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If you are interested in applying the Mediterranean diet to your life to lose weight then these general dieting tips paired with the Mediterranean diet eating habits will help you maximize your weight loss.

It takes twenty minutes for your food to start digesting and give you a feeling of fullness after you eat a meal. Therefore, slow down and chew your food so that you can actually taste it and enjoy the flavor. If you tend to eat fast, you may find that you eat more because it takes that twenty minutes to get your internal system fired up.

Try drinking a full eight-ounce glass of water before you sit down to eat a meal. Sometimes thirst can be mistaken for a feeling of hunger. Drinking a glass of water before you eat can get the digestion process started quicker which can cause you to eat less during a meal.

Visually split your plate in half then split one of those halves in two. This makes three sections….two small ones and one big one.

The big section is for vegetables and the two smaller sections are for your starches and proteins. You can use this as a measuring guide when you go out to eat or want to transition your dinner plate into healthier portions.

You will receive the highest levels of phytonutrients from vegetables so that is why vegetables occupy the largest section of the plate.

Adhere to the lowest, most foundational level of the Mediterranean pyramid which is daily activity. Do your best to get thirty minutes of exercise in every day.

See vegetables and fruits as snacks. Slice your vegetables into ready to eat snack sizes and wash your fruits when you bring them home from the store so that they are ready to grab as a quick snack when you’re feeling hungry.

Keep a jar of mixed nuts on your kitchen counter and eat a handful of those along with your vegetable or fruit snack.

Replace butter and margarine with olive oil. I especially like to use olive oil when grilling sandwiches or toasting my breads where at one time I only used butter or margarine.

Prepackage snacks into portion sizes rather than eating from the full container. This can prevent overeating. When you pre-allocate how much of a snack you’re going to eat then you’re helping yourself stay disciplined.

Enjoy two or three snacking times a day where you eat a serving of fruit or vegetables with no salt or sugar added. Schedule a snack in the morning, afternoon and before bed.

Replace frequent cake and cookie binges with a serving of popcorn cooked in olive oil and sprinkled with parmesan cheese or garlic powder rather than salt and butter.

When you fill up a smaller plate or bowl you can still get the satisfaction of having a full plate or bowl. When your plate or bowl is smaller you can feel satisfied but still be able to eat in healthy portions that adhere to the pyramid.

Give your weight loss program the super-charged fuel it needs by replacing your saturated fats with monounsaturated fats. The Mediterranean diet replaces a standard bad fat diet with high levels of healthy monounsaturated fats that raise good cholesterol levels.

The longer you adhere to the Mediterranean diet the more energy and vitality you will experience.

The Mediterranean diet offers a well-balanced eating plan that includes the correct amount of each food group.