Chapter 3 - shane starts off on a good foot

The previous chef told him about both our nutritional needs, and that we were one of the, um, hungriest crews in the state. His first breakfast was a testament to his creativity, who would have though parmesan cheese omelets tasted so good, and the portions were just as generous as his predecessor perhaps more so. Every meal was better than the previous meal, and no one complained about portions. While the crew was eating, Shane would be busy taking care of us. I asked him once if he ate the same thing as us, and he said that we had a meal plan due to our physical work he was only free to eat our leftovers.

My nutrition goal was to put on about a pound per week that summer. The heavy work, and weight lifting most mornings with the guys, was assisted by Creatine to help my recovery and building. Never one to think much about scales, I decided to weigh myself after being out there 30 days. At 205 pounds I was a little ahead of my goal, but the body fat reader said it was all muscle as my percentage had declined.

By the time June was over it looked like the new job was getting along with the chef. Shane was being more relaxed around us, and it was clear that he was a little softer. Every once in a while we’d chat by the campfire, and he told me about his rough childhood. Apparently his dad left at a young age, and his mom basically lived off of welfare when she was not in jail. He knew that he probably qualified for free school lunch in high school, but could never get his mom to pay the form. I learned that he built his whole life around Pinterest boards full of tasty recipes, and took this job so that he could practice before hopefully saving enough for culinary school. He said one of the best parts of the job is that he made sure he always had enough left-overs for a full meal for himself. He joked that if he kept it up, sometime soon he’d have to graduate from his Men’s size 28 shorts. I told him that we had a scale in the gym he could use if he wanted to see if he had gained a few pounds; apparently he weighed just 110 pounds the day he arrived. The next morning he joined us at the gym and was 126 pounds. As of that moment forward, I was always careful to make sure that there was a bit of food left over.