Shifting to the Mediterranean Style of Eating

Starting any new eating style can be difficult especially when your chosen weight loss plan involves any sort of change that is going to seriously alter your current diet. While eating in the traditional Mediterranean style isn't as much of a shock to the system as, say, switching to supplement bars it still isn't the easiest thing to do. I initially tried to jump into the diet full steam ahead and failed miserably. The cravings for sweets and meats made me a terror to live with and so I decided to try another, more gradual, method to change my diet.

Instead of taking the typical sink or swim method I started taking baby steps in the right direction. I began by eating only whole grain pastas, breads, and rice for the first week instead and kept the rest of my diet more or less the same. That wasn't that hard for me because my family already eats whole grain bread anyway and I enjoy whole grain pasta. The only thing that was hard to get used to was the taste of whole grain rice since prior to that I only ate jasmine rice.

The next week I started to cut down on oils and fats by giving up butter which I love. Until then I used butter in my cooking, baking, and piled on most of my vegetables. You can imagine how hard it was for a butter fanatic to start using only olive oil for flavor. In cooking I noticed that the oil added its own unique kick and spreading olive oil on bread instead of butter tastes great. I tried to use olive oil in baking but that distinctive flavor that was good in certain dishes didn't work with cakes and cookies. Because of that when I do bake occasionally I use canola oils.

In week three of my switch the Mediterranean style I tackled the task of adding more vegetables to my diet. I have to admit that I am not the biggest vegetable fan. The only vegetable I ate on a regular basis before then was potatoes, usually baked and loaded with greasy goodies. Other than that I would occasionally cook some frozen vegetables more for my families' sake than my own but because the Mediterranean style encourages eating fresh vegetables I had the pleasure of experimenting with different recipes to get myself eating a reasonable amount of vegetables each week. As it turned out I found that the fact that my vegetables were fresh and would go bad if I didn't cook them up in a timely manner got me eating more vegetables than ever before. Plus I soon learned that the flavor in fresh vegetables is much more appealing than frozen or canned. Organic vegetables are my favorite but because they are more expensive I stick to non-organic veggies unless it is a special occasion and use a vegetable wash sold in my local produce department to help get them clean.

The absolute hardest thing for me to give up was meat which is why I waited until last to deal with it. Don't get me wrong meat is allowed in the Mediterranean diet it just isn't the focus of the meal and only allowed in small portions through out the week. Because I love beef it was hard to regulate my consumption of beef to once a month but to help myself stick to that I stopped buying beef and only had it when I went out which was usually once a month anyway. Other than that I concentrated on cooking poultry and fish which is allowed weekly in small portions. Since I was already experimenting with fresh vegetables I got in the habit of making a vegetable main course and serving the meat course as if it were a side dish. That helped keep me in the right frame of mind and encouraged portion control.