Yes. You can easily survive on a vegan diet in Golden, Colorado. I experienced this myself last week when my wife and I mapped out our own “plant-based” tour of Golden.
I have to say, though- it didn’t take much effort. We learned that most restaurants in Golden have at least a couple vegan menu items, or they will find a way to modify an menu item to accommodate.
Somewhat curious on several menus was the presence of the jackfruit sandwich, as seen above. By default, it was my favorite- and my go-to menu item whenever I got the chance.
Specifically, I had it on two different occasions at Buffalo Rose, which would easily become our favorite restaurant.
And while I normally don’t indulge in dessert, I was so glad I made the exception for their coconut flan; see below.
My wife was crazy about their “cauliflower buffalo wings”:
As well as their hummus plate:
If you’re in the mood for Thai food (which I always am, after spending two summers there in college), then you will surely enjoy Thai Gold Restaurant.
And you will definitely want to check out Tributary Food Hall & Drinkery, which contains several different “street style” restaurants featured inside the building.
For breakfast each morning, we enjoyed trying out each of the local coffee shops.
In other words, we did intermittent fasting in the mornings, as we would have some coffee and then immediately going on a 2 hour hike until it was time for lunch.
So we only ate two meals a day: lunch and dinner. Our breakfast was coffee, plenty of water, and the hike.
It goes hand-in-hand that with Golden being surrounded by so many state parks and hiking trails, Golden would naturally draw in people who would demographically also happen to appreciate a plant-based diet. If that’s you, then make your way over to Golden!
This week, I found the water bottle I was looking for, to use not only during my weight lifting work outs each morning, but also for the rest of the day, as my goal is to drink a minimum of one whole gallon of water.
I keep seeing this random, no name water bottle featured all over Amazon when I was looking for one to order. I figured for half the price of the more rugged-looking ones I actually wanted, I would be willing to pay the $15 bucks to settle for a product that would still serve the same purpose.
Fortunately, it turns out that I have been able to been this 2.2 liter water bottle to use at the gym, and at home, I am can confirm I am very pleased with the results.
(I fill this bottle up twice and drink the whole thing in a day, and it’s a little over one gallon.)
Feel free to watch the video review I made, above.
If you decide you would like to buy the same water bottle as me, just click this link so you can buy it for the best price on Amazon like I did.
I decided this year to commit the rest of my life to being one of those guys who goes to the gym 6 days a week. I just turned 39, and it has become very obvious that healthy eating isn’t enough to prevent my destiny of having a dad bod.
This is me just starting my weight training journey. But if I figured it would be relevant and hopefully helpful to others if I share what I am learning along the way.
I understand that by gaining muscle mass, I will also be able to burn more fat as my metabolism has to work harder to maintain regulating more muscle.
Therefore, the post work out recovery shake I have been using for months now is Body Fortress Super Advanced Whey Protein. It has 60 grams of protein and only 15 grams of carbs.
One more thing I want to share is how much I love my new work out shorts. They are 90 Degree by Reflex athletic fit gym shorts with drawstring and zippered pockets for men.
I have this ritual: Every year and a half, I shave my head with the Remington Shortcut Pro. I keep it that way for a couple of months, then I grow my hair back out. I have been routinely doing this since I was 21 years old.
Typically the response I get from people who have never seen me without hair is this: “Whoa! What did you do to your hair?… Actually, though… You can pull it off. It looks good on you.”
However, I know the secret:
The moment you shave off all your hair is the moment you have what it takes; that’s the moment you can pull it off.
It’s less how about a man looks with his hair shaved off and more about the idea it conveys:
“I am a man who is brave enough to base my identity completely apart from my hair.”
In other words, it’s announcing to the world that my hair is not part of my confidence. I say it’s silly and juvenile for a man to base any of his confidence in his hair, knowing that most men experience male pattern baldness at some point in their life.
