How to follow Mediterranean Diet?

Mediterranean lifestyle and healthy weight loss is about learning how to follow Mediterranean Diet guidelines. In order to enjoy all the benefits it has to offer, you need first to understand the concept. Mediterranean Diet is a way of eating and living. It is NOT a quick fix diet providing a temporary solution. The healthy Mediterranean Diet is a lifestyle plan designed for people who want to improve their eating habits and gain all the healthy benefits. And that is what guarantees fat loss and a change to the better for those who experience any health problems. Mediterranean Diet provides the best diet plans for weight loss and living healthy lifestyle for a lifetime.

So, in order to create your personal eating pattern and lifestyle habits it is important to study and understand the content of the Mediterranean Diet Healthy Food Pyramid below. This will give you all the information you need to form your personal diet plan.

The Mediterranean style of cooking, eating and living can be best described combined to its benefits. That will help you develop an instinct about what you should eat and how you should cook.

Daily - Eat fresh fruits and vegetables, legumes, whole grains and nuts

Fruits & vegetables: main source of vitamins, minerals, fiber and protein for the body. Great antioxidants. Daily consumption brings balance and protects the body against viruses and cancer. The high fiber concentration will make you feel fuller sooner on fewer calories.

Legumes: full of protein and help to maintain a healthy digestive system and avoid the risk of constipation

Grains: contain many healthy fats and very few unhealthy trans fats

Nuts: strictly natural (not salted or candied or honey-roasted) and no more than a small handful per day. Although high in fat most of them are not saturated.

Twice a week – Eat fish and seafood

Fishes (like salmon, herring, trout, water-packed tuna and sardines): high in omega-3 fatty acids, which help to lower the “bad” LDL-cholesterol, in order to leave the heart’s arteries free and not built up deposits.

Moderate portions (daily to weekly) – Eat poultry, eggs, low-fat cheese and yogurt

Excellent low fat protein sources acquired by the muscles

Once a week or less often – Eat red meat and sweets

Prefer veal, which has less fat, over pork and enjoy the tasty proteins come into your body. When eating meat make sure you choose cuts lower in fat, since red meat is often high in saturated fat, bad for the heart health. Choose healthy desserts. Don’ t forget you can always replace sugar with honey or cut the sugar in half when following a pastry recipe.

Important information & tips

Water: Stay hydrated. Drink as much as your can. It helps to clean your body, helps with the digestion and brings balance.

Red wine: Have a glass of red wine 3-4 times per week with your lunch to help maintain the heart health and provide yourself with an excellent antioxidant.

Olive oil: Replace butter, lard and any other fat with healthy fats such as olive oil and canola oil. Mediterranean Diet focuses on these healthy fats but it is important to not overindulge in them. Whether it’s healthy or not, consuming too much fat, means that extra fat will be stored on your body. In other words, you’ll gain weight. So, remember that the trick is moderation.

Flavor your food: Use as many herbs and spices as you like instead of excess amounts of salt to flavour the food. Salt causes you to retain water making you heavy and bloated. Use it moderate.

All foods must be consumed in moderate portions and the meals should be designed to keep a balance between protein, carbohydrates and fats. 

You can find all the information and the products you need to start, in the books and groceries of the Mediterranean Diet Foods Online Store.

Activity: Base of the Mediterranean Diet pyramid and lifestyle. Start being physically active. Take a walk, do some exercises at home, go to the gym, dance, swim, play football, tennis, basketball or anything else you like.

You don’ t need to strain or injure yourself. What you need is motion in order to give a push to your metabolism to force it work. 30 minutes of exercise every day can really make a huge difference. 

Start with 10-15 minutes of light activity each day and reach eventually 30 minutes. If you do not have that much time, do fitness snacking! Break up your workout into 15 minutes at two different times during the day to reach your goal. Your physical activity will provide the same health benefit at the end of the day.

For those who love exercise, the activity pyramid above will help you understand better what you should do.

Isn’t it now a great time to start? We all deserve a healthy lifestyle so give it a try and see the results for yourself

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Misconceptions – Read carefully

Most people, when trying to lose weight get very quickly and easily disappointed. That is because they just haven’ t got the information to help them understand how the body works and what is really happening with all the changes made. The body works like a machine on a specific “food-data-base” following a routine path of chemical reactions. It is crucial to understand that when there is a change of information in this “data-base” it takes time for the body to adjust, meaning to write it down, fully understand it, create a new routine path and start working on a new basis. So, you have to give a “shock” to your metabolism for a few days in order to wake it up from its comma and force it start working and speed up.

That means there has to be an adapting phase, where also activity is recommended, before following the exact steps of the pyramid. So, you should stop eating any food that keeps high blood glucose levels, like sweets, nuts of any kind, fruits and generally anything that contains sugar or is rich in fats, healthy or unhealthy. This is the only way for your body to realize that there is a change happening, it has to wake up and start working burning excess fat.

Instead you should eat more protein, like poultry, fish, eggs, mushrooms, red meat, low-fat yogurt or milk, and vegetables of course, for the fiber in order not to be hungry and then gradually start adding foods from the different groups as described in the pyramid and reach your nutritional goal. Balanced meals which will eventually bring the loss of weight and better health.

Remember always that weight loss takes time but lasts for a lifetime!

And don’ t ever forget: Enjoy your meals!