• Michelle Kloese, 42, gained weight from early menopause and a stressful job.
• When she started a new job, she joined a health app paid for through work.
• Walking every day, logging her water intake, and meal swaps helped her lose over 60 pounds.

At 40, Michelle Kloese felt like she didn't recognize her body. In five years, she gained 38 pounds and developed high cholesterol, high blood sugar, and plantar fasciitis, a kind of foot pain caused by inflammation.

She didn't always feel like this. In her 20s, running was her main form of exercise, and she loved 5K races. Her body started to change in her mid-20s, when she experienced symptoms of early menopause, like infertility. By her 30s, bloodwork confirmed she had perimenopause, around 15 years earlier than most women.

Then, in her mid-30s, she started a demanding job as a middle school assistant principal, often starting before the school day and wrapping up after school hours. With less time to work out, a busy schedule, and irregular meals, she started to snack more.

"Somebody would leave a cupcake on my desk, so I'd eat that, or parents would bring in a basket of candy," Kloese, now 42, told Business Insider.

The change in her body really struck her after a surprise trip to Ireland for her 40th birthday. "I looked at the pictures and went, 'Oh gosh, I need to do something different,'" she said.

She had just started a new, less stressful edtech job, Kloese learned about a health app, Personify Health, connected through their insurance. The timing was perfect: she signed up, logging her steps and water intake.

She lost 38 pounds in the first year and 23 pounds the following year. Now she's in a "weight maintenance" phase, seeking to stay within a few pounds of her current weight.

"I have so much more energy — I'm not as sluggish and tired as I was feeling all the time," she said. The issues related to her weight, like high cholesterol and high blood pressure, also went away. "I have just felt a whole lot better."

Kloese shared the three habits she started and still maintains to keep the weight off.

She woke up to a full glass of water

Before, Kloese didn't drink much water — sometimes, she'd only remember to have around eight ounces of the recommended eight cups in one day. "That's one of the most challenging ones for me to do," she said.

Her goal was to get to at least 72 ounces, or nine cups per day.

Tracking her intake helped. The first thing she did every morning was drink a full, 8-ounce glass of water and log it in the app. For the rest of the day, she'd log in "steady sips", using a marked water bottle to measure her progress. It was more manageable for her to track two ounces at a time rather than feel pressure to chug a lot of water at once.

Drinking water helps with weight loss by curbing your appetite. It can also help you reach a calorie deficit if you swap it for high-calorie drinks like soda.

She swapped running for walking and yoga

While she used to run a lot in her 20s, Kloese's knees and hips hurt when she tried in her 40s. She knew she needed to try something different.

When she first made a plan to lose weight, Kloese communicated with a personal trainer through an app. The trainer said that, in her 40s, it was important for Kloese to focus on strength training as we naturally lose muscle with age. Muscle-building can also help with weight loss — gaining muscle boosts your metabolism and burns fat.

Kloese started doing at-home and online circuit workouts 3-4 times a week with light weights.

The rest of the time, she walked. She took part in a fitness challenge of walking 30 minutes a day. Weight-loss-wise, she said she saw about the same results as running.

Now, she aims to walk at least 7,000 steps a day, whether on her walking pad or on trails near her home in Florida. Occasionally, she trains for Mammoth Marches, 20-mile hikes all over the country.

She also swapped out some of the strength training with yoga, which relaxes her while still improving her strength and flexibility.

Being more active transformed her relationships with her friends. "Before, where we might've just picked a restaurant to hang out at, instead, we go out and do a hike," she said.

She made simple meal swaps

Despite snacking on sugary treats at her old job, Kloese isn't much of a sweets person. "I was a pasta-potato-bread kind of person," she said. Still, she wanted to make some more nutritious swaps.

Through the KickStart app, she logged her meals by taking photos of them. If she got a burger and fries, the app suggested lower-carb sides for next time, like a side salad or sweet potato wedges.

Eventually, she naturally made those swaps on her own, like cooking quinoa instead of white rice. She also gets pre-made meals through Factor, which she said helps her with portion control and eating a balanced diet when she's busy.

