Writers And Other Sedentariness

This year I decided to do NaNoWriMo.  The decision happened rather unexpectedly. It is something I have known about for a while now, but this is the first year I really wanted to look into it.  I view NaNoWriMo as a valid writing excercise, but beyond that as a way to force myself to really plan out a novel and complete it.  

Strangely enough, things have coordinated in my life to require me to quit my job with nothing but faith in the hope that I'll be successful (with God's blessings).  It's very scary and I may end up working at a retail place, which as long as I can make enough to live is fine.  I'm rather tired of being literally tethered to a cubicle.  There is something so disheartening and inhumane about that.  What's even more odd is that humans do it willingly.  If we chained animals to a post for eight to ten hours a day, animal rights activists would be working hard to get special breaks and longer tethers and any number of things.  Humans?  Eh, whatever.  So what if the risk of heart attack increases for men by 64% with a sedentary job?  No one gets fired up about that. 

You can check about the article about the potential health effects of sedentary jobs here: http://www.npr.org/2011/04/25/135575490/sitting-all-day-worse-for-you-than-you-might-think

The article by Patti Neighmond at NPR.org interprets the effects of stress, solely on men.  While men and women are different, women also may have increased risks as well.  Percentages may be different, but it is obvious that our current mode of office-related work is a health hazard.  You sometime used to hear people saying, "a little work won't kill you".  With these numbers we have to consider that unless there is a drastic change in how the workplace is managed, there could be significant health issues and a general decline in overall health.  Work takes up increasing amounts of daily life which does not leave much time and/or energy for trying to exercise.  

Why does this matter?

Well, as I mentioned above I recently quit my job.  I'll be pursuing writing in addition to some other sedentary work.  Writers, who sometimes sit for hours furiously typing or scrawling, also need to be mindful of these statistics.  This is a timely reminder for me to take breaks from writing and other work to get a bit of exercise.  I know that I feel more alert and tend to get more ideas when I'm walking around, so I'm happy to try this out.  I can definitely see how it would be so easy to just sit for hours, especially when I get engrossed in the material I'm writing.  Last night I wrote until around 4am before I realized I should go to bed.  I'm probably going to have to set an alarm and force myself to jog in place or do jumping jacks or squats or something.  If I can squeeze in ten minutes every hour or something like that I'll be getting more exercise than normal.  I'll have to see how that works.  

Happy days everyone!  More crazy ruminations later!