So I gave vegetarian a try in January of 2009, and six months later I ended up vegan. I found that those diets worked great for me. Here’s why you should get selfish and try them, too.

1. Practice self-discipline

I believe in building positive habits. The more you practice something, the more ingrained it becomes. Before you know it, it’s second nature. You can’t accomplish much in life without self-discipline, and self-discipline is something I get to practice every meal and snack time thanks to veganism. I know all that practice has helped me in other areas of my life. I’ve become very good at forming new habits and sticking to plans I make for myself.

Of course, you can practice self-discipline at meal times without being vegan. Maybe you cut out gluten, or you use the Weight Watchers point system, or you don’t eat anything with primary colors. While not every restrictive diet will be good for your health, it will help you build some self-discipline muscles.

2. Less choice, more happy

If you’re vegan, you’ll undoubtedly have less menu items to choose from when you go to a typical restaurant. I see this as a good thing. Less choice leads to less indecision and less regret. Before I was vegan, I would often spend ten minutes scouring a menu, then order the chicken dish while wondering if maybe I should have ordered the meatballs or the fried shrimp instead. But these days I usually only have a handful of options to choose from on the menu, so I can order faster and not worry so much about the opportunity cost.

See, more isn’t always better. Smart people call this type of thing the paradox of choice, noting that folks are usually happier when they have less to choose from. That could be you!

3. Focus better, think clearer

The main thing that attracted me to plant-based diets initially were the reported mental benefits I heard from various people who had already made the switch. Sure enough, I also found that I could think more clearly and focus better once I cut animal products out of my diet.

One explanation I’ve heard for this is that animal products require a lot of energy for your body to digest, energy that could otherwise be used for mental functions. Foods like fruit and vegetables are digested much faster and more easily. I believe this ties in with modern cancer treatments, which increasingly involve putting the patient on a plant-based diet so the body has more energy available to fight the disease.

Please note that I have no scientific evidence to back this up, so take my words here with a grain of salt. All I know for sure is that I’ve experienced these mental benefits after switching to a plant-based diet, and many others report the same. Try it yourself and see if it works for you.

4. Embrace change

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but rather the one most adaptable to change.” – someone not named Charles Darwin

Routines and habits are important, but it’s equally important to try new things regularly and push yourself out of your comfort zone. That’s how we learn and grow. I believe my experiments with plant-based diets were among the best learning and growth experiences of my life. I learned a lot about food and the food industry, discovered the truth behind a lot of veg myths, and met some great new people. More importantly, I got to know myself a hell of a lot better. Change and adversity will do that.

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Beyond those four, there are lots of other positive things veganism can do for you. For example, you’ll undoubtedly become a better cook, your skin and overall health will improve (as long as you’re not just eating vegan junk food), and you’ll find it easy to fight the flab (how many fat vegans do you know?).

So get selfish. Be good to yourself and try a plant-based diet for 30 days, see how it makes you feel. I’d advise against going straight from omnivore to vegan though. Take the vegetarian bridge to avoid overwhelm.

Good luck!

(Want to learn more about going veg? I wrote a lengthy piece about my experience here.)

About a year ago I was in there and got talking with one such bartender. He was probably in his late-20′s, had a shaved head, a Sparta beard, and plenty of visible tattoos. I had just recently turned vegan, and I was doubting that this was the type of guy who’d be able to relate. But then I heard him discussing a detox diet with the cook, who could have been the bartender’s twin except for a significant height difference.

So we got talking about food, and it turns out that the bartender himself was vegetarian. I asked him why.

“Star Trek, man.”

Come again?

“Star Trek! The Vulcans are all vegetarian. They don’t find it logical to eat meat.”

I was never big into Star Trek, but I knew that Spock was Vulcan, and I knew Vulcans made decisions based on logic and reason, with no interference from emotion. And Mr. Bartender went on to tell me that the Vulcans thus thought it illogical and wasteful to spend all that time and effort feeding an animal, only to kill it and eat it.

“Why feed your food when you can just live off the feed itself?”

Here are five valuable lessons I learned in 2009:

Inside Out

Things look a lot different from the inside looking out than they do from the outside looking in. I came to understand this when I tried vegetarianism. It was purely for selfish reasons that I decided to experiment with plant-based diets, but after making the switch, all those other reasons (health, animal rights, environment, etc.) began to make a lot more sense.

A.J. Jacobs discovered the same truth, as recounted in his book The Year of Living Biblically. He dove in at the deep end and tried all sorts of religious customs that he previously thought ridiculous, and found positive meaning in many of them. Don’t knock it ’til you’ve tried it, as they say.

