Newbie w/ Mediterranean Diet Questions

[dr.girlfriend]

Hi all;

Sorry to bust straight in with a question, but nothing much came up on a search.  My recent physical showed bloodwork in the prediabetic range.  I'll admit I was surprised, I know that I'm overweight but I always thought that I ate pretty healthy (aside from very sweet coffee and no breakfast in the morning) and that lack of exercise was my main problem. 

I'm tracking my nutrition and calories with Lose It and am doing pretty well, but my doctor also suggested a mediterranean-style diet.  I've read some online stuff, but can anyone suggest any good books for this, or even just favorite meals?  I feel like a lot of times these days I'm so unsure what to eat I'm just "freezing up" and not eating much of anything.  :-P  It's like if I can't do salmon, salad, or yogurt I'm out of ideas. 

Any advice would be appreciated!  My husband is diabetic (just bad genes, he's totally skinny and healthy) and I want to be able to give him a kidney one day if he needs it, so I am very serious about these changes.  So far I'm taking Vitamin D and Iron, doing fructose in my coffee for the lower glycemic index and having yogurt for breakfast, and then trying to do either just salad or soup and salad for lunch.  Dinner is the biggest sticking point, aside from salmon and veggies or rotisserie chicken and veggies I'm kind of out of ideas. 

[thom]

Welcome to the board!

I don't really have suggestions on the Mediterranean diet, but I think just aiming for as many veggies/ fruits as possible, enough protein, and choosing less processed foods is a good place to start. For dinner, I think salmon & chicken are fine and you can actually do a lot more with them than you think. Grill them and put over a fresh salad with nuts, a little cheese, and vinaigrette seasoned how you like. Or, make up whole wheat pasta with olive oil, stirfry veggies and meat of your choice. Adding in some easy lean beef options like flank steak, sirloin, or lean ground beef would give you similar protein w/ more iron and some more variety too.

If you like eggs, you can also do easy frittata or omelettes with lots of veggies and some healthy fats like avocado and/or lean meats. You can even do delicious pizza with pesto, meats/ veggies, feta and just choose or make a thinner crust, whole wheat if you can.

I love Greek yogurt for snacks and try to either add my own fruit or use it as a dip w/ fresh veggies.

I get stuck in food ruts sometimes too, and it just helps to hear other ideas!

ETA: If you stick around the board you'll definitely see other food posts and suggestions too. Good luck with everything!

[ktzmoh]

Hi! I recognize you from H&G ( i need to be more active over there).

I don't know what specific metric came back as pre-diabetic, but I'll give you my experience. I was never super overweight - I had about 25lbs to lose, but nothing major, and I had what I thought was a pretty healthy diet. The first year my fasting glucose came back in the pre-diabetic range, I assumed it was a fluke, but I began working out - running more regularly and trying to just be more active in general. The second year, it was unchanged and I cleaned up my diet big time. I made incremental moves toward a clean whole foods diet (for example, we did a pizza night one night every week and I just subbed that out for something healthier at first, then I banned chips from the house etc... little moves like that are individually not too radical, but cumulatively make a big difference).

The third year, despite having lost 20lbs, my fasting glucose was still unchanged. I then dropped all dairy from my diet after that third year test, and went back after 6 weeks. I was really excited to find that my fasting glucose dropped way down to the middle of the normal range (and I lost lbs very quickly). I was actually pretty shocked by such a dramatic change. I can't say if it's the lack of dairy (all dairy is gone - no yogurt, no cheese, no milk, no butter), or the additional food that I used to replace dairy (plant sources to maintain roughly the same calories, protein and micronutrients). But whatever it was worked. I would encourage you to try it.

Our diet is pretty similar to mediterranean (without the fish). I'd recommend getting yourself some new cookbooks (there are many mediterranean diet cookbooks out there) to teach yourself how to cook in that way and give you inspiration. Although not a Mediterranean diet book per se, I have really enjoyed the Oh She Glows cookbook - basically everything I've had in there is really excellent and I think would fit into that kind of diet. I don't know if you use pinterest, but that's been a very helpful tool for me too - i use it like a recipe file and on Sundays when we meal plan, I flip through my food board for inspiration.

[mrs.jacinthe]

R and I had a lot of success with Sonoma Diet (which is a Mediterranean diet with some alterations) a few years back. I did find, however, that the serving sizes she mentions in the actual diet book were too restrictive for someone with athletic inclinations. The cookbook, however, is really great for recipe ideas. Basically, you use a large plate, put veggies (the richer in color, the better) on half of it, a starch on a quarter of it, and meat or other protein on the other quarter. Bonus: she suggests wine pairings with each meal.

[starlily]

Instead of yogurt for breakfast, I'd try to do eggs or something else non-dairy and higher protein instead. I remember when I had GD that the advice was to avoid dairy in the mornings because it's harder to process if you have insulin resistance. Save it for an afternoon snack, maybe with some chopped walnuts and fruit mixed in.

Pinterest has been my favorite resource recently for healthy dinner recipes.

I also seem to use a lot of recipes from Kalyn's Kitchen, Skinnytaste, Stupid Easy Paleo, and Elly Says Opa.

[dr.girlfriend]

Feb 27, 2015 16:34:18 GMT -5 ktzmoh said:

Hi! I recognize you from H&G ( i need to be more active over there).

I don't know what specific metric came back as pre-diabetic, but I'll give you my experience.

Thanks!  My fasting glucose was actually borderline but my A1C was 6% (5.7% and below is normal).