Post Number One: Distinguish your State from that of a Corpse

I will tell you my situation right now in time. I have a desk job. And I sit way too much. Sometimes I can feel my heart beating a bit strangely, and I retain water from all of that sitting. It seems so odd that there when there is work, for which I am grateful, and I earn a paycheck, I pay for that paycheck with a long term insult to my body- SITTING.

The people in this office mostly seem to accept the situation. Some of them exercise on their offtime, but nobody (I think) requests a stand-up desk or a treadmill. Even though recent studies have been published that show that sitting for more than 6 hours per day is an invitation to early death. I am trying to work on building up the courage to ask for a treadmill desk or at least a stand up desk. This is the kind of place where rocking the boat is discouraged.

So I have created a few strategies for desk job survival.

If you want to live, distinguish your state from that of a corpse.

Every single hour get up and do an activity for five minutes or five hundred steps.
I have five or six different types of short workouts I have developed after being at this job for four years.

a) Run around the large meeting room for five hundred steps. The large meeting room has a rectangular arrangement of meeting tables. So what I do is run along the perimeter of the tables for five hundred steps. This is a risky one, so I get the added excitement of thinking someone could see me as I pass by the two doorways on my run and devising what I might say if I am seen. Mostly the one person who is hostile does not come back here but you never know. What would happen if I am discovered?
I only do this one when most people have gone home and I have this side of the suite of offices to myself.

b) Run in the bathroom- eyes closed. The bathroom has a straightaway that is maybe fifteen feet long. I run from the door to the first stall fifteen feet away along a straight line and then I run backwards to my starting place at the entrance to the bathroom. It is a locking bathroom so you can hear someone's key in the lock and quickly adjust what you are doing to appear reasonable when you hear them about to enter. I added the eyes closed thing to practice using more of my senses. I know that there are completely blind people who participate in marathons. So I got curious about moving around in the world blind. Interestingly, it is much easier to run backwards blind that forwards-- I suppose it is because I try to protect my face. Two hundred fifty steps, one direction then turn and two hundred fifty steps other directions. Peeking is cheating.

c) Go up and down the stairs- my boss actually suggested this the one time I mentioned the possibility of exercising at work. I wanted to bring my mini trampoline and bounce sometimes when I was not too busy. I don't know what he would think if he knew I actually took him up on it. I put on the Stevie Wonder song "Don't you Worry 'Bout a thing." It has a perfect rhythm for climbing stairs to the beat. I love to pause and resume when there are pauses in the music. Fun song, picks up my mood as well. Down four flights, up four flights- four times.

You have to figure out what you can do at your location. Once you are past thinking you will lose your job for every bathroom break, or once you don't care, you can make excuses to leave and practice your short exercise breaks. I make sure I do a minimum of four a day, but every hour is best--I know I feel better on the days I manage to do it.

Til next time,
L.E.T.