Having learned this lesson, I’m much less prone to prejudge people and their customs, and I often find myself questioning whatever preconceived notions I may have.

Honesty

I learned a lot about honesty, especially in regard to relationships. I used to find it tough being honest at the start, as I was preoccupied trying to impress the other person and avoid tension. But keeping secrets and holding back opinions always came back to bite me in the end. I eventually learned that it’s much better for everyone to lay their cards on the table early and figure out if the relationship can thrive in spite of the differences. Both parties are spared a lot of time and trouble that way.

Volunteering is win-win

I finally started volunteering in 2009, spending time helping out with various organizations around New Orleans at least once a month. Going in, I had the sense that I should volunteer simply because it was my duty: Since life was going great for me, I should sacrifice some of my free time to help the less-fortunate. Sacrifice is the key word there: I assumed I would get little, if anything, from the experience.

How wrong that assumption proved to be. I quickly discovered that helping people in need gave me a great sense of perspective. It became much easier to appreciate my own blessings and to express gratitude. Best of all, I learned that the best people in the world can be found volunteering. Seriously, if you want to meet good, honest, kind-hearted people, you’ll find them helping out at your local food line or homeless shelter.

Growing ain’t easy

Personal development is tough because you’re constantly pushing yourself to the limit to see how far you can go. A lot of self-inspection and courage is required. You have to be willing to fail and suffer embarrassments. If it’s not a struggle, take that as a sign that you could be trying harder.

Also, if you really want to grow, be prepared to go it alone. Lots of people will think you’re crazy, and many who don’t will still keep their distance. No need to be bitter about that though. Most people just want to stick with the status quo and not ruffle any feathers. Understandable, since that path proves much easier in the short term.

Accepting others

I feel I took this to a new level this past year. I used to get upset if someone was rude towards me, but now I just feel sorry for people like that. They’re simply not very good at being nice. In the end, that hurts them much more than it does me.

I also used to get frustrated with people who squandered their potential, but now I better understand and accept that nobody can be forced to grow. Same deal with small-minded people. There’s a lot of truth in these proverbs:

• You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make him drink.
• When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.

I find that by focusing on my own growth and development rather than trying to change others, I become more understanding and accepting of other people’s shortcomings, while also expanding my circle of influence.

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That was 2009. Here’s to more valuable lessons sought and learned in 2010.

Deepak Chopra

“If you and I are having a single thought of violence or hatred against anyone in the world at this moment, we are contributing to the wounding of the world.”

As Wikipedia puts it, “Deepak Chopra is an endocrinologist, lecturer, celebrity and author of books on spirituality and mind-body medicine.” His self-described life purpose is to reach critical mass for healing, personal and social transformation, and enlightenment.

Chopra appeals to me because he blends science and spirituality effectively; his teachings makes sense from both perspectives. I’ve read two of his books: The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success and Life After Death. I still read summarized chapters of the former weekly, while the latter completely changed my beliefs about the afterlife.

It was my cousin who turned me on to Chopra about eighteen months ago when he sent the following video and subsequently blew my mind:

Chopra links:

• Follow him on Twitter
• Youtube: Lecture on The Mystery of Consciousness (1h 15m)
• Take the vow of nonviolence in your speech, thoughts and actions (not to be taken lightly)

Tim Ferriss

“Fear is your friend. Fear is an indicator. Sometimes it shows you what you shouldn’t do; more often than not it shows you exactly what you should do.”

Tim Ferriss does a lot of things well. His talent lies in deconstructing all kinds of skills and mastering them in no time. Among other things, he speaks six languages, holds a world record in tango, and in 1999 won the Chinese national kickboxing championship after just a month of training.

Fortunately for us, he’s keen to share tips and ideas, and does so via his blog and his book, The 4-Hour Work Week. I first read the book a little over a year ago, and learned a lot about developing an entrepreneurial attitude, efficiency vs. effectiveness and the Pareto principle.

In this TED talk, Ferriss talks about quickly mastering swimming, languages and tango:

Ferris links:

• Follow him on Twitter
• The Art of Letting Bad Things Happen
• The Karmic Capitalist: Should I Wait Until I’m Rich to Give Back?

Steve Pavlina

“Life’s problems do not exist to beat you down. They exist to help you grow.”

Steve Pavlina runs a blog called Personal Development for Smart People and last I heard he was the highest-earning personal development blogger in the world, pulling in in excess of $100k per month. He doesn’t do things by halves when it comes to personal development, preferring to immerse himself in experiments such as polyphasic sleep and a 100 percent raw food diet.

