Sunday evening, 25-08-24: exploring the Mediterranean diet and a funny at the end

Good evening, everyone!  Now I am back in my happy zone, I am on another mission which is to reduce my 'borderline' cholesterol measurements with tweaks in diet by using the principles of the Mediterranean way of eating.

Going into the principles of the Mediterranean diet has been interesting and a bit brain aching but by the end of the day I came away with a few solid guidelines and some increased knowledge.  All open to discussion, I am sure, but one has to start somewhere.

So - what is in it?

These are just notes that I took, nothing more.  Just a bit of thinking out loud, that's all.  Bear with me, OK?

1.  It consists of wholegrain products (bread, pasta, rice) and plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables, legumes, nuts and seeds.

2.  Olive oil instead of lard, butter, other oils - to increase intake of mono and poly unsaturated fats and cut out saturated and trans fats

3.  Fish, seafood, poultry and eggs a few times a week

4.  Dairy (yogurt/cheese) in modest amounts daily

5.  Cakes, pastries, sweets, etc, rarely.

6.  Quality over quantity

7.  Seasonal, local products as much as possible

8.  A lifestyle change for the rest of my life.

9.  Red wine is NOT an essential part of this way of eating!!!!!

I'll rabbit on about the benefits tomorrow . . . and I will put all this pontificating at the end from now on so you don't HAVE to plough or scroll through it all.  

What I ate today

A delicious bowl of pineapple, strawberries, raspberries, yogurt and pumpkin seeds for breakfast,  For now, I will not be stopping using sweetener - let's keep in manageable.

One syn for the seeds.

I'm afraid I didn't take a photo of lunch with Beth.
I did hummus and carrot sticks, feta, olives, a mixed salad and a piece of focaccia split, brushed with garlic and olive oil and toasted.  It was so good.

Afters was watermelon and strawberries

Again, tricky to work out the syns although I have worked out that the feta is one healthy extra A, the focaccia is half a B and one and a half syns (on average) and I am counting three syns for olives, ditto for hummus and two syns for the olive oil so, in total, nine and a half syns.

Later on I had an apple.

Supper was more focaccia, toasted, with avocado, sliced cornichons (supposed to be capers but I couldn't find any), smoked salmon and red onion with what was left of the salad on the side.  SO very delicious.

No afters, I was very full and, in fact, extended my eating window in order to polish off the salad.

Another half B and one and a half syns plus two and a half syns for the avocado.  I think everything else was speed/free.

Summary:

one healthy extra A

one healthy extra B

fourteen and a half syns so right at the top although I can have more syns on two days each week and conform to SW guidelines.

My meal plans for tomorrow:

B:  scrambled eggs with added seeds, mushrooms and tomatoes

L: chicken traybake, runner beans; fruit

Alex is here so a sort of roast meal.
I'm branching out and roasting an aubergine at the same time as the traybake to make some baba ganoush which I have never made before but it fits well into the Med ethos.

D: avocado panzanella, salad; fruit  

Exercise:   no classes because it is bank holiday.  I'll probably go for a walk, weather permitting  

Someone posted this on our local SW group.  I laughed my socks off, got permission to share and here you go - enjoy.
(needless to say, it doesn't totally represent my group or our consultant - but it is funny)

Things only people who've joined slimming clubs will know.

1. You will wear exactly the same thing to get weighed each week. Even if it's -2 degrees outside you'll be wearing a floaty summer dress and freezing your tits off.

2. You've considered weighing in wearing just a swimming costume.

3. There's always a Janet in the group who takes 42 cruises a year.

4. You'll save all your Syns/Points up in the week so you can neck a bottle of vodka on Friday night.

5. There's always a Pauline in group who ate 8 sausage rolls at her cousin's funeral and put on 5 pounds in a week.

6. You will not eat a thing before weigh in. Even if weigh in is at 8pm.

7. You'll praise a Susan who maintained.

8. Food on the diet a bit dry? Quark. Need a creamy hit in your pasta? Quark. Broken leg? Quark. End world poverty? Quark.

9. Group leader: "You can eat a whole bag of pasta if you need to.....but you won't be able to"

You: "I beg to fucking differ Linda".

11. There will always be one lone man called Peter in group who loses 9 pounds each week. He seems like a lovely chap but you'll all secretly hate the bastard.

12. You will be unable to poo before you get weighed. As soon as you get home....massive shit.

13. The group leader will try to tell you that potatoes cut into strips and sprayed in Fry Light are "better than chip shop chips". This is bullshit Linda. Bullshit.

14. A new flavour of Müller Light is announced and it creates a frenzy of riot proportions.

15. Linda is no skinny cow herself and doesn't follow the plan.

16. Syns/Points don't count if it's to help cure a hangover. They also don't count if you're eating them off another person's plate.