Almost all of my favorite foods used to involve meat. My all time favorite dish used to be chicken finger subs. I'm also a student-athlete, meaning I need to eat a lot of protein to help me build muscle and stay healthy. I often hear things such as, "You're a vegetarian? How?! I love chicken wings too much." "Where do you get your protein from?!" "Are you one of those tree huggers?"

And my personal favorite- "Do you really think you're making a difference?" Yeah, I do. And you can too (and yes, I am a tree hugger).

However, I've done my research. Raising livestock, or what is also known as animal agriculture is the number one cause of species extinction. Uses roughly 1/3 of all usable freshwater resources. Is the leading cause of "ocean dead-zones." Causes 91 percent of Amazon rainforest destruction. Livestock and their byproducts contribute about 51 percent of greenhouse gasses per year. And to top it off- causes immeasurable amounts of nonhuman animal suffering. Need I continue?

As an environmentalist and an animal rights activist, how could I possibly justify eating meat? I don't need it to survive and I can afford vegetarian substitutes, so I finally decided my consumption of meat needed to end. However, meat was such a big part of my life! I ate it every single day, sometimes multiple times a day. I then stumbled upon a TED talk that changed my life for the better.

This TED talk is entitled "Why I'm a Weekday Vegetarian." Graham Hill explains exactly that, for reasons quite similar to mine, why he remains meat-free on the weekdays but eats meat on the weekends. So, this is how I began my journey to vegetarianism, until I finally dropped meat on the weekends as well. I soon hope to drop animal products completely off of the grocery list and become a full-blown plant-o-saurous rex.

I encourage all of you to try out this lifestyle. You will be saving the world and its inhabitants one bite at a time!