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Today’s Healthy Monday tip: Make a New Years resolution for you and the planet (yes you can do both!)

As we welcome in 2009, the opportunity to reevaluate and set goals to improve our lives (and especially our health) presents itself. Luckily, there is one key avenue that will improve your health while keeping the health of our planet in mind -eat less meat. Cutting your consumption will have tremendous positive effects on your overall health in addition to lowering your carbon foodprint. Check out Pooja’s piece from November to read further about the many benefits of consuming less meat. Nervous about cooking with unfamiliar vegetables? Not to worry, check out Meatless Monday for helpful hints and recipe ideas for cooking delicious vegetarian meals.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the idea of eating less meat, it would be worthwhile to read this piece by Katie Molinaro on the Huffington Post. She recommends setting your goals in smaller increments, rather than a resolution for the entire year, try to be vegetarian for a week, and then two weeks, and so on. You will likely be more successful with smaller goals, it will be less intimidating to accomplish. Mondays are a great day to renew your efforts.

Eating less meat will also free up some of your cash, so if you continue to eat meat but cut down on it, you can easily afford to eat the good stuff — locally grown, pasture raised meat, which is also better for you and the planet.

Looking for other ways to do better this year? For more ideas, check out our post from Earth Day last year, 20 ways to green your fork.