So in some recent downtime I figured it was a great time for a checkup, "get the oil changed and the tires rotated" on this old dog. In order to meet some insurance goals I had to get my cholesterol checked, no big deal I'm a runner right? As my doctor had told me during my checkup "you're healthy as a horse" I figured I had nothing to worry about. I chuckled a little bit as the nurse commented on my runner's heart rate and went on my way for the day not expecting anything noteworthy to come out of this visit.

And then it happened...

The office nurse called me shortly thereafter with some startling news, my cholesterol was quite high.

How was that possible?? I'm a runner I tell myself I should be able to power through a mountain of cheeseburgers in a single bound right? Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong.

In all of my training I had convinced myself that I could pretty much eat at will. I mean I run marathons doesn't that qualify me for immortality or something?

And just like that a light bulb went on, if I have to work harder to pump blood through me there is no way that can be good for my running efficiency and heaven forbid it might make me slower. So I did a deep dive on what changes and additions I can make to improve this situation without medicine. I started keeping track of what goes in the fuel tank on this marathon machine and if nothing else it becomes way more real when you enter in how much you put away. I've found some fun new additions to the diet, ghiradelli dark chocolate chips are kind of fun, box Cabernet Sauvignon is not nearly as ridiculous as it looks, and Metamucil tastes a lot like tang but just thicker, like oatmeal.

So I'll go back in six months and we'll check the oil again and see if I've made any improvements or not but one thing is for sure I'm not going to take this lying down. I will fight to continue to improve my health, a bad test result is just the "coal" I need to start a fire.