I, Shane › Shane Adams’ personal weblog

Several months ago, my sister-in-law began dating my worst nightmare. A FITNESS GUY. Everything I heard about him, even before I met him, was “he runs” and “he works out a lot” and the stuff that people that are in the shape that I’m in (more round than anything) would be considerably intimidated by.

After meeting Tyson (who comments as Ty on this here web space), I found him to be much more approachable as a person, especially considering that he and I soon bonded over subjects like nerdery and technology.

He never really pushed his fitness on me, but I found him the kind of person who makes you want to be a little more active. Several months later, I’m totally happy for my sis-in-law because she’s got a great guy. It’s really great that they’ve found each other.

A few months back, Tyson launched StartBeingFit.com, a website devoted to fitness and health, built to help connect folks interested in those subjects with information and resources that they need. Even more cool is that he built the site himself using the very capable web application framework, Joomla.

If you are a person interested in fitness or even in just learning more about fitness and some tools, articles and other resources, go check it out.

In related news, Tyson is trying to encourage me to do the Chicago Urbanathlon with him - a 10-mile trek around the city of Chicago over obstacles and up stairs in Soldier Field and more. There’s a 12-week training program that I’ll have to start pronto in order to do it and I’m considering it because WHY NOT. Like I shouldn’t have a reason to get more fit. Still, if I stop posting entirely sometime around October, it’s likely because I HAVE BEEN CONSUMED BY THE URBANATHLON.

Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly
by Anthony Bourdain
RATING: 8 out of 10

Anthony Bourdain is chef-cool for a lot of reasons. He gets mad respect in the community of chefdom, although many may only recognize him from his excursions on the Travel Channel. The truth is, back in the day, he was a chef at Brassiere Les Halles in New York City, the culmination of a food career that is so degenerate and depraved that it would make some sailors blush.

This middle-class-to-well-off lad “with the French name” has held every job in the kitchen, from dishwasher to line cook all the way up to executive chef and now, “Chef-at-large” (whatever that means). Along the way, mistakes were made, mostly due to excessive cocaine and heroin use, but Bourdain somehow managed to come out alive.

Kitchen Confidential is - at its core - the autobiography of one fantastically interesting character. However, along the way, Bourdain manages to skewer, slice, dice and whatever-other-cooking-euphemism-you-prefer the restaurant business, exposing what has been his experience up to 2000 (when the book was originally published). He pulls no punches (divulging the secret to never order fish on Monday and doesn’t like Emeril all that much) and writes lovingly of the debauched behavior of kitchen staffers (sex, drugs, etc.).

People like Anthony Bourdain are truly amazing. Here is a guy who is well-respected as a chef (although he would admit he can’t hang with the Eric Riperts and the Tom Colicchio) yet manages to tell a story that not only totally compelling, but also brilliantly written. You can hear the sounds (usually curse words in Spanish) in Bourdain’s ears, smells the aromas of his kitchen; it’s written so well that you can almost taste the food.

There was a time in my life where I wanted to be a chef. I think it’s one of the most amazing crafts and that great chefs are truly artists of the highest kind because they have the ability to touch every single one of your senses. After reading Kitchen Confidential, I don’t. What a life these guys lead…

I really liked the book a lot. If you like Bourdain or you watch Top Chef (my favorite reality show) or a lot of Food Network programming, I suggest you pick up the book.

It’s a fitting close to this weekend.

Saturday turned out to be awesome. I woke up at 5 with the rain and lightning and was convinced we wouldn’t be able to golf. However, with some prayers, the weather cleared and by 10:00, the only thing we had to worry about at Royal Meadows was the wind.

Golfing was a lot of fun and then we joined some others for an 18-person poker tournament. But in order to give myself a challenge, I grilled 40+ cheeseburgers so Jake’s Man Day attendants would have something to nosh on.

The rest of Man Day was a blast. I finally had to call it a night at 12:30 shortly after I got everyone to the Brooksider. I hope everyone had fun.

Yesterday was a little more relaxed. We went to church, made lunch and I took a nice long nap. Last night, we spent some time at a friends’ house in their recently redone backyard, which made me insanely jealous to redo our backyard. We lazed around, watched the pilot of Iron Chef America from a few years ago, then turned in early.

It is, after all, Red Meat Day.

We’re going over to my parents’ house today. My dad returned from Dubai on Friday in time to ask me what I wanted to have for lunch today. He went and picked up my requested steak - a ribeye from McGonigals. So I’ll finally get to have what I missed for Jake’s birthday.

The breakfast of champions.

As I mentioned, I’ve been working from home this week on a pretty arduous project. It’s been weird because, Alli, who would normally be working from home, has been gone all week working on a huge mural job. I love working from home when she’s around, so it was weird not having her here, but I got to spend some quality time with the dog and I got to enjoy a very interesting role-reversal.

