heavier -
So the researchers started looking into the way they rest.
And that’s where it started to get interesting.
The Hadza were at leisure for roughly the same number of hours as many of the slothful populations of Western Europe.
What was different was the way they rested.
No Netflix to chill with?
More importantly, no sofa and no chairs.
We’ve long known that chairs are not great for us.
Back in 2012, I-Min Lee, an epidemiologist at Harvard University, analysed mortality data from heart disease, diabetes and cancer and determined that prolonged periods of inactivity, especially sitting, were killing around 5m people per year.
A study back in 1953 found that london bus drivers - sitting for long periods each day - were more likely to develop heart conditions and at a younger age than the conductors on the same buses who stood and walked all day.
Yet the Hadza people spend similar amounts of time at rest without the negative effects.
Because they don’t have chairs to sag into?
The team researching the Hadza and living alongside them said that they were attracted to their camp chairs.
It’s this weird thing - we think about a long day at work and dream of getting back to that comfy supportive chair and watching some TV.
But it’s the chair that’s our enemy.
Chairs allow us to switch off our muscles and let the cushions and the back support us.
NASA studies dating back to the 1950s on the prolonged effects of zero gravity on astronauts determined that it could lead to loss of muscle mass, thinning bones and an increase in fats like triglycerides in their blood that are linked to heart disease.
We’re running out of time. Bottom line, if we’re stuck in our homes, how can we copy the hunter-gatherers?
Ditch the chairs.
I know a lot of people won’t like this answer: but squatting is a really healthy way to sit.
The researchers with the Hadza found that squatting requires 5 to 10 times as much muscle activity as slumping against those cushions.
And other so-called active sitting postures, kneeling, sitting cross-legged, some of the yoga style seating postures, are also much more beneficial than vegging on the couch.
Presumably you’re sitting while we’re recording this?
I’m actually kneeling.
I’ve had one of those fancy kneeling chairs for a few years.
A few months ago took the backrest off it because I found I would slump against it too much.
Now it’s far less comfortable and my posture is much better.
So it must be working.
Have you given squatting a go?
After I read the New Scientist report that outlined its benefits, I tried it.
And like most middle aged people who have not spent much time squatting, I found that my muscles don’t really do that.
But I did find a lot of resources online that can help you find active sitting postures that will work for your body.
Even if it’s just sitting on the sofa with your knees up.
So yeah, if you want to stay healthy during the pandemic, eat less, exercise more and squat.
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