< 5 minute walk & talk: Physiologist Keith Diaz hates timers and doesn't count steps

MANOUSH ZOMORODI, HOST:

Hey, it's Manoush. Welcome to BODY ELECTRIC's second five-minute walk and talk with notables and listeners. So today, you might remember Keith Diaz from season one. He's the head researcher of the study we did with Columbia Medical Center. I wanted to call him up, though, and ask him about his own habits.

Keith, hello from a very sunny, beautiful Brooklyn. Where are you today?

KEITH DIAZ: I am in east Brunswick, N.J., walking around my neighborhood.

ZOMORODI: Nice. I love it. So I want to ask you - you are the guy, the physiologist coming up with the best practices for us to get off our screens and our butts and move our bodies all day. But we just wanted to talk to you for five minutes about how you get breaks into your day. Start me off. In the morning, what do you do?

DIAZ: Oh, well, I have kids who have to get ready for school in the morning. So I use that as my excuse to spend time with them and also get them moving. And so we walk to school every day. So I usually, just in the beginning of my day, get a mile in just from taking them to school and then back.

ZOMORODI: And that counts, right?

DIAZ: Yeah, absolutely. Everything counts. Every step counts.

ZOMORODI: OK. Go on.

DIAZ: Yeah, so next, I do have to sit down at a computer and work. And usually what I'll do is sit for maybe an hour-ish or so, check my emails. And then I do have a treadmill desk in my garage. And then I start doing some real work on the treadmill desk. I don't set timers. I just - it's just kind of like I just start feeling it after a while.

ZOMORODI: Oh, you don't set any timers?

DIAZ: No. No. I hate timers.

ZOMORODI: OK, there's two things you're saying here that I find really interesting. One is that if we're in tune with our bodies, that's the alarm, the timer will go off in our brains, but we have to be listening. But then the second thing that you're saying is that you are not actually necessarily sticking to the gold standard that you came up with, which is moving for 5 minutes every half hour. Sometimes you are going for an hour of sitting.

DIAZ: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the every half hour is a - it's a guideline. It's a nice target that we know is ideal. But, like, even if we fall short of that, that's OK. We're still moving. But what I do instead, and this is where I think we still need more science on it.

ZOMORODI: Yeah.

DIAZ: So I won't walk for five minutes. I'm walking on the treadmill for an hour.

ZOMORODI: Ah, OK.

DIAZ: So in my mind, I'm making up for the time that I didn't move for, like, that one hour. And so that's - and that's a question that we keep getting a lot of - is, if I don't do that every half hour, could I make up for it later on...

ZOMORODI: Yeah.

DIAZ: ...And just, like, double the amount of time? We don't have the answer yet. We're working on it right now. It just works better for my lifestyle, and I think that's what this is about.

ZOMORODI: How fast are you going on the treadmill?

DIAZ: Oh, I usually go 1.8 miles per hour, so...

ZOMORODI: Oh.

DIAZ: ...Pretty slow.

ZOMORODI: And did you - like, does that annoy you, like, at first? 'Cause I have to say, I've been thinking about the treadmill desk, but the thought of, like, it sounds like patting my head and chewing gum and rubbing my tummy at the same time. I'm not sure I can do it.

DIAZ: That was my initial thought when I first tried. I just - I didn't think it was going to work. But when you're doing - actually, like, I started at 1.7, 1.6 miles an hour, like, really slow, and it actually didn't bother me at all. I just started with, like, if I'm on a work meeting I'll walk on the treadmill. If I have to write or do something really intensive, then I want to sit. And remember, we still found in the lab every hour for just one minute was still good enough to lower blood pressure.

ZOMORODI: Wow. So I have another question. I've been thinking about, like, moving while working is great, but really, what I love about the breaks is the not looking at a screen. And I just wonder, like, do you find that you might want to add that into your recommendations, whether you're inside or outside, still continuing to work or not working?

DIAZ: Yeah. And so this is where I was really inspired by the study that we did together and the 20,000 people who participated in our studies. We're still parsing through the data, but we heard time and time again, like, what was the thing that people liked most about taking the breaks? - was like, I just love breaking away from my screen. And...

ZOMORODI: Yeah.

DIAZ: ...We had a ton of people say like, we got outside. That just, like, boosted my mood and, like, cleared this brain fog that I'm usually in.

ZOMORODI: Yeah.

DIAZ: And so that to me is like, yes, I totally want that.

ZOMORODI: All right, so bring it home. How do you know at the end of the day that you've, like, felt like you've ticked your boxes? Are you checking a step count? Are you checking in with your body?

DIAZ: Yeah, I do not do step counts. It's just more, how do I feel at the end of the day? And if we can just gauge it off of our bodies and what our body is telling us, I feel like we can all find a good place where our body is happy enough and where you still felt like you were productive enough at the same time.

ZOMORODI: I love that. So important. How does my body feel right now? Very simple question to ask yourself at the end of the day.

DIAZ: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

Copyright © 2024 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.