Jared, the Subway Guy Winning Through Losing 13 Lessons for Turning Your Life Around

Lesson 1 Open Your Eyes The first step toward change is recognizing that you have a problem. When I was at my heaviest, every time I passed a mirror, every morning when I got dressed, every time I had to haul myself out of a chairnearly everything I did told me that I had a serious weight problem. But I refused to acknowledge it. Simply admitting that you have a problem is a huge step. In the beginning you don't even have to do anything about the problem. Just think about it. Consider your situation objectively and try to see it for what it is. All you have to do is admit that you have a problem and you're already on the road to a solution. I will never forget the day I went to my endocrinologist's office to finally face the music. It was the scariest day of my life. Just being in the examining room made me panicky and claustrophobic even though it was bigger than the little rooms you find in a regular doctor's office. The table was larger and closer to the ground. The chairs were extra wide with no armrests. The blood pressure cuff hanging on the wall was big enough to put around some people's waists. And then there was the scale. I remember sitting on the table, staring at the scale as I waited for the nurse to come in and weigh me. This was the moment I had been dreading for years. I had put off this examination for as long as I could, even tried to figure out ways to cancel the appointment by faking some sort of mysterious illness that would save me from this monster embarrassment. But the scale was right there, standing against the wall, looking back at me, waiting for me to get on, snickering as if it already knew how much I weighed. I knew this had to be done. Not so much for my healthI wasn't even thinking about that. I just wanted to save myself from further embarrassment. I knew that doctors' scaleseven the superheavyweight modelswent up only to a certain weight. The one in my father's office topped out at 350. I had no idea how much weight this one could handle, but I did know that if you maxed out on one of these babies, you had only two alternatives. I'd either have to go down to the local meat-packing plant and get weighed on the scales they use for livestock, or I could drive to a truck stop with a weigh station where they'd weigh my car with me in it, then weigh it again with me not in it, subtracting one figure from the other to get my weight. In either case people would be watching, and I didn't want to be gawked at like a side of beef or a big rig. But more than that, I just didn't want to know. I was in denial. I knew I had a problem, but somehow not knowing the specifics seemed better than having to face a cold, hard, undeniable number. The examining room was silent except for the muffled sound of easy-listening music filtering in from the waiting room. I wondered if they played this kind of bland, soothing music for the steers before they went to slaughter. The room had no windows, and now I really started to feel closed in. The office was on the ground floor of the building, and I wondered if there was a back door. There had to be, I thought. I could sneak down the hall and slip out the back. But then I thought about it. At my size I didn't do much sneaking or slipping out of anything. Wherever I was, my body made a statementeven (or should I say, especially) when I didn't want to. I drummed my fingers on the edge of the table. My mouth was dry. I cracked my knuckles out of nervousness. My legs trembled. I was afraid that if I tried to stand up, my knees would buckle. Then I'd be on the floor, and believe me, getting back up wouldn't be easy.Fogle, Jared is the author of 'Jared, the Subway Guy Winning Through Losing 13 Lessons for Turning Your Life Around', published 2006 under ISBN 9780312353582 and ISBN 0312353588.