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.