Health Topics

Jared's Story

Andrew Schorr:

Okay, I'm going to start and say, 'I am guilty.' I am guilty as a parent, and probably if I were a grandparent I'd be guilty too, and that is I'm not sure that I always resist the temptation of all the things in the supermarket and all the fattening things you could buy for your kid and all the times that they could play video games or watch a movie instead of exercising. I'm guilty in that I don't say, 'Let's get moving, and let's eat right,' and so as we know not only is the American population mostly overweight, but our kids are increasingly that way. That's why Jared is in town. Jared, your eating habits as a kid led you into big trouble, didn't they?

Jared:

It did. I mean I started putting on weight right around third grade or so. It's funny because before that I was a very normal weight. I did all the normal things that kids do whether it was playing Little League baseball, basketball, football, soccer, you name it. I tried to be a good kid overall, and I think right about third grade unfortunately is when I started to put on weight if you look at my growth chart, and there was no crazy reason for it. I mean I wasn't dropped on my head that I know of. I wasn't locked in a closet or anything like that, but really when I look back and I say, 'Why was it?' I think it was because the year I received a brand new video game system for my birthday present, and what started out as a 20 or 30-minute a day kind of thing quickly grew into an hour, two hours, three hours, four hours, five hours, and it just got worse and worse from there as I started to play more and more. Really, that's just all I wanted to do, and unfortunately even with my parents trying to tell me otherwise I chose to make the poor decisions.

Andrew Schorr:

So that continued as you went on through high school, and then you get to Indiana University. Right?

Jared:

It did, correct.

Andrew Schorr:

In your home state and you get to age 20, and what happened?

Jared:

Well I maxed out sadly enough at 425 pounds. Essentially just years and years of not caring about myself, years and years of not caring about what other people thought about me, not caring what my doctors thought, not caring what my parents thought. My dad's actually a family physician. He's a doctor himself. So just years of living in denial I think finally caught up to me, and here I was 20 years old, supposed to be having the time of my life in college. I went to Indiana University, and just having none of it. Just literally started having health conditions and that kind of thing.

Andrew Schorr:

Many people know the story, and you can certainly see it on the Subway website, but basically where you lived there was a Subway store right there.

Jared:

There was. Right next to where I lived, and I stumbled in one day. This is when I was finally ready to lose the weight. I'd been to the doctor's office at this point. I got checked up. I realized how much I weighed, and I said, 'You know what, I need to do something,' and after struggling for a long time trying to find a method that would work I stumbled into that Subway and picked up a nutritional brochure and added up the fat grams, and said, 'You know what? If I were to eat two of these low fat Subway sandwiches; and specifically this was off their low fat menu which was then called "Seven Under Six," which is seven sandwiches under six grams of fat.

I started doing a turkey sub for lunch every day. No mayonnaise, no oil, no cheese of course because I knew that added the fat and calories. I would add a bag of the baked chips as opposed to the fried chips and started drinking diet soft drinks rather than all the regular soft drinks, and then for dinner I would come back and usually do a foot-long veggie sandwich. So the 12-inch veggie, once again no mayonnaise, oil or cheese, a bag of the backed chips and a diet soft drink, and it was one of those just quirky things that clicked. You know all cylinders just sort of clicked at that point, and I just ran with it. I wanted to see how it would do, and I didn't know if I could really lose weight with it. It made sense to me. The calories and the fat grams added up right.

The key was could I stick to it, and believe it or not in the first three months alone I was able to drop 94 pounds by doing that, and you talk about motivation, you talk about being fired up and just everybody around me, and I went in and got checked up by a doctor. I wanted to make sure I was doing everything okay. I wanted to make sure that my body was reacting internally okay to it. Sure enough all the blood work came back and everything tested very, very positively, and pretty much the way they left it with me was as long as I was okay with it the doctors were okay with it too. I continued to do that and added walking as well. I had to get my physical activity obviously. I started to make myself walk about a half an hour a day, and in that one year was able to drop 245 pounds.

Andrew Schorr:

Wow, and keep it off Jared.

Jared:

Keep it off for eight years now.

Andrew Schorr:

And we should say now that Jared does not follow only the Subway diet.

Jared:

No. It's been eight years now.

Andrew Schorr:

He eats at a lot of places, but he eats well.

Jared:

Exactly.

Andrew Schorr:

What you are in town for is going around to elementary schools in the Seattle area tomorrow and actually offering, with Dr. Schrier in part who is with us from Virginia Mason, a curriculum to help kids stay out of the trouble that you got into.

Jared:

Absolutely. One of the things I've been doing now for the last several years is going around the country speaking to kids, elementary school age kids, middle school age kids, even some high school age kids, just trying to get them to make better decisions than I did. Obviously they know me as "The Subway Guy." So because of that they actually listen to what I have to say. I show them the old pair of pants, the 60-inch pair of pants I used to wear, and it's amazing because they really do --- even if you just can reach a few of these kids obviously that's what it's all about, but the thing is I typically go into a school. I share my experience, you know a 20 or 30 experience with them or whatever. I try to get them excited and motivated, and then we leave.

Well this is going to be a great thing because we are going to have this brand new curriculum. It's only going to be here in the Seattle/Tacoma area sponsored by the Subway franchises here and Virginia Mason and the Seattle Seahawks, and we are all working together for these kids to hopefully give them a nine-week program now. After we're going to get them fired up, hopefully in the next couple of days at the schools and get them really motivated. Well now we are going to have a nine-week program to leave with them to really hopefully follow up with them, and try to get them to develop healthier habits, whether it's eating, exercising and that kind of thing.

Andrew Schorr:

What we are going to talk about as we continue is really the role adults can play because that's who listens to KVI and my show. I think maybe we've got some kids, but I doubt it. Really because the kids can help us get our act together too, and we can model good behavior for the kids, and we're going to hear a lot more about that with Dr. Kimberly Schrier who is a pediatrician at Virginia Mason in Issaquah, as we continue on Patient Power. We'll be right back.

We're back live on KVI with Patient Power. Andrew Schorr here week after week talking about important health concerns. Take a look at our website www.patientpower.info. There are more than 120 hours of programs thanks to the over 9,000 people who listened to replays on our website last month, and it's growing by about 50 percent a month. So I know a lot of people can't get up now or if you are listening back, like cousin Jeanne, back in North Carolina, you're hearing it streaming, it's a little bit later. We recognize it's early, but the Seahawks fans are up. Right Jared?

Jared:

Absolutely.

Andrew Schorr:

And they are going to meet you. Jared Fogle, the Subway Guy is here with us, but also we have Dr. Kimberly Schrier. Kim, thank you for being with us from Virginia Mason. Virginia Mason is a sponsor of Patient Power along with the University of Washington and Harborview Medical Center. They help make Patient Power possible week after week. So Dr. Schrier, Jared tells his story about third grade, video games, just continued to eat, not much exercise, and it ends up that he is 400 and what Jared?

Jared:

Four-twenty-five by age 20.