Stay thin through fretting
People who have lost jobs in journalism may not fully realize what an opportunity they have been given to control their weight without having to change their diets or engage in fatiguing exercise programs. Anxiety and its consequence, fretting, can substitute successfully for all other attempts to lose weight.
All that is necessary is to focus on the negatives.
If you have lost your job and found your career cruelly curtailed, simply begin asking yourself a set of questions. And once started, don’t stop.
Why was I let go? What did I do wrong? Why was I singled out?
How can I make do on unemployment benefits?
How long will my savings last?
Will potential employers see me as damaged goods?
Will I ever get another job?
If I get another job, will it pay enough to live on?
Am I too old to start over?
Do I have any skills that anybody wants?
Can I afford to see a doctor/dentist?
Will I lose the house?
Will I be able to retire?
Will my spouse/partner begin to think that I am dragging him/her down?
Will my children [if any] look on me as a pathetic failure?
Will my neighbors pity me? Do they see me as a loser?
Do I see myself as a pathetic failure?
Ponder these questions, and the more obsessively you do so, the more your weight will decline.
Keep in mind, though, that weight loss will not be furthered if, in perplexity and despair, you resort to drink. Tea will do you better. Tea, which is cheap and easy to prepare, can have both soothing and stimulating properties. And it can become gratifyingly addictive. Keep away from the gin.
If you can keep your mind on these and allied questions, you can watch the pounds melt away. ☀
John E. McIntyre, an editor at The Baltimore Sun for nearly 23 years, 14 of them as head of its copy desk, was laid off at the end of April 2009, along with 60 other newsroom employees. He has been losing a pound a month during unemployment.
Photo by Elizabeth Malby
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