I, Shane › Shane Adams’ personal weblog

Three days left until my self-imposed meat boycott is over.

For those who are new to the game, in January, I challenged my blog readers to raise $500 to buy a dairy cow from Heifer International. The catch was that if the money was all raised by the end of the month that I would swear off all red meat until Memorial Day.

It’s the home stretch. I should have made my boycott until Memorial Day weekend so I could eat it tomorrow, but it’ll be like my last big challenge. And it will be a big challenge because we have a huge weekend planned.

More on that in a bit…

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.

Appetizer
If you could be any current celebrity for one whole week, who would you want to be?

I’d like to be someone that could play an instrument or two. John Mayer or John Legend or someone like that.

Soup
On a scale of 1-10 (with 10 being highest), how much do you enjoy talking on the phone?

I like talking in person a lot. Over the phone…now that I have a Jawbone, it’s much easier. I would say that on the average, I’d rate my PTE (phone talking enjoyment) at about a 6.

Salad
Name a charitable organization to which you have donated (or would like to).

Most recently, I donated to Heifer International with the help of all of YOU.

Main Course
What is a food you like so much you could eat it every single day for a month?

Cheeseburgers. That’s why this whole “no red meat until Memorial Day” sucks so much. I like pizza. And Chipotle too.

Dessert
Have you or anyone in your family had the flu this year?

Alli had it for about a week and I almost got it but my immune system eats flu viruses the same way that I eat Chipotle.

At least the envelope is…

So there you go. I’m not sure if I’ll receive anymore than that, but hopefully, I’ll get a picture of the cow later. But I doubt it.

Rather, WE (me and you, my readership) are the owners of a cow. I apologize for the delay. It took about a week to process some of the payments on PayPal for some reason. As more details arrive, I’ll share them, but I wanted to make sure that you all knew that I’ve gone forward and bought the cow. Now if I could just get the milk for free…

Payment Method: CREDIT

The following summarizes your order:

Total: $500.00
ID: 75592991

Thanks again to all of you that donated. You guys are awesome. It’s only 3 1/2 long months until I can eat red meat again. Man, this is going to suck.

I did it.

Rather, WE did it.

The idea originally came from a fast that Alli and I have been doing. Where the idea came from doesn’t matter anymore. What matters is that - thanks to a last-minute donation by Alli Arnold Art - as of midnight last night, I have the money needed to purchase a dairy cow from Heifer International.

I’ve bent the rules a little to allow for some mailed donations to come in, but I know they are coming so we’ll just consider them donated.

I’m so excited that I accomplished my goal. HOWEVER, since I achieved the goal by midnight on January 31, I’m going to give up red meat until Memorial Day.

This is going to suck.

Then again, yesterday Brian D directed me to this article in the New York Times, which gives examples of how meat consumption is similar to that of the excessive SUV driving that we do in the United States. Consider this:

an estimated 30 percent of the earth’s ice-free land is directly or indirectly involved in livestock production, according to the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization, which also estimates that livestock production generates nearly a fifth of the world’s greenhouse gases — more than transportation. [This figure led a University of Chicago professor of geophysics to calculate] that if Americans were to reduce meat consumption by just 20 percent it would be as if we all switched from a standard sedan — a Camry, say — to the ultra-efficient Prius.

Not only that, but since most cattle are “grown” rather than “raised” (the distinction being that normal cattle graze on grass and industrial cattle are fed grain, which is far more abundant than grass and since cattle aren’t built to digest grain), they have health problems and have to be given antibiotics to stay alive. That’s one thing that I like about Chipotle — their Food with Integrity program which means that they buy only meat that has been raised humanely without antibiotics.

I love red meat. I love cheeseburgers and steaks. But if this means that I’ll be reducing my consumption by 20 percent for the year, so be it.

There are a lot of people who helped me get to the $500 goal:

• Chimpotle was the first one to jump on board and donate.
• My family came through and donated over $200
• KC Bloggers Average Jane, KC Sponge and Meesha all donated.
• Thanks to my friends Laura and Brian D for donating
• Thanks to Tony for mentioning me on 980 and his blog
• Thanks to Alli for all the support and the last-minute donation to get me to my goal

I’ll be purchasing the cow later today and I’ll keep you updated. I will be happy to be out of fund-raising mode and return back to regularly scheduled discussions like last night’s Lost episode and some other randomness.

Today was a good day for heifer fundraising, but we are still $70 short of our $500 goal. There are less than 7 hours left in this day…if that $70 is raised, I will be giving up red meat for 4 long months.

FOUR MONTHS.

As someone who has been craving a burger for the last 48 hours, there’s definitely a part of me that doesn’t want that last 70 dollars to be raised. The thought of giving up burgers, steak and barbecue for the until Memorial Day isn’t something I am too keen on.

But.

If you make the sacrifice and donate your money, I’ll make the sacrifice and give up red meat. It will suck, but I want to make sure you understand the full level of my commitment. I didn’t want you to give something for nothing. I get the added benefit of better cholesterol levels. You get the benefit of my suffering. Click below to donate.