A researcher at the University of California at Berkeley recently made a study of the nation's walking habits and found that the average person in the United States walks less than 75 miles a year -- about 1.4 miles a week, barely 350 yards a day. I'm no stranger to sloth myself, but that's appallingly little. I rack up more mileage than that just looking for the channel changer.
Eighty-five percent of us, according to the Berkeley study, are "essentially" sedentary and 35 percent are "totally" sedentary. We have become a nation of sitters and riders.