The traditional diets of the Mediterranean countries are not only good for losing weight, but they are delicious and healthy. They bring together lower cholesterol, lower rates of heart disease, lower rates of cancer. One great dish of the Mediterranean countries is the salad. So, let’s learn how to make one such salad and start feeling healthier. Those that are bored of eating the regular old salads will like this one.

Ingredients:

1 tomato – thinly shredded
1 cucumber – thinly sliced
300 grams of light white cheese – cut in cubes
5 leafs of laaf lettuce – thinly shredded
A few black olives
Some mint, some oregano, a bit of lemon juice, salt, pepper

Mix all the ingredients in a blow and decorate with the olives. Yes, you can eat the olives! As long as you keep the major ingredients, feel free to add a bit of other vegetables that you might like. A bit of onion wouldn’t be bad, would it?

Ingredients:

2 breasts of chicken
Cherry tomatoes or some medium sized normal tomatoes
Shallots (small onions)
Green peppers

Keep in mind, all these are what will go on the shish, or rather “skewer”. So you’ll probably want a tomato, a shallot, a cut green onion on the skewer with pieces of chicken in between them. Depending on the length of your skewers or your taste, feel free to add more tomatoes (or what you want) and set up the dish as you want.

But before we get there, we need to marinate the chicken. So here are the ingredients for marinating:

Some salt and pepper
A grated clove of garlic and some thinly sliced onion
Olive oil and some paste/sauce (tomato or red pepper)
Additionally, if you would like to add some other spices, go ahead.

Cut your chicken so that you have pieces around the size of the shallots. Marinate the pieces in the ingredients mentioned above.

After a few hours of marinating, line up your goodies (marinated chicken, tomatoes, shallots, green peppers cut to fit, etc.) on your skewers. Grill these until the chicken meat is no longer pinkish.

DRIED BEANS SALAD WITH OLIVE OIL

2 glasses dried beans
2 carrots
1 celery root
2 onions
1 clove garlic
1/2 spoon thick tomato paste
three spoons chopped fresh parsley
1/3 spoon sugar
1/4 spoon salt
EVOO (extra virgin olive oil)

1. Wash the beans and let them soak in cold water from evening till morning (or use sieved canned beans if not). The next morning wash them again and boil them in fresh water until they are half boiled.
(I am sure you are familiar with the unpleasant results of eating beans. This process removes the ‘unpleasant results’ totally.)

2. Cut in small cubes the carrots, celery, onion and garlic;

3. Add them to a pot with a few spoons of olive oil; mix until they turn gold and carrots change a little their color;

4. Add the tomato paste and mix some more;

5. Add the beans (without the water in which they previously boiled), add sugar and salt, and 1.5-2 glasses of water. Cook on low fire. Cover with a lid later, while cooking.

6. When cooked, allow it to cool by partially uncovering the pot.

7. Remove to another platter and decorate with parsley.

Chill in the fridge.

Optional: you can add lemon juice to the salad. Try separately before trying on all your food.

DRIED BEANS SALAD WITH SOYA SAUCE

4 servings, 200 calories
Source: Sofra Magazine

400 g (14.10 oz.) dried beans
6 green onion
2 small spoons lemon juice
2 small spoons soya sauce
3 spoons EVOO
black pepper, salt, paprika

1. Wash the beans and let them soak in cold water from evening till morning (or use sieved canned beans if not). The next morning wash them again and boil them in fresh water until they have softened. You should add enough water to cover the beans, plus 1/2 glass more. If the beans need more water while boiling, you can add extra water but make sure it is hot water, not cold.

2. Add to a another pot with olive oil the chopped green onions, the lemon juice and the soya sauce. Mix for 2-3 minutes.

3. Add the beans with the water in which they have boiled, salt, and black pepper.

4. Boil on low fire for 10-15 minutes.

Serve cold.

Many diets have already qualified potatoes, rice, beans, grains, corn as bad for those who want to lose weight. This new ‘discovery’ proves that one can lose weight as long as you eat these veggies cold. We are already knew that each of the above reduces your hunger and fills you up quicker than other foods. But the latest news is that it also helps you burn fat faster. This food is rich in fiber and it keep you blood sugar under control – two factors extremely important if you want to lose weight.

