no I played a D1 college uh goalkeeper

for like a year and grew up you know

playing sports in high school and you

know was nothing like this always was

really trim and in shape so um it was a

big

surprise one day you wake up and you’re

300 lb it’s like what the hell just

happened more than 73% of Americans have

overweight or obesity while more than

12% have food insecurity America is

getting heavier sicker more isolated

from each other every day

our motto move e give reflects our

belief that virtually every problem in

America could be fixed if we took better

care of ourselves and took better care

of each other welcome to interrupt

hungers movie give podcast where we talk

with experts in exercise is medicine

food is medicine and food insecurity and

understanding that knowledge isn’t

always enough to help you lose weight

every other episode showcases someone

who’s lost at least 10% body weight to

share exactly how they did it interrupt

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good now on to today’s episode our

bodies were made to move and they were

made to store f they weren’t made to

lose weight which is exactly why we’ve

got you know almost three4 of Americans

overweight or obese so whenever I come

across somebody you know has

successfully lost some pounds I like to

to to pay attention and just kind of dig

in and find out like how did you do it

when you know so many tens of millions

of Americans are struggling with it so

if you don’t mind just kind of

introducing yourself and with your intro

if you’ll just tell us your family d

Dynamics your age and your professional

Dynamics just to give people an idea of

who you are what it’s like living in

your shoes but then hopefully we get

enough of these podcasts and enough

weight loss success stories here that

someone out in the audience will be able

to relate like oh my gosh like yeah this

guy is me right so uh that that’s what

we’re shooting for here so with that

tell us about yourself if you don’t mind

my name is Jeremy Johnson 54 years old

uh live in Charlotte North Carolina um

got a couple of kids they’re in their

young 20s now and yeah I just I think

not unlike some guys my age you just

start packing on some weight you don’t

even notice you’re doing it you know and

I’m in sales so on and off through my

career I’ve been more active than others

you know because I was doing outside

sales for a while now I’m doing inside

sales so a little bit more what do you

call it stuck to the desk so to speak

which is a lot of people can relate even

if they’re not in sales I think I think

for for me it just was a case of not not

changing with my life as it changed

right so I didn’t change how I ate when

I got more desk you know

desk what do you call it when you’re

tied your desk I I didn’t change my

eating habits but I you know my uh my

movement went down but I think for me

and I think this is going to resonate

with a lot more people is for me I had

to find out why I gained weight because

I’ve only been I only got heavy within

the last like four years about the time

I turned 50 is

when I started really getting heavy and

I got all the way up to 306 pounds and

and how how tall are you I’m 6’2 so

that’s still pretty pretty thick um my

before and after pictures even right now

after losing 50 pounds is pretty

dramatic what I noticed and what I had

to take stock in is that I I was uh like

a lot of people I ate when I was bored I

ate when I was stressed and I ate when I

wasn’t happy and I had gone through a a

bit of a period with um a significant

other that was a little stressful and um

and it lasted for a few years and I

found myself trying to I think

self-regulate with food for a while just

trying to feel a little better and

didn’t really notice I put it on except

for when I started trying to walk around

breathing heavy and couldn’t catch my

breath and you know some some really bad

side effects I started noticing so and

you never had that before no was for

yeah uhuh no no I played a D1 college uh

goalkeeper for like a year and grew up

you know playing sports in high school

and you know was nothing like this

always was really trim and in shape so

um it was a big

surprise one day you wake up and you’re

300 pounds it’s like what the hell just

happened yeah it just like just like age

it it just creeps up on you ever ever so

slowly and then one day like what I

can’t be 51 right right tell us about

the turning point if you don’t mind

because most people that that I’ve

talked to have lost I would say 10% or

more body weight it it was a was a

single point in time

something it like flipped the switch and

moving forward it things were just

different so so what was tell us about

your trigger

point yeah mine was kind of a

