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I found this board after posting on the veganfitness.net boards. Since those seem to have more of a UK emphasis, I decided to register here.

 

I was vegan for four years, but fell off the wagon hard during law school. During my first time as a vegan, I was very skinny and weak, as I didn't strength train, mind my protein, etc.

 

I started eating meat again when I started training Brazilian jiu-jitsu and lifting weights. I got fat and strong - I ate everything in sight.

 

In terms of weight and strength, I'm finally back to, for me, a happy medium - I'm about 160 lbs, 5'9", and as I have no ambitions to bodybuilding or powerlifting, I'm happy with the way my strength and definition are progressing. Long way to go, but better off than I was.

 

Anyway, I've just moved from one of the most rural counties in the state to the state capital, and I have access to a fantastic health food store. I can afford things like quinoa, the odd block of tofu, decent dressing assorted beans, etc., but I can't really afford much "specialty" food yet.

 

I've decided to go back to a strict vegetarian diet - I'm not really comfortable calling myself a vegan, as my wardrobe still has a lot of wool and leather, and in all honesty, it always will. I kept the animal products out of my wardrobe through law school, but now I have wool suits and leather shoes. So I'm not a "vegan" by the usual definition, I know.

 

But I feel healthier and less bloated on a "vegan diet" and I feel like it's at least a step in the right direction.

 

My main concern is maintaining the little bit of muscle and strength I have. I'm actually planning to keep my diet mostly on the q.t. as I really get tired of my every meal being a political debate.

 

Anyway, I wanted to introduce myself. I realize that because of my wardrobe, I'm not technically "vegan" now, but I'm hoping I can still ask questions and participate in the community. If not, sorry and I'll get bent.

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Welcome to the group!

 

Great to have you here. We actually just sponsored 2 Brazilian jiu-jitsu fighters. You can find discusstions about that stuff in "other sports"

 

Thanks for finding our forum and joining. We have a variety of athletes here and we generally have a pretty good time getting to know each other. I've been able to meet up with a handful of the members in person during my travels, and that has been really nice.

 

Explore the forum and have fun. I look forward to hearing more from you.

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Hey driver,

 

I am just finishing up law school, so there is something we have in common already.

 

Curious - can you not find non-vegan shoes that you like? I have never had a problem replacing leather stuff with the non-vegan versions - some of which look like leather. In fact, I hagv always loved the look of leather and I am stoked to be able to have that look without the cruelty. So I proudly display my "fake for the animals ' sake" patches on my fake leather boots, purses, etc. because otherwise people have mistaken them for leather. I guess I would encourage you to shop cruelty free as much as possible. If you care about animals, dont discount that aspect of it.

 

Welcome and of course you can participate.

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Congrats on finishing up law school, and good luck on the bar exam. The bar exam was the first time that I ever really studied, and it nearly killed me. In all honesty, if I hadn't passed, I don't know if I'd have taken it again. I was absolutely wretched, and I *still* catch myself feeling guilty when I'm "having fun instead of studying."

 

Do you have employment lined up already?

 

I've honestly never seen vegan business shoes that I thought passed muster, but I'd love to be proven wrong. As for suits, I just can't wear synthetic suits and still have a job, and there's only so much seersucker one can wear, even in West Virginia. (By "so much," I mean "very damned little.") Unfortunately, I've ended up in a clothing-conscious profession, and the people who notice that sort of thing *really* notice it. For what it's worth, which isn't much, I still dress like a typical aging-scene-kid in my off time. I suppose any day now that's going to start looking ridiculous. ("Any day" probably meaning "last year.")

 

I really do feel bad about the clothing thing, but I try to feel good about the steps I do take.

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Oh, I forgot to mention, we have 5 ferrets who are basically being raised as our children. Believe it or not, my first ferret was literally my best friend, and was the impetus for me becoming vegan in the first place. He died in March. We've had 9 ferrets total, all but 3 of which were rescues from a ferret shelter at which I used to volunteer.

 

So, yeah, ferrets.

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Congrats on finishing up law school, and good luck on the bar exam. The bar exam was the first time that I ever really studied, and it nearly killed me. In all honesty, if I hadn't passed, I don't know if I'd have taken it again. I was absolutely wretched, and I *still* catch myself feeling guilty when I'm "having fun instead of studying."

 

 

Thanks! The bar exam is "wretched"? What state bar did you right? Elaborate a little on how "wretched" it is. Any tips, suggestions, what to do, what not to waste my time doing, etc.?

