Week one of Earth Month has past and my challenge was to eat no meat on Fridays. This principal will stay with me all four weeks of Earth Month and I will build on it each week, adding another challenge. It was fairly easy to avoid meat on Friday because it was Good Friday and since I practice Catholicism, I was already not eating meat of Fridays due to Lent. However, because Lent is over now I am technically allowed to eat meat of Fridays along with other Catholics, so this challenge is going to get difficult. Often times on Fridays my friends and I will treat ourselves to something special like Panera or Cane’s, so my Catholic friends can eat meat again but I can’t. I think to help me with this challenge, I can suggest cooking for my friends vegetarian meals on Fridays or suggesting restaurants that offer good vegetarian options. Because I was already practicing meatless Fridays, I learned that I am able to restrict parts of my diet at my own will. I was consuming fish on Fridays during lent but not I will not be eating fish either. This might be hard because I love fish. I think the next few weeks will go fairly smoothly because I haven’t really struggled too much cutting meat out one day of the week. I practiced pescatarianism for several months until I got very ill last semester and my doctors suggested I eat meat again until I got better. I would like to go back to pescatarianism and hopefully move toward veganism by the end of the semester. I believe this challenge will allow me to do that and maintain a sustainable lifestyle. Week two of earth month should be pretty doable, I will be carrying around a reusable water bottle everywhere I go. I do this most of the time and hopefully this will encourage me to stay away from tea and juice, which come in disposable bottles. By not eating meat for one day, I saved 8.22 pounds of CO2. I calculated this because a vegetarian saves 3,000 pounds of CO2 in a year compared to a meat eater, divided by 365 days, and you get 8.22 pounds of carbon dioxide saved. Financially, I don’t think I saved any money because I just ate at home with my family, but spending no money is still saving money by not eating out. Hopefully the rest of Earth Month runs smoothly and I can incorporate these habits into my everyday life.