Mediterranean Diet 5 Week Review

Mediterranean Diet 5 Week Review

I have been on a Mediterranean Diet for five weeks so I figured that is enough time to write an assessment. Well I have lost 13 pounds, while managing to increase my muscle mass (noticeably visually as well as confirmed through measurements). My energy has been fantastic and I have to say I have felt great and have not felt really hungry once that I can remember.  You can read why I went on this particular diet here.

As for what I ate, well I tried to keep it as simple as possible: every morning began with a protein shake followed by a half cup of oatmeal with a quarter cup of raisons about an hour later. Then about three hours after the oatmeal I had an apple and two tablespoons of natural peanut butter and two hours after that a turkey wrap in a whole wheat tortilla. Then I would have a post workout protein shake, and for dinner I would have chicken, salmon or a turkey burger with salad or sweet potato, or whole grain pasta with olive oil sauce, or a bean burrito in a whole grain tortilla and right before bed I had a casein protein shake. For a snack I had dark chocolate covered almonds (I ate them throughout the day but never had more than 4 at a time). I also had watermelon and other fruit a few times over the five weeks but always a single serving portion (1 – 2 cups) and kept my calorie consumption on most days between 1700 & 2300.

During these five weeks I couldn’t work out for four days because of an ear infection, and skipped another four days for reasons I can’t remember (though I bet they sounded really good at the time). Here is the exact workout I did follow when I did workout though. I also had a birthday so there was cake and pizza, actually pizza happened three times, and I ate out four other times. So all in all I think my success was pretty good and I was able to live a normal live and ev en treat myself a few times.

I would say the most important factor to consider if you undertake this diet for weight loss is portion control. Eating too much of food any food no matter how good that food is for you won’t get those pounds off, so measure what you eat before you eat it and keep track of your total calories using a food journal. This diet is excellent if you are training hard because it gives you plenty of fuel to power through those workouts (my workout sessions lasted on average 90 minutes and I didn’t get gassed and was able to function the next day). During this five week I also tried to keep my active rest as active as possible so I painted my house, did some landscaping and generally kept moving as much as possible. I also drank a lot of water (around 150 ounces a day) and did my best to get a solid night’s sleep on a regular basis.

As a whole I would say this five weeks was a success, I had a lot of food options to choose from, including easy options to pick off restaurant menus, never felt like I was starving or depriving myself, lost a good amount of weight while make visually noticeably gains in muscle, and had great energy. For the next five weeks I am going to work on cleaning up the diet a bit since I still have weight I want to lose and will be increasing the protein to try to increase my muscle mass. I will be changing my work out to five day a week weight training followed immediately by high intensity interval cardio in the hopes of earning even greater muscle mass gains (I will be publishing the workout once I have had the chance to perform it a couple times). For the following five weeks I will also be focused on changes in measurement more than changes in weight since one of my goals is to increase muscle mass. So wish me luck and stay tuned for future progress reports.

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