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Today, my real role is to persuade you
that the chair you are sitting on

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is a "fatal chair"!

3
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And that chair is not a dear friend
but a bitter enemy.

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It differes!

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I want to take you with me in a journey
to Australia!

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Who wants to go?
Everyone, I know.

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I have spent seven years
in this college in Australia.

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But let me tell you what happened
in my first two months in the college.

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This is my office.

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If I wanted to print a paper
I order a print

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then I have to leave the office

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get out from the building

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go to another building

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in that building there's a room
for copying and printing

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I take the paper and go back to my office
grouchy!

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Why don't I have a printer?
I'm a PhD student!

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I'm a scholar! I want a print!

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It's impossible!
This is a poor college!

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You know when a Saudi gets angry!

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Instantly, I send a letter to the boss,

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that I want a printer!

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There're 5 Australian PhD students
with me,

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didn't have any problem with that!

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They said to me,
"Muhamed, this is good for your health!"

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You're making an effort,
by leaving the chair.

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I replied, "No talk for health

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tell me how to get a printer!

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I want a printer!"

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They brought me a printer, I was happy.

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but after a while

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I had pains in my lower back
due to sitting for long periods

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and I didn't figure out

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that the real cause was the chair!

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Firstly, we all know the danger of drugs

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secondly, smoking.

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thirdly, alcohol.

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fourth, the chair you're sitting on
it right now!

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before and then and all the time.

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We're sitting every where.

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If we follow the steps of the cave man

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passing by the agrarian age
then the industrial age

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Man never sit down

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Man never sit except in the present time.

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The time of computer, Internet,
and mobile phone.

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So we're sitting now everywhere.

46
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Smoking isn't the unhealthiest
thing anymore.

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It's sitting which becomes more dangerous.

48
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yes, It's said that sitting for too long

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is the new smoking of our era.

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Disaster! Why?

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Because there are many diseases
linked to sitting.

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That's its name.

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Medically, it's called sitting disease.

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Heart diseases, osteoporosis, obesity,
early death

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Diabetes, high blood pressure.

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Shall I keep counting?

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There is more than thirty
or forty diseases linked to sitting.

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I can't tell you all of them
otherwise I'll stay till the day ends.

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Now if we have a dinner tonight
a fatty dinner.

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Fats and sugars.

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Something like the open buffet.

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Are we going to be fat tomorrow?

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Of course not, we won't be obese.

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But if we live on this bad
dietary behavior

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for everyday for year, two years,
three... ten years.

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Of course we'll be fat
because of that behavior.

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Same thing with sitting.

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If we sit for twenty four hours on a chair

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We won't be ill with those diseases.

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But if that becomes our behavior

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sitting everyday

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for a year, two years, three,
five, ten years

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of course we'll be ill,
at least one disease of sitting diseases.

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We shouldn't accept that.

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It's been ten years,
since we got to world cup of football.

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Right?

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Saudi Arabia Kingdom is the third
globally in physical inactivity

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This is a report by Lancet magazine
one of the famous medical magazines.

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Unfortunately, Saudi Arabia comes first in
high BP, obesity, diabetes, osteoporosis.

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These diseases.. what we call them?

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Sitting diseases.

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We sit in home, college,
car and in school.

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Even in playground, 22 players
watched by 60,000 spectators!

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Beside that millions of spectators
watching the TV.

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Watching but not practicing!

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What a kind of world!

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The scientific recommendation

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which I keep repeating for 20 years
twenty years.

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This scientific recommendation says

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everybody should practice an activity
for 30 minutes to prevent heart diseases.

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In fact, the situation changed.

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2 or 3 years ago, scientific studies
claimed that 30 mins. isn't enough

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for prevention of heart diseases

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The real question is
what are you doing all the day?

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30 minutes and then sit all the day! No

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If we spend our time
sitting in front of TV

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on the internet

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using electronic devices

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then it doesn't matter
if you exercise or not.

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You're liable for heart diseases,
and this's a disaster.

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Do you think that only ordinary people
are physically inactive?

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Indeed not.

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This's a study that we've made about
football players

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of one of Riyadh capital's clubs.

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which was published in an international
meeting in Santiago - America.

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To figure the percentage of players'
physical inactivity

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77% of them were inactive spending
the rest of the day

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watching TV, on the Internet,
using mobiles, playing video games.