 

I really dont like this city at all. I am looking forward to practiing in California, north carolina or a few other states - but def not New York - that is just the American equivalent of Toronto. Where are you currently working and what type of law?

 

No job lined up yet.

 

Hmm, as far as the profession and its expectations, I really couldnt care less, but that is just me. I detest our unrelentingly myopic and parochial ethic of consumption - one to which most lucrative professions coontribute - and will never ever be somebody who doesnt give a f*** about animals or the environment like all the lawyers and law profs (except 3 ) that I have met. The dean of our law school I remember one time wore a fur coat. I had an appointment with her the next day so I made it a point to wear my "Fur is worn by beautifical animals and ugly people" shirt, and marched into her office ready to get in to it with her. She never once asked me a thing about it - but the conservation was cold and I could tell she was distracted and annoyed at my shirt. Stupid rich bitch. Wear your own damn skin and leave the animals alone **AFTER I officially graduate (I am not suicidal after all!!) I am going to send her a link with undercover footage of a Chinese fur farm and ask her to, in view of what she just saw, consider tossing the fur. Anyway, I digress.

 

 

sorry - I am rather passionate about animal rights. What were we saying? Oh yes, the wretched bar exams...

 

I guess I better get my ass offline and back to studying then!

 

Any tips re bar exam survival would be greatly appreciated. Good luck with your bodybuilding efforts. I dont know about high quality vegan suits, but I can provide you with some shoe links you could browse online just to see if anything appeals to you.

 

Welcome again.

 

P.S. I type with lots of typos. I assure you though I am not illiterate.

Edited by compassionategirl
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Oh, I forgot to mention, we have 5 ferrets who are basically being raised as our children. Believe it or not, my first ferret was literally my best friend, and was the impetus for me becoming vegan in the first place. He died in March. We've had 9 ferrets total, all but 3 of which were rescues from a ferret shelter at which I used to volunteer.

 

So, yeah, ferrets.

 

I know nothing about the nature of ferrets. What are they like? What are they like as roomies? Sorry to hear your ferret passed away. may I ask of what? I rememerb Jennifer Aniston making a movie in which she had a pet ferret. In an interview subsequent to the making of the movie, she had nothing nice to see about that animal **bitch**

 

Thanks for rescuing animals instead of supporting commercial pet breeding (grrrr ). Yup, I know what you mean about your ferret being your impetus to go vegan. It was my first animal companion that showed me animals are not all that different from us in that they can experience not only physical pain, but emotions like joy, loneliness, boredom, sadness, etc.

 

Got any pics of your ferrets? That would be cool to see

 

And I would love to hear more about how your first ferret was your best friend.

 

Oh ya one more thing - no worries about being strong this time around - you have found a great place for inspiration advice and support. Just check out Rob's latest contest prep pics - the first one is my favourite pic of any vegan bodybuilder - plus I like the navy blue tank:

 

viewtopic.php?t=2663

 

scroll down and enjoy!

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Thanks! The bar exam is "wretched"? What state bar did you right? Elaborate a little on how "wretched" it is. Any tips, suggestions, what to do, what not to waste my time doing, etc.?

I'm from Florida, but I drifted around for a while after high school and ended up in West Virginia. I consider myself a West Virginian now, haven't crossed the Florida state line in 9 years, I think.

 

West Virginia supposedly has one of the easier bar exams in the US. It's only two days and has a relatively high pass rate. In retrospect, I over-studied by a mile. However, I didn't know that going in, and I didn't want to flunk, as I couldn't afford (financially or mentally) to take it twice.

 

Where are you currently practising?

I practice in Charleston, WV, which is the biggest city in WV but is still pretty small.

 

I clerked in a very rural circuit - no stoplights, no parking meters in the entire county - and planned to open my own office there. You wouldn't have known to look at it, but there was an insane amount of money to be made there. However, my wife was going nuts from the isolation, so I took a job with a civil defense firm in Charleston. My workload has more than doubled, but the money is good and my wife can also find a good job here. I like to think I can be happy nearly anywhere, so I've accepted the necessity of moving.

 

I detest our unrelentingly myopic and parochial ethic of consumption - one to which most lucrative professions coontribute - and will never ever be somebody who doesnt give a f*** about animals or the environments like all the lawyers and law profs (except 3 ) that I have met.

