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hey this is Leo for actualised gorg and in this video I'm gonna talk about how to become a vegetarian [Music] alright so let's break into this how do you actually go about becoming a vegetarian what are the practical considerations what are the philosophical considerations in this quick self-help segment in about 15 minutes I'm going to cover all the ins and outs about how to really make this transition in your life because it can be a challenging transition to make now let me start off by saying that I am NOT a vegetarian in fact I don't think that vegetarian vegetarianism is necessarily the most healthy diet out there if you're just concerned about diet but there of course are other considerations there perhaps a considerations about morality ethics that you have when considering this switch so let's go into all this stuff and in the end this is not just going to be a theoretical discussion what I'm going to give you is I'm gonna actually give you the practical steps that you can take to become a vegetarian so that you're actually a vegetarian in your real life with your diet not just in theory now the reason that I can talk about this with some authority even though I'm not a vegetarian is because I've done a lot of work on my diet over the years in fact over the last eight years I've really cleaned up my diet lost a lot of weight may have been able to make a lot of transitions with my diet cleaning it up progressively over the years and so I have some understanding of the psychology takes to make a diet shift and actually right now I'm kind of starting to lean more towards vegetarianism I'm trying to put more vegetables in trying to take out some animal products from my diet and that's something that I'm currently working on so this this topic actually resonates a lot with me right now and I see myself maybe in the future becoming a vegetarian depending on where things go alright so what is the practical size of this and let's talk about how to become vegetarian well I think there are two reasons that people become vegetarians a is that you think that vegetarianism is going to improve your health because it's a healthier lifestyle so that's one consideration and then be the second one is the moral and ethical consideration of the cruelty that goes into butchering animals eating animal products the impact that perhaps that has on the environment how that's contributing to global warming how that's contributing to unsustainable farming practices on sustainable manufacturing practices so all of those considerations I'm actually not going to touch the ethical and moral considerations that's way too much to talk about in one video so I'll I'll cover that somewhere else here I'm just going to talk about the practical side so nutrition first question is is vegetarianism even more nutritious for you is it a better more healthier way to live than by consuming animal products this is also a pretty deep question and I think that what I'm going to tell you here rather than going into all the studies and debate around this what I'm just gonna say is that you need to do your research so one of the reasons and one of the the key techniques that I can give you here for the psychology of changing yourself into a vegetarian is to have a solid grounding and why you're doing it make sure you're doing it for a valid reason and that it's something that is gonna stick with you something that's gonna resonate with you maybe you saw for example some some documentary or you saw some sort of shock footage on YouTube or somewhere else about animals being hurt slaughtered butchered and now it's making you think about whether it's right for you to be consuming animal products I would say that that's a good place to start but that should not be your motivation for why to become a vegetarian because that is that's like a little temporary stimulus little temporary hit that you're getting of either fear or excitement or shock and that is not going to be enough to sustain a vegetarian lifestyle because what the dairyman in vegetarianism is going to entail for you is changing the practicalities of what you do throughout your day how you eat how you interact with your friends how you interact with your family those are the real challenges those are the logistics challenges I'm going to give you some tips on how to fight those but in order to really get at the root cause of that and to have a solid foundation you want to know why you're doing it right make sure you understand why and I think that if you're coming at it from this nutrition standpoint where you think that vegetarianism is healthier for you and actually do you think that there are some good valid points to this then then go and do the research buy some books some hard science that will show you that we'll make a case that will convince you of why it's good also if you have some moral considerations ethical considerations go ahead and research those look at some books that talk about the sustainability of of farming animals versus farming vegetables take a look at what kind of performance differences you might get for example if you're an athlete or you're doing sports here at the gym you're working out you're putting on muscle that's probably concerned for you to is to take a look at well am I going to be able to do all that on a vegetarian diet as well as I will on an animal-based diet and there are ways to do it so you got to go out there and do a little bit of research get yourself educated that's number one next is make sure that you're committing to a lifelong sustainable change there's no point in becoming a vegetarian for a week there's no point becoming a vegetarian for a month if you're really interested in this then you want to make a transition and that means that not only are you gonna have to you're gonna have to make some changes in your diet you're gonna have to make some changes in your psychology so now that you're on board with this and where you start there is I want you to accept the costs of becoming a vegetarian that means you're not going to be able to have that steak anymore that means you're not going to be able to have those eggs if if eggs are not gonna be part of your vegetarian diet you're not gonna be able to have chicken you're not gonna be able to have turkey on Thanksgiving you're not going to be able to have some of these things that maybe right now you hold near and dear to your heart and that is the cost so I want you to weigh those costs against the benefits that you'll be receiving and those benefits you have to make a list of benefits what those will be for you I don't know a potential list of candidates might be well first of all you might be healthier you might feel you might feel cleaner you you will get rid of that mental fog that you have from eating all these refined animal products you might feel a sense of pride that you're not contributing to problems in society with mainstream farming and manufacturing and all the nasty practices that go on there so you just might feel a sense