I followed the Mediterranean diet for a week, and I get why it's so popular
- For seven days I followed the Mediterranean diet to the best of my ability.
- I focused on eating vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and lean protein.
- The
diet wasn't very hard to follow, but it was pretty vague since it's more of an eating plan than something filled with strict guidelines. - I enjoyed the freedom the
Mediterranean diet gave me, but it also made it hard for me to figure out what I should and shouldn't be eating.
When nutritionists rank popular diets, the Mediterranean diet often comes out at or near the top.
And it's no surprise why - its well-touted
The Mediterranean diet doesn't explicitly exclude any
The diet includes things like a focus on foods like fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, and nuts; olive oil, rather than other oils or butter; red wine in moderation; and meat and dairy in moderation.
As a pescatarian who eats mostly vegetarian, this is one of the few diets I feel I could actually follow. Paleo, Whole30, Atkins, and keto diets focus too heavily on meat for me, but this one seemed easier.
Here's how the week went:
Day one: I cheated already
First off, I knew my challenge would be getting enough of everything. Recommendations are about six to seven servings of fruits and vegetables and five to six servings of whole grains each day.
I love fruits and vegetables, but that is a lot of servings. I also eat mostly gluten/grain-free, so I was going to have to make a point of incorporating more grains to make this work.
With that in mind, my day started out fine.
For breakfast, I had oatmeal with flax and chia seeds, and an apple with coconut peanut butter. Aside from the addition of the apple, this was fairly similar to the oatmeal I would normally eat.
I was out running errands at lunchtime, so I stopped into Jason's Deli for the salad bar. I shied away from all the things on the bar I would normally get - pasta salad, croutons, avocado ranch dressing - since I wasn't sure about the ingredients. Instead, I had a colorful salad of veggies, beans, and a hard-boiled egg.
For dinner, I made zucchini noodles with mushrooms, onions, and tomato sauce. Since there wasn't any protein, and I don't particularly like seafood with my pasta, I cooked up some faux meat crumbles.
These are definitely not a "whole food" and therefore probably not allowed on the diet, but I had to break the rules just this once.
Day 2: Following the diet while dining out was harder than I thought
For breakfast, I had cereal with chia and flax seeds, shredded coconut, and almond milk. After breakfast, my day was full of the usual Sunday errands and then some, so I didn't get to prepare any food the rest of the day.
My fiancé wanted to go to a barbecue place near our house, and I didn't want to ruin his lunch with my diet, so we went. This was my biggest test so far (and probably all week). Normally, at that restaurant, I get a five-cheese grilled cheese on Texas toast and fries, but that wasn't going to work this week.
Instead, I chose a salmon salad that included quinoa, chickpeas, and lots of veggies. It was tasty, but I started hating the diet for taking my grilled cheese from me.
We finished the day late, and I didn't feel like cooking so we ran by the grocery store and grabbed a bunch of stuff from the deli. I chose a chickpea and tomato salad, quinoa, and riced cauliflower.
I think I did OK given the circumstances, but I didn't get nearly enough fruit.
Day 3: I spent all of my time in the kitchen
I made an egg and vegetable scramble for breakfast that I paired with a banana.
I cooked some extra vegetables to go with some whole-grain pasta I was making for lunch. Cooking both meals simultaneously meant I had to get up earlier than normal, and I was not happy about it.
As a mid-morning snack, I had an apple and a Mamma Chia pudding.
Dinner was a shrimp fajita bowl with whole-grain rice, pinto beans, avocado, and salsa.
Day 4: I stopped trying to prepare intricate dishes
I was already tired of cooking every meal, which I know I didn't technically have to do, but I felt like if I cooked meals I was more able to control the ingredients and amount of whole foods in each one.
For breakfast, I again had cereal with chia and flax seeds, shredded coconut, and almond milk. Since I was too lazy to prepare anything else my lunch was leftover pinto beans, rice, peppers, and onions from dinner the night before.
I was still feeling tired and lazy when I got home from work, so I threw a bunch of stuff in the oven and called it a night. I had roasted chickpeas with balsamic brussels sprouts and zucchini.
It was actually one of the best things I'd made all week and took practically no effort.
Day 5: I started getting bored with the foods
I had eggs and kale with a banana and coconut butter for breakfast. Even though it was a decent amount of food and protein, I was still starving pretty early in the day. I ate another Mamma Chia pudding and pushed through.
For lunch, I had leftover chickpeas, along with some rice and asparagus I hastily cooked that morning.
As I usually do, I had bought way too many vegetables at the store that week, so this night was a "clean out the refrigerator" kind of night.
I hate wasting food, so I basically cooked all the vegetables I had. This amounted to garlic-roasted swordfish steaks, the rest of the rice from lunch, roasted asparagus, with sautéed peppers, onions, and baby kale.
It was so good that I was nearly finished before I remembered I should have taken a picture.
Day 6: I'm not sure if I broke the rules or not
I went back to my quick breakfast of cereal with chia and flax seeds, and almond milk. I left out the coconut this time since having it in the milk started grossing me out. I also had a banana and coconut butter.
I was really rushed this morning, so I grabbed an Amy's microwavable meal from the freezer for lunch.
I looked over the ingredients and thought they looked OK, but that's actually one of the issues with the Mediterranean diet - there aren't super defined rules, so you're kind of on your own to figure out what is "allowed."
For dinner, I made one of my go-tos - a Mexican casserole. I used black beans, whole-grain rice, corn, tomatoes, and avocado. This is one of my favorite recipes, and I was so glad I was able to use it on this diet.
It also makes enough for leftovers, so I planned to have them for lunch the next day.
Day 7: I decided this 'diet' wasn't so bad after all
I finished the week with a breakfast of yogurt, seeds, almonds, and a banana. My lunch was leftover Mexican casserole from the night before.
For dinner, I celebrated by giving myself a break from cooking. I grabbed a French Quarter Bowl from a Grabbagreen, an organic/whole foods restaurant nearby. It had shrimp, quinoa, onion, tomato, and avocado - and it really hit the spot.
As my final act on the Mediterranean diet, I had a delicious glass of red wine.
Overall, I don't feel drastically different, but that's likely because my diet wasn't drastically changed
The Mediterranean diet felt, to me, more like a basic guide for healthy eating - which is exactly what it claims to be.
Because of that, I think it's something I'll actually be able to follow moving forward, with some treats added in here and there. The lack of formal structure was actually a problem for me, though. There were too many things up for interpretation.
What exactly is eating dairy in moderation? Once a week? Once a day? Without knowing, I just avoided it altogether for the most part.
It's a complicated verdict - I wish there were a few more rules, but I also think the best part about the Mediterranean diet is that there aren't many strict ones.
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