Through reading Steve’s blog, I’ve been inspired to make many positive changes in my life, such as moving to a plant-based diet and working to improve my public speaking skills. He’s also made me reconsider much of what I believed to be true about the world and introduced me to a whole bunch of different concepts that have proved beneficial.

In short, he’s helped me become a better person.

Pavlina links:

• Follow him on Twitter
• 10 Reasons You Should Never Get a Job
• Podcast: Truth and Awareness (20 minutes)

I love it because I believe self-discipline — and the hard work that results from it — is far more crucial to success than natural talent. And that’s comforting, knowing that even if someone is faster than you or smarter than you or better looking than you, you can still be just as successful as they are, if not more so.

But to get there you have to be disciplined, and you can’t rely on someone else to keep you in check. You have to do it yourself.

Don’t eat the Marshmallow

Here’s a speech given at TED in February 2009 by a guy named Joachim de Posada. It’s just over six minutes long:

The key quote from that speech:

That child, already at four [years old], understood the most important principle for success, which is the ability to delay gratification. Self-discipline.

That Stanford study did a great job illustrating the correlation between self-discipline and success. It essentially proves that if you can knuckle down and make some sacrifices in the short-term, you’ll be much better off in the long term. That’s the importance of self-discipline.

Born or made?

After watching the video you might be thinking that, because those kids were so young, those who succeeded by not eating the marshmallow were simply born with good self-discipline while the other kids were out of luck. That’s probably true to an extent, but you best believe that self-discipline is a skill. And like any other skill, you can work at it and get better at it.

I’m a good example of that. Self-discipline helped me overcome shyness; it helped me run a marathon in under four hours; it helped me finish top of my class in college; it helped me find a great employer here in New Orleans to sponsor my visa; it helped me build a Hornets website that is now affiliated with ESPN and greatly appreciated by Hornets fans; and right now it’s helping me become the best public speaker the world has ever seen. (Okay, maybe I exaggerate a little with the last one, but I know that through hard work, focus and regular attendance at Toastmasters, I’ll eventually be really good at public speaking.)

Sometimes I like to practice self-discipline just for the hell of it. A few years ago I went without eating for three days, just to see if I could. Yes, that was kind of a crazy thing to do, but besides feeling really hungry afterwards, I also felt powerful.

If could will myself to not eat for 72 hours, I could will myself to do anything!

I’ve had similar experiences this year being vegetarian and then vegan. I decided to try those diets out of curiosity, and they turned out to be excellent exercises in self-discipline. I’ve stuck with veganism because it works great for me. I especially like that such a diet gives me the opportunity to practice self-discipline every day. In fact, I believe this daily practice pays dividends for me in other parts of my life; I’m constantly reminded that I can do anything if I just put my mind to it.

Improving your self-discipline

So how do you work on your self-discipline? Actually, you might be very self-disciplined in certain areas of your life, but severely lacking in others. How do you balance that out?

I’d suggest the first thing to do is to prioritize. There’s not much point being self-disciplined about something if it’s not going to result in a positive difference in your life. That’s the difference between effectiveness and efficiency. Just because you do something well doesn’t mean it’s worth doing. Aim to be effective, not just efficient.

Once you’ve figured out your priorities and you can see what parts of your life you need to be more self-disciplined in, here are a few things you can do:

1. Start small: You can dream big all you want and have lofty ambitions for yourself, but start small so you don’t get overwhelmed. Build some confidence and momentum first, then go from there. As you become more self-disciplined, you can set your initial goals higher.
2. Form a habit: You form a habit by doing something regularly. If you want to be more self-disciplined when it comes to your health for example, you could commit to always taking the stairs instead of the elevator. Or you could commit to making your own healthy lunch every day. Commit to doing something like that every day for thirty days. After thirty days, if it’s making a positive difference in your life, you’ll know it, and that will help you keep going. If it isn’t working, well you gave it your best shot and you have nothing to be ashamed of.
3. Use metrics: What gets measured, gets managed. Make sure you have some way of measuring your progress. If you’re trying to save money, start recording how much you save every week and see how that matches up to your goals. If you can boil it down to some hard numbers and see the truth of your situation, you’re more likely to take action to improve it.
4. Make your goals public: This works for me. I’ll usually tell everyone what I’m trying to do. I’ll throw it up there on Facebook or Twitter. Then, if I allow myself to fail and not reach my goal, I have to explain to all those people why I failed. The thought of having to do that is usually a good incentive for me to keep pushing until I succeed.