of pride that you're not doing that and so these are some of the benefits that you're getting right the benefits versus the costs realize that there are going to be real costs and there's there's also going to be not only the long-term costs there's also going to be short-term costs the short-term costs are really the stuff that you have to do to change your diet that's gonna be painful a little bit difficult for you at first because it's unnatural in the sense that you've built up a habit of eating animal products now switching and cutting all those off is going to be difficult simply because well our society is not a vegetarian society our society advertised animal products everywhere almost anywhere you go most of the dishes contain animal protein so that's something that you're gonna have to kind of wean yourself off of alright so except those costs be serious about them and that's also why I want you to do some research so you can understand what those costs are and also understand what the benefits are to you alright the next and this is now we're getting into the real logistics of how to make this transition happen is that if you have been eating animal products and now you don't want to be eating animal products at all what I would say and this is where my experience comes in with diet is you want to make these transitions in shifts in phases so here's how I would do it and this is actually something that I'm toying with right now I'm not technically a vegetarian but I'm going through a vegetarian phase right now and what that means is that I'm going through my diet and I'm taking a look ok what can I actually make what changes can I actually make in my diet that I would be reasonably happy with that I could sustain for the rest of my life without being too too depressed about not having in my life anymore so for example can I get rid of chicken in my diet practical practical question am i okay with not eating chicken anymore am i okay with not eating the steak anymore am i okay with cutting out butter am i okay with cutting out fish salmon I love smoked salmon am i okay with that and so what I'm doing right now is I said okay I think there's something to this idea that if I become a vegetarian it's gonna be healthier for me and so I wanted to test this out and so what I said to myself is okay I'm gonna test this out and the way I'm going to do it is I'm gonna cut out some items I'm not just going to become a vegetarian overnight that's too drastic of a shift I know that my my brain and my body will rebel against that so what I have to do is I have to go in there and have to say okay what I'm gonna do is this week when I go shopping I'm just gonna take and and make some subtle changes I'm not gonna buy the steak that I usually buy I'm not gonna buy the chicken that I usually buy I'll buy something else I'll buy more more fruits more vegetables maybe I'll buy some whole grains too to replace that right and one of the questions that I had when I was starting this was I was asking myself well what am I going to replace my steak in my chicken with because I eat those on a weekly basis I love them I have good recipes already in place for those I don't even have any vegetarian recipes I don't even know how to cook vegetarian stuff and so what I need to do there's I need to say okay well there's a logistical challenge here I need to plan this out I can't just jump into it I have to say okay so first things first is I cook at home I cook all my own meals that's another topic but I cook my all my own meals so that means I need some recipes for vegetarian dishes because if I don't have the recipes then that means I'm gonna be tempted to go at some of the supermarket and just grab that chicken or that steak because I have recipes for those and I don't have other recipes so maybe that means I need to go online do a little bit of research find the recipes maybe I need to buy vegetarian cookbook right these are like practical just logistical considerations I want you to start thinking about these things because if you don't do this I guarantee you you're not going to be able to make the transition it's not going to be successful it's not gonna last long term so let's go into some of the other points here well for me for example it's a little bit easier because I do cook all my own meals and already went through that shift I already went through that phase where I transitioned off of all the fast food all the restaurant food out there which is in my opinion garbage they use the lowest grade ingredients that you could possibly get because they're trying to raise their margins I don't blame them but that doesn't mean that I'm gonna ingest that and put that into my body so what I decided to do is make a transition I did this about six months ago where I transitioned entirely from restaurant food to cooking my own meals that way I have full control I can shop for organic products and got Whole Foods get all the high quality ingredients that I want I know exactly what's going into my food no trans fats no artificial stuff and so for me that transition took place six months ago so now it's easier because I make all my own meals I can control this so for me for example now it's pretty easy if I want I can cut out protein I just need to find replacements for you and might be too more challenging because I bet that you are not cooking all your meals you're probably snacking on stuff you're buying stuff at the you know at the gas station or you're stacking of stuff at work or you right now have a habit of going to two different restaurants eating out with your family eating out with friends eating out with co-workers and that's gonna be a logistical hurdle that you have to overcome right so I would say start planning in phases so maybe the first phase for you is to wean yourself off all the restaurant and takeout food maybe that's gonna be your first phase then the next day is may be taking out red meat then maybe the next phase months down the road will be taking out seafood and taking out chicken and maybe then a few months later you'll take out eggs and butter and really even go more towards vegan then even vegetarian maybe that's how you want to do it right in phases not just all in one go it's not going to work it's just gonna be too hard it's not gonna work unless you are incredibly driven for some sort of moral reason to do this and so I would say think about it like this right this is this is how you change your diet and of course this applies not just to vegetarianism but to any kind of diet changes that you want to make is you want to think it out consider the logistics consider the logistics and logistics for you are gonna include I want you to think about your work I want you to think about your family I want you to think about your friends I want you to think about how often you're eating out versus how often you're cooking at home and I want you to think about your athletic performance or the Jim performance that you want to have in your life so think about all those things and ask yourself the critical