Meatless Mondays

For the Veg Curious

I never understood why diet has to be strictly labeled. For the past 4 years, I would tell people I’m mostly vegetarian. Of course I’d be asked, what that means. I’d say I eat more than 50% of my meals vegetarian. The response would be that I’m not really vegetarian. But I make it a point to say that, because in my eyes, it still counts. Eating less meat is better for animal welfare and the environment. Even if I’m not 100%, it still helps.

For my birthday 3 years ago, I said I would do a vegan bbq. One friend literally told me, “You can’t do that. People are going to be upset.” Let’s ignore the fact that I can do whatever I want for my birthday. I’m just shocked that someone could be so attached to meat. You won’t die if you don’t have meat for a meal. It won’t change your identity. Why such a reaction?

This year, I want to try to get more friends to be on board with meatless mondays. I’m fascinated by how to introduce more vegan meals in people’s lives. And if people are against it, why? Intellectually it’s hard to make an argument against it, but I also understand we get into habits. It look me many years to decide to become majority vegetarian, and it has now developed to 100% pescatarian without dairy. So I get it, I’m not going to be able to convince people to change diets. But I’d like to open a possible gateway to ways of seeing food.