Eight ways to work out without working out


By JULIA MERZ
FITBIE.coM


 Here's an unexpected health
role model: The Amish. Despite
a diet high in meat, pie, sugar,
and fat, obesity is practically
non-existent in this traditional
agricultural community -
which shuns technology, includ-
ing electricity and cars. And not
only are the Amish able to lose
weight without exercise, but
they also boast lower cancer
rates than the rest of the U.S.
 So what's their stay-fit
secret? The answer is NEAT.
And no, this doesn't mean that
they stay thin by being tidy.
NEAT stands for nonexercise
activity thermogenesis, or
everyday movement that
doesn't include scheduled
exercise. Consider the simple
act of walking: Amish women
take about 14,000 steps per
day, and Amish men average
18,000 which works out to
seven to nine miles! To put this
into perspective, the average
American takes about 5,000
steps per day.
 But don't worry you don't
have to live like the Amish to
lose weight. In his new book
The Exercise Cure, Jordan


D. Metzl, M.D., explains how
exercise is the best medicine
for dozens of health problems
(and often better than an
actual prescription). "All you
have to do is stand up and
move to guarantee yourself a
healthier and longer life," says
Metzl. Here are some smart
ideas from his book to help you
raise your daily activity level
with very little extra effort.
 1. Meet face-to-face
 Email and phones have made
most of our jobs as sedentary
as possible you can get
nearly all of your work done
with the push of a few buttons.
Making the effort to actually
walk down to your coworker
to get you questions answered
is a simple way to get more
active at the office. You'll burn
more calories, and an in-person
convo is often more efficient
than trying to hash things out
via email.
 2. It's called a mobile
phone for a reason
 Gone are the days of corded
phones, and even computers
have been released from the
confines of their desks. So why
do we still tether ourselves to
chairs and offices? Next time
you're on the phone, take it


as an opportunity to take a
walk, or at least stand. Using a
laptop? Take every chance you
get to pick it up and switch
rooms.
 3. Schedule microbreaks
 Do you leave work feeling
like you shrank? Your posture
might be to blame, since your
ligaments and soft tissues
deform after holding a posi-
tion for 20 minutes. Fight the
tendency to stay slumped over
your keyboard with a simple
egg timer. Set it for 20 minutes
and when it goes off, take a
one-minute break to stretch
and move around (repeat this
routine throughout the day).
Stretching, standing, or taking
a short walk to the end of the
hall can not only improve your
posture, but it'll also increase
your NEAT and help you burn
more calories.
 4. There are hidden
workouts everywhere
 Maybe you live too far from
your job to walk to work, but
that doesn't mean you can't
park at the far end of the park-
ing lot or take the steps instead
of the stairs. These sound like
no-brainers, but every single
step counts. (How do you think
the Amish walk eight miles


every day?) Another easy one:
skip a ride on the conveyor belt
at the airport. You're about to
sit for at least two to six hours,
so you should take whatever
opportunities for exercise you
can get!
 5. Miss your stop
on purpose
 Maybe your bus or subway
stop lands you right on your
doorstep. While that's super
convenient, it's also robbing
you of extra steps. Instead, take
the next stop and walk back to
your house or apartment. It's
probably only an extra 10 or
15 minutes, plus you'll get to
explore your neighborhood.
 6. Walk and talk
 Think about your last few
conversations: Where were
you? A coffee shop? A restau-
rant? A boardroom? Regardless
of the answers, chances are
you were in the same place: a
chair. Sitting all day has been
linked to weight gain and a
host of other health problems,
so next time you need to have
a discussion with a friend or
coworker, try walking in the
park or around the block while
you chat. Maybe even schedule
your next meeting as a walk-
ing meeting, as walking can


help get blood and ideas
-flowing.
 7. Put it out of reach
 Do you keep your filing
cabinet and wastebasket at
arms reach? Try moving them
just a little bit farther away, so
that you'll need to move and
stretch to use them. Building
in little inefficiencies like this
will keep you from staying
perfectly still all day long.
Bonus: If you've been sitting all
morning, that stretch to reach
for your stapler on the other
end of your desk will probably
feel pretty good.
 8. Don't be a couch potato
 The average American
watches TV for five hours per
day! That's five hours of sitting
on the couch. That's five hours
of not moving a muscle. You
don't need to stop watching TV
all together, of course, but you
can incorporate NEAT into your
TV time by using commercials
as opportunities to get in
miniworkouts. Do anything
from squats to simple stretches
- anything to keep you from
being completely inactive.
For more tips on how to lose
weight and feel great simply
by exercising, pick up a copy of
The Exercise Cure.


