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Nina In New York: We're Back To The Sitting Thing; It's Bad Again And We're The Worst

A lighthearted look at news, events, culture and everyday life in New York. The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.
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By Nina Pajak

Remember how a while ago we found out that sitting was the new cancer? And then we found out that diet and nutrition really trump physical activity. But then we found out that cancer is still the new cancer, which didn't necessarily mean that sitting wasn't still really terrible, but it did help to put the whole thing in perspective. Anyway, as New Yorkers, we've always known that in addition to being smarter, thinner, funnier, and more cultured than the rest of the rubes around the country, we're also far more adept at walking from point A to point B. We don't get in our cars and drive to the supermarket! We walk four blocks, shimmy through the narrow aisles of a tiny grocery store, and then trudge home as quickly as we can before the plastic handles of our strategically packed bags actually break the skin and open up an artery.

Which is all to say that if the country is going to drop dead from sitting too much, we'll be the last to go. Right?

Eh.

According to a new study from NYU's School of Medicine in conjunction with the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, New Yorkers sit for at least seven hours a day, on average. And before you Manhattanites get all uppity and say, well it must be us borough slobs throwing off the numbers with our big box stores and easily found parking spots, think again. Those who reside on the island actually reported an average of eight hours a day spent on their tushies.

This is just all kinds of wrong. Perhaps it is our city's high concentration of office jobs and low availability of farming work that has us on our rears so very much. But compared to people in the suburbs who drive between parking lots in the same shopping center, we should be in amazing shape! We should be running circles around these people. We are squandering our birthright of one of the country's most pedestrian-friendly cities. Honestly, are we going to let San Francisco out-smug us? We can do this. We must do this.

Of course, I understand the predicament. I, too, enjoy not standing. I, too, am best friends with my sofa. The call of the cushion is a siren song no man or beast can resist, particularly when you live in a city in which the standard sidewalk pace is "foot pursuit." Life can be exhausting. But we must live, damn it! So let's all get off our fat, rapidly aging behinds before some politician comes in and tries to outlaw comfy chairs. You know it could happen.

Nina Pajak is a writer living with her husband, daughter and dog in Queens. Connect with Nina on Twitter!

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