One word sums up Jodi Jaskiewicz's job search.
"Tough," said the 45-year-old Bay City resident, who is looking for a job in the construction industry. "Very tough."
It began six months ago when her employer downsized. Since then, she's scoured online ads, applied for jobs, made follow-up calls, attended job fairs, gone on interviews and tried her best to plot a future.
The emotional drain has changed her relationship with something she said she firmly believes in -- fitness.
"I always told myself that if I had more time, I'd be in the best shape of my life," said Jaskiewicz, who has both a gym membership and home gym. "But now that I've been unemployed, I have to focus on my mental attitude. Even though I know that working out more helps with that, some days I just want to crawl up in a little ball and stay in my bed."
With Michigan unemployment numbers reaching heights not seen since the 1980s, many people have difficulty putting into practice what they know about exercise -- that it helps beat stress and keeps the mind sharp.
Take Heather Meyers, a 30-year-old from West Bloomfield. Meyers has worked hard to keep hitting the recreation room at the Jewish Community Center four days a week; she views exercise as a necessity akin to food and shelter. But she's found obstacles.
"It's more difficult, to be honest, even though I have more free time," said Meyers, who was laid off from her job at ePrize in December. "When you have a schedule, you find yourself fitting the exercise in. ... Now, I don't have structure, so it's easy to say, 'I won't work out today, but will tomorrow.' "
The price for not keeping the blood pumping is especially high for the unemployed, according to the journal Demography.
The author, Kate W. Strully, studied statistics from three years and came to the conclusion that when people lose their jobs, they're about 83% more likely to develop a new health condition like heart disease or diabetes. Even those who later found jobs were more likely than those with stable employment to have a new health problem.
The study didn't include the workout habits of its participants, but physical activity coordinator Jess Sobolewski from the M-Healthy program at the University of Michigan Medical Center said it's extremely important for those without jobs to work out.
"Exercise helps you be more productive and it fosters creativity," Sobolewski said. "Exercise helps you sleep better, which gives you more energy. If you see someone in an interview, they're going to come across better if they have more energy."
Her advice: Start small.
"If you think of exercise like, 'I have to do 30 or 60 minutes all at one time,' that can be overwhelming," she said. "So do 10 minutes here, 10 minutes there. Then it doesn't seem so stressful ... but it adds up."
No matter how important it is to exercise, when money is tight, gym membership often is one of the first cutbacks. The YMCA of Metropolitan Detroit recently started a Helping Hands program that allows members who lose their jobs to keep their membership for three months free of charge.
Dan Maier, the Y's vice president of development, said about 100 families are enrolled across the metro area.
"It's hard to beat stress," Maier said. "There's nothing more important than keeping balance across your spirit, mind and body."
That's true for Deanna Gray. The trim Detroiter makes sure to do 30 minutes of stretching and weight training almost every day, even as she hunts for a new gig.
"In order for me to work, I have to be healthy," said Gray, 47. "... I don't have a job. I have plenty of time. A lot of days when I'm having a bad day and do my little exercise, I feel much better."
CONTACT KRISTA JAHNKE: 313-223-4527 or kjahnke@freepress.com
Additional Facts
Stay fit when you're unemployed
M-Healthy's Jess Sobolewski offers these tips for staying in shape when out of work:
* Downgrade your fitness budget, but don't trim it completely. Do group personal training instead of solo. Drop a pricey membership and join a budget chain or the YMCA.
* Check out fitness DVDs at the library.
* Download free yoga routines from www.yogadownload.com.
* Think like a kid -- jump rope, do jumping jacks, play Frisbee in the park.
* For strength training, use your own body weight -- nothing beats a push-up.
* Visit www.mhealthy.umich.edu for a list of free health fact sheets.
* When the blues hit, try 10 minutes of shadowboxing.
* Network through fitness. Introduce yourself to someone else who uses the local track. To see more of the Detroit Free Press, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.freep.com Copyright (c) 2009, Detroit Free Press Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
Copyright (C) 2009, Detroit Free Press