Since you are already familiar with Mediterranean pyramid, it is quite easy to have idea what you should eat and what to avoid. Despite the fact that diet is “Mediterranean”, you can eat Mexican, Japanese, Indian or Balkan food (the Balkan region partly overlaps with the Mediterranean).
In my already published book “Ultimate BALKAN cookbook: TOP 35 Balkan dishes that you can prepare right now”, you can find many tasty traditional recipes both for every day and for your “cheat day”.
At the end of this book, I added three dishes from that book that I fully recommend.
They are tasty, inexpensive, and easy to prepare.
You can stick to many different plans if you will start with Mediterranean diet.
Many of them are presented in different blogs, websites, and books.
I will present my suggestion in this book. However, the key is to eat small but frequent meals.
You should not skip any meal since that may affect your blood sugar level.
Yes, snacks are also fully acceptable (no, ice creams, chocolate or cookies are not snacks). I know that you are probably already obsessed with calories and that you might read number of calories when shopping in the market. However, the Mediterranean diet is not about calories.
Of course, you must take as few calories as possible, but depriving your body of needed nutrition will increase level of cortisol, a stress hormone. Cortisol will negatively affect your metabolism, while fat will be stored in hips, thighs, and abdomen as a result of it.
Preparation Apart from informing your family and minimizing the amount of cookies around you, it is good to start with stocking your kitchen for the diet: Spices: oregano, powdered garlic, onion powder, curry (not typical Mediterranean, but you will use it), basil, mint, red chili flakes.
You probably have salt and black paper already.
Sweetener: Stevia and honey are the key, but you can use maple syrup and agave nectar as well.
Rice: brown—wild and basmati Bread: Plain croutons, sprouted bread.
etc.
Oil: Extra virgin olive, olive, coconut Vinegar: Red, apple cider, balsamic, white Seeds and walnuts: sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, walnuts, cashew nuts, almonds Whole wheat pasta Wine (red) Canned soups if you are in hurry and dark chocolate (70% cocoa) if you are in a crisis Snacks: organic salsa, hummus, soy chips, unsalted crackers, plain rice cakes Vegetables, fruits, fish/seafood and poultry are not in this list, since you should buy them based on your weekly or daily plan.
Once when you done and ready to start, calculate how many calories you will consume (or you are already taking).
It should be less than 1300 calories for woman and less than 1950 for man.
If you want to eat more, you can do this, but physical activity must be increased accordingly.
If you fully stick to plan and recipes, you can lose 2 lbs weekly without stress and hunger.