Now I typically brew the coffee and start the breakfast, but Alli usually finishes it and makes my lunch. I’ve had the opportunity to reciprocate that for her this week as she’s been the one being sent off to work while the dog and I hold down the fort at home.

Every morning this week, we’ve had McCann’s Steel Cut Oatmeal to go along with our tasty Pike Place Roast from Starbucks. Steel Cut Oatmeal is considerably different than that instant stuff you can get at the store. You actually have to cook it for about 30 minutes. I make awesome oatmeal. And I’m going to reveal my secret:

When you bring the water to a boil and initially put in the oatmeal, you should also add a healthy amount of cinnamon and a splash of vanilla extract. That will infuse the oatmeal with awesomeness as it cooks. Stir it on high for about 5 minutes and then after you cover and let it stand for 30 more, you stir in some brown sugar and a dash of nutmeg. Serve it with almonds and strawberries or bananas for extra awesomeness.

I never thought that I’d be someone who loves oatmeal, but I do. This stuff is awesome because you can control the ingredients that go in it. The only unnatural thing I add is the vanilla extract. And that’s hardly unnatural.

They say that steel cut oats are good for your cholesterol. That’s why I started eating them.

I love Sam’s Club. I can buy a bag of salmon filets individually wrapped for 12 bucks. Today, I decided to use one of those filets for evil lunch. I really enjoy fish sandwiches and I love to grill my sandwiches on the Griddler that I got for Christmas from my awesome in-laws. So here’s what I did:

That’s right…I seared the salmon filet in some olive oil with just some salt and lemon pepper and combined it with some excellent Pepperidge Farm bread and Muenster cheese, which is my cheese of choice for grilled sandwiches. Then…

That’s right…smashed onto my Griddler like a panini with a little Miracle Whip and that my sandwich. I’m not sure what to name it…I’ll take suggestions in the comments.

When I was growing up, my mom made homemade granola - the same recipe that my grandmother made for my dad when he was growing up. A couple months ago, my wife did something awesome…she started carrying on the legacy of my mom and grandmother by making me the same granola.

It must be said that I absolutely love this granola, mostly because it is half oats, half a combination of slivered almonds, sunflower seeds, pecans and other nutty awesomeness. Add some sesame seeds, honey, a little canola oil, cinnamon and a little love…GENIUS.

I love that my wife does this for me. She took it upon herself to learn the recipe, added a couple ingredients to make it even healthier without changing the taste…VOILA! Fiber-regularity in a sweet, tasty, nutty snack. It also tastes really good with yogurt.

This is just another reason why my wife is better than yours.

When I undertook the task of raising enough money to buy a cow from Heifer International, one of the added benefits of all the do-gooding was going to be that eating less red meat was good for my rapidly increasing cholesterol (weighing in a year ago at 197).

So I thought.

Today, after my physical and subsequent lab testing I found that 4 months of eating no red meat actually managed to INCREASE my cholesterol by 6 points, bringing it over that dreaded 200 mark and bringing my doctor to prescribe Lipitor, made famous by the creepy Jarvik artificial heart guy.

I’m not thrilled about the news in the least.

After 4 full months of not eating red meat, I was expecting my doctor to say, “You’re doing great. Your cholesterol is no longer a problem.”

Not so much.

After talking it out with Alli, I’m pretty sure I know why this is: I lead a sedentary lifestyle. My life consists of getting up, showering, driving a half-hour to work, sitting at a desk all day, driving a half-hour home, and sitting all night. Occasionally (when it’s nice out), I’ll take the dog for a walk, but that’s not happening nearly enough.

In talking with my doctor, I found that I need to lose about 55 pounds to get into the “normal” range for my BMI. I’m a tall, big guy, but 55 pounds is still a lot of weight. It’s daunting, for sure. But now I know that diet alone is not going to cure my health problems. (Let it be stated that I consider myself in “okay” shape. I couldn’t run a marathon or anything, but I grew up an athlete, so the muscles are still there.)

Whatever my circumstances, something has to change. Maybe this latest bit of news will be the kick in the pants I need to work harder.

Back in January, I challenged my readers to help me raise enough money to purchase a dairy cow from Heifer International. If I raised the money by the end of January, I promised to not eat any red meat until Memorial Day.

This may have been a bit over-zealous, but I’ve stuck with it for the last 106 days. 42 days left.

I’m excited because next week, I’m going to the doctor for a physical and I’m planning on getting my cholesterol checked. Prior to the Red Meat Experiment, I had received a note from my doctor that my cholesterol was too high and I needed to keep an eye on it. For the past several months, we’ve been diligent about eating food that should help with my cholesterol, specifically eating natural steel cut oats for breakfast.

With the decrease in red meat as well as other changes I’ve made, I’m looking forward to seeing the progress I’ve made. And while my weight hasn’t necessarily decreased, I am confident that my cholesterol has.

Thanks again to those of you who helped make it happen. My cholesterol thanks you, my heart thanks you, and my wife thanks you for helping me cut down my red meat intake.