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The start of my journey into becoming a Vegetarian

I have always been one of those people who respond with a firm 'No' when asked,

"Would you ever be a Vegetarian?"

I love meat, why would I give something up that I love? 

My fiancee asked me, "Why do you eat meat?" and I simply responded "Because I like it".

Then I thought about it and I realised, is liking something enough reason to do it? Or is it just selfish?

I'm 25 years old and eat meat on a daily basis, I've been bought up to eat meat and naturally followed my upbringing. My brother and mum became vegetarian over a year ago but I moved out at the age of 22 so never saw the change in their meals or lifestyle. Whenever I visit home the freezer is jam packed with Quorn and I've tried some here and there. (May I add, I remember one of my most favourite school dinners was actually vegeterian Quorn curry).

As I prepare and cook our meals at home the idea that turning vegetarian would just make an even more difficult job of thinking "What shall we have today"? 

So why have I decided to give it a go now? Why the change of heart?

I'm slowly trying to make a positive change towards saving/helping the enviroment. I recycle everything I can, donate to charity shops, re-use plastic bags, swapped cling film for beeswax wraps, swapped to re-usable cotton saintry towels, ditched plastic wrapped soaps, bamboo toothbrushes, shampoo soap bars etc, etc. Slowly but surely I am trying to do my bit.

Then I watched 'Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret' and realised all my efforts and attempts were so small in comparision to if I were to cut meat out of my life.

I learned that agriculture and the production of meat, dairy and fish is having such an impact on the planet in ways I never even considered or knew about. For example did you know livestock and their byproducts account for at least 32,000 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year, or 51% of all worldwide greenhouse gas emissions? Did you know 1-2 acres of rainforest are cleared every second for animals? When I'm sitting here trying to avoid Palm Oil because of the rainforests, the meat on my plate is making a far worse impact. 

This is when I decided it's time to actually make a change, even just for myself. So here we are, a little blog to show my journey from the start, learning recipes, finding substitutes, budgeting and adjusting without meat. Even if this blog inspires one person to ditch a meal of meat once a week, that's a start. 

https://www.cowspiracy.com/facts

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