questions what am I going to need to do to clean up my diet at work around the family with my friends in order to get the Geo performance that I want what am I gonna have to do to make the shift into vegetarianism there so you're gonna probably going to need to somehow come up with a system so that you're not going for for you know that pizza with pepperoni and sausage that is always showing up every Friday night at work or when your friends go out someplace to some steak house you're gonna have to find some vegetarian options there so looking at maybe the restaurants that you go to and making sure that there's a vegetarian option in each one of those otherwise you have to tell yourself well I'm not going to go there anymore so you have to set some of these kind of hard and fast rules and you have to think it through because the real challenge with diet is the logistics of it because people don't think it through and so what ends up happening is their friends just drag them out one night and they end up deciding to go to a pizza place and there everyone decides to order a meatlovers pizza and all the sudden you're just sitting there and you're looking at it and there it is and you really don't have any other option you're kind of now committed to eating that pizza or being hungry basically and so you know you have to think about that what are you going to do where are you going to draw the line is it before you even enter the pizza place is it gonna be after you enter the pizza place and maybe there you decide you're gonna have a salad and that you have some sort of strategy for how to get those salads instead of being tempted by that pizza you know what is it gonna be maybe gonna get a vegetarian pizza I don't know think about that stuff this is important this is how you actually make the transition alright and the last couple of points are this I want you to approach this not in a dogmatic kind of moralistic way where like I am a vegetarian this is important this is what I got I want you to approach it as an experiment try it out go in with an open mind and say you know what I'm gonna try this out for maybe a month maybe two months and just see see what happens see how it affects my nutrition see how it affects my health because even though you can read all these books on nutrition you can read all these books about Pro vegetarianism con vegetarianism vegan something else you have all these different opinions out there in the end what matters is what works for you and what agrees with you not in theory but in practice that means go out there start making the changes and start seeing what are you satisfied with what are you not satisfied with be be more aware listen to the signals that your body is sending you so that means how are you feeling start noticing if you're starting to go all vegetarian start to notice how does that affect your mental performance how does that affect your performance at work how does that affect your moods how does that affect your gym performance how does that affect your family and relationships because it's gonna it's gonna have ramifications in all those areas start to notice that and don't be so dogmatic about this is right or this is wrong because what's actually right and wrong is simply how you feel do you actually feel happier as a vegetarian do you feel better do you have better performance in your life do you feel less guilt do you feel more ethical if you do then it's right for you and if you don't then stop doing it give it a good go but if it's not working for you stop doing it and then the last point I'm gonna make is get get some blood work done I think that's important too one of the things I learned from the biohacking movement which I was kind of a part of you know experimenting the different supplements and experimenting with just different diets with biohacking what I learned is that really the key is to track yourself track your statistics right of course track how you feel but also have some objective metrics too so before you start making a big diet change I would recommend go get some blood work get some blood work on your lipid numbers cholesterol numbers just to get a baseline for where you're at right now then go ahead and start implementing changes in your diet and then you can get blood work done maybe six months or 12 months later and just see what happens see the difference because those are gonna be some hard numbers that you're actually gonna be able to prove to yourself that something happened don't make the mistake of saying that well blood work this is so technical it costs money in the end blood work costs one hundred two hundred bucks if you're paying cash and if you have insurance then it's probably cheaper for you so go out there and do that blood work because what that's gonna do critical thing is it's gonna give you evidence to support your actions so that means if you take your cholesterol numbers today and then you go vegetarian for six months and you take them again six months later and you find out that your cholesterol has all sudden dropped all your numbers have improved you're seeing better gene performance what that's gonna do is in your mind it's gonna build a case for why what you're doing is good because it's very easy to forget that once you've made those positive changes that you're gonna start to feel like well nothing nothing's really change in my life you're just gonna kind of get acclimated to the new position and sometimes that will actually tempt you to get thrown off course and then to drop off and all of a sudden you might notice yourself all of a sudden not being able to sharing anymore and sneaking in some some non vegetarian meals here there and the way to prevent that is to build up the case that what you're doing is good that it's working it's not just theory it's actually working you're feeling it you're seeing it on the on the print out page with your numbers all right so this is it Leah I'm gonna sign off here this is how to become a vegetarian and of course please like this share this that's why I release this content for free and then what I want you to do is go to actualised org and check out my newsletter because there I have more in-depth articles video content that is exclusive to actualised org where we talk about the psychology of not just diet but really your whole life how do you master your whole life so that everything in your life is working well as you notice here in this video you know I talked about a lot of the mindset that goes in to making a practical change like becoming a vegetarian well what I found is that these kind of mindset shifts are necessary in all parts of your life to become successful to create the kind of amazing life that you want so my motto is master your own psychology and therefore you master your own life and you create an extraordinary kind of life so check out my newsletter I've got some amazing bonuses right now for free for signing up including a 19 part video series and you can all my subscribers how much of winning two hours of free coaching for myself every month