How Many Calories Do You Burn Getting The Runaround?

Feb. 8, 2013

Today I'm 197-some pounds of rolling thunder.

Not surprisingly I'm up a few pounds, since I haven't been able to run, walk or ride for two days, and it's driving me batty. If you could stay fit running in the rat race I'd be fit as a fiddle.

Unfortunately, I've been letting the have-to-does get in the way of the want-to-does and the result is two days of no running, jumping or playing around.

Being a freelance editor and writer it affords you some great opportunities to get your daily runs in. There are days when an hour at lunch for a spin around the neighborhood puts you right back in the mood to get back on the keyboard and pound out some stories.

But it can also put you on some really odd schedules because normally when someone needs help, it is to fill a shift that usually starts late and ends early -- as in 2 a.m. The result is that when you have time, the energy and desire just aren't there. Or when you've got the energy, duty calls and believe it or not, I'd rather eat than run. I'm just funny that way.

Sometimes the rat race just turns into a run around. Today I went to pick up a prescription only to be told my new insurance hadn't kicked in. OK, this was a day after my doctor had to call in a new script and the pharmacy had accepted my insurance information.

If only this kind of runaround burned calories instead of burning my backside. So I went home, called the provider and got forwarded three times to some very friendly if not a bit unhelpful people. Finally, I was put on hold for 20 minutes and then the dreaded "click" and I had lost the person who was helping me.

At this point I called my local agent and left a message (rats are winning). Then I started calling the numbers I thought might work. Only one transfer later I had a somewhat helpful person who told me she entered me into the system.

Huzzah! I can run to the pharmacy, right?

Not so fast, the woman said in a cheery voice. This can take up to 72 hours to kick in. 

I could feel the runaround calories burning. I had been going through the application process for nearly three weeks. Had account numbers and all sorts of confirmation material, but I'd need to wait for my necessary prescriptions for three days?

I started thinking I would have been better off running to the pharmacy on foot. At least then the runaround would have burned some real calories.

Well if you see the world's slowest human out on the roads looking fat, dumb and not so happy, give me a wave.