Eben

xjohanx, thanks for the welcome note! beforewisdom...thank you for the link for new vegans. I appreciate it. I am 6' tall. Ideally, my weight goal would be about 190-195. But really I am not too concerned with the weight. I tend to judge my progress more on how fit I feel, and on how well my clothes fit. I will say, I really enjoy the feeling that goes with having to punch a new hole in my belt. I have had to do that a couple times in the past and it is a pretty sweet reward. =) Thanks again! Eben

Hello All, I am so happy to have found this forum and website. I have been interested in bodybuilding for a long time, but have never really stuck with it long enough to acheive ultimate results. So, instead I have bounced back and forth between about 205 - 230. I work out long enough to really start to slim up as I near 200, then I quit for various reasons and start gaining again. Right now, I am 216. But this is always having been a pretty serious carnivore. I always loved my meat. So, I decided to start working out again on June 1 of this year. Then, on June 6 (my 39th birthday), I had a really, really bad meat experience. I will spare you the details, but I will just say it involved a really large roast beef sandwich and a 24-hour flu. The net result is that I could not stomach the thought of ANY meat afterwards. Milk, you say? Ummm, no. Cheese, eggs? Nope, not likely. If it came from an animal, I couldn't even think about it without feeling sick. About a week later I could once again eat some yogurt and small portions of meat. But I discovered something in the process. I felt REALLY good not eating those things! In fact, better than I had in many, many moons. So, I began to research veganism. And I was horrified by what I discovered about the treatment of animals. So, now I have both a health reason and an ethical reason to go fully vegan. And I am incredibly excited about it. It should be interesting considering that my wife and all four of my sons have a regular diet of meat, dairy, ovo -- and I have no intention of trying to push my "awakening" on them. I'd rather just do my thing and if by my example they take interest then so be it. So, for now we will peacefully coexist. =) So, the one dilemma I had with this decision is how will I make any gains working out? That query led me to this web site where I was unbelievably inspired by some of your stories and photos. So, in light of that I have decided to take the plunge and post my "Before" pictures here. Prepare yourself, they are not pretty! Since these were taken on June 1st I have already had some progress. I've only lost about a pound but I attribute that to some muscle gain as I am definitely looking and feeling a bit trimmer already. I won't post any after pictures yet, but plan to do so every 45-60 days or so. Thanks to Robert and Richard for providing this great site, and to all of the members for all of your valuable and helpful inspiration and support! Here we go...JUNE 1, 2008 http://www.exaio.com/images/fitness_progress/day1/day1_front.jpghttp://www.exaio.com/images/fitness_progress/day1/day1_back.jpg http://www.exaio.com/images/fitness_progress/day1/day1_left.jpghttp://www.exaio.com/images/fitness_progress/day1/day1_right.jpg