Personal Change– I’ve made a change of becoming vegetarian- for a week.
I have a few friends that are vegans, as well as vegetarians and they are always impacting my decisions when we eat because I tend to involve their eating habits around where we go. Whenever they want to try a new vegan place or somewhere with a vegan friendly menu, I go along too. I have never been huge on eating red meat anyway, and when I buy groceries I don’t typically buy any meat products. I get items such as pizza or burritos just plain cheese. Since my diet is already not all meat based I thought it would be an easy task to take it completely out of my diet for a week. I wanted to see if it would be a challenge and if I would feel any healthier after. Especially since any meat intake can really effect the environment and your health. Meat production factories not only use up about one third of the worlds fresh water, but they produce lots of waste and chemicals that aren’t helping the Earth. Also, eating meat raises your chance of getting heart diseases and cancer.
I’m not going to lie, after going a week trying not to eat meat it made me realize how frequently I actually do. I work at a sports bar so after a long shift, my friends and I usually grab food to go from there. (Chicken tenders, a burger, chicken salad). But, during this week at work I switched my chicken salad- to just a salad- and my chili nachos to just nachos without the chili. I feel like it’s an easier choice to make when we get pizza or Mexican food, because I always get plain cheese or beans. It got tougher later on because most of my sandwiches and main meals when I go out involve turkey or chicken.
I also didn’t realize Chick-fila was my campus go-to meal when I got out of class. I had to change a lot of my habits, but I think it was good for me. Also eye opening because it is possible to change your diet and if everyone went vegetarian for just ONE day, we would save around 100 billion gallons of water, 1.5 billion pounds of crops, 70 million gallons of gas, and so much more. Even though I’m just one person, I’d like to think that my 7 days had a positive impact somehow on the earth. I’m not sure if it will be a permanent change for me at the moment but, I do think I will work my way up to it. Especially since I
already don’t include meat into all my meals now; I will get to the point of less and less days during the week that include it, and get to where all my meals are better for me, and the environment and completely meatless. If someone were trying to go vegetarian, I would suggest trying meals you already know that you like, just minus the meat. So that way you aren’t trying a whole new meal that you might not enjoy, because it could trick you into thinking you won’t like any meal without the meat.
Also, after doing the ecological footprint homework, my carbon footprint really went down after changing my diet to only meatless products. I feel like if I 100% changed my diet to being meatless, along with a convincing a few more of my friends, it would be the start to a (small) but helpful change to the impact we have on our limited environment.
Being vegetarian has become pretty popular. Sometimes it can be discouraging to eat meat or enjoy western diets when your own friends are vegetarians and are always filling their plates with plant-foods. After recently having a unit specifically on vegetarianism in my nutrition class, I know of many reasons why people become vegetarian. I was surprised to see that some people become vegetarian for the sake of the environment and wish to promote appreciation of life. This idea came about due to the fact that animals have rights and are treated inhumanely in the processing of animal-foods. Also, 50% of the water consumed in the U.S. is used for raising livestock.
We all appreciate your honesty with this post!! I tried that out too – except I went vegan for a week. It was much more difficult for me because dairy and meat make up a majority of my diet, and I just try to fit in veggies whenever possible. However, I still felt like it was making a difference, which felt so good. So I know what you mean, and I conclude that peer pressure can be a positive thing sometimes. But everything is ultimately up to you. It’s hard to be a meat eater and also be environmental conscious… so much guilt… but just make sure you are choosing the diet that you’re most comfortable with. 🙂 Thank you for sharing.
Reading your blog post I felt like I was reading my own words. I have also tried (multiple times) to become a vegetarian and have also realized (multiple times) that I eat more meat than I previously thought. Being a public health major, it seems like we are always talking about the benefits of a meat-less diet and still I cannot seem to find the will power to make the change permanent. Hopefully these little bunny hop starts will snowball into more reliable and long term habits and there will be two more vegetarians in the world.
Kudos to you, Emily, on your efforts! It can be hard at first, but, believe me, it does get easier and easier. I agree that choosing meals you already like, minus the meat, is good advice. Think about what you can have, not what you can`t!