The Plate is the Barrier?

It took several weeks for me to realize this, but I think the biggest barrier to using one plate is actually using a plate. Now let me explain. Over the past few weeks I have made a conscious effort to reduce the amount of plates that I use per meal in the dining hall. However, I am not going to lie it is fairly difficult. Sometimes I will get a salad- 1 plate. Then a main meal- 2 plates. Then maybe if the food is especially good that day I may go for seconds- 3 plates. Plates are like cookies,  you can’t have just one!

It really didn’t matter how much I thought about using one plate or that my attitude towards the amount of plates that I used had changed; my behavior didn’t match my attitude. This is what we read about in the McKenzie-Mohr article, that there is an attitude-behavior gap. Changing your attitude will not necessarily change your behavior. And considering what I have done over the past few weeks, I think that that is true. Knowing that I would be using more than one plate didn’t stop me from getting a salad with my meal or possibly getting that second serving of potatoes.

With that, I do not necessarily think that knowledge of a problem is what changes it. Clearly it isn’t really working well for me to eat in the buffet style dining hall, but I didn’t even think about eating in Lower…You can’t use plates there! Because of my specific meal plan I have been eating in Lower a lot lately and I didn’t realize that eating there was helping with my one plate problem. All of the meals came in container or wrapped in paper so a plate is never needed.

While it is not what I originally planned to do, I think that not eating in a dining hall is a way to overcome the barrier. It is difficult to think of a way to reward myself for the behavior, but maybe the satisfaction of potentially eating less food because I am not constantly getting multiple plates would be sufficient enough!

Honestly, I am not sure if I will continue this behavior beyond EVST 100. It isn’t that I don’t want to, but again with the rules of the dining hall it is a little difficult. But, maybe it will entice me to eat at lower more often. However, it will probably be a lot easier to continue this behavior after college because I will  be cooking at home and using my own plate instead of having to use multiple for myself in one meal. If anything, I am proud of how I have been doing.  I have really been mindful about my usage of plates and I think that I am headed in the right direction.