reflection essay
For 6 weeks I tried to make a change to my life to make myself more environmentally stable. The change I attempted to make was attempting to eat less animal based products mainly less meat sources. I did this because animal agriculture and the commercial fishing industry is one of the leading causes of climate change in our world.
There are many reasons I think it is very important to reduce meat consumption. One reason is that it is better for my personal health, especially my body. Reducing meat and eating more vegetables is a lot better and healthier for someone in terms of vitamins and nutrients achieved from vegetables. Even though there are a lot of healthy lean meats like fish and poultry, meats like red meat and pork are not very healthy long term and not at all sustainable for the environment. Another reason is its effect on the environment. The practice of raising animals for meat is seriously harming the environment. It's one of the primary causes of the loss of forests, animal habitats, and other plant and animal species. Farmers clear large amounts of trees to make room for their animals to graze or to produce crops like soy. In regions like the Amazon rainforest, this occurs frequently. The production of meat releases a large amount of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere, worsening climate change. Consuming beef contributes to environmental harm. Also, The conditions in which animals are raised and slaughtered in industrialized farming systems often involve overcrowding, confinement, and inhumane treatment. Animals raised for meat endure stress, suffering, and pain throughout their lives.
The main reason that I probably had not changed this lifestyle in my life was because I didn't think I could properly commit to it. I have basically eaten meat my whole life and I'm not sure what it would be like or how my body would feel if I didn't eat meat during the day or the week. I also just really like the taste of it and I eat at a lot of fast food restaurants that serve meat like Chick fil a and in n out. My main motivation to change was I guess this class motivating us to find something to become more environmentally stable. Also most of my family is vegetarian so picking up on that lifestyle is not as hard as I thought, considering I would see them doing it every single day. I think also thinking about how a lot of people are able to live as vegetarians their whole lives motivates me to think that I can definitely do it for 6 weeks.
In terms of barriers I had to this challenge I had a couple of problems because it affected my daily life. For one thing, I go to the gym 5 times a week and lift heavy weights. Because of this, I need to eat a lot of protein in my diet. I mainly rely on meat such as chicken and turkey and beef to get a good protein intake. However, while being on this diet I was not able to eat those high protein dense meats so I had to figure out another method. A good way to do this was using more protein powder. Protein powder was just an easy way to integrate protein into my diet without relying on meat. It also was quick and easy to process. Another high protein source is beans. Kidney beans are an excellent source of plant based protein, they're just about as high as meat based protein. An interesting opportunity I had in this challenge was learning to make new meals without meat. To be honest they weren't as good as the others but they were tolerable enough for me to enjoy them somewhat.
The main positives from adopting this challenge were eating healthier, feeling better for my body throughout the day and feeling like I could maybe continue this a little more frequently later on in my life. The main negatives was having to switch off of a diet I have had my entire life. This was difficult for me because I really enjoyed eating the things I loved. However I was able to make adequate substitutes in order to sustain this challenge. This experience helped me understand that I can help lower my own carbon footprint by just making some changes in life. These changes allow me to feel like I am being more environmentally stable about my life, while also realizing that this affects the real world as well in terms of helping out the environment.
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