Those are just a few things you can do. There are plenty more. You’ll probably find a few that work for you and lots that don’t. The key is to keep looking. Don’t be afraid of trial and error. And remember that it’s okay to fail as long as you learn something from it (and there’s always something to learn from failure).

If you get used to practicing self-discipline, you’ll find it much easier to reach your goals, and with every one you reach you’ll have more confidence and you’ll be much better prepared to handle whatever life throws at you.

Why did you decide to give up meat?

In a word: curiosity. I became interested in the benefits of vegetarianism in 2008, most of it sparked from reading Steve Pavlina‘s experiments with plant-based diets. I was especially curious about the increased focus and mental clarity which many people reported experiencing after moving to a vegetarian or vegan diet. I decided I would try vegetarianism for 30-days to see if it could work for me. I gobbled up some good gumbo at a friend’s New Year’s Eve party, then dived into my month-long trial.

What was your diet like before that?

Not bad. I wasn’t overweight and I considered myself to be in decent shape. I wasn’t picky with food; I’d eat anything that was put in front of me. Water was my drink of choice and I rarely binged on junk food, but I had meat with almost every meal beyond breakfast. I’d been living in New Orleans for a year at that point, and had grown fond of fried shrimp, catfish and the like. I wasn’t opposed to fast food, but I ate it rarely. I prepared most of my own meals. A typical home dinner for me was pasta, mixed vegetables and a nuked beef burrito, all covered in pasta sauce and shredded cheese.

Tell us about the 30-day trial of vegetarianism. How did that go?

I decided WalMart wasn’t especially veggie-friendly, so I switched to a local supermarket called Rouses. I went there to do my first big veggie shop on January 1st, and I was like a child in a supermarket for the first time. Everything was new and amazing. I was noticing vegetables I’d never known existed before, and taking time to browse each aisle and read the ingredients. I remember loading up on beans and mushrooms, figuring those would be good meat substitutes.

The days and weeks went by and I found the transition pretty easy. I would only crave meat after a night of drinking, bacon in particular. I was still eating about the same amount of food each day, but I became fairly dependent on cheese; I wouldn’t feel full after lunch or dinner unless I had a nice helping of cheese in there.

Mentally, I definitely felt sharper and I became more productive at work. I’ve considered the fact that those results might have been more of a placebo effect than anything else, but the diet change had been the catalyst nonetheless. I was getting the results I had hoped for, and I didn’t really care about the exact science behind them.

I also felt I knew and liked myself better after switching to vegetarianism. Somehow I felt more connected and in tune with the world. So much so that I couldn’t find a good reason to go back to my old diet after 30 days.

How do you feel about the traditional arguments for plant-based diets, particularly compassion for animals?

That was probably the most unexpected thing about going vegetarian: Once I was in it, all those traditional arguments made a lot more sense to me. Granted, I’d absorbed a lot of pro-veggie books and video and so my awareness of those issues was heightened, but it was more than that. Like I said, I felt more connected and in tune with the world. I’d long been reading about oneness and the connection between all living things, but it was only when I became vegetarian did I really start to understand and appreciate those concepts.

You may scoff at that, just like I would have done a couple of years ago. But if you take anything from this post, let it be this: It’s a lot different being on the inside looking out, as opposed to being on the outside looking in. Reserve final judgment until you spend some time inside, experiencing it for yourself.

That was the most important lesson I learned from all this, and it’s helped me keep an open mind and experience lots of great new things since.

Okay, but it couldn’t have all been sunshine and rainbows. What was the worst thing about becoming vegetarian?

I went through a preachy phase, and I really didn’t like myself during that time. I believe it was due to the overwhelming amount of information in favor of plant-based diets that I was absorbing. A lot of that info was shocking to me, and I became so repulsed by the standard American diet that I thought it would be a good idea to let people know what I’d learned. Of course, that just alienated me from a lot of those folks and all of a sudden I didn’t feel so connected and in tune anymore.

Eventually I was able to take a step back, reminding myself of Gandhi’s famous quote: “You must be the change you want to see in the world.” Did I want the world to be preachy? No. I wanted everyone to be more accepting of each other, more tolerant of each other’s beliefs. So I needed to stop being preachy. I needed to be more accepting of other people, more tolerant of their beliefs. That realization was huge for me.

But surely you must get upset when people question your beliefs?

Not anymore. I’m comfortable with my choices. If other people don’t accept them, that’s their issue to deal with, not mine.

