Today we are going to close the first two weeks with the acquisition of two very important new habits that are going to change your life. Up to now I expect you have taken the decision or embracing the Mediterranean Diet or at least another similar balance diet as Gicelle has done. She is following the South Beach Diet, which is a version of the Med Diet to weight loss, very similar to the plan I am proposing to you. Anyway, Mediterranean Diet should be adopted forever. The only thing you have to change is the type of food you have. Not everybody that follows the Med Diet is trying to lose weight. Actually, when you follow this Lifestyle, you forget that these problems ever existed. This is why the South Beach Diet is just for a limited period of time.

The two new habits I bring to you are:

1) Walk in any occasion you have and use the stairs, not the elevator. These actions, repeated day after day, week after weeks and years after years, will probably extend your life for more than a decade.

2) Start the day doing a easy abdominals activity. Every day, after waking up and going to the toilet, go back to the bed and do the legs exercises in the picture as many times as you can. In a few weeks, you will be able to reach 300-400 repetitions. You put your limits. You don’t have to do many different exercises. Just the one in the picture. And the legs do not have necessarily to be completely stretched to produce results. This is also an aerobic practice that will bring fresh air to your lungs.

This habit will keep your waist thin and will make all the muscles around stronger. Your belly will become flat. This prevents many other disorders. Everybody knows how dangerous is the abdominal fat, how it clogs the arteries, hurts the heart and leads to worse atherosclerosis. The exercises also prevents inguinal hernia. (Go to the doctor immediately if you suspect you might have this problem)

Of course, you can do a more intense o complete set of exercises. The problem is that we generally don’t find the time for them or abandon the practice after a few days. This small daily habit is easy, fast and rewarding. Once you get it, you won’t abandon it.

You will become easily addicted to both practices.

One of the most important parts of the Mediterranean Diet is the practice of a regular physical exercise. It will contribute to prevent many cardiovascular diseases, Type 2 diabetes, obesity and many others.

You have to choose the type of activity or sport that might suit more to you. Your preferences are important, as the place where you live, your friends and the time you can dedicate to it.

There are three types of physical exercise: aerobic, anaerobic and fitness training. The first one is the most adequate to prevent cardiovascular diseases. It consists of an activity from a medium to long duration (from 15 minutes to two hours depending on the age and condition) and low intensity, non explosive, that helps to keep all your body on shape, specially heart and lungs.

During the process, glycogen is split into glucose and burnt out. When the level of muscles complex carbohydrates lows, fat metabolism is triggered to produce more energy. Anyway, this process only occurs on long periods of sports (longer than one hour).

Now you have to choose your sport. To do a really aerobic exercise (that means “with oxygen”), you must be able to keep it a certain time without getting exhausted or being obliged to stop. Some of them are walking, jogging, running, cycling, swimming, etc. It depends on you.

I go swimming several days a week all the year through (two hours) in the Mediterranean Sea. In winter time, I use neoprene equipment and train more my legs with a good pair of fins.

You have to try some to see which one suit you best. You could join a group of friends, as doing it alone is sometimes boring. Once you are sure, invest in good equipment. And off you go!

Try to plan your exercise times. And start slowly. It’s a good idea to pass a medical exam first, even if you think you don’t have health problems.

Today we are going to talk about Mediterranean Breakfast. Long time ago it used to be a bowl of “coffee” (normally roast barley, as coffee was very rare and expensive), goat milk, non degermed flour traditional bread, olive oil and sometimes a salty sardine or a salty herring and maybe a tomato. This was the normal breakfast of a peasant who had to go to work from sunrise to sunset. More accommodated people used to send the maid to buy “churros” or had whiter bread and better olive oil. Logically, they had real coffee and the same goat milk. Nevertheless, the milk was not as good as the peasant one, as normally the shepherd, who milked the goats in customers’ own homes, used to bring the bucket with some water in it. He has previously asked permission in the preceding house to “wash” the recipient in the sink. Only expert housekeepers or housewives knew the trick.

Churros

The traditional bread was made with non degermed flour, from which they used to take away part of the bran, that has been proved later to be a dietary cause of osteoporosis. This is why bread made with “degermed whole wheat flour”, that is really degermed and refined flour with added bran (fake whole bread), should be rejected. Generally, almost 99% of the “whole bread” is faked. Nowadays, the germ normally is removed as in a short period of time it makes the flour turns rancid.

This picture of the bread was taken from the Cecipereza’s and her brother Salva’s blog, one of the persons who know more about bread in the World, apart from being an excellent humorist. The bread is really artisan, as it was made without yeast. It is not an unleavened bread, as you can see, as she uses a little of the dough of the previous days, as they used to do in ancient times. It is a homemade bread.

The name of her blog has nothing to do with a trade mark or brand. It comes from a personal anecdote who led to a pun impossible to translate into English (it has to be pronounced in Andalusian). You should try to read it from the same Cecipereza’s about page.

Artisan bread

Anyway, let’s come back to the XXI Century. Even today, breakfast continues being a not very important meal. Many people just have a coffee or a tea and go to work. Nevertheless, many of them have another breakfast two or three hours later.

I would advise you not to depend on any food establishment (you never know what they are giving to you). So, I would recommend that you’d have a big breakfast at home. I would choose tea, skimmed milk and no sugar (or any sweetener) in it. This is something that will take time to you. However, after you have accustomed your taste buds to unsweetened drinks, you’ll reject any overly sweet or even sweet drink. And you will get your reward in the form of a better health, as in the case of avoiding overly salty food. Artificial sweeteners are potentially dangerous. There is a long report of Dr. David S. Ludwig, MD, PhD, in the Journal of the American Medical Association about it. “Artificially Sweetened Beverages, Cause for Concern”.

Wheat kernel

I would add to the breakfast a big amount of fruits (I’ll tell you later which are better), traditional bread, olive oil, dairy products and some fish, ham or even eggs. You can have, two or three times a week, an omelet with a yolk and two or three egg whites. Give the other yolks to your dog. You can also boil a dozen of eggs, keep them in the fridge and eat sometimes one or two whites.

With such a breakfast, you will be satisfied until lunch time. If the lunch is late, you can have one or two apples in the middle of the morning. Apples are clean, healthy and can be easily eaten without spoiling your shirt. Eating an apple half an hour before lunch has additional advantages: It prepares your stomach and will calm your hunger. (It’s a trick). Another one is taking strawberries before a cocktail party. You will not attack the canapés and your breath will be lovely.

And, at the lunch time, do what I said in “Weight Loss Tip 4: Start with a big salad” or boiled vegetables. (In the future “BS or BV”).

For dinner, what you eat will depend on the exercise you do, on the calories you burn. However, if you are very hungry go again for the BS or BV and something else. If you want dessert, take fruit.

Don’t forget, every time you are hungry in the middle of the main meals, go for a piece or two of fresh fruit.

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