combination of I think emotional trigger

and physical trigger because I had had a

couple of things happen while I was

Heavy when I would move around that kind

of scared me because I already have um a

little bit of exercise induced asthma

originally but what I was noticing is my

heart if I try to do something really

active I felt strained you know what I

mean like my I felt like my heart felt

strained and and um and I couldn’t catch

my breath very easily you know for a

while after exercise or or it wasn’t

even exercise just moving regularly

going up a flight of stairs or um you

know walking from here to there and it

started to scare me and I knew I had to

kind of get a handle on it but I wasn’t

sure you know it was like always

tomorrow oh start taking care of that

tomorrow but I think the emotional

trigger was my significant other that I

was with um they they left and I had a

lot of time on my hands and I just

decided that I wasn’t going to do

anything spectacular I was just going to

start walking just take a walk I was

living on a Lake and and the loop was

one mile1 and I said you know I’ll start

by just walking walking the loop you

know and then before I knew it I was

walking the loop you know two times

three times you know and I was doing it

every day and it gave me time to think

and it was you know it was kind of a a

good Dynamic of of my time or a good use

of the time I had that was extra um the

other thing I did was I had to just cut

portions I mean I would eat you know

like a whole frozen pizza by myself you

know what I mean and um and I I went

from that to eating maybe two small

pieces you know of pizza for lunch or

something so it just that it was that

easy I mean really it was just a little

bit of portion control and a little bit

of extra exercise I didn’t do anything

real real extreme I didn’t I’m I’m not a

runner I don’t like to run so it was all

walking and I lost approximately 52

pounds wow 52 pounds is a lot yeah yeah

believe me I feel it I feel it quite

quite a bit as a relief yeah off my

so so so like 52 pounds over what kind

of time frame um let’s see the bulk of

it I lost between January and

April so what like three four months

maybe yeah it was a lot at once but you

know what it’s I think it’s kind of

stabilized I think everybody has like

Peaks and valleys with their working out

and stuff and I’m doing currently I’m

doing anywhere from about 40 to 53

minutes of walking probably four five to

six times a week so maybe all week

except for maybe a day or two depending

and I’m doing four days every other day

is some resistance workouts but yeah I

haven’t lost a lot since April um I’ve

pretty much been around

245 and I’d like to lose about another

30 to be honest but I had moved and I

think I had to kind of get control of of

the move you know what I mean like I had

to get settled I had to kind of get

control my food again which is I think

the whole thing the walking start

started very easily but then I noticed I

was eating more sugar you know and I

thought okay got to start getting back

to what I was doing three months ago you

know or three or four months ago when

everything was moving in a right

direction so yeah so like losing weight

is is the easy part up front it’s it’s

maintaining yeah and keeping it off

because that initial motivation I mean

no matter how strong it is it wears off

right it wains yeah yeah yeah do help

that we’re getting older too because I

think your age you know there’s a

natural progression of loss of of

motivation or loss of you know energy I

think in general if you don’t stay on

top of it so fighting a couple of

battles yeah once I hit 40 man like

before when I was younger I’d put on a

few pounds and then like oh wow I’m

getting up there I need to I need to

start you know getting into it and then

the weight would come off pretty easily

well you hit 40 and then 45 and every

year after that it it doesn’t come off

so easily you it doesn’t no and it does

and it doesn’t help either that you know

every year that we get older we lose

part of our muscle mass so we’re

replacing the lean body mass which

actually weighs more than the fat does

with fat so it seems like we’re actually

even if we’re staying the same we’re

actually getting fatter because even if

our weight’s the same what is it muscle

weighs more than fat so and that’s why

people have trouble they’ll I think when

they don’t do resistance exercise in

ination with any kind of a you know low

impact weight loss program like like you

know you guys Advocate uh interrupt

hunger even if you’re just walking you

got to do something to save your your

muscle mass because if you don’t it’s

going to get catabolized with the fat so

that’s what happened people lose maybe

15 pounds in fat feel all good and then

