Tuesday evening, 27-08-24: what can I have on the Mediterranean diet?

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.  I have three months before the next blood test!

Thank you all for bearing with me as I think this all through.  Hopefully, things will fall into place soon.

What I ate today

I was out all day (coach trip to the V&A) so put together a mini-picnic.  Nothing fancy but filling.

Apologies for the dreadful photo - my camera doesn't like the light in the kitchen.

I didn't want to eat much before the coach journey so I had the apple when we were nearly there.

There's water in the flask.

Syn free.

Then, for lunch, eaten in a convenient space, I had:

half of the baba ganoush I made yesterday with a piece of the focaccia, sliced into fingers to dip, a little pot of mixed walnuts and pumpkin seeds, some tomatoes (not in the photo, I bagged them later) and an orange.  It was all very tasty and surprisingly filling.

The focaccia was half an B and one and a half syns, the baba ganoush was two syns, the seeds and nuts was a B and the rest was free or speed.  Most of the three and a half syns came from olive oil so I'm good about that as that's what I am working to increase after years of eating as low fat as I possibly can.

I had loads of leftovers from the traybake I made for me and Alex so I boiled some wholewheat pasta for my wholegrains, shredded one of the chicken thighs, chopped the veg, warmed it all up in half tbsp olive oil and some chopped tomatoes (which made a kind of sauce) and mixed the lot together.  Roast dinner pasta and absolutely delicious.

Working out the syns is something of an estimate but I am allowing three for what was already in the veg while the rest is syn free.

Summary:

no healthy extra As

one and a half healthy extra Bs

six and a half syns

My meal plans for tomorrow:

B:  fruit, yogurt and seeds/nuts

L:  bean, chicken and pumpkin seed salad; fruit
It should have been feta but I have one cooked chicken thigh to polish off and not much feta.

D:  sardine pasta with crunchy pasta crumb (no idea, it's a new recipe but oily fish is supposed to be a Very Good Thing), side salad if necessary; fruit

Exercise:  an energetic day tomorrow - it starts with circuits, then I stay at the studio for personal training and there is an option of an online Groove class come the evening, if I want it.

The extra bit:

One of the vlogs I watched gave a very helpful list of foods to have and how often.

Daily:

Olive oil, vegetables, grains (ideally wholegrains), pulses, tea/coffee (I'd have them black), fruit, nuts, seeds, herbs and spices.

In moderation:

fish/seafood, red meat, poultry, desserts, dairy products, eggs and red wine.

Very occasionally or avoid:

Convenience/junk food, high sugar drinks, butter and other saturated/trans fats and other alcohol

I find this really helpful.

Another helpful tip was when I am planning my meals to keep these three elements in mind:

1.  healthy fats

2.  fibre

3.  protein

Healthy fats is the olive oil and oil from fish, nuts and seeds, etc
Fibre is the grains, fruit, veg, nuts and seeds, pulses/beans, etc

Protein is pulses, dairy, fish, lean poultry and other meat in modest amounts

So there's very little I can't have providing it is fresh or relatively unprocessed.  The only things that are proper out of the room for me is  ultra processed food (as far as is sensibly possible) and alcohol apart from red wine (and I don't anyway).