Do you think everyone should give up meat?

No. A plant-based diet works great for me, but I can’t be 100% sure it would work great for everyone. That said, I would like to see people experimenting more with their diets, and being more concerned about where their food comes from. If you must eat animal products, follow the Micheal Pollan plan and you’ll be doing yourself and the world a big favor.

What was it like going vegan?

I decided to do a 30-day vegan trial in June 2009. A co-worker had loaned me a book called Skinny Bitch and reading it convinced me to try eliminating all animal products from my diet. Going vegan was tougher than going vegetarian though. I found my energy levels jumped around quite a bit, I lost some weight (which I didn’t want to lose), and I found myself on the toilet a whole lot more. And I really missed cheese! But after about three weeks I generally felt more energetic, I seemed to recover faster (read: less hangovers) and I didn’t miss cheese any more. I got used to eating more frequently and I drank a few extra beers on the weekend to keep my weight where I wanted it. I also found that I didn’t need quite as much sleep as I used to, but the free time I got from that was canceled out by the extra time I spent preparing food.

And once again, I felt myself moving towards a Buddha-like state of harmony with the world, but the connection was stronger this time. It just felt right not eating animal products anymore, and so I stayed vegan beyond the 30-day trial. I’m about four months in as of this writing, and life has never been better.

So you’re 100% strict vegan these days?

I’d say I’m more like 95%. I compromise every now and then; call it a luxury of life tax. For example: when my parents are driving me home from the airport in Ireland and we stop off at a small-town pub for something to eat and the vegetable soup I order is suspiciously creamy, I’ll go ahead and eat it anyway.

I am and I probably always will be 100% vegan when I’m buying and preparing my own food. All other times, I do my best to avoid animal products. I’ll eat before I go out for the evening, or I’ll call ahead and make sure a restaurant has some vegan options. If I do end up hungry somewhere and the best they can offer is some cheese-flavored tortilla chips, I’ll dig in.

Have you found many vegan- or vegetarian-friendly restaurants in New Orleans?

Yes. There are a lot more than I expected. VeganOrleans.com has the most comprehensive list you’ll find online.

Aren’t plants living things, too? Why are you okay with eating them but not with eating animals?

Yes, I’ve seen those experiments on Mythbusters. I believe plants can feel pain and fear, albeit not at the same level of consciousness as animals. But we have to eat to live, and choosing a plant-based diet minimizes the pain and fear we cause. Seek improvement, not perfection.

Also, it must be noted that a meat-based diet is responsible for killing far more plants than a plant-based diet, since animals raised for slaughter eat a lot more greens than humans do.

Where do you get your protein?

The same place plenty of other animals do: from plants. It’s not hard at all. See here and here for more info. Don’t believe those other myths about plant-based diets being unhealthy, either. I haven’t needed any pills or supplements since giving up animal products and I’ve never felt healthier. The only vitamin you can’t get naturally from a plant-based diet is vitamin B12 (and you can find your tiny RDA of that in fortified rice or soy milk).

Backing up those claims is the American Dietetic Association, who finally came out in support of plant-based diets this past July:

It is the position of the American Dietetic Association that appropriately planned vegetarian diets, including total vegetarian or vegan diets, are healthful, nutritionally adequate, and may provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases. Well-planned vegetarian diets are appropriate for individuals during all stages of the life cycle, including pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood, and adolescence, and for athletes.

(Speaking of athletes, ESPN.com has a great article on professional athletes who choose a vegetarian diet.)

What advice would you give someone who was about to make the switch to a plant-based diet?

Be prepared to be alienated. Some people will take offense to your choice, as if it’s a judgment on them. Just avoid the subject with those people. Remember the words of Epictetus: “If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid.”

Be prepared to up your food budget. I spend probably twice as much on food nowadays. If that concerns you, remember that you’ll be investing in good fuel for your body. That’s probably the best investment you can make.

Be prepared to laugh at yourself. At a restaurant, inquire about vegetarian or vegan options with a smile on your face. If people quiz you on your choices, respond with excitement and enthusiasm instead of getting grumpy and defensive. Keep your mood light and people will respond better to you.

You’ll also need to plan ahead, especially if you regularly attend social events or find yourself on the road a lot. If you’re going somewhere and you’re not sure they’ll have appropriate food for you, bring along something suitable or eat before you go.

And lastly, I’d advise anyone trying a plant-based diet to stick with it for at least thirty days. Don’t expect to reap the rewards immediately. It will take some sacrifice and will power before you start feeling the positive effects.