Health and Fitness Journal

I’ve been experiencing five flavors of hell since I switched from being a pro golfer and spending my days out of doors, to being wedged into a decades-old rump-crunching office chair. I’m overworked and grouchy, and it’s no mystery that the root cause is sitting at a desk all day long, gazing at screens that beg me to “submit,” and “click here.” What ever possessed Bill and Melinda Gates to invent the computer, I’ll never understand.

I’m gaining weight and feeling bloated and angry. I catch myself straying from my work and typing in searches for “Tiger Woods.” Does that make me a bad person? I don’t think so, but my boss has shown little or no sympathy to my health plight. He even confiscated my little short wave radio that I used to have near me on my desk. He said it was “too much of a distraction.” That little radio was my friend.

Office injuries are so much different than those experienced out on a golf course. I’m no newcomer to the house of pain – I’ve had flesh ripped off my kneecaps trying to make a difficult shot; I’ve had punch-ups with caddies over mark-ups on the clubhouse snackfoods; I almost died in a sandtrap. But nothing I’d experienced before prepared me for the slow war of attrition I’d face when I started work as an IT professional.

After two months in the office I was sure I had caught deep vein thrombosis from lack of movement caused by just sitting stationary at my desk. My wrists throbbed from carpal tunnel syndrome. My heart had swollen to twice its size. I felt parched. I told my boss I wanted to quit. He offered to return my little radio if I’d reconsider. So I stayed.

I’m still waiting for my radio. I hope it comes soon.

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