Aidan Homan

My other challenge was eating vegan meals twice a day. In college, this proved to be more difficult when I ate at dining halls or restaurants. I always tried to make it work, like mastering a vegan meal at chipotle or getting a veggie sandwich from Subway. When I ate meals in my dorm, it was much easier since I only buy plant-based products for the food in my room. After I moved back home, I expected it to be almost impossible to eat vegan, since my family is not even vegetarian. But my mom was very flexible with letting me cook my own meal incorporations that would allow the meals she made to be vegan for me. I have even got some of my family members on the vegan train, even if they don't completely eat plant-based every meal. I have been trying out new recipes, and have found that it is so easy and yummy to only eat vegan! I am actually excited about food and cooking now, and love to experiment with my meals. I would actually call myself a vegan now and have completed my daily challenge with ease every day. 

One of my challenges, carpooling and public transportation, was much more easy to complete than I would have thought when choosing that topic. I hardly drove in college, and when I did it was almost always to the store or sorority village. I would always try to carpool, which wasn't hard since none of my friends had cars and leeched off me for transportation. When I got home, I could count the number of times I drove places on one hand since the virus hit. The only places I drive is to grocery stores or Walmart, and even then I grab supplies for the whole family. I am going to try and apply this principle into the summer when I do drive more, since I did not have to worry about it at all the past few months. 

My one-time daily challenge was researching smart seafood choices, which I completed during class free time. I do not have any pictures from that since it was so long ago, but I am still very informed from my lesson. Before I had completed that research, I had been cheating my vegetarian diet to include specific fish, like imitation crab and salmon. I had not heard of any drastic environmental impacts like those of meat, so I was content to eat my sushi. But when researching smart seafood, I was disappointed to see that sustainable seafood is not as simple as restricting to certain types of fish. The biggest trash in the ocean comes from fishing equipment, and any kinds of fish could be contributing to that problem. The Seafood Watch website had options to see which region and producers fished sustainably, but I was not willing to put in that kind of work every time I bought seafood in a restaurant or store. I realize now it is better to simply avoid fish all together, even if that means passing on my favorite sushi.