Pelican students get health care advice
Jared Fogle, Subway spokesperson paid a special visit to Pelican Elementary School Friday afternoon to encourage students to eat healthy and exercise on a regular basis, along with promoting the American Heart Association Lee County Start! Walk that will be held at Centennial Park Saturday morning.
The students received the visit from Fogle because of their Jump Rope for Heart team of 19 fourth and fifth grade students. The group is among one of two demo teams in Florida for Jump Rope for Heart.
Mia Glickman, a fifth grade student who is on the Jump Rope for Heart team, said the team practices two days a week for two hours, along with many hours at home.
Glickman said they travel from school to school to get children aware of the Florida American Heart Association, along with raising money for the organization.
The team will perform around 9:45 Saturday morning at Centennial Park once the runners and walkers start to cross the finish line.
On the topic of remaining healthy, Fogle told the students about his experience of being overweight and unable to exercise.
Fogle told them that he used to weigh 425 pounds and wore a size 60-inch pair of pants. He said he wanted to share his weight because he wanted to make sure “none of you go down the same road I went down.”
He went on to tell the students that he began to gain weight after he received his first Nintendo system at 8 years old. Since he spent up to eight hours playing video games on the weekend, many hours on the Internet and consuming large amounts of junk food, his weight spiraled out of control.
Fogle encouraged the students to do everything in moderation.
After he could not fit into a seat at school, in a movie theater or in a car, he decided to change something, which included eating turkey and veggie subs twice a day from Subway. In three months he lost 94 pounds and a year later he lost a total of 245 pounds due to his Subway diet.
Fogle told the students that he wanted to make “sure you learn through my story and continue to exercise.”
In addition to changing his diet, Fogle also shared that he ran in his first New York marathon, which he completed in a little over five hours. He was among 47,000 runners who participated in the marathon.
The Jump Rope for Life team ended the ceremony by performing numerous jump rope routines for Fogle once his speech ended.
For more information on how to become involved in Jump Rope for Life contact Pamela Woodruff at pamaw@leeschools.net.