If Jared Fogel can downsize from 200kg to
100kg, then you can too.
Lorraine Thomso interviews the man otherwise known as the
Subway Guy
Jared's
"before"
Jared strolls into my office with a
delightful smile on his face. His job is to travel around the world as a
spokesperson for Subway.
“I travel 200 days a year with most of my
travel within the US,” he tells me.
His trip to New Zealand was to continue to
tell the story of how he lost half his weight [a massive 100kg] and more
importantly how he kept it off. He visited schools in Christchurch, Wellington
and Auckland, speaking to school children about eating healthy and staying fit.
The weight loss for Jared, 34, who lives in
Indianapolis, occurred from March 1998 to February 1999 when he was 20 years of
age.
“I needed to lose a lot of weight, I
weighed over 200kg and I was having sleep apnea where I could not breathe at
night. I was fully scared enough to want to change. I now tell students 'do not
let it come to this'.”
As part of his touring around the world, he
brings with him a pair of jeans he used to wear that have a 60 inch waist. When
he holds these up against his now 34 inch waits, overweight people in the
audience start thinking: 'If he can do that, then I can do.'
Jared
lost the weight but just eating two meals of Subway a day
Jared lost the weight but just eating two
meals of Subway a day [lunch and dinner]. He was a university student at the
time and says he never ate breakfast as he used to get up too late.
He still eats Subway, but now only two or
three times a week. With 34,000 Subways around the world, including 237 in New
Zealand, he never finds it hard to hind one.
At this point I ask if he thinks eating
anything in moderation would help?
“I think it could. There are a million ways
to lose weight and you have to find what is going to work for you. I tried a
bunch of other ways before and they just did not work. I didn't believe in them
and didn't stick to it. So I devised my own and it worked for me. It was neat
that it worked so well and I liked the taste. I felt I could rely on it.”
Jared has received feedback from others who
have followed his two meals of Subway a day.
“Thousands of people have lost a dew
kilograms or a lot of kilograms.”
Jared has been on the road now for 13 years
telling his Subway story and appearing in television commercials and is hopeful
this career path will continue for a while longer.
“You have to accept that sensible eating
and keeping fit will be for the rest of your life.”
An even bigger challenge than the weight
loss for Jared, however was running the New Your Marathon in 2010.
An
even bigger challenge than the weight loss for Jared, however was running the
New Your Marathon in 2010.
“It was brutal. It was tough. It was the
biggest challenge in my life, even more so than loosing the 100kg. I proved a
lot to my self.”
Asked if he would run another marathon, he
comes back with a resolute: “NO.”
Jared is, however, happy to run 5km and
10km events. He also runs 5km on the treadmill at home two or three times a
week. Or when he is traveling he works out in the hotel gym.
“When I am looking to book hotels now I
look on the hotel website to see what the gym is like.”
Back in Indianapolis he is a member of a
private gym. St Vincent Sports Performance Centre, where you have to have a
private trainer.
“My trainer Ryan Harber really pushes me to
a level 1 would not push myself. A lot of professional athletes work out there
and also high profile people who do not want to go to a regular gym.
A Jared was obese for much of his
childhood, he is now on a mission to prevent other children going down the same
track. He set up The Jared Foundation for childhood obesity four years' agao as
a way to help children in a similar situation to what he was in.
“The goal is to be the number one childhood
obesity not for profit organization in the world.”
The plan is to include New Zealand and
other countries with childhood obesity epidemics.
In the US half of the population are either
overweight or obese. New Zealand has similar statistics. Happily married Jared
was returning home to the US after this New Zealand visit and was looking
forward to being back with his new-born baby son Brady.
