That’s right. Sitting 75% of your life is far more damaging than smoking. Don’t ask where the stats come from. Maybe they’re accurate. Maybe they’re embellished for the sake of a more interesting story. Sitting behind a desk staring motionlessly at a computer for forty plus hours takes its toll. Your neck starts cramping, your butt goes numb, your legs fall asleep. Your muscles start to ache. Terribly.
Our frames aren’t made to accommodate weight resting on our lower back. The homo sapien was created to walk, explore, hunt and do the chicken dance at weddings.
I’m a victim of the nine to five desk burdened grind. Pretty sure it’s why Medicare was invented. Not to protect the health of mankind. More of a bribe to cover up the bodily abuse. (footnote: Pam Bondi) I should have put sitting on my resume. Strong computer skills, problem solving and a wicked good sitter.
After a career of sitting, it’s ironic that I sit EVEN MORE in retirement. Oh I walk a great deal and go to the damn gym every frigg’n day, but I sit and stare in utter disbelief at CNN far too much. Now I quit smoking years ago with no effort or struggle thanks to the extra benefits of a certain antidepressant called Wellbutrin. Never even realized I had stopped. No drama. No struggle. But the sitting thing? Wellbutrin doesn’t address excessive sitting. Hence at least for me, sitting is the new smoking. My lower back is a minefield of pain. Today’s office workers get standing work stations and Pilates balls. I was lucky if I got a cushioned seat. What a perk!
Any solution? Not that I’m aware of. So I sit and stare at a television or laptop. I go out to dinner and sit. I get in an Uber going home from the restaurant and sit. Get home and walk the dog but man I’m usually jones’n to scurry back home … and sit.
I don’t smoke after eating anymore, but man do I look forward to my next sitting.