Since this particular subforum is about "How MBT affected me", I thought I'd share something I am pursuing that I probably never would have been able to do, were it not for MBT.

Over the coming weeks/months, I will try to gradually become vegan. The combination of moral, health, and environmental issues has led me to think this makes sense intellectually, and it feels like the right thing to do in my heart.

Were it not for the idea that consciousness is fundamental, and that this PMR is virtual, would I have ever seen farm animal suffering the way I do now. They are conscious beings whose free will is being grossly restricted.

FYI the video that finally did it for me was: Best Speech You Will Ever Hear - Gary Yourofsky

Two hurdles to overcome are the health aspect and the social aspect. I will be gradually incorporating various meal ideas into my diet and seeing how my body reacts. I want to do this properly so it may take some time. I've joined a local vegan group, so that should help with a lot. I also wrote this post to help commit myself to this endeavor, to help me get through the fear of social ostracization.

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Mike

Good for you. Keep us updated on your progress.

Awesome Mike! Thanks for posting that speech.

I have been very slow about my transition - sorting out what groceries to buy, where to eat out, what shoes have bits unseen leather, all the way down to the brushes and paints that I can use for art! Joining a local vegan group sounds helpful. My advice is to, like many things, have a long view and take it one step at a time.

You may have already seen this, but I refer to it often: http://vegankit.com/

You probably have seen this one too, but just in case - also good to have handy: http://www.amazon.com/Becoming-Vegan-Co ... 1570671036

By the way, what hurdle(s) are you thinking of in terms of health?

Keep us posted and inspired!

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-"You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you might find... you get what you need"

Thanks for the recommendations Justin. I had seen those before but I'm still in a bit of a daze as to which resources are good to focus on as a start. So that helps narrow it down for me quite a bit.

By hurdles with health I mainly just meant that I don't know how my body will react to the dietary changes. I will likely be adding new foods I've never tried before, and getting the right amount of calories might be a bit of a challenge (I'm a big, active, guy in my prime so I eat a LOT). Of course, I would expect my health to improve once I find out what works for me. :)

I'm totally open to any other suggestions anyone may have.

I would also like to point out that I am going to try and eat whole-foods as much as possible. From what I have seen, you can be vegan but still have a bad diet (Oreo's are vegan!)... and that's not what I'm going for. The health aspect is important so I'm targeting a "whole foods plant based" diet. I'm going to avoid sugar as much as I can as well.

I do have some leather clothing, but I will probably just use them until they wear out. I don't plan on purchasing any new ones.

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Mike

Mike, if it helps any, I am 6ft 184lbs and am highly active (jiu jitsu, kick boxing, yoga, running, etc). I frankly struggle to manage a level head without regular physical activity. Prior to my mid 30's, I ate like a horse. Now at 38, I seem to need fewer calories, but still eat 4+ fair sized meals in a day.

This site is a bit... well you will see, but it is all about vegan body building: http://veganbodybuilding.org/home.htm There is some good info there about vegan supplements - if you decide that you need any.

I tried a vegan supplement that seemed to be fine, but now I just stick to making sure that I eat a good variety of fresh fruits and veggies, raw nuts, grains, etc. I also use unsweetened rice milk that is supplemented with A, D, Calcium, and B12. The two resources in my previous post are really great to help sort out a "what to eat" plan.

I feel as good as ever. The main change has been that I lost a little more body fat.

Consciousness leads and the body follows :)

EDIT: Great video by the way. Awesome inspiration.

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-"You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you might find... you get what you need"

Thanks Justin I didn't know about that site. I do weight lifting, but not much interest in "body-building" per say. But I imagine a lot of the same advice still applies.

So far I've swapped out my breakfast with a green smoothie, and my usual sandwich lunch with a quinoa and bean salad. I'm still eating some meat for dinner, but that will eventually be swapped out too. I've tried a few different recipes (even cooked with tofu) and it's really not that bad so far. I have been socially out for food a few times and found it easy to be vegetarian, but quite hard to be vegan (I may end up just being vegetarian when eating out, not sure yet).

