And off we go!

Today starts my 5.5 weeklong adventure into a meatless world. Not only will I be living more sustainably, but I have convinced a couple of my friends to live more sustainably with me. Although I will miss my bacon and chicken nuggets, I will feel better about my choices as I think about the impact I’m making on our planet.

As I have begun my sustainable behavior change, I have realized that two days a week of not eating meat is too easy for me. Since this behavior change should be a challenge, I am doubling that by challenging myself to not eat meat 4 days a week. The most difficult obstacle I have faced has been the temptation of eating meat based on the people around me. Even if I’m not the biggest fan of hamburgers, if a friend is sitting next to me eating a bacon cheeseburger, how could I not be temped to have one based on the smell? In addition, when my friends and I are doing errands and stop at Chick-Fil-A on the way back, how could I not order my favorite chicken nuggets? The hardest part of this all is being stubborn in the sense that I will not give in to temptations. The best, most positive thing about changing my behavior is that going meatless has made me become much more conscious of what I’m eating. Along with meat, I have eliminated all junk food and highly processed foods out of my diet, and am trying my best to eat only whole, natural, healthy foods. This wasn’t part of my sustainable behavior change, but not eating meat 4 out of the 7 days of the week has drastically changed the way my body feels, and has snowballed into eliminating other wasteful foods from my diet. Not only do I feel much healthier and have much more energy by eating whole foods and loading up on vegetables and protein, but I feel much happier eating these foods knowing that I am making a positive impact on our environment.

According to the article, “Why Meatless?”,three main environmental benefits to eliminating meat out of your diet are presented.  First, minimizing meat consumption reduces your carbon footprint. The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization claims that the meat industry produces over one-fifth of manmade greenhouse gas emissions…wow, thats a terribly huge amount!

In addition, minimizing meat consumption also minimizes water usage. Livestock requires much more water than grains and vegetables. “Why Meatless?” states that a single pound of beef requires 1,800 to 2,500 gallons of water, yet a pound of California produced soy tofu only requires 220 gallons of water. That statistic enough makes me want to eat more tofu and less chicken.

Lastly, minimizing meat consumption helps reduce fossil fuel dependence. 40 calories on average of fossil fuel energy is used for each calorie of feed-lot beef in the U.S, compared to 2.2 calories of fossil fuel energy needed to produce one calorie of plant-based protein. Think about how much we can cut fossil fuel demand by simply lessening how much meat we consume? If you ask me, all of these statistics make it more and more clear to me that human beings should make a conscious effort to cut meat out of their diets, at least one day out of the week. I am excited to continue the rest of my meatless expeditions, and I can only hope to see an environmental impact based on my actions.

http://www.meatlessmonday.com/about-us/why-meatless/