Complete and total disclaimer: I love steak. Honestly, one of the best things about going home to visit my parents is the promise of going to this incredible steakhouse that I would eat at every day if I could.

To me, it's my favorite way to get an extra boost of iron that I usually need to keep my energy up. Ever since I was diagnosed with mild anaemia my sophomore year of college, I've had to think of affordable and creative ways to get my recommended iron dosage without going broke buying steak or taking too many iron supplements. While most of my options have included lots of spinach and lots of yogurt, I've been able to still keep cheaper meat (i.e., chicken) in my diet, and use its affordability and ability to play a key role in a lot of recipes as an excuse.

Also, don't get me wrong, I also love fresh fruits and vegetables. Crave them, in fact. When it's finals week and I'm in need of a snack while up and working on a paper, it's not uncommon for my roommates to walk downstairs at 1 am to find a devoured bag of baby carrots sitting in front of me as I type. Bowls of broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, apples, and kale have served as dinner for me before. I'm usually never caught without a full crisper of apples and other fruits in my fridge during the summer.

Fast forward to my second semester of senior year, where I'm taking a class entitled "Petroleum, Politics and Planet", and our professor mentions that part of our final grade will be to write a paper about oil. While this seemed pretty straightforward, she then explained that we could take a few creative liberties. Rather than doing a cut-and-dry research paper, she stated that we could write a reflection on a lifestyle change we made that, in some way, connected to oil. When she casually mentioned in a later class about the amount of oil it takes to process and transport red meat, I realized that my final paper was staring me in the face.

While it didn't make sense for me to strictly cut out just red meat (as I didn't have ready access to it anyway), I figured I would attempt to understand and participate in a lifestyle that I had had little to no personal experience with. Not only would this be an experimental lifestyle change, but it would go beyond my recycling and refusing plastic bags at the grocery store in favor of my reusable ones. This was an active, if slightly small step, in utilizing the produce and grains that often go wasted or untouched for weeks in favor of an accessible meal with the swipe of my student ID at our dining center. It will require me to be conscious of my meat intake, as well as changing my schedule to include times for meal preparation or cleanup. Ultimately, my goal is to track and understand how much of my personal dietary carbon footprint I'm eliminating.

My family wasn't vegetarian, nor was my extended family of hunting enthusiasts. In college, I met so many more individuals with diverse diets, such as being vegan, pescatarian, and those who even tried going meatless for a month, I knew that there were resources available if I had questions, and grocery stores with a fair number of food options (a privilege in and of itself, but that's an ENTIRELY different article).

Needless to say, my "meatless month" will be beginning on Monday, Feb. 6th, and will continue until March 6th, or longer if I find myself easily able to adapt to the vegetarian options. Will I miss meat? To be honest, yes, absolutely. It's in a lot of the food I really enjoy, whether as a main course or side-ingredient. Am I going to get sick of this sudden diet change after 22 years? Quite possibly. Will this be a permanent diet change? Well...that remains to be seen. But, not only is it more sustainable and kinder to the Earth, but it will bring business and recognition to local farmers and organic markets (which, in between the Ugly Food Festival and the Red River Farmer's Market, is one of the reasons why I love living here). I won't be alone in this initiative; I've already had a couple wonderful individuals voice their support and advice should I find myself suddenly craving a burger at 3 P.M.

Have you done something similar to this before? Is being an active vegetarian already a part of your lifestyle? Please feel free to share your favorite recipes and your thoughts in any comments! I'm excited to see where my culinary skills will take me in this unchartered territory of cooking, and the end results after 4 weeks. Here's to a meatless month!