Meatless Mates

 

When confronted with the same challenge, its common for different people to respond differently.  Concerning the sustainable behavior challenge, this was the case, but there were also common barriers.  Serena was able to have the self-control and completely eliminate meat from her diet.  Stephen was able to readily access organic foods.  I, on the other hand, struggled with my challenge.  Nonetheless, being able to communicate with others in my community like Stephen and Serena made it a lot easier.  For example, when Serena explained how she fully embraced our cafeterias vegetarian options, it made me reconsider my options as well when eating at the cafeterias.  Stephen’s post about how his roommates grocery shopping affects his own grocery shopping was extremely relatable.  It was almost the exact same situation; I didn’t have much of a say in what restaurant my team went to or type of food we ate.  One thing that I think we all understood was how this challenge was a sort of lifestyle change.  For me, it meant not eating at Simon’s anymore and making conscious choices about what I eat.

The community members (aside from the class as well) I had around me made it a lot easier.  Specifically, my roommate tries to avoid meat and eat vegetarian.  She made it a lot easier when I wasn’t the only one getting a salad instead of a meat sandwich with our group of friends.  She also made it easier grocery shopping, I know Stephen had a difficult time grocery shopping with his friends, but in my case, shopping with my roommate made it easier to stick to my meat-free eating.  While I did eat meat sometimes, having this community made me feel a lot less guilty about it.  Sharing their struggles and relating them to mine made me feel okay with having a difficult time.