Laura

With all due respect, Phillipe, I've seen the photo of you dancing at a rave, and I think big muscles are the least of your worries. But really, this worry of yours was silly and unfair no matter how you looked at it. Wow, that sounded rude. It's really cool to insult someone's body who has a history of an eating disorder (which he mentioned on the same page as the rave picture, so you must have known). Geez. I think it's actually common for people who are going through difficult emotional times to want to remain safely anonymous and avoid being seen in a sexual light. Psychological defenses aren't necessarily rational but I certainly wouldn't dismiss them as "silly".

http://www.vegvoyages.com/vegvoyages.html This company offers organized tours in India and Malaysia for vegetarians and vegans. I've been wanting to go to India for a long time and have read that it's easy to eat vegetarian there but very difficult to eat vegan (maybe because of the ghee?) Taking this kind of guided tour would be a good way around that. The downside, though, is you'd be stuck on a guided tour. Has anyone here been to India, and if so how was the food situation?

Can you post a vid of this, I would LOVE to see it! LOL, so would I.

Wow, I love that bike.

Okay I'm sure I'll regret this but I'll fess up. I'll preface this by saying that I almost never watch TV. I have a really old one that I keep in the closet most of the time and only bring out a couple times a year when my Dad visits because he goes into panic mode if he doesn't get his Fox News. I used to watch more, though, when I had a roommate who watched TV all the time. Here goes. I like those stupid shows where they take people out of their household and put them in someone else's for a couple of weeks. There's one called Wife Swap that I think is pretty good. I make myself feel better about this by thinking of it as a sociological study. I just think it's interesting to see how different people live.

Thanks, Robert! Is the Houston meetup still happening? I've never been to Houston, but I do hope when you come to TX you get to spend some time in Austin. It would be a great place for you to speak at an expo or convention, too. UT Austin has something like 55,000 students, and the town is really fitness conscious. I know we have some forum members on here from Austin, and I'm sure they'd be happy to take you to Mother's Garden or Mr. Natural's. They have a great Whole Foods there, too. Okay, I shouldn't even try; it's a cool town but food-wise it's really got nothing on Portland. You Portlanders are just too spoiled .

Awww, thanks Tasha ! We should both move to Portland and then Robert, Jessi and I could fight over having you as a roommate.

Happy Bday, Tasha!

Trying to save $ and am looking for a roommate or roommates to rent either a small house or 2br apt with me starting June 1. Please let me know if you're interested. Thanks.

I've been to Ann Arbor. It's a really cool town, it reminded me of Boulder in a lot of ways. The neighborhoods are lined with old houses with lots of character. There are lots of bookstores and coffee shops in town (the original Border's is even there). I think there was good public transportation but I didn't use it so I can't say for sure. There's definitely a fitness culture there (I remember seeing a guy jogging through the city in shorts and a t-shirt in below freezing temperatures, with snow on the ground). They have some great vegan restaurants, too. Not sure about cost of living.

lol

Thanks VP, Tasha and Idahovegan. I rode with my toe cages again tonight but am getting closer to buying the clipless pedals. I personally don't mind the toe cages but people keep telling me that clipless is the way to go . . . is there really a big difference, in your opinion? And how often did you fall when you first started clipping in?

Have you thought about Boulder, CO? Not as vegan friendly as Portland (which, of course, is an incredible city and probably as vegan friendly as you can possibly get; I personally couldn't move there because I would spend 90% of my income on things like gourmet vegan donuts) . . . but definitely more vegan friendly than most cities. Lots of nature, lots of stuff to do, lots of cycling paths and hiking treks and bookstores and coffeehouses, good public transportation. The housing market is insanely high but if you don't mind renting rather than buying then I think it would pretty affordable, especially if you don't mind being in a rooommate situation. If you haven't been you should check it out.

Don't laugh but I'm still really hesitant to give up my toe cages in favor of clip-ins. I have some long rides coming up, though, and want to increase my efficiency. What are your favorite (non-leather, of course) cycling shoes and pedals?

Nice job painting your bike, Dr. Pink. I like it.

Ew.

Cool.

I seriously think I would break something if I tried to wear those shoes, LOL. Good luck, I hope all your hard work pays off. You look great!

Ha, that made me laugh. I hate seeing people buy neatly packaged meat, like a Mc-whatever in a wrapper placed in a little paper bag with napkins and an order of fries, and then eating it without a second thought as to how it got there. I think it's really sad.

Yum, vegan cupcakes . . .

This is true with all small groups, I think, and especially amongst people who build their identity around an "ism". I really haven't spent any time on other vegan forums. I think, though, that there are probably a lot of people who become vegan (maybe even just for a short time) primarily because they want an "ism" with which to self-identify, and that they probably account for the majority of the judgmental, confrontation-seeking "holy rollers" of the vegan cyber-world. I really don't see any of that on this forum, which is one of the reasons I like it so much. Sorry to hear that you had to deal with that crap on the other forum. Potter's right, people suck sometimes .

I have done Melissa's online training and I would definitely recommend it.

Right now, per week, I'm doing 2 2-hr rides, 1 1-hr ride, and 2 3-hr rides. I'm riding with people who are much faster than I am, so on most of those rides I'm pushing myself hard the entire time in order to keep up. Jeremy, you said you have a large calorie deficit on your ride days and it doesn't affect your ability to retain muscle mass. Do you add extra calories on those days at all?

I've read a couple of posts here recently about how excessive cardio essentially eats muscle . . . Well, I'm addicted to my new road bike and am going to be doing a lot of riding this Spring and Summer. How do you cyclists maintain and continue to build muscle while cycling regularly? I'm currently weight training 5x/wk. Can I continue to build, or at least maintain, muscle mass by just eating more on the days that I do long rides?

I've actually grown to quite like it. It's great in smoothies. JW -- What do you put in your smoothies along with the hemp protein?