Michael Balarama wrote:
"Getting the most out of it" is relative. I still hear you saying that
you want to add bulk even though you say you're not particularly
image-conscious. If your goal is good health, then bulking up is
irrelevant and consuming a lot more protein is beside the point (not to
mention pretty hard on your body).

The mere act of resistance training is very beneficial, helping to
strengthen connective tissues, bone, not to mention increasing your
metabolism. Those things are all healthy, whether you add additional
protein to your diet or not. I applaud such effort.

Is "bulking up" inherently healthy, though? I don't think it is. You
could make a case that adding x amount of lean tissue will improve your
metabolism, but I'd counter that y amount plus cardio work will speed it
up even faster and offer more health benefits. Going for protein
overkill is unhealthy in either case. It all goes back to your real
goal: are you doing it for health or for appearance?

I don't think sulking up and cardio is mutually exclusive

They're not mutually exclusive, which is why I recommend both resistance
training and cardio together. I think too many people emphasize bulking
up at the expense of cardio work. It's especially true with us men.

Take a look at longevity of football players, bodybuilders,
powerlifters, etc. Compare that to people who play tennis, run, cycle,
etc. There's a pretty stark difference in longevity. The main
differences are body size, body weight, and amount of cardio-pulmonary
conditioning.

although lots of
meat eating lifters would laugh at my cardio- from my experience you can do
both-but I do have borderline high blood pressure(so does my father)

Cardio activity is strongly recommended for controlling hypertension. I
don't know what kind of cardio you do, but every little bit helps. A
healthy and well-conditioned heart should mean more to someone than a
bulked-up physique.

but am a bit bulked up--personally I think a bit of lifting and running is
wonderful-gets those endorphins going and you look and feel wonderful-it is
nice having big arms and chest--ha ha..It might a bit slower on veg diet but
I have always been one...for serious competitive bulking I don't know....

I guess my main point to Ben is that a healthy diet combined with
healthy exercise will produce a healthy person. Bulking up is simply
about aesthetics, not about improving health (aside from the fact that
increasing lean body mass speeds up base metabolism -- which occurs
during resistance training anyway). In essence, bulking is a matter of
overeating during training. Overeating isn't really healthy unless one
has a medical reason for doing so. Bodybuilding just isn't a medical reason.

And you raise an important issue with respect to time: healthy habits
should occur for life. Those habits will lead to a healthy body and
healthy life. Concentrating on fast gains by overconsuming a diet
lacking in variety is an unwise and potentially unhealthy endeavor --
particularly when one food (soy) the OP is considering overeating has
effects like softening, lowering testosterone, and generally feminizing
his body, which ultimately may be incongruent with his bulky goals. Some
soy is okay -- even beneficial -- but too much of anything is bad.