It Started with Vanity
I was approaching 60. My job had been eliminated a year before. It was the best job I had ever had! It was 2008 and the recession was in full swing. We had moved to Columbia, SC in 2002 for my husband to pursue a business opportunity I had been working remotely and traveling about 70% of the time.
Life was full of business dinners and meeting snacks, but they were partially counteracted by my daily lifestyle - dashes through airports, dragging a suitcase and brief case across rental car parking lots, occasionally getting in a good workout at my hotel, and practicing yoga on weekends.
Now I found myself unemployed, with a very meager network (I was never here to build one), and job hunting in a city in which I had never actually worked. No one knew who I was or what my skills were. I was in the corporate healthcare world where senior level positions were fiercely competitive. I came to quickly understand that in a small city like Columbia all the jobs I was qualified for were filled and had a waiting line of local hopefuls in the wings.
I was on the outside looking in. I tried to maintain an upbeat attitude, was going to every networking event possible, and trying to maintain an exercise routine. But stress eating, and a more sedentary lifestyle were winning out.
I was scrupulously avoiding the scale!
Sound familiar?
