During the break, it was very difficult to be vegetarian for the majority of it. My family is big meat eaters, and I spent a lot of time with them due to the holidays. So I pretty much failed at the whole thing. The food was good though, so I have little regrets. I think maybe 3-4 days in total I was vegetarian. I was vegetarian on those days because I was not with my family so it was easier that way. Technically I was able to reduce my impact, I did not reduce it by a whole lot but ya know baby steps. I have been planning for the upcoming week to stick by my whole vegetarian project.
After reading the very interesting article Here’s How America Uses Its Land, I learned a lot about the makeup and the usage of America's land. How everything is strategically planned out for what to use it for. For instance, the majority of the food grown in America is not for human consumption, it is for ethanol production, and livestock feed. (1) That is actually insane, like wow! It is very strange that most of our food is going to animals. 1 in 6 people in the United States is going hungry. (2) If more people were to go vegetarian that would mean that there would be food for human consumption. On a less environmental impact and more on a world hunger impact, going vegetarian can benefit those who go hungry.
I guess I am going to contrast what I just said about the whole world hunger thing. Because if this project were to end today I would probably not continue to keep this up. I would possibly be a vegetarian for 3 days out of the week. But I don't believe that I would maintain being vegetarian for 5 days out of the week. With the knowledge I have now I know the benefits of the world of going vegetarian, rather than the stereotype it is all for good health. My main motivations for staying on this path for the rest of this project is my own will power. No one is forcing meat down my throat so that makes it easier.
After reading the article it makes a lot of sense on why this has been proven to be not smooth sailing. I have been eating meat all my life, and I would like to say that it was as easy as switching, as flipping a switch, but it was not. Now with knowing the studies to this, it makes more sense on why after three weeks it still does not feel natural.
One habit that took me a minute to get used to is going from normal schooling to Summit Sierras tech forward platform. In my previous schools we did use a laptop heavily, and just like Summit I was able to take it home, but majority of my schoolwork was on paper and I carried around big textbooks. Adjusting to the platform was difficult for the first month and a half because it was so new to me. I did not quit because I was not allowed to, I had to eventually do school work.
Now that I read this article I feel indifferent about what I said earlier, I will cut back on my meat intake, but I don't think it makes me any more willing to go full vegetarian/continue this five-day thing. I do think that this article should be spread around more because apparently, most people think 21 days is all you need for a habit change, but its more than that. When people know that they can understand that they should not quit after a month. I believe that when people know this there will be a "there are two kinds of people" mindset. Those who keep on trying to change their habit after a month, and those who give up.
(1)https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2018-us-land-use/?fbclid=IwAR2sY87CdO9iLhiKCbkFJcRVrcOYOWHM8mW_AGex1V7nMpnbeioQw1ieUD8
(2)https://www.dosomething.org/facts/11-facts-about-hunger-us
After reading the very interesting article Here’s How America Uses Its Land, I learned a lot about the makeup and the usage of America's land. How everything is strategically planned out for what to use it for. For instance, the majority of the food grown in America is not for human consumption, it is for ethanol production, and livestock feed. (1) That is actually insane, like wow! It is very strange that most of our food is going to animals. 1 in 6 people in the United States is going hungry. (2) If more people were to go vegetarian that would mean that there would be food for human consumption. On a less environmental impact and more on a world hunger impact, going vegetarian can benefit those who go hungry.
I guess I am going to contrast what I just said about the whole world hunger thing. Because if this project were to end today I would probably not continue to keep this up. I would possibly be a vegetarian for 3 days out of the week. But I don't believe that I would maintain being vegetarian for 5 days out of the week. With the knowledge I have now I know the benefits of the world of going vegetarian, rather than the stereotype it is all for good health. My main motivations for staying on this path for the rest of this project is my own will power. No one is forcing meat down my throat so that makes it easier.
After reading the article it makes a lot of sense on why this has been proven to be not smooth sailing. I have been eating meat all my life, and I would like to say that it was as easy as switching, as flipping a switch, but it was not. Now with knowing the studies to this, it makes more sense on why after three weeks it still does not feel natural.
One habit that took me a minute to get used to is going from normal schooling to Summit Sierras tech forward platform. In my previous schools we did use a laptop heavily, and just like Summit I was able to take it home, but majority of my schoolwork was on paper and I carried around big textbooks. Adjusting to the platform was difficult for the first month and a half because it was so new to me. I did not quit because I was not allowed to, I had to eventually do school work.
Now that I read this article I feel indifferent about what I said earlier, I will cut back on my meat intake, but I don't think it makes me any more willing to go full vegetarian/continue this five-day thing. I do think that this article should be spread around more because apparently, most people think 21 days is all you need for a habit change, but its more than that. When people know that they can understand that they should not quit after a month. I believe that when people know this there will be a "there are two kinds of people" mindset. Those who keep on trying to change their habit after a month, and those who give up.
(Two kinds of people)
(1)https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2018-us-land-use/?fbclid=IwAR2sY87CdO9iLhiKCbkFJcRVrcOYOWHM8mW_AGex1V7nMpnbeioQw1ieUD8
(2)https://www.dosomething.org/facts/11-facts-about-hunger-us
really like the realistic recap & being totally honest about not fully committing. the first bit you said about being tempted by your family reminded me of this article (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MpQFvwuIooTTg9-kgWS7BDtYCTx15hRdlapEIfDBrVg/edit#). #3 on that list talks about how important it is for people to support you through your habits instead of tempting you & how to apply that to your own life, and i've also found that being around my family for too long tempts me to break my vegan habit. but hey, it's all over is a week, right?
ReplyDeleteWhen I first heard about the amount of land we have ONLY for livestock I thought the same exact thing so I agree with you, on how insane is is the people in the U.S going hungry while we spend so much time and resources we spend on livestock. With that information in mind, I think i would consider being vegetarian. But Like you Im not 100% sure id be able to commit to it.
ReplyDeleteYea, I agree with you on that it feels really strange to get into/used to a new habit. But congrats on trying your best on trying to become a vegetarian. If you look at Jerald's article, he already quit and it's now becoming a full time meat eater.
ReplyDeletehttps://beingviswack.blogspot.com/