I think I temporarily threw out my back yesterday. Sitting in a chair. WTF?!

I have a newfound respect for the power of a chair to destroy a person.

I was at the library. (Yes, I hurt my back at THE LIBRARY. Ok, seriously, how old AM I??) Sitting in a, yes, god awful wooden chair for a couple hours straight, but I am 27! And I take good care of my body! (At least I thought so. Maybe I need to get back into a regular yoga practice.)

I don't know what I did, but clearly I tweaked my back somehow sitting (in a definitively non-ergonomic chair) and abruptly my whole back was in pain. On top of that I was suddenly overcome with nausea. Not fun. I remedied the situation by crouching in a hip opener pose next to the evil chair for about five minutes until the nausea and pain subsided. I'm pretty sure the studious nerds at the table next to me were a little uneasy about the strange actions happening beside them. (And btw, I'm not judging their studious nerd-ness, as I am clearly one of them.)

So how did this happen? Well, for one, I did break my self-decree of getting up every half hour or so when studying, working on a computer etc and at least walking around for a bit or stretching. But that mandate easily applies when I'm at home. I was in a public place with stuff. Valuable stuff like a computer and phone. And while I probably could have trusted the people who were VOLUNTARILY AT THE LIBRARY in the middle of the day, the "never EVER leave your stuff unattended" mentality of a post 9/11 America trumped my sense of body awareness and I remained seated the entire time. Until the pain.

The funny thing is that as a nutrition professional, my mind went, "maybe it's because I haven't taken magnesium recently." Which, I still kind of stand by (or crouch by, as it were) since I have a well documented history of magnesium deficiency that is worsened when I'm stressed, (say studying for an exam) and I had forgotten to take my magnesium supplements. It feels a little fast acting for neglecting to take a supplement a mere couple days, but I don't know, maybe. Nausea and muscle cramping are symptoms of magnesium deficiency. Regardless, I seem to be okay today, having since taken magnesium, but I will certainly make a point of getting up and walking around regularly at work. I suppose the take away from this rather disconcerting ordeal is to always remember to pay attention to my body. Because I totally wanna be this lady when I'm 80: