Does anyone know of a good Mediterranean diet that works?

Sample menu:



Breakfast, day 1 - Crusty bread and cheese, grapes, apple (please, Wonder Bread definitely does not count)



Lunch, day 1 - Pasta and tomato sauce, salad with vinagrette dressing, lots of vegetables



Dinner, day 1 - Big hunk of lamb, chicken, or even steak (I assume you live in America). Something you find appetizing for dessert



Breakfast, day 2 - Fruit and cheese, fresh juice



Lunch, day 2 - Sandwich with meat, hummus, vegetables



Dinner, day 2 - Pasta with sauce, small amount of quality protein (chicken or beef in sauce, e.g.), crusty bread, wine and cheese, if you like



The most important thing, though, is to incorporate exercise into your routine. The greeks were all about sound mind, sound body.Does anyone know of a good Mediterranean diet that works?
A Mediterranean diet is based on vegetables, grains, fish, a little bit of dairy and and a lot of olive oil. We eat alot of greens, raw or cooked, have more fish than meat, eat mainly feta or goat cheese and greek yogurt for dairy, and when we do use fat in our cooking we use solely olive oil (never butter, lard, or canola oil). Greeks also consume a little bit of wine; my grandparents would enjoy a glass of their own retsina with their dinner, and they lived to be over 90.

I have found that when I follow the diet I grew up on, I weigh the thinnest. It's not a diet PLAN, it's a way of life.

Try to get as much fruit and vegetables as you can. Substitute meat with grains (fava beans, lentils, garbazo beans) and fish. Snack on a few raw nuts when you get hungry, instead of candy or junk. Use olive oil, raw, wherever you can. Get a greek cookbook and try some of the recipes, they're usually yummy and healthy.

Hope this helps. Again, no diet plan... just a few guidelines. It will work - because these are all foods your body can digest and metabolize easily. I find it to be the easiest and healtiest way to slim down... but maybe it's easy because it comes very naturally to me (as a Greek!) :-)