they gain it back but what they did is

they lost about half of it in lean

muscle mass and when they gain that 15

back it’s all fat so now they’re light

lean muscle and they’re heavy another

you know yeah six eight pounds so oh

totally yeah so let’s talk about the

exercise for a little bit because I love

that you said you just started walking

because so many people think you got to

go like hardcore and become a gym rat

and start running and that’s so far from

like where they are in their head and

and I think so it’s actually like the

expectations on themselves that they put

on themselves is too much

and it’s just really easy to say like I

can’t be that person right now so I’m

not even G to try right but you look I

mean there’s there’s just thousands of

clinical trials and studies in in

scientific journals walking that’s all

you need that’s all I mean there’s

definitely a dose response to exercise

the more you exercise the better your

health benefits all you need is walking

I mean the recommendations 150 minutes

of walking that’s a week that’s 30

minutes five days a week yeah and once

you get into a new routine then you can

add a couple days of resistance so

you’re walking like you said what 45 50

minutes 5 days a week or so and then

your resistance what what was that like

you you were talking about resistance

exercise yeah early on it was very light

I mean I just I was doing stuff in the

home right I just bought some light

dumbbells and had a few things and it

was really just to preserve the lean

body m M I wasn’t trying to gain

anything you know and I had grown up

lifting weights but uh you know I might

have just had some 15s or 20s and did Ed

that from everything from you know

overhead presses to curls to tricep

kickbacks just what I did was try just

hit all the major muscle groups I wasn’t

trying to hit a lot of little tiny

things you know like a bodybuilder would

it was pretty much chest quads

hamstrings tricep bicep you know what I

mean maybe you know some shoulders if I

felt like it but it was all really

lightweight stuff um um but you know now

I’m doing a little bit more now but it

it you know for the first two or three

months it was just just trying to keep

from you know burning up my own lean

body mass as I’m losing fat so yeah I

don’t think it matters what you do in

the beginning your goal is just to get

it create a new habit just so you can

keep that going and then you know if you

get bored doing something you add

something or you try you’re like oh I

want to try this and so you do something

different and and you just go from there

so how so okay so you’re walking 45 50

minutes a day and what’ you say

resistance wise like about four days

yeah just every other day so so how long

do you think that was taking you 30

minutes 45 minutes 30 right yeah because

I broke it up into into body parts I

would do like a um not to be too too

crazy but I would do like a a back and

and bicep day with maybe some shoulders

and then I would do like some body

weight squats with a you know

chest press and triceps today you know

what I mean so and it would just be 30

minutes I wasn’t doing a ton I was doing

maybe three sets of 10 maybe one or two

exercises it’s very very small amounts

of resistance exercises what about like

time of day when were you when were you

walking and when were you doing the

resistance yeah it fluctuated right

because of like how I felt and it

depends on the kind of person you are

right A lot of people are mourning

people or you know can’t I’m not a

Mourning person so a lot of times I

would work out after work I always walk

after work um but depends on my work

schedule if if I if I do the weights in

the morning or if I do them at night I

like to get the weights in before I

especially if it’s a day that I walk and

I lift because I do take every other day

off from the resistance exercises um and

I gotta be honest with you for me for my

age and now especially the weight that

I’m pushing around now I kind of need

that day off you know just to kind of

heal and you know because I’m 54 and

it’s just you know makes me feel better

and I feel stronger the next day when

you come back but um yeah it’s uh right

now I think I’m doing maybe like it’s

still not real heavy I’m doing like you

know dumbbell chest presses with 45s and

um just doing curls with 25s and you

know but I’ll do now I’ll do you know

two different exercises with six sets a

piece you know and I’m I’m doing more

reps obviously and and um just to keep

the burn going for afterwards you know a

little bit of more of a a hit routine

where you’re hitting at kind of high

intensity um but yeah it’s it’s short

and I take I usually take about a minute

to two minutes in between sets there you

