How to get healthy in 4 hours a week
Can't turn off the TV? Make better use of time during commercial.
A Nielsen Media Research report from fall 2006 shows that the average American spends four hours and 35 minutes watching television each day. Each week, television viewing adds up to more than 30 hours — well beyond a part-time job.
Other reports show that national and local commercials now total an average of eight minutes for every half-hour show. So the average viewer is watching 40 minutes of commercials a day, or more than four and a half hours weekly.
Karen Collins, R.D. |
A Nielsen Media Research report from fall 2006 shows that the average American spends four hours and 35 minutes watching television each day. Each week, television viewing adds up to more than 30 hours — well beyond a part-time job.
Other reports show that national and local commercials now total an average of eight minutes for every half-hour show. So the average viewer is watching 40 minutes of commercials a day, or more than four and a half hours weekly.
Television is not necessarily wasted time, as people use it to relax and learn. But lack of time is one of the most commonly reported reasons that people don’t exercise or plan and prepare healthier meals. Perhaps it is worth considering the benefits that the time you spend watching television could bring.
A gold mine of time
If lack of time keeps you from adopting some healthful habits but you aren’t ready to reduce your television-watching time, you might reconsider the way you spend your commercial-watching time. There are several different approaches you could take to make use of this gold mine of time.
First, you could use commercial times to accomplish those health-supporting tasks you never seem to get done. Many people find that one of the secrets to healthier eating is to plan meals ahead. This allows you to grocery shop more efficiently and avoid the stress that comes when you haven’t given dinner a thought until a few minutes before you hope to eat. In the course of an hour of television programming, you could plan close to a week’s worth of meals and perhaps even write the grocery list for a weekly shopping trip.
People often say that they would like to save money and eat better by bringing their lunch to work, but that they have no time to make it. Others say they find no time to prepare the fruit they’d like to have with their breakfast. Commercials offer plenty of time to do these tasks. You could also assemble foods for the next day’s breakfast.
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