A lady drinks a glass of wine in the kitchen as figures out her healthy meal plans

Healthy meal plans

Well, if you are here is because you have decided to follow the Mediterranean Diet. You have chosen the option of the healthiest lifestyle in the World, no matter that many Mediterranean citizens are shifting to the fast-junk-food culture. Authorities are worries about the fact that new generations will have a worse quality life, and that their lives will be shorter.

The first thing to do is to decide which can be your healthy meal plan taking into account your daily commitments and routine.

I am going to explain to you my own experience. I live two minutes away from my office. My sons and daughters are grown up and live by themselves. And my wife has her own food schemes. It doesn’t sound very familiar, isn’t? Anyway and very frequently, we both have the opportunity to have meals together.

So, most of the days (when I don’t have lunch or dinner outside), I have the following plan:

Healthy meal plans A.

I get up at seven. Shower. My breakfast is green tea and cold high quality skimmed milk (2 pints approximately between both) and a slice of traditional bread with extra virgin olive oil.

10.30-11 Big lunch. I have a big salad or a big vegetables dish and something else after that. It can be fish, chicken, or something found in the refrigerator. Sometimes, I substitute both dishes for a big bowl of an elaborated dish as “porrusalda” (made with leeks, potatoes and cod. I will post the recipe one day) or something similar. No desert, no bread with the porrusalda, only a glass of good red wine or a small beer).

Back to work.

15.00 One or two oranges or mandarins. TV news.

15.30-17 . Siesta.

17,30 -19-30 Sports. (3 -4 times a week)

20,00. Dinner. I take another big salad or boiled vegetables. Later, fish or meat, or iberico ham, … Anything. I’ll tell you tomorrow what happens after a big main dish.

1.30 A.M. Go to bed

Healthy meal plans B

(Remember, when I have lunch in a restaurant).

7.30 A.M. Big breakfast. It can be eggs, ham, meat, fish (sardines in olive oil are good), smoked salmon, bread, fruit (grapefruit, strawberries…) and tea again. Then I wash an apple, put it in a bag and take it to the office.

13.00. I eat the apple.

14.00. I go to the restaurant. The driver takes me there. Normally, I come back walking, as the meals are generous. Those days I eat everything they serve. I have to say that the restaurant is generally a selected Mediterranean one called “Santiago” where only real food is served. So, I have no problem at all.

After lunch (we finish normally at 16.30-17.), I go shopping, or visit a friend. No siesta. No sport. For dinner I eat a grapefruit and an orange.

12.30 A.M Go to bed

Healthy meal plans C

(Remember, when I have dinner outside).

I follow the same plan than A, but with a longer siesta and a shorter or no period of sport. Maybe, I take the dog out.

21.00 Dinner outside. I eat normally all the real food served. If I find aperitifs as chips or fried maize I look aside. Anyway, places are always selected (restaurants or friends’ homes).

2.A.M. (or later) Go to bed.

Well, I don’t expect you to do the same. It is just an example. Now, you have to make your own healthy meal plans. In most cases it will be more or less like my plan B, but with a shorter and earlier lunch. And probably without “siesta”.

We’ll continue next post.

A middle age couple have dinner, part of their healthy meals plans