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Mark Gottschlich

Everyday Wellness: Get off your bum and enjoy a heightened quality of life

By Mark Gottschlich | Feb. 1, 2015

One of the fundamental principles by which I live is to live in moderation. This principle’s personal meaning evolved as I aged. During my teen years, it meant trying to find the proper balance between studying and hanging out with friends. Over the next decade, the theme of living in moderation advanced to encompass many aspects of my life — including school, work, nutrition, sleep, exercise, Court Street adventures, etc. What I have found is when I am successful at living in moderation; I am more healthy and happy. On the occasions when I may cross the boundary and test the extremes, it usually has negative effects on my mind and body.This is relevant to “Everyday Wellness” readers because I recently became aware that there was a glaring aspect of my life that was not in balance and needed to be addressed because such excessiveness results in negative consequences to healthy living. I am referring to the inordinate amount of sitting that you and I do on a daily basis.We all do it and few do anything to stop it. All of this sitting — be it in a car seat, at a desk, couch or dinner table — adds up and likely even surpasses the amount of time you lay down to sleep on a given day. I am sure we would all get a glare of disapproval and astonishment from our ancestors who were on their feet all day from working hard labor.The fact is that this sedentary behavior is unhealthy. The worst part is, our bodies try to alert us of the damage we are acquiring by way of subtle and sometimes not-so-subtle twinges of discomfort in our necks and backs, but we largely ignore these aches and pains and attribute them to unavoidable life stressors. To give an analogy, Mama Bear’s porridge is way too hot and yet we continue to sit back (literally) and burn our tongues. The damage is not only reflected in our poor postures but sitting can also negatively impact proper circulation and metabolic functioning, increasing the risk for many diseases including obesity, heart disease and diabetes.I am not saying that sitting is bad and will eventually kill you, but instead, I want to address yet another one of life’s many things that is best enjoyed in moderation. While trying to reduce one’s daily sitting might sound more daunting of a task than even adding healthy vegetables and fruits to your diet, I think you will find there are small adjustments you can make that are easy and sustainable. My advice: let the porridge cool for a couple minutes, or at least sip it slowly.While obviously setting aside time to work out or go for a jog are good options, even easier things could be standing up and walking around the room when you are on the phone. Other ideas include standing up every 30 minutes and taking a quick break to do some non-strenuous lunges, squats or even some light stretching. After incorporating these ideas or your own personal ideas, start charting how much less time you are sitting, and every month or so see if you can “one-up” yourself and go for an extra 10 minutes of standing the next month.The impact of standing and leisurely movement can be profound. For starters, you'll burn more calories, which might lead to weight loss and increased energy. And who knows, maybe after a year or so you will be so focused on seeking a new personal best standing time that you might invest in a standing workstation for your computer. Or even better, your own personal office treadmill! So, take a stand to sitting and decide for yourself if you want to live healthier by standing more.Mark Gottschlich is a second year medical student at the Ohio University Heritage College of Medicine and a monthly columnist at The Post. Have questions about health and wellness? Email him at gg617012@ohio.edu; call your physician if you feel excessively tired throughout the day.

Sophie Kruse - Gamer Girl

Gamer Girl: For gamers, PlayStation Now is a must

By Sophie Kruse | Feb. 1, 2015

Once again, I’m really excited for something launched by PlayStation. This time? It’s a video game streaming and rental service.PlayStation Now launched on Jan. 13 and acts like a Netflix for games. From two different plans, you can either rent or stream games and play them right from your PlayStation devices.There are two types of subscriptions on this service. The game streaming subscription, which costs $19.99 a month, gives you access to more than 100 games on your console. The titles range from The Last of Us to Guacamelee!The rental option is a little different. More than 200 games are available for a variety of periods. Rentals cost about $1 a week, but you can cut it down and rent games for a few hours at a time as well. For devoted gamers, one week can be more than enough time to beat a quick campaign game or a few hours is enough to decide if you like the gameplay well enough to purchase the full version.My initial worry was how it saved your game process, but all of your gameplay is saved right to the cloud. You could rent it again later to continue or purchase it in the future and start right where you left off. You also keep all your trophies even if you stop being a subscriber to the service.Currently, all the games are for PS3 but are compatible on other devices. From what I understand, more games will begin rolling out once time goes on. From what I noticed in the catalog, there’s a good variety of longer campaign games to shorter puzzle or quick games. It’s a good variety and seems to be able to suit most players.I think this is a great idea for next-gen consoles. The rental option is especially interesting for others on budgets with the games or for those that simply don’t want to dish out the big bucks to be able to play.I always wanted a service like this when I first got into video games in high school. I wanted to play a ton of different games, but I couldn’t afford to shell out $60 for the newest titles. I remember checking games out at Family Video and paying the $5 to $10 rental fee. It still cost a lot of money when it came down to it but was far cheaper than the tag price.People always suggested GameFly to me when I’d tell them about the dilemma. While I think it is a good service for some, I didn’t want to pay a minimum of $17 a month for games I might not have the time to finish.PlayStation Now is also good for those with minimal patience when it comes to getting games, like me. I couldn’t handle waiting a few days for them to come in the mail. While there will still obviously be load times and wait times, it seems to be a bit better when it’s on the screen in front of you.Sophie Kruse is a junior studying journalism. Have you tried PlayStation Now? Email her at sk139011@ohio.edu or find her on Twitter at @kruseco. 

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