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So physical inactivity is common among
people and players which is a problem.

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"Doctor you've terrified us" you said.

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In fact we must be.

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But the good news
is the solution is very easy.

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The solution needs a simple change
in our lives.

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There's a rule which I call
"Active and healthy life" rule.

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Changing our behavior

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8+1+15 equals?

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24

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what do I mean by 24?

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24 hours, all of us have 24 hours

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even you who points 23 not 24, it's 24.

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Let's calculate it - I was kidding
with him - let's divide the 24 hours

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8 hours for sleep at night
at night not the morning

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8 hours is a healthy behavior not laziness

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one hour for physical activity

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any physical activity walking,
jogging, biking, swimming

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any activity that you like
and practicing it everyday

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is perfect.

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For the rest of the day, the rest of
the 24 hours. we've got 15hrs, what to do?

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This is the active behavior in life.

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You should shorten time of sitting.

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you should shorten the time of sitting

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by shorting the time spent on Internet
mobile, video games.

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We should increase the everyday physical
activity in our lives.

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Like: going upstairs, walking to masjid
walking in the college, walking in school

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housework, house business
specially this part is perfect.

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Cleaning the floor, walls
the kitchen, working on house garden.

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These things need a very high energy
and is so important.

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We should stop focusing on this area.

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This part isn't made for sitting on it.

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We must shift our focus from
this upper square to... the lower one.

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We must use the feet.

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Physiologically and anatomically

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God's created feet for walk,
movement, and standing.

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Brothers and sisters, physical inactivity
is a behavior.

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Smoking kid'll be a smoker in the future.

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Obese child'll be an obese man
when he grow up.

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Same thing with physical inactivity.

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Inactive kid who sits all the time

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will be inactive adult who sits
for too long in the future.

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We must change our life
and our environment.

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Active environment helps us.

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At homes, schools, universities,
work places and everywhere.

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We must change these environments.

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How?

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These are some western examples.

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Some people get rid of round tables

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and replaced them
by walk and talk meetings.

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Why?

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Innovation, creativity,
making right decision

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all are better while walking not sitting.

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Scientific proof?

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I'll give one.

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Now, on the left an image of brain
after a period of sitting.

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Now, let's compare it to a brain image
after walking for 20 minutes.

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Look at green, red and yellow areas.

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This is an evidence of increased
brain cells' activity.

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So, creativity and making the right
decisions happening during walking

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are better than those while sitting.

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Exams are soon, who wants to study should
study walking or you'll sleep sitting.

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I recommend that.

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Some people have got rid of classic desks
which we called " inactive desks"

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what you see here is an active desk.

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Conveyor belt
attached to a desk with a computer

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which enables the person to sit for 8 hrs
through slow walking.

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Also, there is a fixed bicycle
attached to this active desk.

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Some schools, have got rid of chairs
and replaced them by medical balls

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These balls require balance.

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That balance make most of back, abdominal
and feet muscles do efforts all the time

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This is a library where they've
replaced chairs with medical balls.

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00:11:33,781 --> 00:11:39,184
Moreover, there're schools in west
have no chairs at all.

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Schools with no chairs at all.

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Students are taking their lessons
standing on feet.

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These students are young.


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Now, it's you're turn.

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This is you're turn.

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If scientific studies
couldn't convince you...

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Can I ask everybody, now, men and women
to stand up, please?

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To stand for the rest of the talk
and you'll feel the difference.

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I ask you to stand, please.
All of you, yes all of you.

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Best scene I saw in my life, not sure how
many of you here as I can't see everything

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God blesses.

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Well, I've given you
western examples till now.

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Can we Saudi people change our traits?

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Who is it in pictures?

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This is Saudi man. Me wearing headband
to prove that I'm Saudi and I can change.

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This is my office in
King's Saud university with no chair

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even my lectures, I give them standing.

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(Applause)

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00:13:03,367 --> 00:13:07,498
My students listening to me
in the standing position.

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00:13:07,879 --> 00:13:11,406
If they were here,
they would prove me true.

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00:13:14,462 --> 00:13:17,613
This is my desk at home.

202
00:13:17,999 --> 00:13:20,722
Of course there is no chair,
only the conveyor belt.

203
00:13:21,503 --> 00:13:26,838
Now, I'm working 8 hrs
with a speed less than 2 km\hr.