"Those were all small changes that evolved over time," she said.

• Vadim Fedotov, the CEO and founder of Bioniq, used visualization techniques when he was in college.
• Visualization, often used in sports, improved his basketball performance when he was injured.
• Fedotov also used visualization to build Bioniq, his personalized supplements company.

Vadim Fedotov first learned about visualizing success after a knee surgery at 23.

In the early 2000s, Fedotov played power forward for the Buffalo Bulls, the University of Buffalo's NCAA Division I basketball team. He worried about repeat injuries on the court — during an eight-year professional basketball career, he had four ACL tears.

Fedotov, 44, told Business Insider that he began seeing a sports psychologist in his junior year to "talk about the mental aspects of the game."

The psychologist taught Fedotov about visualization techniques, commonly used in sports to mentally rehearse the steps to reaching success.

"It started off with a very hesitant approach," Fedotov said. When he saw "quantifiable improvement" in his three-point percentage, it became a regular part of his routine.

Many years later, in 2019, he applied the same visualization techniques when he started Bioniq, a supplement company that creates personalized formulas based on bloodwork.

"If you can't imagine what you're trying to do, then you're not going to do it," Fedotov said.

Visualizing relaxed him on the court

Like many athletes, Fedotov was routine-focused. He didn't waver from his diet and went to bed at the same time every night. Eventually, he tacked on visualization techniques the nights before games.

For about 10 minutes, he'd close his eyes in a quiet space and slow his breathing, visualizing the feel of the court and specific situations like free throws and defensive plays. He would picture the moments after making a basket, too, like the sounds of the crowd or his coach's reaction.

The idea was to create "muscle memory through thoughts."

He compared it to programming your body ahead of time. "Your body and your mind don't have to come up with something to do — they already know what's going to happen," he said.

He felt calmer, and in a few months of consistent practice, saw improvement in how often he scored.

That success convinced him to continue with visualization long after his basketball days were over.

He applied the techniques to starting a company

Fedotov's idea for Bioniq came from experience. In his early 30s, he was trying to optimize his health. He couldn't find a company that provided tailor-made suggestions on what nutrients he needed to improve his cognition or longevity.

He first visualized Bioniq as filling the gaps he saw in the market: supplement brands with no customization or "real reason to stay loyal" and at-home blood tests that offered no follow-up to address issues.

He said visualizing the brand's success wasn't about imagining the fun parts of reaching the end goal, like press interviews or holding meetings as a CEO. It was about convincing investors and consumers to get on board in the first place.

"I knew we were entering a very crowded and complex space," he said. He had to visualize who the clients were and what they needed to trust a new supplement brand.

Just like he did before basketball games, he'd find 10 minutes to run potential interactions with stakeholders in his head. "I'd imagine walking into the room, greeting everyone with calm energy, presenting the idea clearly," he said.

He'd anticipate questions and how he'd respond, including to energy shifts in the room.

Fedotov, who previously worked as the CEO of Groupon in Eastern Europe, knew firsthand the common challenges — and high failure rates — of most startups. He anticipated roadblocks like having too niche of a market, lacking resources, or simply getting the timing wrong.

Visualization got him into a mindset where he felt knowledgeable and confident about the product even in high-stakes presentations.

He'd zoom in on tiny details in his mind, like a key slide in a deck or a conversation pivot where he knew he had to connect with his audience. Doing those mental reps ahead of time helped him "stay grounded when things were moving fast."

Brainstorming future investors

Fedotov drew inspiration from brands like Nike, which, like Bioniq, features collaborations with prominent athletes.

In the early stages of the company, Fedotov remembers brainstorming with his small team about the "perfect embodiment" of the brand. It would have to be someone results-driven and dogged about their performance. Cristiano Ronaldo, considered one of the GOATs of soccer and known for his longevity in the sport, came up in the meeting.

Ronaldo became a Bioniq investor in 2024.

Visualization isn't a magic cure-all for roadblocks. Fedotov said there were events he couldn't have visualized when he launched the company, from Brexit to the pandemic. At launch, Bioniq's business model relied on nurses visiting clients in their homes to take blood samples. Since then, Bioniq has added other versions of its supplements that don't require blood biomarkers.

