For a meal with lots of nutritious health benefits, the Mediterranean diet is one meal that needs no introduction as even its name speaks volumes, which you may have heard about.
Originally inspired by the traditional dishes and eating habits of Spain, Greece, Morocco, and other countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea, the Mediterranean diet has now acquired global and professional recognition as a heart-healthy meal.
Furthermore, dieticians highly recommend incorporating this unique diet into our eating routine. But can this be done especially for those who work round the clock and have family responsibilities to care for?
Does merely depending on Mediterranean food delivery actually help? Or are there other ways this can be done and how?
Through this article, we will provide useful solutions on how to incorporate the principles of this unique diet into your feeding schedule despite how busy you are. Let’s check them out!
Living the Mediterranean Style
The Mediterranean dish incorporates several healthy food items such as fruits, vegetables, olive oil, eggs, little amounts of fish, meat, and dairy products, a very little quantity of red meat, and wine in moderation. Excitingly, no foods are forbidden!
However, maintaining adherence to the principles of this unique diet involves more than just eating fish and taking some amounts of wine and other food items. It involves a bit more which is highly obtainable.
Embracing any diet meal plan basically requires consistency and dedication. However, for a meal like the Mediterranean diet, you may have to double that if you really want to acquire its benefits. Why?
The Mediterranean diet is a healthy meal and to ensure its healthiness, you have to put in the work. Not as much as you think but a little bit of effort is needed, such as cooking.
Yes! No one wants to return from a long day or kick start by cooking but the truth is that to eat a healthy meal, you need to make time to cook.
Why Should I Cook a Mediterranean Diet?
You may wonder why you should cook when you can easily order and have healthy meals delivered to your doorstep.
However, it’s important that you also learn to make them yourself. There could be unforeseen circumstances that may result in the inability for these diets to be delivered to you which may breach your diet plan.
Therefore, despite how busy you are, dedicating a bit of your time to preparing a meal such as the Mediterranean diet which adds nutrients to your body is a key step to healthy living, especially since you can conveniently develop your own style or recipe.
Your heart will be safe from cardiovascular risks and this will in turn enhance your life span.
To help you incorporate the principles of this nutritious diet into your busy schedule, here are a few effective tips:
7 Effective Tips to Incorporate Mediterranean Principles into Your Busy Lifestyle
- Maintain a Simple Breakfast
The Mediterranean diet does not involve a heavy breakfast unless you are extremely busy.
A simple breakfast that is made up of toasted whole-grain bread and peanut butter is just fine. You can also include Greek yogurt and fruit. Something light and simple.
- Seize the Opportunity of Frozen Vegetables
Adequate preservation and maintenance of the freshness of vegetables involves freezing. You can harness frozen vegetables in making a Greek one-pot casserole.
This casserole involves sautéed onions, frozen vegetables such as peas, and tomato sauce.
Preparing a casserole offers you a whole meal that can be served with bread and feta.
The best part is that you can eat this meal for 2-3 days.
- Maintain a Simple Recipe
To make things easier, stick to simple recipes. It saves you the stress of guessing what to eat throughout the week. By using simple recipes, cooking becomes a lot easier for you. State your main meal on a sticky notepad and place it somewhere in your kitchen.
This way, you can find what to cook each day and it enables you to stick to your diet’s principles.
- Use Your Freezer
Purchasing frozen vegetables is easy. But you can save on the cost and freeze your veggies yourself. But how can you do this? Instead of always chopping your vegetables, you can chop them once and freeze them. This will save you time and money.
Moreover, you can prepare large quantities of food and store them in your freezer. By doing this, you will not have to cook them all the time, rather you can heat them up whenever you like.
- Make an Egg Meal
One important component of the Mediterranean diet is eggs. But it is sometimes overlooked as a whole meal.
While it is common to have eggs for breakfast, you can extend its intake by making a simple fluffy omelet and tomato salad which can serve as dinner as well. This way, eggs can serve as a complete meal.
- Switch Things Up
If you’re cooking for only yourself, you may have no issues repeating one meal for lunch and dinner. But when cooking for others, you need to consider switching things up a bit.
In the past, Greek mothers were known to prepare two different meals each day. This is not obtainable in today’s busy lifestyle but it doesn’t mean you have to dispose of leftovers either.
So what do you do? You can easily turn today’s lunch into tomorrow’s dinner by carefully switching things up.
- Fix a Mezze
Meze in Greek refers to appetizers. It is a collection of small plates consisting of different dishes that can be served as an appetizer and eaten with wine.
You can make a very simple one including carrot sticks, cucumbers, olive cheese, whole grain bread, etc. This will save you the stress of cooking.
Embrace the Mediterranean Lifestyle
Despite how busy your lifestyle is, the Mediterranean diet principle is one meal plan that you can effectively adjust to. Especially since no meal is left out.
Therefore, take your time to incorporate this lifestyle by following the effective principles stated in this article. You will be able to adhere to this unique diet and also stay healthy.
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