Meatless Monday: Introduction

About nine months ago or so, I decided that I would try something new regarding my diet. I'd just read a blog that talked about how one man's family was abstaining from meat on Thursdays. I really don't remember his reasoning, but I thought it was a good idea. Since I like alliteration though, I thought it'd be cool to do it on Mondays and call it "Meatless Monday." (Little did I know that I was definitely not the one to coin this phrase. According to meatlessmonday.com, "Meatless Monday was recreated as [a] public health awareness program in association with Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Center for a Livable Future" in 2003.)

I have a few reasons for wanting to go meatless at least one day a week:

1. I believe that Section 89 of the Doctrine & Covenants, which we call the Word of Wisdom, was a revelation from God. Verse 12 states, "Yea, ^aflesh also of ^bbeasts and of the fowls of the air, I, the Lord, have ordained for the use of man with thanksgiving; nevertheless they are to be used ^csparingly."  I've had the goal of only eating red meat twice per month for several years now and stuck to it pretty well, but I wanted to do something more to observe this commandment.
2. I want to be healthier. I want to reduce my risk of preventable disease. "Eating more fruits and veggies" has literally been on my list of new year's resolutions for the last 10+ years, and I'm happy to report that I've made A LOT of progress in this area in the last three years or so. I'm not quite where I want to be, but Meatless Monday helps me to explore new things and to focus on this goal more.
3. It's a simple way to reduce my carbon footprint. 

That quite lengthy introduction was all to say that I will be posting Meatless Monday ideas on the blog from time to time. Stay tuned. =)