You also lose weight because this resistant starch forces your body to stop using the carbs for fuel and, instead, it burns the fat in your body.

How can you obtain this starch? Easy. Cool your food in the fridge before eating it, and eat it cold. Do not rewarm the food because you lose the resistant starch. In other words – salads made from the foods above is the solution.

Since I have lived in Turkey for 3 years, I have also learn to replace flour with starch whenever needed.

One such meal a day should help you burn fat – given that you do not increase the quantity of food intake during the day but only replace a meal with such a dish.

So, let’s make a list of foods that, while eaten cold, can help you lose that extra weight:

* corn
* rice and brown rice
* yams
* slightly green bananas
* potatoes
* beans
* starch

I also feel I’m wasting time when I exercises – unless I play sports, which is different. So I either need to watch TV or read a book while exercising, not thinking about burnt calories. If I use the bike 30 minutes, out of those 10 are those I use thinking about what I am doing (5, for warm-up, at the beginning, and 5 minutes to reach my kilometers, calories, or minutes count, at the end). I use the other 20 watching TV or reading.

This week, even though I am low on money, I went to buy an indoor bike (magnetic is what i wanted) and I bought a Kettler Vento for 250 bucks. It’s worth it. Actually, I wanted a bike (similar to the elliptical below) that works out your arms too but those had no seat so the chances of reading and working out were dim.

30 minutes on such a bike can help you burn 300 calories, medium difficulty, medium pace. It’s not only the calories you burn, it’s working out the muscles. You can see the results the next day. Honestly.

For the upper body I do push-ups and I have my own weights so I exercisea few times a week, a few minutes and all’s going well. As for stomach – I don’t have a problem with losing weight there – I have built muscles there in the past so a few pillates plus crunches plus other funny exercises, 5 minutes a day, 4 times a week, help me enough to be stay satisfied.

Well, I’ve been walking a lot lately. I’ve been climbing stairs at work instead of taking the elevator. And last weekend I went out with a few friends to play some volleyball. Started as volleyball for one hour and ended with soccer, for another 30 minutes. I like volleyball but I love soccer. And it’s extremely good exercise for your legs if you play lots of high balls. It’s almost like running hurdles.

I got home with my muscles sore but feeling great! I’ve been also doing some exercise for my legs. Stretchings, mostly. Also, my back is a bit sore from a lot of seating and work and then driving, so I needed other exercises – out of which many involve the legs again – to rid myself of my back pains.

Oh – for the past two weeks I did not have crazy sugar cravings, even though I had my period. However, I am a huge fan of forest fruits – wild berries mostly, so I went to the market place and bought half a kilo of them. And I had every night, when I wanted something. I replaced sweets of any kind with this. I’ve fallen in love again with peaches so I have one every night. Before, I needed some kind of food two hours after dinner. Now I simply have a peach or some berries and I feel great.

I’ve also returned to an old habit of drinking plenty of yogurt – more than 4 glasses a day. One – it fills you up; two – it’s dairy so it helps you shed off those extra pounds.

I feel great. I even feel motivated.

Now I need to reach 110-112 by the end of September and I think it is possible. That little extra exercise, the fruits and the yogurt saved me. And for extra energy – a multivitamin pill or spirulina (with the multivitamins you have to be careful because they increase your appetite).

You might have read (or not) some of the previous posts on what NOT to do to lose weight. I am underlining it each time because from there to becoming an anorectic or a bulimic is not a long way.

I have seen plenty of cases, especially in my teens. I had a classmate whose best friend was naturally skinny. The pressure was too much for her, it seems, and from 115-120 pounds she got to 95-100. The thing is that she didn’t get there by being on a proper and healthy diet, but she got there by eating normally and then putting two fingers into her throat and emptying her stomach.

A friend I had was not fat, but she was a bit more roundish, because that’s how mother nature made her forms look. At home she was overeating lots of times as well. And then she was following a very struct diet and losing in between 10-15 pounds in two-three weeks. Then, in no time, she was putting everything back on. Her mind was so screwed after a holiday we had that when she came home she couldn’t stop herself eating anything and everything. Would you eat fish with chocolate? She was. And many other weird things. She craved food so badly, she couldn’t stop herself. And do you know what that was? The lack of food she put herself through. The lack of vitamins and minerals.