The early obstacles taught him that visualization, while a powerful tool, isn't everything. The ability to pivot is just as important.

• Mike Crabtree, a data engineering director at Ford, took over 25 online courses to skill up.
• He said learning new skills is crucial to protecting your job amid recession fears.
• Online courses improve your problem-solving and communication skills, applicable in multiple fields.

This as-told-to story is based on a conversation with Mike Crabtree, the Director of Data Engineering at Ford. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

In 2008, I had just received my associate's degree in industrial mechanics and electronics engineering. Then, the recession flooded the labor market.

In a crowded field, my degree and resume — mostly retail experience — didn't stand out as much to employers.

As I pursued a bachelor's in business and computer information systems, I knew I needed to differentiate myself more. I started taking paid online courses from platforms like Coursera, edX, and Udacity, earning certifications in everything from business analytics to leadership skills that I shared on my LinkedIn.

While I didn't major in data science, I took supplemental online classes that helped me stand out and pivot into the field. Ford reached out months after I graduated in 2016. The company hired me as a data scientist that November, a role I stayed in for five years before becoming the manager of a data engineering team. After leaving Ford to work for a data-specific organization, I returned in 2023 and eventually became the director of data engineering.

These days, the job market is a little tougher to break into, let alone stay in. Some people are looking to recession-proof their jobs amid concerns of AI disruption and economic uncertainty.

My experience taught me that the key is to keep learning. By choosing challenging online courses, I tapped into skills I never used before, from technical ones like programming to soft skills that helped me grow as a manager. Taking classes in everything from entrepreneurship to self-driving car engineering also signaled to managers that I was proactive and willing to learn — qualities that are important for feeling secure at a job or getting a promotion.

Here are three ways to recession-proof your job as much as you can — or land a more stable one.

Find your gaps

To feel like you're in good standing at your job or that you're prepared for upcoming interviews, you need to be as well-rounded as possible. If you're incredibly self-aware, you might already know your skill gaps. Personally, I didn't learn mine until I started challenging myself with online courses.

Because statistics and the scientific method are foundational in data science, I took a statistics course. I got stumped on probability and had to improve my understanding before I could move forward. Later, I took a machine learning class and realized that linear algebra wasn't my strong suit. In addition to learning the needed technical skills from those courses, I also learned how to spot my weaknesses — and take action to fix them by studying more.

This can apply to all fields. You might be a manager, for example, and need more leadership training. If your job doesn't directly offer many opportunities to push yourself outside your comfort zone, courses can help you quickly spot what you struggle with.

Grow your problem-solving skills

Being able to think critically, solve problems, and lean into your intuition makes you a more valued team member.

The good news is you don't need to stuff your brain with as many facts or programming techniques as you think. It's more important to be able to assess direction, build business acumen, and make confident decisions.

You might know how to build a linear model as well as AI does. But when you can just look that up, what matters more is realizing that a linear model isn't the best solution to a problem in the first place.

One way I beefed up my critical thinking skills was by taking a course in quantum computing taught by IBM, which heavily involved physics — something I wasn't an expert in at all. It taught me to think quickly and wrap my head around a lot of conceptual topics. I went in thinking I was learning one skill, but I left learning four.

Be communicative

Forming strong workplace relationships is important, especially in a tough job climate. After I worked at Ford as a data scientist, I left for a managerial role at a data company. When I exited that job, some old coworkers at Ford started reaching out the moment they knew I was back on the market.

Throughout my career, I've seen many brilliant technical professionals struggle to move up — not because they're mean or ornery, but because they're super quiet and keep their heads down. Because they weren't assertive enough, people didn't know much about them.

In my own career, I've taken public speaking courses to improve my communication and confidence. Beyond simply speaking up, it's also crucial to be able to share your suggestions in a clear and approachable way. This is especially true if your job is highly technical.

You can be the smartest person in the room, but if no one knows your name or understands your ideas, it doesn't really matter. Bridging that gap by building up your soft skills is the best way to set yourself up for success.