No meat on Mondays?

I have a vast interest in promoting healthy eating and active living. It is extremely difficult to tell people to make changes to their lifestyle. Throughout my many years of promoting healthy eating and active living, I was only successful in changing one of my friends’ unhealthy eating and inactive habits. It was not an easy process by all means. My friend refused to eat any type of vegetable and may be as close to what people would call a carnivore as can be. She also did not participate in any form of physical activity. It took me maybe three years or so to get her to change her lifestyle so that she incorporates more vegetable in her diet and participates in physical activity whenever possible. All this to say that change is hard to come by. Even though I can say that I played a large part in changing her lifestyle, it is ultimately up to her to want to change and do it in a way that is comfortable for her. Advocating for change is not easy especially when lifestyle choices are involved. It took me several years to get one person to change their lifestyle; I can imagine that health promotion programs can go for many years and not see a change at all, especially since they are working at a population-based level.

Even though I am a vegetarian, it does not mean that I attempt to convince people to become a vegetarian but for the interest in their health, I would recommend that they should eat more vegetables. From this article I found in The Toronto Star, the importance of taking small steps toward the ultimate goal is shown. It is difficult to measure the success of this program or any promotion-based program in fact, but results are seen through the events that are triggered from just a small proposal. It is difficult, if not impossible, to expect everyone to quit eating meat cold turkey; therefore, I believe that proposing small steps such as meatless Mondays is not such a bad idea. Health promotion is about taking small steps to achieve bigger goals. Health promotion allows people figure out for themselves whether or not having a meatless day once a week will be beneficial to their health and whether it will be achievable. It may not work for everyone but success is determined through the objectives proposed. Maybe just by having people contemplating about this change will be enough because that means that people are interested in the topic and discussions will arise.

Link:
http://www.thestar.com/living/food/article/783699--it-s-a-no-meat-and-potatoes-initiative