How would I be able to stay healthy without my regular chunk of salmon full of omega-3s? Would my fitness routine suffer without my dinosaur-like portions of beef after a strength training session? Where would I get my proteins, iron and other key nutrients?

It was time to do some research. Upon a friend’s suggestion, I fired up my new Kindle and read a book that would have a profound impact on me: Eating Animals, by Jonathan Safran Foer.

The book opened my mind not only to a wealth of facts about the way meat gets to our tables and the effects it causes along the way, but also about the socio-cultural implications of being a vegetarian, the complexity of the subject (is it better not to eat animals at all, or to make their production as sustainable and humane as possible?), the different reasons people choose to change their eating habits (including environment, ethics, religion, health) and the necessity to think about not only what’s best for myself, but also what will I be telling (and feeding!) my children when the time comes to make a decision.

As a result of reading that book, as well as an excellent other text (Four Fish, by Paul Greenberg), I have now been for almost a year a flexitarian – to be more specific, a weekday vegetarian. I’m on a plants-based diet, plus dairy and eggs, from Monday to Friday; on Saturday and Sunday, I have one meal based on meat (as organic, local and sustainable as possible) and another one based on fish (similar considerations apply).

Today, I’m healthier than I’ve ever been in my life, I still feel like I’m doing my share to relieve the world of the burden of animal consumption, and when the weekend comes – that piece of meat/fish is a heaven sent for my taste buds!

Wanna join me?

This post is my personal contribution to Blog Action Day 2011, an annual event that unites the world’s bloggers with the goal of sparking discussion and collective action. This year, it takes place on World Food Day, October 16, and centers around the topic of food.

I’ll be based in Buntingford, UK, until at least November 2011. If you think that in this new role I can be of any help, or if you think you can contribute meaningfully to what I’m about to start working on, please get in touch!

One way to do all that is through the increasingly popular “Hire me” page. Originally something you would only see on websites of freelancers or web programmers, market circumstances and an increased web literacy make them now more widespread than in the past. Among all the ones I stumbled upon lately, a few of them caught my eye more than others. Here they are.

#10: The trendsetter

Job-seeker: Jamie Varon

Interesting because: it spawned imitators (GoogleShouldHireMe.com, FacebookShouldHireMe.com) and it showed how often efforts of this kind are a good indicator of a starting entrepreneurial career (Jamie started her own blog and is pursuing a book publishing deal)

Outcome: Jamie did get an interview at Twitter, but found an opportunity she liked even better and took that one instead

#9: Content is king

Job-seeker: Will Humphrey

Interesting because: he realized that putting his ideas out there, producing relevant content, and networking to get people to his website was the best way for him to make people realize his true worth

Outcome: hired, by the largest private PR firm in the world

#8: In their shoes

Job-seeker: Jason Zimdars

Interesting because: he was proactive, focused, and he showed in really tangible terms (i.e. ideas for redesign of their website) what he could do for the employer he had targeted

Outcome: hired by that employer, although I recently noticed that their new website design is nothing like any of the two Jason proposed – oh well :)

#7: Location, location, location (and love)

Job-seeker: Chopeh

Interesting because: besides being a perfectly designed web page, it’s one of the few “hire me” examples in which the job-seeker has his/her mind fixed on a specific place or country, rather than company or position – as you can guess, there’s a woman involved :)

Outcome: hired, and did a good job at updating his web page with the news (on other web pages, it’s often harder to know if they still want to be hired or not)

#6: Funny, but unsuccessful

Job-seeker: Lex Friedman

Interesting because: before setting up this blog, the guy sent a postcard on every weekday of his last months in college to Jay Leno, with joke suggestions for his next show – tireless!

Outcome: not hired

#5: Bold

Job-seeker: Susan Lewis

Interesting because: she turns the tables and has bosses applying to have her as an employee

Outcome: hired, by two bosses nevertheless – she also shares some lessons learned in the process

#4: Ballsy

Job-seeker: Kyle

Interesting because: it ups the ante on the “apply to be my boss” approach, by asking employers to submit bids (yes, actual salary offers) that are publicly displayed on his website

Outcome: ongoing (although it’s definitely looking good for him)

#3: Only at MIT…

Job-seeker: Eugene Hsu

Interesting because: impressively childish (in a positive way) and, as Eugene himself writes, “ridiculous home page” – refreshing

Outcome: hired – and the way he updated the page about that news is just hilarious

#2: When you love your work

Job-seeker: Gwen

Interesting because: after every job-related meeting she had, she would post drawings of the people she met with

Outcome: hired at a top agency, published a book as well

#1: Total dedication

Job-seeker: Eric Romer

Interesting because: with his YouTube videos reviewing the company’s product, he exemplifies those basic tenets of creativity, going the extra mile, and making yourself stand out that I mentioned before – absolutely brilliant

Outcome: hired, of course!

BONUS: My own attempt at the genre

I’ll let you guys determine the success of this one!