This week, turn off your television set and turn up the volume on your physical activity. From now until Sunday, it's officially National TV Turnoff Week, designed to help families get moving in the fight against childhood obesity. Avoiding a sedentary lifestyle isn't the only reason to avoid TV; too much tube can be harmful in more ways than one. Consider:
- People who watch more TV may be less happy in the long term.
- Watching TV while eating could make you consume more calories, and crime dramas are even worse in this respect.
- For every hour of TV watched daily, a preschooler's risk of being overweight increases by six percent — and a whopping 31 percent for kids with a TV in their rooms.
- Excessive TV watching by children has also been linked to hypertension.
- The average American watches more than four hours of TV a day, so why not help bring down the average?
- Turning off the TV in favor of reading or fitness saves energy and is better for the environment.
So, do you think you will put yourself on a TV diet this week, even if just for a few days? You should see what my buddy Buzz has to say about this.
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My family and I don't watch that much TV, but unfortunately, I do sit at the computer and surf sites like Fitsugar and Popsugar A LOT! Maybe I should make mine a step away from the Internet week!
1I didn't even know it was TV Turnoff Week but I just canceled my cable last week (finally, been saying I'd do it forever) since I find myself watching so much junk (especially with a DVR). Most shows I truly am interested in can be found online or wait til they come on DVD and watch them through Netflix anyhow.
2That's a good point keaton! Luckily my internet connection sucks because they need to update the cables in my area so I get really mad at it and walk away. We don't watch that much tv either since we don't even have cable and still need to get a converter. We will put something on just for the noise though, I've always been one of those people who need it for the noise.
3There's only a few shows that I really feel like I can't miss, so I'd say I watch 4 hours of television a WEEK. I probably won't cut back. I spend too much time on these sites, too, but it's only cutting into my work time. I have to be at the computer anyway right??
4The week Gossip Girl finally comes back? Noooo.
5Nope, I do enough away from the TV that I don't feel at all bad about watching my favorite shows when I want to relax a bit.
6I don't watch tv. Except for desperate housewives, which is once a week for 45 mins. So I don't feel bad about it.
7No new Lost this week, so normally I'd be on board... Except I'm homesick and need the court tv show entertainment!
8Nope, I watch TV while I work out and if I didn't have my shows to watch, I'd get seriously bored on the elliptical machine. I don't watch a lot of TV otherwise, though.
9It's good to just take a break-no tv, computer or electronics period.
10Yeah, I think this is a little silly for serial-type shows like Lost and Desperate Housewives. If it's something where each episode is self-contained (like most kids' shows), then I think it's fine.
I think this is an okay idea, but I'd rather everyone with kids thought about limiting their TV time every week instead of just having one week where you have to go cold turkey.
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