My girlfriend has been quite supportive (she's cooking me a vegan dinner tonight :) ) so I'm quite happy about how things are going.

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Mike

Sounds like good progress Mike!

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-"You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you might find... you get what you need"

Well it's been over a month. Being vegetarian has been easy - and I have been "mostly" vegan with my diet. I have occasionally had some cheese/milk while going out to eat - there seems to be a lot more restaurants with vegetarian options than vegan ones. At home, I've been cooking 100% vegan... and it feels good.

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Mike

Is the vegan group leading to some new friendships?

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Does this PMR make my butt look big?

For sure, although we only meet once a month. I did get invited and went to a potluck at one of their houses.

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Mike

After a couple of months of sporting inactivity I got back on the Pickle Ball* court this week and the positive physical after-effect is astonishing.

*Pickle Ball is something geezers do in Florida. Its easy to pick up, especially if you have any racket sport background, and you get a great workout while having too much fun to think about it ; - )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNFS0uhU93A

I believe Tom was an intense runner?

The Sensor Platform (body) is just not built for inactivity, and recent studies show blood chemistry getting dangerously wonky after only 20 minutes of sitting.

Also, if memory serves, the body's lymph drainage system does not have a heart muscle powering it, rather, it is a network of one-way gates (closed by gravity when the body is stationary and vertical) that only operate when the body is in motion. I have not looked deeply into this, so others may wish to clarify.

All this to underline the importance of Sensor Platform movement in order to feel as well as you were designed to feel.

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Does this PMR make my butt look big?

great way to meet people reaching for better intent I would think.

to be truly happy, I think in adulthood we need to reconstruct the social intensity we had in highschool or post-secondary/College/University, which partnering and family obligations and modern life and technology conspires against.

joining groups centered on higher purposes such as veganism should be a great way to build up a social circle of "fellow travelors", and these would also be fora likely to be curious about MBTOE.

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Does this PMR make my butt look big?

I consider myself semi-vegetarian since I eat from time to time fish. Other than that I stopped eating regular meat for about a year and two months now. When I wanted to become vegetarian in the beginning I failed 2 times but the 3rd time was the "lucky" one for me. I still don't recommend doing it unless you are very aware of your health and eating habits.

I sometimes joke to my friends saying something along the lines - hey I'm vegetarian but I will not be surprised if I end up in hospital :). This joke also has a little bit of truth. What concerns me though is that eating fish for me morally is in a way the same thing as eating meat so I tend to limit that as well.

Now letting the concerns aside I feel much better than when I used to eat meat a lot. One of the first things that I noticed when I started doing it is that I felt "weaker" in the beginning. I don't know if it's normal or not but I interpreted as my body flushing out the bad toxins. After 1-3 month everything turned to normal and the body adapted. I didn't follow any sort of diet - as in what should I eat - mostly I eat a lot of rice as my main course (I like it a lot) with different sorts of food (like fried vegetables for instance).

People ask me what should they eat to supplement the meat but when I started I didn't think in that terms - I thought only in eating non-meat food and it worked for me.

one can end up just filling up on empty calories.

Nutritarianism looks to me to work well with healthy veganism.

http://www.drfuhrman.com/


Important report out yesterday on the role of eating timing and pacing, insulin management, and the need for mini-fasts between meals (better to eat all your calories at mealtimes, and never snack, to give your insulin levels a rest)
http://in.news.yahoo.com/high-insulin-c ... 24371.html

I have a personal suspicion that the body is more adaptable to diet changes the younger you are. I like to experiment with new foods and diets, and I am suspicious that this has been the source of some of my trouble. When I go back to the diet I was raised on, but rather focus on portion control, I seem to do better.

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Does this PMR make my butt look big?

Awesomeness.

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-"You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you might find... you get what you need"