About Sitting and Walking

This whole working-in-an-office-and-wearing-pretty-clothes-and-combing-your-hair thing, of late, has been more of a transition than i expected.  This surprises me, most of all, because i did the ...combing-your-hair thing for quite a few years before my leap into farmer-hood, and it never seemed weird or unusual or unnatural to me, that i remember.  There were times of longing to be able to take care of my home better, but i think that was about it.

One of the things that has struck me the most is the unreasonable amount of time every day that i now spend sitting.

Completely unreasonable.

I get in my car around 6:30 a.m., where i sit for 45 or so minutes and drive to work.  Once i get to work, i park my car in my assigned place on the roof of the parking garage (i'm not sure what the point is of an uncovered roof on a parking garage, but that's another story), and i walk, briefly, about a block's worth, to my office, where i sit.  I sit and type and shuffle papers and write on files and whatnot.  Every once in a while, i get my hands on an urgent file that simply must be walked across the street immediately.  I welcome those files.  We used to get more files to walk across the street, but management noticed we weren't sitting enough and provided someone to walk most of our files across the street for us, so we could sit some more.  I get an hour for lunch, at which time i usually take my leftovers to the break room, where i can sit down at a table with my co-workers and gab about something non-work-related, while i eat my lunch, sitting.  When i get done sitting and talking, i gather my things and go back to my desk, where i sit for several more hours, continuing my paper shuffling and hoping for emergency files.  At the end of the day, i walk back to the roof of the parking garage, and i sit down and drive home.  At this point, i have sat, with brief interruptions, for a total of about 11 1/2 hours.

Yikes.

To the credit of my office and its staff, there is a current trend, wherein employees are encouraged to take walks during their breaks and at lunch, to encourage a healthier lifestyle and so forth.  I commend this trend; i simply haven't coordinated the carrying of shoes that don't hurt for walking, into my daily routine.  I also usually forget to take breaks.  They interrupt my train of thought.

However, on Thursday, when i came home, i did incorporated an after-dinner walk, which was one of the most enjoyable walks i have had.  Like, ever.

Then, on Friday (casual Friday, wherein sneakers are part of the dress code), i took a walk at lunch and went shopping for a few minutes.  That was awesome too.

Then, today, i got up, after sleeping in sufficiently to provide recompense for the loss of sleep incurred during the week, and i (finally) cleaned out the chicken coop and brooder.

Awesome.

Physical movement is really good.

And the chickens rewarded me with four eggs today.

Even awesomer.

I feel like a new woman and am now considering how to incorporate sneakers into my routine.