Goodbye to the French Fry

This week, I’m sticking with no beef.  As my previous post said, it was not that hard to do and I think will be good change for my diet and lifestyle.  This week, I’m going no fast food.  I usually eat about once or twice from fast food places.  I have a particular soft spot for Wendy’s cheeseburgers and McDonald’s fries.  Well, not anymore.

Beside not being good for my waistline or any other part my of body, fast food is bad for the environment in more ways than one.  First off, the beef that I talked about last week is a staple at many fast food joints.  The second and easiest to see point is the sheer amount of garbage generate from a meal.  Besides those to points there are a lot of practices used by various fast food joints that are not exactly kind to our planet. 

So this week’s green challenge is no fast food.  I am including all carryout restaurants in that bracket.  Also, I want to get in the habit of not drinking out of disposable containers.  Also, when I go out to eat, I want to avoid getting Styrofoam to-go boxes.  That is going to be grouped in with this week’s challenge.  Not that I got the cheeseburgers out of the picture, I think this might be easy to do.

No Beef? No Problem.

For the past nine months, I've been living with three vegetarian roommates and one of my other omnivore roommates has cried out any many occasions when peering into the fridge or looking down at his plate, "where's the meat?".  I've notice actually that we've all been eating a lot less meat and actually gotten use to it.  The vegetarians are great cooks and knowing the rest of us enjoy hearty meat dishes, go to extra lengths to prepare protein heavy veggie meals.
So when I recently read that removing red meat from your diet can be equal to driving 5,340 miles less a year, I thought, 'how hard can it be'?  It seemed like an easy first choice on my path to living a more eco-friendly lifestyle.  So that is why I chose my first change to be beef.  Cattle raising is particularly taxing on the environment.  Of course this includes dairy as well but I decided I'll start with just the meat.  It seemed like a simple choice that could potential lower carbon footprint by 2,400 pounds of CO2 a year.


This week went smoothly for the most part.  I actually forgot about not eating beef for the most part.  I only realized this morning that the spaghetti I ate for dinner last night had meat sauce on it and mostly like that meat was ground beef.  I forgive myself for that transgression though and was proud particularly of my willpower at about 3 o'clock this afternoon.  My friends and I christened our new apartment last night with a party that lasted well in tonight.  When I woke up this morning, on a mostly deflated air mattress as I do not have a bed yet, I'll say that I felt just a little less than good.  This afternoon, driving home from dropping a friend off, the fast food chains were calling to me as I still felt sick to my stomach.  Usually a cheeseburger and fries and clear that right up.  I have in, but settled for a chicken sandwich.


Which brings me to next weeks change- no fast food because of the amount of trash generated from a single serving meal.  However, I think the key to success with the giving up on the beef is going to be remembering over the next few days and weeks that I am not eating it.  If I remember, I won't a repeat of the spaghetti sauce incident.  I also realized this week that I eat very little red meat at all and at some point, I might consider just giving up on it all together.  I'm starting with the beef though.  It was a change that after some research I think really is better for the environment and for my lifestyle is completely manageable and actually really not a big deal at all.

Change is a Good Thing

To be honest, I've considered myself a relatively environmentally-friendly person.  I've been getting off feeling guilt-free since I drive a Prius, own reusable bags, and recycle.  However, after spending a good part of the last year around people who were far more informed about being kind to the planet and actually practicing what they preach, I've decided it is time for me to step it up. 


I'm going to use this blog to look at different ways that I live and see how I can revamp them to be more earth happy, but while also keeping me happy.  To start, I am going to use a lot of these tips from this great article from Yes! magazine.  I am not going to do everything at once (since I've learned from experience that rarley works for me).  The goal is to start change a week, finding out it's pros and cons, and seeing if it can be a lasting practice that benifits the environment.