When we did the ecological footprint activity, I really noticed how what I ate, was my biggest contributor to affecting the environment in a negative way. I started to realize that my daily diet consisted of a lot of meat and processed foods. Once I saw how poorly of an effect this had on the environment, I wanted to make a change. The change I started to make as of two weeks ago was minimizing the amount of meat I consume. My issue is that I love all types of different meat. To ease myself into this, I started with just getting rid of red meat and pork, and just sticking to poultry. Every other night for dinner instead of consuming poultry, I would make myself a nice spinach salad with protein filled vegetables on top. On the nights I did not eat the spinach salad, I would have a meal consuming some type of poultry. One new change I want to make it buying more locally grown foods. To start this change, I am planning on going to the farmers market on Saturday to buy some fresh produce. If I am consistent with both of these changes, it would effect the environment in positive ways by decreasing my ecological footprint. It will help me because eating locally and minimizing meat in my diet will benefit my health and wellness. Consuming less meat in my diet can decrease my cancer risk, help with weight loss, and lower my cholesterol. Eating locally is better because the food has more nutrients, I am supporting the local economy, and the food is safer because you know what is going into it. It has been a struggle for me to minimize meat in my diet because I am so used to consuming it daily, I feel like my body just craves it. I feel like a struggle with eating locally would be the fact that it is more expensive to purchase them, then going to the grocery store and getting processed foods, but I just have to realize that consuming local foods is worth that price. Some benefits so far I have noticed with minimizing meat, and adding more protein-rich vegetables is the fact that I feel more energized and less sluggish after consuming it. I feel like benefits for eating locally would be the fact that the food is fresher and you know exactly everything you are consuming, where as when you are consuming processed food, you might not know everything that is in there. I want to stick with eating local and minimizing meat because I feel like it will benefit me and the environment in a copious amount of ways. The advice I have for others who want to make a change in their diet is to start with small steps. I would tell them to not completely eliminate meats and processed food, limit yourself to only having them a few times a week, then as time goes on, you will get used to not consuming them as much, and then you can continue to eliminate more.