And then once you had a beard to the equation, it sends that much more of a subliminal message of confidence out to the masses.
A man who rocks the bald head and the full beard is the man who broadcasts his masculinity.
As Mario Joyner pointed out in a recent episode of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, the beard is the one last thing that men still exclusively have.
There has never been a better time for men to shave off all their hair and grow their beards.
It takes a confident man, even a brave man, to shave off his hair.
So if you’re considering making that leap of masculinity, I highly recommend the Remington Shortcut Pro, as demonstrating in the video at the top of this article.
After a year of careful consideration and research, I finally purchased a Funko Pop vinyl figure for my cubicle in the office.
But before I made my official decision, I sought my 3 year-old daughter’s confirmation. I presented her with the character figure of J.J. Abrams; the producer of Lost and the new Star Wars movies.
I asked her, “Holly, who is this?”
She immediately smiled and responded: “It’s Daddy!”
In that moment, I received confirmation that my own perception of myself truly matched not only how I perceived how others perceive me, but also, how others actually perceive me. And sure enough, once I debuted my avatar at work this week, all of my co-workers agreed that the Funko Pop vinyl figure of J.J. Abrams does indeed look like me.
A few of my co-workers actually assumed had the figure custom-made!
However, this is somewhat of a rare occurrence:
That my perception of myself matched how I perceive how others perceive me, as well as how others actually perceive me.
One of my life’s revelations this year, after turning 38, is this:
By default, we spend a lot of our time hoping to change things about ourselves that wouldn’t actually make others like us or respect us anymore than they already do. Instead, we remain unaware of the things we could change about ourselves that would actually make us more likable.
We tend to incorrectly assume that others give as high of a value (if any!) to the same traits we place in the category of “If I Only I Was More…”
The irony is that perhaps if we actually obtained the self-assigned “improvements” we wished upon ourselves, others may not even notice at all!
Therefore, we spend much of our time hoping, wishing, and trying to make changes about ourselves that wouldn’t actually improve other people’s perceptions of ourselves; most ideally, improving our relationships with those people.
I’ll be a bit vulnerable here and give you a personal example.
All summer, I have been receiving “What You Were Doing 5 Years Ago” notifications and photos through Facebook.
That was the summer I had recently become a vegan. I was never in my life more perfectly thin and fit. I had finally reached my ideal body weight and clothing size.
I enjoyed that for about a year, before my body found a way to overwrite the shock of no longer consuming cholesterol through my diet. Within a couple of years, I was back to my original weight; despite still being vegan.
I have consistently ran, worked out, and altered my diet to include some animal protein again, but I’m still nowhere near that initial weight from 5 years ago.
But now, I have come to the realization that even if I was able to get back down to my perceived ideal weight of less than 160 pounds, it wouldn’t make anything better in my life… beyond the thoughts in my head.
And actually, back when I was my perceived ideal level of physical fitness 5 years ago, I believe I was less likable of a person back then anyway!
Before the age of 35, I was still giving power over my emotions to other people; still giving the free world free reign regarding the ability to offend me, hurt my feelings, and disrespect me.
I also was still to some degree attempting to prove my views and opinions were superior. I made a fool of myself on Facebook, mocking the concept of human beings consuming eggs and dairy from other species.
Because at that point, I had not reached the level of emotional intelligence I now live in.
It took that experience to help get me where I am today.
The closer I get to age 40 (I’m now just a year and a half way), the clearer my perspective becomes about how the world actually works… especially when it comes to human interaction.
The reality is that most of the time, the things we think will make us be better perceived by others actually have zero value to others.
Instead, most people notice and appreciate a person who is confident yet humble, who knows how to make others feel better about themselves, and invests their time, energy, skills, talents, and/or to help others.
That is what actually makes us liked and respected by people.
So yes, there are 3 different version of reality:
How we perceive ourselves, how we think others perceive us, and how others actually perceive us.
We get to decide for ourselves which version to accept.
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