✦Nutrition · 14 recordsMediterranean diet

The Mediterranean diet is less a diet than a pattern: vegetables, beans, whole grains, fish and olive oil most of the time, red meat and sweets occasionally. This turns that pattern into a first week of dinners and a standing shopping list, then changes one habit at a time so it lasts past the fortnight where most eating plans stop.

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✦ Everything it creates

The whole plan, before you install it

Goal

Eating the Mediterranean way most days Month 2

A pattern kept up, not a diet finished.

Set up the kitchen Day 10

The shopping list does most of the work.

  • Plan seven dinners for the first weekDo firstDay 2
  • Write a standing shopping list of the basicsDo firstDay 3
  • Stock olive oil, tinned beans, whole grains and frozen fishDo firstDay 5

Swap one thing at a time Month 2

Each change settled before the next one starts.

  • Swap butter for olive oil in everyday cookingDo firstDay 7
  • Replace meat with beans or lentils in two meals a weekDo firstWeek 3
  • Eat fish twice a weekDo firstWeek 5
  • Make fruit the usual dessertWeek 7
  • Review: which swaps stuck?Week 8

Routines

  • Vegetables at lunch and dinnerdaily
  • Plan next week's mealsweekly
✦ It comes with a note

The first week of dinners

Monday: lentil and vegetable soup with wholegrain bread Tuesday: baked salmon, roasted vegetables, new potatoes Wednesday: chickpea and spinach stew with brown rice Thursday: wholewheat pasta with tomatoes, garlic, olive oil and white beans Friday: grilled chicken, Greek salad, bulgur wheat Saturday: sardines or mackerel on toast with a large salad Sunday: vegetable and bean traybake with feta

Swaps, not rules. Change one thing at a time and let it settle before the next.

✦ Questions

Mediterranean diet, answered.

Mostly vegetables, fruit, beans and lentils, whole grains, nuts, fish and olive oil, with some dairy and poultry and not much red meat or sugar. It is a pattern rather than a list of banned foods, which is a large part of why people manage to keep it up.
With swaps rather than a new menu: olive oil for butter, beans in place of some meat, fish twice a week, fruit after dinner. This plan changes one of those at a time, so each has settled before the next one arrives.
For the first few weeks it helps a great deal, mainly because it produces the shopping list. Once the cupboard is stocked with the basics, most people cook this way without planning every meal.
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