Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change: Week 5 Final Weekly Review and Overall Project Reflection

 It looks like this is the last week I’ll be keeping you all updated on my SMART goal of reducing my dairy consumption to no more than 1 serving (2 oz cheese, 1 cup milk, 1 yogurt, etc.) of dairy twice weekly. This last week went fairly smooth in terms of maintaining my efforts not to eat dairy (especially cheese!). The biggest challenges I’ve faced lately is simply being mindful of which foods have dairy in them. Lately I’ve been so busy that I’ve actually forgotten that I’m limiting my dairy consumption and I’ve had to remind myself just in the nick of time (especially when I go out to eat- dairy is in SO many of the best foods). 

Also, I’m still feeling a bit sad about cutting out such a large chunk of my normal diet, but I’ve been feeling a lot better and more confident about this lifestyle change now that I know I can stick with it for a while. Also, since I’ve been mostly dairy-less for a while now, I’ve noticed I feel a lot better and more healthy. It’s a great motivation to keep going, and I plan on continuing with this lifestyle change. 

Overall I think I would definitely recommend this lifestyle change to others. I won’t lie, I found this change to be pretty difficult simply because eating dairy was such a big part of my diet and I had a lot of eating habits to break in the process of cutting out dairy. As with any change though, I found it just took a bit of time and consistent effort, and with the support of a few friends I learned it was much easier to make progress towards my goal. I feel pretty good about the changes I’ve made, not only because I feel healthier now, but because I feel like I’m making less of an environmental impact by cutting down on my consumption of mass-produced dairy products. 

For those of you out there who might be interested in incorporating this lifestyle change into your own daily lives, here’s some tips and some info on what to expect/what I went through:

• Try to get someone to make the change with you- this helps you stay strong in the face of peer pressure (not eating dairy can be difficult when everyone around you makes dairyfull foods and eats them in front of you). 
• Pack a lunch/snacks before going to school/work- this ensures that you will be prepared with dairy-free food so you will be less tempted to buy or share foods that contain dairy (it can be difficult to make rational food choices when you’re STARVING at school, I’ve noticed). 
• Try to keep a steady supply of snacks (veggies, fruit, etc) and other dairy-free food at home- especially condiments. I found that using or trying out different condiments helped keep me from adding cheese to sandwiches, crackers, pasta, and other foods.