I'm certainly not a hyper-consumer - I'm a staunch advocate of frugality and voluntary simplicity on my own part. However, I'm also a staunch advocate of individual liberty and free-markets. That said, there is nothing I avoid with more fervor than political discussion.

 

I also like to think I'm making the world marginally better by my being here.

 

Any tips re bar exam survival would be greatly appreciated.

Off the top of my head ...

 

* I didn't take a bar review course - didn't have money or time, as I was working - so my experience may not be typical. Down here, at least, nearly everyone seems to take expensive bar review courses over the summer.

 

* I got the most mileage out of a) making my own flash-cards to study and b) devising obscene mnemonics.

 

When I sat down to take the essay portion of the exam, we had a large sheet of scrap paper, and I spent 15-20 minutes writing down all of my horrid mnemonic sentences. They collected the paper after the exam, and they probably think I'm history's greatest pervert/monster based on what I wrote on that paper.

 

As for the flashcards, I went through (I think) three iterations of the flashcards, and just transcribing them helped me learn a lot. I'd go through the flashcards repeatedly, over and over, *all the time*, and when I got where I knew a flashcard cold, I'd retire it for a while. Gradually, the piles of cards got thinner, and then I knew everything. (Don't worry, I forgot it within a week of the exam and am now having to re-learn it every day on the job.)

 

* You absolutely must retain some balance in your non-studying-life. I didn't. I was an utter wreck, physically and emotionally, I made my wife miserable I'm sure, and I lived on dry ramen and Diet Faygo Redpop. I couldn't afford to fail, and I really burned myself out.

 

* It did help me, I think, to take a couple days off right before the exam. My head-traffic had an unacceptable signal-to-noise ratio, and two days was about right to clear it up.

 

* Once you pass, and you will, remember that nearly everyone, no matter how well-intentioned, is full of crap. They'll tell you all sorts of horror stories, or that you can't practice law a certain way, and they're wrong. As I'm sure you've noticed, lawyers can be overly self-assured and a bit arrogant, even when they mean well. There are many, many ways to practice law, and few lawyers wind up in homeless shelters. There isn't any one best path, and there are pros and cons to any mode of practice.

 

My personal preference has always been for solo work, but I've ended up doing something completely different, and it's all right too.

 

By the way, I'm not sure how it is in your part of Canada, but despite the fact that most of my peers down here have radically different worldviews than I do, I've found *at least* 75% of the lawyers with whom I've dealt to be extremely forthcoming and cordial, and at heart to be good people, even if we aren't on the same page. I work for a very conservative firm - one of the charter partners is a former Republican appointee to our state Supreme Court - and everyone treats me (and the staff) as well as I've ever seen anyone treated in any workplace.

 

It may be different here, as we're a pretty rural state with a relatively small bar and only one law school, so the legal communities tend to be tighter-knit than in more metropolitan locales.

 

Anyway, as is becoming rapidly obvious, I can bloviate about the profession until your ears bleed. If you have any questions at all, ever, please feel free to let me know. Most lawyers, including me, are only too happy to assist other members of the fraternity. People helped me on my way up, and I love helping other people on their way up.

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I know nothing about the nature of ferrets. What are they like? What are they like as roomies?

About the best way I know to analogize is that they're like kittens that never turn into cats. They're very intelligent, loyal, and affectionate when socialized adequately. However, they're high-maintenance. They're very social creatures, and demand interaction with their humans. I spend about three hours a day with mine. They're *miserable* if they're just left in their cages.

 

They also have several expensive conditions to which they're predisposed, especially adrenal tumors and insulinoma. I've got a stupid amount of credit card debt from ferret illnesses.

 

My ferrets have a gigantic cage with hammocks, sleeping sacks, blankets, litterpans, etc. They're daytime critters, and sleep about 16 hours a day. When they're not playing with us, they're in their cage - "free range" ferrets have an unfortunate tendency to get stuck in things, get squished, or escaped, and I would be absolutely done for if anything like that happened to any of mine.

 

Sorry to hear your ferret passed away. may I ask of what?

My first ferret, Rorty, had a long-running bout with cancer. The last year he was alive, he had four or five surgeries and two cycles of chemotherapy. When it became obvious I wasn't doing him any favors, I let him go. Worst day of my life.

 

Thanks for rescuing animals instead of supporting commercial pet breeding (grrrr ).

Unfortunately, ferret shelters are generally over-full, as many people buy ferrets on impulse thinking that they're like gerbils, and can be left in the cage to look cute. So, they end up neglected, or abused for being themselves, and then wind up in the shelters. Most of them don't get adopted out.

