After a couple of years in the transition phase, in January of 2021, I committed to being 100% plant-based. I'd slip a day and pick myself up recognizing how sick whatever it was I ate made me. The time before 2021, I was mainly plant-based and it gave me a chance to learn more, especially from the luminaries who pioneered the science-backed studies confirming the benefits of living a plant-based lifestyle. I experienced more, learned more, and talked to more who were inspiring and encouraging. Today, I realize the vision I had of veganism was shaded by the veil of misunderstanding. Hearing people talk about being vegan, even in retrospect doesn't due it justice. I heard the words of compassion and feeling love. I had to experience it from a mother's perspective. I could imagine what it felt like to have your child snatched away from you. I could imagine how it might feel to be raped and impregnated, forced to have the child, and have it stolen away from you. I could imagine how a chicken who was born to lay eggs, would do so only to never see them incubate and hatch. I could imagine the pain of living years couped up in a pen and treated horrendously in horrendous conditions. It reminded me of what my ancestors felt like in the hull of a big boat after being stolen from their homes and carried for months in untenable conditions only to be sold to a human who treated them like animals. I have felt the impact of living in a smog riddled environment; concerned about growing plants because of acid rain and polluted ground water. These are still concerns and I am more than ever committed to being the example of living a healthy whole food, plant-based vegan lifestyle. At nearly 70 years old, I plan to see a few more decades healthy and prosperous as I help others to share their message and help others as well.

It was a slow and winding path starting in college and culminating shortly after the birth of my third son. I was influenced both by health issues (mine and my kids plus older relatives), bands I listened to, plus a distaste for most animal flesh and an unbearable sense of injustice, dread and despair whenever I let myself connect what was being served up to what had to happen prior. Once I decided to be fully vegan, I have never, ever looked back. I even became a plant-based Registered Dietitian!

I went vegan after watching Gary Yourofsky's best speech in 2011. I literally did nothing more than stop eating what little animal I was eating already and just ate more of everything else I ate, including french fries. In 2017 I had my bloodwork done to save money on my insurance. My total cholesterol was 121!

In 2017 I remembered that I had my bloodwork done in late 2010, right before I happened to go vegan. My total cholesterol was 168! 6 years of vegan, doing nothing else, brought my LDL and Triglycerides down and HDL up significantly. I also lost my the visceral fat fast that had been progressively accumulating just like my father, and both of my grandfathers. And still now at 50 in 2023 I'm basically the same as I was when I was in my late 20's. And, I no longer get sick. Before going vegan I would usually get sick twice a year at the change of the seasons; hence the reason I had my bloodwork done in 2010.

All of this intrigued me. So, I started listening to doctors on YouTube. I also just started walking in my neighborhood for the first time. So, I would take these long walks and absorb so much of it that I started eating more whole plant food, digging deeper into nutrition, and that leads a little into science, biochemistry, anatomy, evolution, and logic, looking at how others are doing around me, how I've improved but my family didn't when they were in their 30's. I'm now 50 with the same body I had in my 20's and very sedentary with all this editing and not being very happy with walking in this neighborhood anymore.

In 2017 I realized everyone can be vegan and may even be significantly healthier eating a well planned vegan diet. I asked, "is there any reason to eat animals?" and no one could justify it for anything other than social conformity.

I realized in 2017 I needed to become an advocate. So I started VeganLinked as a website directory but didn't have the budget or help to do much with it. I took a break from working on the site after a few months into it and just left it on autopilot while I was building up the YouTube.com/VeganLinked channel.

In the beginning of 2023 I spent almost 2 months relocating the site to a better server, troubleshooting, and getting the core functionality sufficient enough to at least be usable, something I can use alongside the growing channel.

I had always wanted to have a directory and do something meaningful with video work. I use to try merging the two together and do this with musicians for fun on the weekends. I was also a weeding videographer on the weekends. My regular day job was a mental health counselor for 15 years; prior to taking my business neofilm.us (AKA Live in the Music) on fulltime in 2011.

As neofilm, I did a lot with some local restaurants that I had built relationships with over the decades but I gave all that up when I started VeganLinked. I just couldn't continue working for businesses doing exactly the opposite of what I'm all about.

In 2020 my main clients for neofilm (data centers) deemed me "non essential" due to COVID. So I started doing everything I could for VeganLinked and now this passion project occupies my time more than a full time job. This is what has led me to doing almost nothing other than VeganLinked up to this point in March 2023...

I have already captured enough content for the rest of the 2023 from my work in 2022. But there's still a lot left to edit. I'm about to start traveling again though in April kicking off a trip to Fort Lauderdale Florida for interviews at the Vegan Bodybuilding Competition. I'll be trying to get a few in route. May, June, July are booked up enough now too. I can't wait to look at it all come this time next year. 🙂 I'm hoping the channel will break 100k subscribers this year!