It’s Sunday. I’m in the kitchen writing while Keira sits a practice exam. The room is quiet, the clock is ticking. Keira is focused on her work and though she is concentrating, she is constantly on the move. Some might call this fidgeting, some might call it Non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT).
I’m conscious that I sit down a lot while I’m working. One reason I love to make and take phone calls is that I find it impossible to sit still when I’m on the phone. The phone rings, I answer it and wander about, a lot. Pavlov’s phone.
NEAT strikes me as being a helpful way to stay physically active in a sedentary job. Scientists such as Dr Levine who coined the term Non-exercise activity thermogenesis are doing interesting work in bringing this important part of wellbeing to a wider audience. I love the idea, and you can read more about it in this New York Times article.
I’m giving a short talk on Workplace Wellbeing for Morgan Lovell at their Economics of Workplace Wellbeing event this Tuesday. The event is sold out but I’ll blog about what I learn on the day soon. In the mean time, I couldn’t write about NEAT without Neat Neat Neat now, could I?
Of course, there was also Mud’s ‘Tiger Feet’, in the 70’s, which contained the chorus line (if I remember correctly) ‘That’s NEAT, That’s NEAT, That’s NEAT, That’s NEAT – really love those Tiger Feet’. Nowhere near as cool as The Damned, of course….:-)
I dunno – I used to quite like that guy’s red heart shaped guitar 😉