WRAP
FROM PAGE 1
 The show, which was
put together for the
40th anniversary of von
Furstenberg's brand,
celebrates her singular
contribution to fashion
history: the wrap dress,
which is on par with the
T-shirt and blue jeans
when it comes to cultural
impact.
 The dress which
wraps in front and
ties at the waist and
was originally made in
drip-dry, cotton jersey
- became part of the
zeitgeist of the 1970s,
when women started to
enter the workforce en
masse, a symbol not only
of women's liberation but
of sexual liberation too. "A
woman could be dressed
in two minutes flat and
be undressed in even less
time,"fashion historian
Holly Brubach writes in
the show's introduction.
 It's also the piece that
made Von Furstenberg's
name. She designed
the garment when she
was just 26 and recently
married to Prince Egon
von Furstenberg, a Swiss-
born aristocrat who also
worked in the fashion
world. The style was
inspired by the silky wrap
tops and skirts that ballet
dancers wear.
 "It's the dress that gave
me my freedom, paid
all my bills, gave me my
fame and allowed me
to be free,;' Diane von
Furstenberg, 67, said
during a recent walk-
through of the exhibit,
wearing a dress from her
spring collection and a ti-
ger-tooth necklace given
to her by the late prince,
from whom she was
divorced in the 1970s.
 "And it empowered mil-
lions of women,";' she said.
"When I heard it's studied
in sociology classes,
I realized this dress
deserves to be honored.
I had never honored it. I
was grateful, but I took it
for granted. Sometimes I
even resented it, because
I thought,'I do other
things!'But this year,
when everyone was tell-
ing me to do something
for the anniversary, I said,
'OK. Now is the moment
to honor it:"
 The first part of the
exhibition is a walk down
memory lane beginning
with the first adver-
tisement for the dress,
featuring the designer


herself clad in one of her
wrap styles, sitting on
a white cube on which
she wrote, "Feel Like a
Woman, Wear a Dress."
She came up with the
words off-the-cuff and
wrote them on the cube
because it looked too
stark, she says, and they
have since become her
motto.
 There are photos
from her fashion shows
(including model Jerry
Hall at age 17) and
jet-setting social life (von
Furstenberg and her
now-husband, media
mogul Barry Di ller, at
the premiere of the film
"Grease"), advertisements
(one features the de-
signer shilling for Kool
cigarettes) and celebrity
shots. Images showing
pop stars Madonna and
Amy Winehouse, political
activist Ingrid Betancourt
and First Lady Michelle
Obama, all wearing
wrap dresses, are proof
of the style's range and
versatility.
 There are also photos
of the wrap on the big
screen worn by Cybill
Shepherd in "Taxi Driver"
and Amy Adams in
"American Hustle'The
actual vintage dress worn
by Adams is featured in
the exhibition, complete
with red wine stain.
(Seeing the dress in the
film was a surprise, Von
Furstenberg says, because
costume designer Michael
Wilkinson hunted down
vintage clothes rather
than contacting her.)
 The dresses are mount-
ed on mannequins mod-
eled after the designer
herself, high cheekbones
and all.
 Over the years, the wrap
dress has been a spectac-
ular canvas for black-and-
white graphic prints, pop
art flowers, embroidery
and sequins, as the
exhibition shows. The
dress is also a canvas for
Andy Warhol prints, just as
Warhol famously used Von
Furstenberg's visage on a
canvas of his own. (Several
styles featured are from
the designer's upcoming
limited-edition collection
of dresses, T-shirts and
accessories in collabora-
tion with the Andy Warhol
Foundation, featuring her
chain links and twig prints
and his signature poppy
flowers and dollar signs.)
 Von Furstenberg's
business is based in New
York, where she is also the
president of the Council
of Fashion Designers of


Photographs of fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg are featured at the "Journey of the
Dress" exhibit.


America and where she is
showing her next collec-
tion during the current
New York Fashion Week.
 But she also has a home
in Los Angeles. And she
owes a lot to the City of
Angels. When she first
showed her line at New
York Fashion Week, it was
in a rented out room at
the Gotham Hotel, where
all the visiting designers
from California showed,
since they did not have
showrooms in New York,
she says.
 L.A. was one of the
first places she made
personal appearances, at
stores such as I. Magnin,
Bullocks Wilshire and the
very May Co. store where
the exhibition is taking
place. And early on, Fred
Hayman, the wizard of re-
tail in Beverly Hills, invited
her to show her dresses


at his Giorgio store on
Rodeo Drive, where Rita
Hayworth, Ali MacGraw
and other celebrities
became DVF customers.
 So it seems appropriate
that her retrospective
should be in L.A., the
birthplace of casual
sportswear, in the
building owned by the
Los Angeles County
Museum of Art that will
be the future home of
the Academy Museum of
Motion Pictures.
 Today, Von Furstenberg
is a fixture here during
awards show season,
hosting an annual Oscars
brunch at her house.
 One of the original
celebrity designers, she
has become as iconic as
the wrap dress.
 To that end, a second
gallery space is devoted
to portraits of her by


 MOT PHOTOS
Fashion designer Diane
von Furstenberg attends the
"Journey of the Dress" exhibit
in Los Angeles on Jan. 9.


Photographs at the "Journey of the Dress" exhibit.


Warhol, Chuck Close,
Barbara Kruger, Helmut
Newton and more, hang-
ing alongside contem-
porary works from her
personal collection. The
newest piece, "A Ghost


May Come," is by Dustin
Yellin. It's a sculpture of
a wrap dress composed
of tiny magazine cutouts
of Von Furstenberg's face
suspended in glass for all
eternity.


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