This is not a joke. This happens. It mostly happens with insecure people, or with teenagers. When you are 14-20, you can control your appetite better. So well you control it, that you get yourself in trouble.

Bulimia

According to theFreeDictionary, bulimia is “an eating disorder, common especially among young women of normal or nearly normal weight, that is characterized by episodic binge eating and followed by feelings of guilt, depression, and self-condemnation. It is often associated with measures taken to prevent weight gain, such as self-induced vomiting, the use of laxatives, dieting, or fasting”.

I recognize half of the issues (the first part) because I could eat forever before my period. I do control myself however, or I prepare myself for this occasion by buying lots of fruits and vegetables and cereals or diet cereal bars. Even so I feel guilty eating. But I try to exercise and drink penty of tea and I also know that these cravings will be over the moment my period comes. I also know that these pounds will also come off then.

Anorexia

According to Wikipedia, anorexia is “an eating disorder characterized by low body weight and body image distortion with an obsessive fear of gaining weight. Individuals with anorexia often control body weight by voluntary starvation, purging, vomiting, excessive exercise, or other weight control measures, such as diet pills or diuretic drugs”.

I do have an obsessive fear of gaining weight but I am happy with that. If you lose the fear, you are in trouble. Especially when you have a tendency to put on weight. I don’t think that the fear of putting on weight is something negative, as long as you know how to deal with it. Excessive exercise – well, you have to tell me what excessive means. Because I don’t think that exercising for 1 hour a day or two is excessive. Unless you exhaust yourself each time. The others are a problem though. Puking, starvation, purging, laxatives – they are the sure way to putting on weight later on.

When you think about doing any of the above in order to lose weight, think of this: you will get better or you will die. It’s very easy. And you will get better either by yourself, and you will end up destroying your metabolism, or someone else will take action and put you into a hospital, and then you will get well again. Which still means that you have ruined your metabolism.

So, look at it the way you want, but if you are taking this way or you find yourself on it, stop before it gets to late. This will NOT get you slimmer, but sick and in trouble with fighting off pounds for the rest of your life.

Obviously, that makes me feel good. Because You cannot always tell, you know? So when people tell you that you feel better.

I’ve started jogging (like stepping in a way) in the house for about 20-30 mins. It makes you lose that extra water. Then I usually have 2 cups of hot tea – usually one cup of green tea and then one of Earl Grey (both without sugar because I never have my tea or coffee with any kind of sugar – in my view, sugar ruins the taste of tea and coffee). The next morning the scale went down one pound, even though I am right before my period and I retain water like crazy, and even though I ate.

Oh, unfortunately I couldn’t follow very strictly my diet, but I have used some elements of it now and then. So even though I haven’t lost as much as I wanted – since I did not follow the guidelines – I have lost about 2-3 pounds again. Maybe more, but since like I have said I am before my period, I cannot tell. At the moment I am a bit swollen and I will be even more. But I will get to see what really happened after my period is over.

Those who have been on this diet claim that they had lost about 8 pounds in one week. Lucky are those who love cabbage soup. I am not one of them.

Honesyly, the only cabbage I like is the pickled one. And that one only made the Romanian way.

Anyway, if you choose cabbage – and you should – then you ought to be in mind that the best cabbage (like the Chinese one) is when it is cooked only for 5-10 minutes, so it remains crisp. If you have realized, all Chinese dishes use crisp vegetables, unlike most European or American recipes.

2 onions, chopped
3 tomatoes, chopped (you can add tomato juice as well, but not ONLY tomato joice)
1 small head cabbage, shredded
2-3 carrots, cut into cubes or shredded
2 green bellpeppers, thinly sliced
1-2 cubes of bouillon or beefstock (your choice)

optional: hot pepper, sliced
salt – make sure the cubes weren’t ALSO salty
pepper

Optional spices : they make the difference between fad food and fab food – parsley, garlic, basil, paprika, and thyme.

You are supposed to eat this day in and day out and nothing else. No sugar, no alcohol, no bread. Just cabbage soup, unsweetened tea, and black coffee.

Have fun!