Mark Twain

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Saturday, January 9, 2021

The Diet Game

After months of self isolation (and no real end in sight), no access to my senior gym and no logic to my food intake - I am feeling pretty sluggish!  

My go-to methods to combat that feeling are not cutting it now.  I am a big fan of Weight Watchers as a healthy and successful method for losing weight BUT I am not a big fan of the tracking you needed to do for the long term.  I am not a fan of the low fat diets, low carb diets, low calorie diets or the restrictive “buy your food from us” diets either. They all require some form of tracking and tracking is what I can’t do for the rest of my life.

Then, on the TV last night there was a story about the best and healthiest diets from U.S. News World Report ... you know, one of the many topics typically covered in January.  They mentioned the top 3 diets for health and weight loss.

#1 Mediterranean Diet

#2 DASH

#3 Weight Watchers

I did a little research on the internet ... and depending on the site, #2 and #3 could be exchanged for the Flexitarian Diet.  BUT, the Mediterranean diet is always part of the top 3 on all the sites I visit.

Feeling like I need to take some action to combat this sluggish feeling, I am going to give the Mediterranean diet an official “try" while I am stuck at home with time on my hands.  I have often said I could be a vegetarian if I was feeding only myself.  And the Mediterranean diet is heavy on fruits and vegetables, and low on red meats, sugar and saturated fat.  Since I am still feeding one other person - who is a meat and potato man - it will mean more food prep for me (who hates cooking, ha!)  But it seems that my body chemistry is changing anyway, and I frequently crave a lettuce salad and chicken or salmon over eating a burger or a steak.  I often prepare two different meals now because I don’t feel like eating what he is eating.  

The other biggie in my mind ... besides the lack of tracking is ...  because this is an eating pattern - not a structured diet - you’re on your own to figure out how many calories you should eat to lose or maintain your weight, what you’ll do to stay active and how you’ll shape your Mediterranean menus.  Good.

I really need to do more reading on how to stock my kitchen and what to make.  

Anyone else on a Mediterranean-style diet and have feedback about it?  Any resources you know of to round out my knowledge of this subject?  As luck would have it I have America’s Test Kitchen, The Complete Mediterranean Cookbook already.  I’ve been attracted to this eating plan before apparently - must have bought the book!  Ha!




9 comments:

Leftycrafter said...

Amazing.....I was just looking into the Mediterranean Diet this past week. My husband can not live without his red meat. I, on the other hand, could survive on chicken 99% of the time. Not a huge fan of fish other than shrimp. I have had friends on this eating plan and they loved it. They did say the first couple of weeks their body reacted to all the fiber they were putting in their body (if you know what I mean) After that they were very pleased and felt much more energized. As for books on it.....not a clue. I do follow Skinnytaste.com and she does a lot of vegetarian recipes with nutritional values attached. It is a free website and all the recipes are free too. Please keep us informed as to how it is working for you.

Wendy said...

Sounds like a good plan. Good luck.

happyone said...

The diet plan I use is exercise and food portion control. I eat whatever I want just not as much of it as I want. :) It's worked for me for years!!

Michelle said...

The best website hands down for vegetable recipes of all kinds (from raw to cooked, desserts to entrees) is https://www.aveggieventure.com/p/a-to-z-alphabet-of-vegetables.html. Not all recipes are vegetarian, but most are and almost all can be. It's arranged by alphabetical order, so it's easy to find your vegetable choice(s) and look for great ideas.

Marie Smith said...

I only use EVO now like a Mediterranean diet and have given up margarine pretty much. I had blood work recently and haven’t been notified about it so I assume it continues to be okay. I’ll check this week anyway.

A :-) said...

Oldways is a great website for info on the Mediterranean way of eating. Here is the link: https://oldwayspt.org/traditional-diets/mediterranean-diet

Susan said...

I really think that a Mediterranean diet is just a common sense way to eat. I'm glad you wrote this post, as it will get me bustling to my cookbook shelves, where I think I have a cookbook waiting. Since I will soon be catered to for two weeks by my two wonderful and talented sisters, I may leave it lying about as a not-so-subtle hint.

Paula said...

I just can't force myself to think of dieting right now. Good luck

Becki said...

Sounds like a plan! I do think the Mediterranean diet is pretty common-sensicle. And I'd think it would be easy to sustain for the long haul. OTOH, I do love me some beef. Steak, occasional hamburger, chili with steak, shredded beef... Truth be told, I really don't eat it all that often, but did I mention that I really like steak?