 

I used to help at the shelter a lot, and I've seen some messed-up stuff. But I also used to watch the shelter for 9 days each year so the operators (it was run out of a home) could go on vacation, and I got to have a lot of fun playing with them. Two of our ferrets have turned from skittish, reclusive little things (after nightmarish experiences) to absolute bundles of joy.

 

Got any pics of your ferrets? That would be cool to see

Plenty of pics, but I don't see an "upload" button here.

 

And I would love to hear more about how your first ferret was your best friend.

For someone who's supposed to be compassionate and who reads a lot of Buddhist dharma, I'm really a misanthrope, don't particularly like most people at all. I just clicked with the ferret, he was like my little dancing shadow, hung out with me all the time, always happy to see me, and you have to be a pretty screwed-up person not to have fun with a bouncing ferret. I got where I spent more time with him than with any other person but my wife, and even that was a close thing.

 

I considered attending either Stanford or SUNY-Stony Brook for grad school, but elected not to because both campuses are in locations where ferrets are illegal. So, I ended up in law school, in part because of a little white ferret. Who was named after a professor at Stanford.

 

Yeah, that's freaky as hell - I didn't know vegans could get so vascular, very impressive. That's more muscle mass than I'm realistically ever going to put on - I'd like to stay roughly in my same weight class - but it's certainly inspirational, and that's a fact. Any natural bodybuilder, vegan or not, would be happy with that physique.

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My first ferret, Rorty, had a long-running bout with cancer. The last year he was alive, he had four or five surgeries and two cycles of chemotherapy. When it became obvious I wasn't doing him any favors, I let him go. Worst day of my life.

 

 

that is so sad. Poor lil guy. At least he was loved.

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When I sat down to take the essay portion of the exam, we had a large sheet of scrap paper, and I spent 15-20 minutes writing down all of my horrid mnemonic sentences. They collected the paper after the exam, and they probably think I'm history's greatest pervert/monster based on what I wrote on that paper.

 

 

 

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Welcome Diver. I'm sorry to hear about your ferret friend Rorty. I have had several different types of animal friends in my life, but never a ferret. The loss of every animal I've ever had has been very painful, but yes, there are some that you become especially attached to. They are sure cute little creatures. Thanks for telling us about them.

 

I'm really a misanthrope, don't particularly like most people at all.

 

Me too. Sadly I don't have much hope or love for my species. I know some outstanding individuals, but as a collective, we suck.

 

 

Nat said:

The dean of our law school I remember one time wore a fur coat. I had an appointment with her the next day so I made it a point to wear my "Fur is worn by beautifical animals and ugly people" shirt, and marched into her office ready to get in to it with her. She never once asked me a thing about it - but the conservation was cold and I could tell she was distracted and annoyed at my shirt. Stupid rich bitch. Wear your own damn skin and leave the animals alone **AFTER I officially graduate (I am not suicidal after all!!) I am going to send her a link with undercover footage of a Chinese fur farm and ask her to, in view of what she just saw, consider tossing the fur. Anyway, I digress.

 

You rock, Nat! What a great story!

 

Nat said:

P.S. I type with lots of typos. I assure you though I am not illiterate.

 

Definitely not illiterate, but frequently hilarious!

 

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My nice fellow associate took me to lunch today, and she even paid. The restaurant is one of those wannabe-downscale yuppie havens, but has a lot of ovo-lacto stuff. I had a very nice "French Provincial" sandwich - artichoke hearts, avocado, sun-dried tomatoes, mixed greens, all on a really crusty roll, left off the cheese and pesto. Good sandwich - living in a city again has its high points.

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"I am going to send her a link with undercover footage of a Chinese fur farm and ask her to, in view of what she just saw, consider tossing the fur. Anyway, I digress."

 

Hi Compassionategirl.

 

if you don't mind could you send me that link. I myself can not stand fur. By the way, do you know of a website where one can purchase "fake leather" (shoes, etc.)

Thanks--Patrick

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http://www.veganstore.com/index-store.html?parentid=8&deptid=17069 they have some sport coats and ties here...prepare to spend some $$. Ive seen tons of vegan dress shoes online, they are not hard to find and will cost around $40. If that is a bother then there is always payless shoes.

 

there is also thevegetariansite.com and lets not forget veganessentials.com also some nice shoes here http://www.alternativeoutfitters.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWCATS&Category=51

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