Meating my Community

Before I delve into the topic of creating a community revolving around eating less meat, I would first like to let you know how my challenge is going. Aside from still eating meat at dinner, while I was at home during the Thanksgiving break I believe I drastically reduced my meat consumption. Instead of eating eggs every mourning I chose to eat a high-protein cereal, or oatmeal. And for lunch I chose to eat from a variety of different vegetable soups and pastas. The main problem for me when it comes to reducing my meat consumption is the loss of protein in my diet, yet while I was at home the ways to erase the loss of protein were significantly easier to come across, so I did so. Hopefully, I can continue this trend to the very end of the challenge.

Moving in a different direction, I think the one new principle I gained from organizing a community based around eating less meat was the idea of accountability. Prior to reading my teammates posts, I was very carefree with my decisions regarding eating meat. For example if I did not like the vegetarian options at upper then without hesitation, or any second thought I would go right to the cutting station; I had no accountability for my actions. The friends that typically eat with are not going to stop me from eating meat because they are doing the same, so I would eat meat without any persistant nagging to tell me not too. By being in a community that supports sustainable change my outlook towards not eating meat has transformed for the better. Instead of not eating meat just for the challenge, I am now not eating meat to support my fellow students who are not eating meat. I think having a group of people trying to complete the same initiative gives those like myself who are not as mentally tough added incentive to stick with the challenge.

In the long run I think community based approaches will be more effective in creating lasting sustainable change because some people like myself are lazy and will only truly change unless pushed by others. This may be seen as a negative by some, but I do not look at it that way; at least there is still a chance for greater change, it just make take a little more effort by some to keep others on the right track. In conclusion creating a community based around eating less meat was an important step in continuing my commitment to the challenge and therefore I have become an advocate for more community based approaches to assist with sustainable change issues.