Therfore as you read, the next section
1. I am not a trained chef or nutritionist.
2. I am not a medical professional.
3. I am not a professional photographer.

Ok, disclaimer out of the way, what exatly is the Mediterranean Diet? Google it and you are going to find millions — I MEAN MILLIONS of posts. In a nutshell (pun intended), it’s adopting an eating pattern close to the way folks used to eat around the 1950s and 1960s around the Mediterranean — places like Greece and Italy. But if you think about it, in the 1950s and 1960s, portions were smaller and we were more active. There was a lot less processed food. Let’s just say we are turning the clock back and giving it some exotic spice. The following URL is a really good read on the Mediterranean Diet if you are wondering about the particulars.

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/16037-mediterranean-diet

My journey with diets

It’s no secret. I’ve fought the battle of the buldge all my life. As I’ve gotten older, it’s gotten harder. Then the blood pressure and cholesterol meds started and that was about it for any traditional weight loss program. I was working longer hours and exercising less. As the years creeped forward, I realized I just wasn’t as quick with my memory as I used to be.

I’ve followed many of the popular diet plans and been successfull on them all — Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, Nutrisystem, and a few other not so well known. Loosing weight has not been the problem until I hit the 50 mark. Keeping it off has always been the problem. I think they call that yo-yo.

Why am I starting to blog about diets?

For the majority of my career, I worked full time in an office, commuting 40+ minutes both ways, 5 days a week. This meant little time for a good breakfast and often a less than healthy lunch. When I got home, I had no energy to cook a dinner. Can you identify with that lifestyle? My fridge was stocked with microwave heat up and pantry with grab and go snacks. My weekends were my only free time and that got taken up with cleaning and what little time I had for socializing.

My biggest problem with diet plans was the meal plan. These meal plans had me purchasing enough food for 4 people. I’d be cooking a different meal every day/night. Each week’s meal plan changed, so left overs were frozen and never revisited. Right before the pandemic, I found a successful trick — prepping all my meals for the week and planning an average day menu around a few select meals. Instead of cooking 7 meals with 4 servings, I cooked 2 meals with 4 servings then mixed and matched.

During the pandemic, I tried having my groceries delivered. But it seemed the grocery delivery always substutied the items until I could no longer cook my favorite meals. Since 2020, I’d gained back all and more of my unwanted stress poundage. Now that the pandemic has loosed it’s grip on shopping in person, I am enjoying my weekly foray to our local Farmer’s Market and starting to really focus on healtier eating again.

My offering to those millions of posts

I’m an average person — just like you. I read those beautiful recipies and try them. But my meals, although tasty, don’t turn out like the elegant pictures. I’ll try a meal plan and wonder — why didn’t it work this week? Since I’m spending the time and effort to plan these weekly meal plans, cook and prep for the week, why not blog about it? Why not post pictures of what it really looks like cooking in my not-so-gormet kitchen with my old pots and pans?

For the most part, I’m following — albeit loosely — a Mediterranean Diet. Fish, Veggies, Fruit, Whole Grains. However, many of the Mediterranean Diet recipies on the internet use a LOT and I mean a LOT of olive oil. While olive oil is good for you, too much of a good thing is — well — bad. I’m modifying some of the recipies on line with the goal of lowering the fat content and balancing out the macronutrients. I’m want a plan that won’t have me chained to the stove every night, hopefully just a few hours a week in the kitchen meal prepping and the rest of the week is having fun with my babies.

So here it goes … Maybe I’ll even be a bit more regular with my posts! Wish me luck!