Happy Meatless Monday!

Happy Monday everyone! While most people dread Mondays and going back to work, I look forward to Mondays more than any day of the week. Why? Because on Mondays I get my life back together after the weekend, plan for my upcoming week, and participate in the Meatless Monday campaign (meaning absolutely no meat on Mondays for me!).  What is the Meatless Monday campaign, you ask?

Meatless Monday is a non-profit initiative of The Monday Campaigns, in association with Columbia's School of Public health, Syracuse's School of Public Communications, and the Johns Hopkins' Bloomberg School of Public Health (hence the connection to me!). Meatless Monday is one of a number of campaigns, including Move It Monday, Kids Cook Monday, Quit & Stay Quit Monday, and Healthy Monday, which all aim to help end chronic preventable disease by offering a weekly prompt that can support people in starting and sustaining health behaviors. And what better day for healthy behavior changes than on Mondays? Read more about The Mondays Campaigns here.

Meatless Monday simply asks people to cut out meat one day a week to help reduce meat consumption by 15% in order to improve personal health and the health of the planet.  Going meatless once a week may reduce your risk of cancer, heart disease, diabetes and obesity; and it can also help reduce your carbon footprint and save precious natural resources like water and fossil fuels.  The initiative promotes healthy, environmentally friendly meat-free alternatives, and encourages those who do eat meat on other days to eat grass-fed, hormone-free, locally-raised options whenever possible.  Meatless Monday is sweeping the nation (and many countries across the world!) as a simple and powerful step individuals can take to improve their health and the health of the planet. I encourage and challenge you all to read more about it here and join the movement! The website has incredible meatless recipes and tons of resources to help you along the way!

I have been eating meat-free on Mondays for several months now since I began grad school and first heard of the campaign through my work study job at the Center for a Livable Future (a key contributor and supporter of this campaign).  As I said in my intro, I am not a vegetarian, but I eat meat-free the majority of the time and that works for me. When I do eat meat, I like to know where it came from and how it was raised (easier said than done, especially when eating out or with others, but I try).  And that's the point of this campaign- less meat, better meat.  I promise you, with all the fantastic meat-free recipes out there, you won't even miss your meat.  From here on out, I will be posting easy and delicious meat-free recipes on Mondays to give you some ideas if you want to give it a shot! Let me know if you do and what you think!