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00:13:27,379 --> 00:13:28,524
I am an active man.

205
00:13:28,774 --> 00:13:32,779
This is my desk at home and this
conveyor belt cost me less than 1000 Rial.

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00:13:33,039 --> 00:13:35,520
A simple change makes me active.

207
00:13:37,781 --> 00:13:40,129
(Applause)

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00:13:45,868 --> 00:13:48,468
My youngest daughter, 1st grade, insisted

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00:13:48,968 --> 00:13:54,910
to come to prove to everybody
that she can get rid of the fatal chair

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00:13:55,323 --> 00:13:59,232
and that she can use computer
on foot, too.

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00:14:00,502 --> 00:14:02,695
(Applause)

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00:14:08,385 --> 00:14:14,212
We always wonder, why some people

213
00:14:14,499 --> 00:14:19,843
- some inactive people -
eat more but never get obese?

214
00:14:21,439 --> 00:14:28,619
someone always eat at night but still thin
while if I smell the food I gain weight?

215
00:14:28,874 --> 00:14:34,021
What makes them thin
without any physical activity?

216
00:14:34,683 --> 00:14:41,237
Science magazine, one of the best medical
journal in the world,answers this question

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00:14:42,011 --> 00:14:45,058
as they searched for a group
of a very lazy people

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00:14:46,708 --> 00:14:50,070
divided them into 2 groups
obese group, which is normal result.

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00:14:50,835 --> 00:14:52,839
Physical inactivity leads to obesity.

220
00:14:53,143 --> 00:14:55,218
But what is abnormal is the second group.

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00:14:55,218 --> 00:14:56,887
Non-obese thin people

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00:14:57,274 --> 00:14:58,638
who are very inactive.

223
00:14:59,561 --> 00:15:04,554
Valued their daily physical activity
every movement.

224
00:15:05,095 --> 00:15:09,319
For ten consecutive days
with precise devices.

225
00:15:09,989 --> 00:15:11,895
Here is the result, in front of you.

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00:15:13,127 --> 00:15:19,333
Sitting time, and standing time
sitting in white and standing green

227
00:15:19,806 --> 00:15:22,623
Note that obese sit more.

228
00:15:23,761 --> 00:15:27,780
But non-obese stands more like you now.

229
00:15:29,574 --> 00:15:32,197
Well, then what they've done?

230
00:15:32,495 --> 00:15:37,819
They measured the difference in energy
between obese and non-obese.

231
00:15:38,265 --> 00:15:46,017
They found that 352 calories
were consumed by standing.

232
00:15:46,419 --> 00:15:50,700
Is this considered as high or low energy?

233
00:15:50,981 --> 00:15:53,569
Let's convert it to physical activity.

234
00:15:53,781 --> 00:15:59,890
These 352 calories
equals 42 minutes of running a day,

235
00:16:00,839 --> 00:16:07,117
or 72 minutes walking
i.e one hour and 12 minutes.

236
00:16:07,621 --> 00:16:10,869
The study concluded that

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00:16:11,223 --> 00:16:17,494
Standing energy makes the skinny, skinny.

238
00:16:20,101 --> 00:16:25,824
I always wonder -
This question puzzles me.

239
00:16:26,080 --> 00:16:31,483
Why is domestic worker skinny
comparing to anyone else?

240
00:16:32,082 --> 00:16:37,098
Not only women but men, as well.

241
00:16:37,768 --> 00:16:40,680
For example, the driver comparing
to his employer -

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00:16:41,094 --> 00:16:45,660
Somethings have progressed and others
regressed which makes me out of my mind.

243
00:16:46,266 --> 00:16:48,208
Obesity is omnipresent.

244
00:16:49,864 --> 00:16:58,595
Finally, I want to remind you and myself
about " Healthy active behavior rule"

245
00:16:59,231 --> 00:17:02,976
Yes he can change, yes she can change.

246
00:17:03,294 --> 00:17:09,496
Yes, we all can change our behavior
from laziness to active

247
00:17:09,833 --> 00:17:15,538
and apply the
"Healthy and active life rule",

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00:17:15,655 --> 00:17:25,373
8 hours sleep, one hour of physical
activity, 15 hours doing some active work

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00:17:25,646 --> 00:17:27,829
Thank you,
Thanks TEDxRiyadh.

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00:17:37,981 --> 00:17:41,981
(Applause)