go nothing special right just just about

30 minutes it’s really short so last

question on the exercise um you said you

do you were doing some some walking at

night was is it before dinner after

dinner I I would do both it depended

like early on when I lost the bulk of

the weight it was before dinner I would

just right after work when I got home I

would just take off I’d park the car and

I wouldn’t even go in I just start

walking and mostly because I was afraid

if I got sat down if I got kind of in

and everything then I would I would blow

it off right so yeah that was it most of

the time it was before I ate and it

still is actually I prefer it that way

but I’ll sometimes I’ll walk depending

if I I want to still get it in and maybe

missed it and had you know maybe did

something with the kids or went out to

dinner with family or something I’ve

walked at 10 o’clock at night before you

know just with a flashlight I mean it’s

I’m not running and I’m not like you

know moving very fast so I can be

careful where I’m going and you know so

it’s and I’m in a nice neighborhood so

it’s all good so very good all right so

let’s switch to uh eating so there’s

there’s a there’s a lot of different

styles I’ll call them whether it’s keto

low carb plant-based vegetarian so did

you have a kind of a style of eating or

a diet you were following or just talk

generally talk to us how your diet

I didn’t I mean I know you and I have

similar backgrounds when it comes to

what we did for a living and and so we

were around Physicians and you’d hear

everybody talking and I mean I saw

everything from doctors even putting

like a half a a half a stick of butter

in their coffee because they were doing

some kind of crazy paleo thing you know

and I just I wasn’t prepared to to pay

for a bunch of extra stuff I wanted to

see what I could do on my own um because

I do have a background in some of that

from school and um I just decided to

keep it easy I just increased my you

know exercise and my moving around and I

decreased my calories and that was it I

didn’t count the calories um all I did

was buy a um a $26 uh bio scale it does

that really um that low voltage

um yeah so and I’m sure that it’s like

a05 degree of you know being off or

whatever but it gives you just an idea

what your body mass is compared to your

bat and and stuff and I just kind of

watched it and seen that the right

numbers were going down or stri started

going in the right direction that was it

um it wasn’t anything fancy so I love

this you you’re just walking you started

lifting some basic lifts that you know

most of us did in high school yeah

you’re not spending a ton of money on on

some Hightech Gadget like 26 bucks if

you want to do that go that route you

can go to Walmart or or Target or or

save more money if you just want to get

a tape measure because you know we’re

heing more and more people are kind of

shying away from BMI uh but your waist

measurement it’s a really really good

tool but then also you’re you if you get

something

inexpensive the um bio impotent scales

can measure your percent body fat and it

doesn’t really matter how much it’s off

most of those are I mean they’re good

enough but the point is saying yeah if

you just if you start whatever you start

with in the same device if you measure

that and it’s going the right direction

right right that’s all that matters yeah

I thought it was fun to watch the other

things that measured but what I really

watched was the pounds you know just

kind of drop and and you know so I think

everything has to align if you got a

good exercise plan whatever it is just

walking if you start eating a little

healthier trying to get a little bit

more you know an extra serving of fruit

a day an extra serving of veggies a day

right cut cutting out you know cutting

out most of the junk you know if you

just do that yeah and if you can

maintain that but the problem is the

next part is like life happens you know

you might have gosh you might have like

an argument with uh a spouse uh a

partner or you might have something

going on at work a big project right

maybe somebody quit maybe your boss is

on you you know it just the kids going

just

insane um and sometimes you even put all

that together and it’s almost impossible

to to maintain that that perfect little

healthy lifestyle that you want so so

talk to us about stress when when some

type of stress happened to you how how

did you deal with that yeah you know I

kind of planned for that at the

beginning because I knew I was if you

can identify what kind of eater you are

I think and I think by the time we get

you know I think if you’re pastor 30s

you know or in your 30s I think you

probably have an idea that you’re a

stress eater or a board eater or you

