Shane Life

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.

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.