STARTING THE MEDITERRANEAN DIET

Although the Mediterranean diet is straightforward, easy to follow, and delicious, your transition to the diet will be a lot easier and smoother if you do a little bit of preparation beforehand.

It’s important that you have the right ingredients on hand, know about some of the foods you’ll be eating, and have an idea of the meals you’d like to prepare. You’ll also want to gradually (or immediately, if you’re really eager) rid the house of the foods that you’ll no longer be eating.

While there are no supplements or specially packaged foods to buy, there are several key ingredients that you’ll need to stock up on, and you’ll also want to locate sources for the freshest and most healthful fruits, vegetables, and fish.

Preparing for the Mediterranean diet is largely about preparing yourself for a new way of eating, adjusting your attitude toward food into one of joyful expectation and appreciation of good meals and good company. It’s as much a mind-set as anything else, so you’ll want to make your environment one in which the Mediterranean way of eating can be naturally followed and easily enjoyed.

Preparing for the Mediterranean diet can be as simple as getting out the good dishes so that you can fully enjoy your meals or visiting a few local markets to check out the freshness and prices of their offerings.

You can take a month to prepare your pantry and yourself, or you can take just a few days, but a little time spent in advance can make all the difference in those first few weeks of your healthful new lifestyle.

Planning Your Mediterranean Diet

With the Mediterranean diet, you don’t need to run out and buy special appliances, hard-tofind or expensive ingredients, special supplements, or even new workout gear, but there are a few things that will make your transition to the diet easier and more fun.

Ease Your Way into More Healthful Eating

Before actually starting the diet, it can be helpful to spend a week or two cutting back on the least healthful foods that you currently eat. You might start with fast food if you frequent the drive-through, or eliminate cream-based sauces and soups. You can then start cutting back on processed foods like chips, boxed dinners, and frozen meals.

Some other things to start trimming might be sodas, coffee with a lot of milk and sugar, butter, and red meats such as beef, pork, and lamb. You don’t have to eliminate these things entirely during this period, but you’d be surprised at how quickly your body adjusts if you gradually wean yourself from them. This can make it much easier to adapt to the diet once you do begin in earnest.

Start Thinking about What You’ll Be Eating

When you’re planning a vacation, you spend a lot of time looking through brochures, scanning websites, and reading books about your destination. It builds anticipation, informs you, and helps you make the best choices once you arrive. It’s all part of the fun of traveling somewhere wonderful and new.

You should do the same thing while preparing to transition to the Mediterranean diet. Go through the information in Chapter 4, including the shopping guide, and decide which foods you’re most likely to eat so that you can collect appropriate recipes and meal ideas. Then read the recipes in Chapters 5–9 and research some of the thousands of other Mediterranean meals that you can look forward to enjoying.

Gather What You’ll Need

Everything in the Mediterranean diet is easily found at grocery stores, farmers’ markets, and seafood shops.

Find out where your local farmers’ markets are and spend a leisurely morning checking out what’s available. Whenever possible, you’ll want to buy seasonal fruits and vegetables, so talk to farmers about what they harvest and when. Small farmers love to talk about what they do and why they’re so passionate about the food they grow. Building relationships with those vendors can lead not only to great new friendships, but also to getting special deals and the best selection, finding out ahead of time what’s coming to market, and often some great recipes, too.

DID YOU KNOW? Even urban areas are likely to have a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farm nearby. CSA farms are small, often family-owned farms that sell subscription packages of whatever they’re growing that season. Many of these farms are organic and quite a few specialize in heirloom varieties of fruits and vegetables. For a moderate seasonal or weekly fee, the farm will supply you with enough of that week’s harvest to feed your whole family. The contents of your share change with the seasons and include a variety of different items each week. Joining a CSA is a great way to enjoy the freshness and peak flavor that is so important to the Mediterranean diet, which is based on the diet of people who often get their veggies right out of their own gardens!

The same is true of your local seafood market and butcher shop. Find out who is selling the freshest, most healthful meats and seafood and start building a relationship with those vendors.

When you’re ready to start the diet, create a shopping list and get as many of your ingredients from your new sources as you can. If time is short or you’re limited to the grocery store, the shopping guide in Chapter 4 can still help you make the best choices. Either way, you will want to have your refrigerator and cupboards stocked and ready to go before you begin. What you don’t want is to resort to the drive-through or a takeout pizza because you didn’t make it to the store.

In the next section, we’ll share some great tips for making your Mediterranean diet a success, but if you take the above advice to heart, you’ll be one step ahead.