know but what I did is I uh I down

downloaded one of the apps that’s out

there for um meditation and I used to do

that it they would have them you would

just put it on your phone and just I

would lay down for like 10 minutes after

work and let it talk to me and i’ just

do the breathing for like 10 minutes and

that was it I mean I found that that was

really helpful for me and I’m a pretty

anxious person all most of the time so

run pretty hot so yeah but it’s uh that

was huge to be honest with you that and

I got to be honest with the you know you

started talking to me about interrupt

hunger early early on and you know IID

started gaining weight when we were

still working together and that’s been

probably what five years ago or four or

five years ago and that was about the

time I started getting heavy a minute

but I kind of like the idea of of doing

something good for myself and also doing

something good for somebody else and I

love the way that your you know your

group kind of connected that to together

and um yeah so since then it’s just it’s

been a good reminder you know ever since

you know the food the food’s a little

bit tough sometimes but I don’t eat

perfectly clean I mean even when I lost

the 50 I was eating you know a handful

of Doritos for lunch you know because I

wasn’t nobody’s gonna you know be

perfectly clean if you’re not just some

kind of athlete or but I was still

losing weight because I wasn’t eating

half a bag or the whole bag or you know

it just a handful you know just you

you’re being intentional about it

exactly it’s a great word intentional

that’s all it is so so you talked about

interrupt hunger a couple times so you

know uh one of the neat things we’ve

created with interrupt hunger is donate

your weight so the idea of whether you

follow our program I don’t care uh

whether you lost it on your own you’re

going through the process or maybe you

already lost the pounds and you just

want to give back so donate your weight

is pretty neat you donate a dollar for

every a dollar or more for every pound

you lose to help fight hunger and you

you pick one of the 200 feeding America

food banks around the country so your

donations are literally helping your

neighbors so you made a

donation and to my home state of Ohio

yeah Ohio yeah food bank in Ohio and if

I remember so every dollar they receive

it’s either four or five meals yeah so

I’m pretty sure it’s five meals so I

think you made like a $50 donation

something like that so

$50 at five meals per

dollar that’s 250 meals it adds up and

I’m hoping to donate some more meals

here

soon I’m really

hoping it’s it’s in I mean it’s it’s

it’s almost

unbelievable what food banks are able to

accomplish and how much they can stretch

a dollar through you know giving and and

just food drives and people dropping off

food and picking up leftovers from

bakeries and in grocery stores and

government grants so like how’s that

make you feel knowing that like you you

help feed like potentially 250 people

yeah I mean it’s it’s not something

you’re actively thinking about when

you’re passing up the ice cream but it’s

I think when you’re when you’re done and

you know you can you can use that as

kind of motivation on the days you don’t

feel like you really want to go or you

don’t feel like you want to walk but I

don’t think there’s anybody that’s ever

exercised and then didn’t feel like it

but did it anyway I don’t think you feel

bad afterwards I never did you know what

I mean it’s it’s always like ah I got it

in you know I did it so so yeah today’s

Tuesday just yesterday I uh I missed a

few uh workout lifting days yeah and so

like Mondays and Thursdays are my

lifting days just for conferences and

travel and

whatever didn’t feel good so Monday I

got in a really good lift and I was just

thinking I’m like man like just like the

sun’s brighter you know the birds are

tripping louder I don’t know what that

is your kids don’t bother you as much

like life is just better yeah and and

it’s a heck of a way to to start your

day or or start your week y I think it

has something to do with just just like

we do professionally just accomplishment

makes you feel successful and it doesn’t

have be just the money you make or the

the deal you just struck or the patience

you just helped it can also be the

health that you’re you know contributing

to your own health or the health of your

family who like you know for instance

your your daughters who see you working

out and you know those are LIF time

habits and it’s hard to start that if

you don’t have anybody to you know kind

of mimic those for you in front of you

and often so yeah it’s you’re helping

more people than you even know I mean

you’ve been a nice inspiration to me

with your health issues but also you’re

