Your health: Try these exercises at your desk

Try these exercises at your desk

If you're like most of us, you spend eight hours a day chained to your chair, which can take a toll on your posture - and health.

"Remember that your hip girdle is meant to tilt, and if you don't use it, you will lose it" says AntiGravity Fitness founder Christopher Harrison. Take a break and try these exercises from Harrison throughout the day to realign your body when you find yourself sitting too long:

Spinal twist: Cross your right leg over your left, knee to knee. Reach your left elbow over your right knee. Twist your chest to the right and reach your right arm behind your chair. Look over your right shoulder. Stay there for three deep breaths. Do the same thing for the other side.

Hip tilts: Sitting tall with hands on knees, stick your belly out, tug gently with your hands, tilt the hips forward and arch the lumbar spine. Then, relax the hands, contract your spine and pull your belly button in toward your back, coming into a concave position with your lumbar spine.

Rotation of the femur: Sit with your legs wide, shifting your weight onto your sit bones. Press your hands on the inside of your thighs, encouraging the hips to open as wide as possible. While holding your legs wide, lift your chest and take three deep breaths. Then, plant your heels and lift your toes. Bring your knees in toward each other and then out wide several times, lubricating the hips.

Long lunch periods mean fuller students

In schools with short lunch periods, children eat less and discard more, a new study has found, The New York Times reports.

Researchers tracked the eating habits of 1,001 students in grades three to eight at six elementary and middle schools in low-income school districts.

Compared with schools where children could sit at the table for 25 minutes or more, those who had 20 to 24 minutes consumed an average of 6.9 percent less of their entrees, 3.7 percent fewer vegetables and 2.3 percent less milk. In schools that allowed less than 20 minutes, students consumed 12.8 percent less of their entrees, 11.8 percent fewer vegetables and 10.3 percent less milk.

"We need to focus on how to get kids to select and consume the appropriate food," said the lead author, Juliana F.W. Cohen, an assistant professor at Merrimack College in North Andover, Mass. "Giving kids enough time to eat appears to play an important role."

There are things parents can do to help, she added. "Push for longer lunch periods, more lunch lines, automated point-of-sale equipment, anything that will get the kids through the lunch line faster so they can spend more time eating."