The Top Ten Tips for Success

Here are the best ways, some large and some small, to help ensure that you enjoy your Mediterranean diet to the fullest. These strategies can also help you lose weight, if that’s one of your goals, by making it easier for you to adjust to the diet and stick with it.

1. Treat Yourself Like Company

The Mediterranean diet is as much about how you eat as it is about what you eat. The Mediterranean people have a respect for and appreciation of food that inspires them to set beautiful (though often very simple) tables. Bring out the good china, put some fresh flowers in a canning jar, light some candles, or eat outside on the patio. However you choose to do it, treat every meal as though you were having guests.

2. Learn to Savor

In our fast-paced multitasking culture, we have a tendency to eat without paying attention to our food. We eat standing up or while driving to work, watching TV, or finishing up some paperwork. This is the antithesis of Mediterranean custom, where it’s not uncommon to linger over even a simple meal for a couple of hours and where the idea of doing anything mundane while eating just seems silly.

Turn off the TV, even if you’re eating alone. Put away the work, the cell phone, and any other distractions. Even if you’re having dinner for one, focus on the delicious food you’re eating. Really taste what’s on your plate and start appreciating the pleasure of flavor.

3. Become a Social Eater

Gathering around food is something that families and friends do every day in the Mediterranean, even if all that’s being served is some crusty bread with good olive oil. While Sunday afternoon dinners are traditionally an important part of the week in the Mediterranean region, even simple meals are an excuse to invite someone over for good food and conversation. Even when there are no guests, families will linger at the table to talk about the day and enjoy each other’s presence.

Inviting friends and family over for a simple summer lunch or a casual dinner party is a great way to incorporate the Mediterranean approach to dining into your own life. For the Mediterranean people, eating is as much about the company as it is about the food, and meals really do taste better when you share them.

4. Learn to Make Substitutions

Very few things are off-limits in the Mediterranean diet, but moderation is key. If you’re craving something you don’t think you should be eating, like greasy French fries or salty potato chips, learn to make substitutions. You may find that the thing that stands in for your favorite junk food becomes your new favorite!

Kale chips taste better than commercial potato chips and they can be made without all of the unhealthful fat, excess salt, and preservatives. A refreshing homemade granita takes no time to make, the flavor is unparalleled, and it’s much better for you than that ice cream you’re used to.

5. Get Some Moderate Exercise Every Day—Preferably Outdoors

In the Mediterranean region, spending time outdoors is just a natural part of any day. Sunshine and good weather abound in the area, as do beautiful scenery and warm oceans. People spend as much time outside as they do inside, whether they’re working in the garden, walking on the beach, or throwing a ball for the dog.

Try to get at least thirty minutes of moderate exercise three times per week. This has been shown to be an important element of losing weight, improving cardiovascular health, and attaining an overall feeling of happiness and well-being.

Try walking in the morning or after work, taking a ballroom dancing class, swimming in the pool or ocean, playing a game of catch with the kids, or any other activity that gets you moving. It doesn’t have to be strenuous and it doesn’t have to be the same activity every day—in fact, it shouldn’t be.

6. Don’t Tempt Yourself

Don’t keep pastries in the pantry for visiting neighbors or chicken nuggets in the freezer just because they haven’t expired yet. Having foods at home that are not part of the diet or that you tend to overindulge in is just tempting fate. If you need something to serve guests, the Mediterranean menu offers plenty of choices. There is no occasion for which you will need chicken nuggets. Give them to the family next door!

7. Don’t Overwhelm Yourself

Try not to complicate your life by preparing three weeks’ worth of menus at the get-go or trying ten new recipes in a week. Take things slowly, and cultivate a relaxed approach to your new way of eating. Try a few new recipes, but make sure they’re not all complicated dishes that’ll just stress you out. Most Mediterranean dishes are simple, with few ingredients and very straightforward preparation. You don’t need a lot of fancy steps to make great meals.

8. Give Yourself a Break

So you snuck out to the fast-food place and ate the messiest and most calorie-laden burger they sell. Hopefully it was truly yummy. Now move on.

One slipup won’t kill you. Do not spend three days eating garbage because you’re upset about that slipup!

9. Try Something New Each Week

Eating the Mediterranean way should be fun, exciting, and even a little exotic. Try to choose one unfamiliar fruit, vegetable, fish, or other ingredient each week. It’ll keep things interesting and enhance that sense of voyaging to another land.

10. Try Growing Your Own

The people of the Mediterranean region are very garden-focused. It’s common for them to have lush kitchen gardens in their backyards, and even many city dwellers insist on a few pots of fresh herbs on the windowsill. Growing your own herbs and vegetables is fun, saves money, and is the best way to taste something at its very freshest.