As you looked through the photo albums you may have noticed that I was a little heavier than I am now. Please allow me to tell you my story.

On Oct. 28, 2001, I woke up around 2:30am with my heart racing. I thought I must have had a bad dream or something. I got up and puttered around the house, checked my e-mail, etc. Sitting at the computer I realized I wasn’t breathing heavy or hard but my heart was still pounding. It felt like it was going to jump out of my chest. I woke my wife up around 2:45 and asked her to take my pulse. She tried but it was way to fast to count. She told me to relax and we’d check it again in a few minutes. We tried again but it was still too fast to count. “Am I having a heart attack”? She asked if I was having any pain or numbness. “No”. We decided that something wasn’t right so we packed up and went to the hospital.

We got to the emergency room around 4am. The first thing they did was take my pulse. My heart rate was 190 beats per minute! A normal rate at rest usually runs between 60 and 80. Then they wanted to weigh me. I stepped on the scale which only went to 350 lbs. I maxed that out immediately. They had to estimate my weight at between 455 and 475 lbs. They took me back to one of those little rooms with the curtain and had me put on 2 gowns because one wasn’t big enough. I put one on the front and one on the back. I was a pretty sight. They hooked me up to an EKG machine to make sure I hadn’t had, or was having, a heart attack. The doctor came in and looked me over. He told me I was having an Atrial Fibrillation which meant the top part of my heart was beating faster than the bottom part causing an irregular rhythm. The Doctor said there were a few things they could do. First they would start me on a medicine “drip” that would hopefully make my heart go back into a normal rhythm. If that didn’t work they would give me a shot that would stop my heart and hopefully it would start back in a normal rhythm. STOP MY HEART!! I didn’t like the sound of that. If that didn’t work they would use the paddles to “shock” me into a normal rhythm. I DEFINITELY didn’t like the sound of that. Those were my only choices and time was of the essence. Because of this irregular beat I was already in congestive heart failure due to the fluid building up around my heart. I was taken to a regular room with my "drip" and what seemed like a hundred little gooey sticky pads all over my body (which my children relished removing later) attached to the EKG, a blood pressure cuff, and a few other items that I really didn't know what they were. I am 6' 4" and of course the bed was "Ernest T. Bass" size so I hung out and over every side. I wish we had taken a picture. It was 8am.

As I lay in bed listening to the "beep, beep, beep" of the monitor, watching my heart rate go from 190 to 160 then up again, it finally dawned on me as to how serious this situation was. I might die. My father told me once that every person comes face to face with their mortality at some point in their life. This was my time. I thought “This isn’t supposed to be happening to me. I am relatively young and in pretty good shape except for the weight”. "What will happen to my family". "I won't get to see my kids grow up". How many people will it take to carry my coffin"? A lot of things ran through my mind. I cried, I felt sorry for myself then I got mad. I’m not going without a fight! Around noon the nurse brought in my lunch tray. I sat up on the side of the bed, carefully maneuvering around so I wouldn’t disconnect anything important. I closed my eyes to say the blessing and wound up having a long talk with God. I told Him I was ready to go if it was my time, but I didn’t want to go fat. If He would see fit to see me through this heart thing I would change my ways. Before I took my first bite at 12:11pm, it was like someone flipped a light switch. It was literally that fast. I watched my rate on the monitor go from 180 to 65. Then down to 60. I watched as it dropped all the way to 49 before I called the nurse. “If this thing goes to 0 that means my heart isn’t beating, right?” She laughed and turned off my “drip”.

Well, God did His thing, so now it is my turn. I was going to lose weight. I have tried to diet before but because the “diet food” all tasted like the box it came in I quickly lost interest. As I lay there, checking the monitor every few seconds to make sure all was OK, a Subway commercial came on. There was Jared eating some good looking sandwich telling me how tasty and healthy it was and how much weight he had lost. My family has always enjoyed Subway but for some reason the healthy part of it never sunk in. Well today it did! I thought if HE can do it, so can I” From that moment on Subway was my meal of choice. I eat at Subway at least 4 times a week.

To make a really long story a little bit shorter, with the help of God, family and Subway I have lost over 185 lbs. I am still a big young’n and have more weight to lose but I know I can do it. So thanks Subway for helping me get my life back.

Special thanks to my “Home” Subway at Fort Henry Square in Colonial Heights, TN. They always greet me with a smile and make the BEST subs around. It really means a lot.

I said all of that to say this, “If I can do it, so can YOU!!”

My tips for weight loss:

YOU have to WANT to lose weight
Don’t do it for anything or anyone other than yourself.

Eat at Subway!
It’s fresh, it’s tasty and it’s healthy! You can’t beat that combination.

Approach this as a Day to Day project
Don’t worry about tomorrow. Take care of today and the tomorrows will fall into place.

Don’t weigh yourself every day
You may get discouraged if the weight isn’t coming off as fast as you think it should

Vary your diet
Don’t eat the same thing every day. You will get bored with your diet and be tempted to stray.

Allow yourself a “Taste” of something
If you want a bite of chocolate, have a bite of chocolate. If you deny yourself the craving will build and you will wind up eating the whole candy section.

Click the Subway Logo and Check Them Out