you’re attacking your health and making

sure that you can control what you can

control and yeah it’s been it doesn’t

matter what motivates you it could be a

friend like you and I it could be a

parent to a child a child to a dad I

mean i’ I’ve heard a dads whose children

were great athletes coming up and they

were like oh yeah I got to do something

you know what I mean because I used to

enjoy that myself and it just reminded

them to do something you know

so totally agree totally agree it’s uh

yeah it’s pretty cool I’ve been posting

a lot for for a while and uh just every

once in a while somebody you don’t

expect somebody that doesn’t comment or

or something on a post uh they’ll say

something I’m like oh my gosh there’s

there’s people that are you know

listening so yeah that’s that’s pretty

neat so just for the record I I I know

how you did it but there there’s more

and more weight prescription weight loss

meds coming out I think people are

starting to feel more comfortable about

different types of of less invasive

barri surgery and then there’s a lot of

different I think Specialists that you

could go see to to help you did did you

use any of that did you use medication

surgery did you go and see any type of

specialist coach or like that I didn’t

but I’ve had family that has I had a

cousin that did some the bariatric

surgery he got pretty big and he was an

he was a great athlete coming up too he

was you know really good high school

wrestler and I don’t uh I don’t know

what happened with him but it just there

seemed to be something medical going on

with him it wasn’t just like I’m going

to cut back on you know some food and

pick up a away it it just didn’t work

for him and some people do have

imbalances in their hormones and you

know it’s not it’s not always just look

at somebody and say oh they’re lazy you

know what I mean I think we I think

we’re finally turning the corner from

that yeah yeah than I think so too

because the reason why I I brought it up

to let folks know that you actually were

successful based on your your lifestyle

modifications your behaviors right but I

will say that you are definitely not the

norm you’re an outlier and folks like

you because there’s one of the craziest

weight loss studies um if you want to

lose 20% body weight and keep it

off you only have a 4% success rate

really it’s that low

20% it really doesn’t surprise me

actually because so I think most people

maybe Something Big some type of

triggering event is going to happen to

get you losing weight but for you to to

lose successfully and maintain it over a

period of of of months and then years if

you make it five years and you’ve capped

a good chunk of that off almost

everybody is going to

need a little help they’re going to need

one of the new game-changing

prescription meds out there uh one of

the you know maybe you need prescription

medication maybe you need bariatric

surgery maybe you need both um you know

it’s even if you know the right things

to eat have a nutritionist there that

you see right every other week or even

once a month having a registered

dietitian maybe it’s some type of Coach

maybe it’s going to we just man a lot of

people think that that they have to do

it on their own and it’s just it’s

really sad I he many people doing it on

their own and being successful so y um

so with that we’ve covered a lot of

ground you’ve told us a lot so thank you

so much for really I mean being so

vulnerable and transparent and open

yourself up to our audience I I can’t

tell how much I appreciate it is there

anything else you want to you want to

leave us with I would just encourage

people not to make too many changes

right if you want to start doing

something change one thing you know just

walk just make sure you’re doing one

thing and then keep adding to it that

would be all I would say yeah prove to

yourself

it right you’ll do it Y and then don’t

make it hard too hard on yourself it

doesn’t have to be like the like running

at top speed for 60 minutes and then

doing you know hit Weight Workout and

you know burpees all day long you know

it doesn’t have to be like that and I’m

living proof of that man I appreciate

you so much Jeremy thank you very much

this is this has been a it’s been fun

too thanks for asking thanks so much for

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or positions of any entities they

represent for my day job I’m an employee

of AbbVie and appear on this podcast on my

own accord and not in the professional

capacity as an AbbVie employee all

viewpoints provided are my personal

opinions and not intended to reflect

those of my employer if you have any

questions or comments please shoot me an

email at Jollie@interrupthunger.org

let’s go spread some Joy people!