Day 252-The Social Network and Your Butt-Width

At the Vanderbilt School of Medicine, some researchers decided to study what would happen if they took a bunch of kids who didn't know each other, and put them into an after-school exercise program, where their common thread was a pedometer to measure their activity over 12 weeks. 

The researchers tracked how the youngsters made and dropped friends and what effect these changing relationships had on their physical activity level.

Turns out, a lot. 

During the program, the strongest factor influencing how much time the kidlets spent engaged in moderate to vigorous physical activity was the activity level of their four to six closest friends that they'd made in the short program. In fact, kids changed their activity level about 10% to better match those in their circle; children who hung out with more active students were more likely to increase their physical activity levels, while those who befriended more sedentary children became less active.

So, basically, you hang with slugs, you slug. You hang with movers, you move. 

Seems to make sense. 

When I first met my husband, we both exercised not so much. We cocooned for years, cuddling on the couch in our sweats, sharing pints of Ben & Jerry's and cartons of Kung Pao chicken. 

Sounds nice, right? Oh, trust me, it was.

But then, several years ago, he stopped and got his act together and started moving, seriously moving. Not to be left behind, I joined in and followed his example. Why? Because he is my social network, and I wanted to stay in that network with him. I like him.

Look around you. If you're surrounded by sloth, either you're going to have to make new buddies OR you're going to have to be the brave one and be the example. 

Either way, you benefit. 

First step is the hardest, 
Dani

PS. If you're surrounded by sloths, I am truly jealous.