- I am pretty excited that we get to have some wine.
(upbeat music)
Mmm, that is excellent.
Hey guys, it's Katie
and for the next 14 days,
I'm gonna be trying out the Mediterranean Diet.
I've actually been wanting to do this for a very long time
because it actually seems more like a lifestyle change
than a super restrictive way of eating.
And it apparently has many health benefits
such as increasing life expectancy,
reducing major chronic diseases
and improving your quality of life and well-being.
There's been celebrities that have also attested
to its health benefits like Selena Gomez,
Penelope Cruz and John Goodman.
I kinda wanna undo some bad habits
that I've created over the last two years
in quarantine, out of quarantine
and just commit to my health and happiness.
So to get started, I spoke with a dietician.
And basically the Mediterranean Diet
is an eating plan based on the traditional cuisines
of Greece, Italy and other countries
surrounding the Mediterranean sea.
It's mainly plant-based
and emphasizes the intake of whole grains,
fruits and vegetables,
healthy fats, such as olive oil,
as well as nuts and legumes,
over the intake of animal protein,
which is usually served in smaller portions.
Typically fish or seafood is the preferred meat.
And it's also about your lifestyle.
So sharing meals with others, not watching the TV
or being on the computer when you're eating,
being present and connected
and also partaking in daily activities that you like.
Like walking your dog or riding a bicycle.
The things to avoid on this diet are processed foods,
refined grains and foods with added sugars,
which is gonna be hard for me.
While alcohol is usually for just special occasions,
you can have a glass of red wine a night if you like.
Which I would like.
I think this is doable.
I'm gonna try my best, so lets try it.
So day one of this diet started a little bit rough.
Okay, so I was supposed to go shopping
and meal prep last night,
but I ended up sitting in about 10 hours of traffic.
So I just really didn't feel like doing it.
So today I'm gonna see what I have in my pantry
and then go to the store, do shopping
and get myself set up for the rest of the week.
So that morning for breakfast,
I basically had to just look around my kitchen,
see what I had
and I scrounged up some muesli that I cooked in water,
I added an old banana that was about to go bad,
some chopped walnuts, cinnamon
and just kinda threw something together.
That's pretty good.
Not the best thing I've ever had for breakfast,
but sweetness of the banana, the crunch of the walnut.
I can see how this would be a very filling meal.
So after I had breakfast, I headed out to go shopping.
This is my receipt, very long.
(indistinct)
I got tons of fruits and vegetables.
I don't love vegetables
so it was weird to get this many, like asparagus.
I'm excited to push myself out of my comfort zone and cook.
So I'm gonna put all of this stuff away
and then I'm gonna start making dinner.
So I made some whole wheat pasta
with this pesto that used baby rugelach,
spinach, lemon, almonds.
I had never had anything like it. It was really tasty.
I put that all together and to make it a little bit hardier,
I threw in some white beans.
There was no meat, but that was okay.
I am pretty excited that we get to have some wine.
I am excited to eat those.
- I am too.
- This doesn't feel like a diet.
- If this was a pasta only diet.
(chuckles)
- [Both] That was good.
- I think we're also going to walk tonight
because part of the Mediterranean lifestyle and diet is like
eating with other people, sharing a meal
- Walking around.
- and then maybe doing some exercise you enjoy.
- Great. - We are walking in the dark.
Do you feel healthy over in the shadow?
- I feel so healthy. - This is the creepiest video
that's ever been made.
- I love it.
- It's so creepy. Don't poop, Rizzo.
(indistinct)
No.
Good morning. It is day two of the Mediterranean diet
and last night's dinner was really good.
And so it doesn't really feel like I'm dieting at all,
'cause carbs are not off limits on this diet.
I missed dessert last night,
but I think you know I'm a grownup,
the glass of wine was kind of dessert on its own
and overall, I'm feeling good
and I'm ready to make some breakfast.
I made one of my favorite things, avocado toast.
So I took some whole wheat bread
and then I mashed up an avocado with like
lime juice, garlic powder.
And then I topped that with some cherry tomatoes,
salt, capers and then I just sprinkled it with some chives.
It was so good. It was quick to make,
I don't always normally eat breakfast,
but I do feel like it's important
when you're starting a diet
to try to make sure you're incorporating that in.
And I just had leftovers of that pasta for lunch
and for dinner, I made a really easy soup.
Basically what I did is I heated up some olive oil,
added onion, carrots and celery,
cook that down to the (indistinct) for about five minutes.
Then I added some salt, some garlic, rosemary,
added in some chicken stock and some tomatoes,
come up to a boil
and then I simmered that for 30 minutes.
At the end, just added in some white beans and kale,
popped it off with some bread at the very end.
Aha!
- This is really good. - I like it, yeah.
- I love the freshness of the kale in it.
And then it just tastes nice and hardy and homie.
- Yeah. And we haven't had meat now for two dates
and I haven't missed it so--
- No, not at all. - Been good.
So day three,
I actually had to film off site and I just threw together
a really quick breakfast with the muesli
and I added some chop dried fruit.
I thought I was gonna like it, but I absolutely did not.
This was probably one of the least favorite things
that I ate.
But by the time I got home from my shoot and it was dinner,
I was in a much, much better mood.
And my husband and I actually cooked together that day
and we made this sheet pan chicken
with all these peppers and vegetables and potatoes.
And you can eat potatoes on this diet,
which I'm a big fan of 'cause I love potatoes.
Day three dinner and this looks delicious.
Wait, don't be crazy.
- I am crazy. (indistinct)
- Let's just be normal.
(chuckling)
This looks amazing.
What are you doing? - That's my face.
- Day three dinner
and I think this looks really good.
- I think it looks great.
- I'm excited to have some chickens.
(chuckling) - Some meat.
- We have not had meat for two and a half days.
- That's good.
- The sweetness of a pepper
and the tomato is almost like jammy.
- Mm-hmm. - That's good.
- Day four is like hard for me to talk about because
my cat was sick,
it started to get sick and we took him to the vet
and so I didn't time for breakfast.
And we got home that day and ended up passing away,
which was really hard.
And so instead of making some poor choices,
which I think I go to food for comfort,
but the one thing I will say
is because I'd been cooking all week,
I had all these leftovers
being able to kind of sustain yourself
through such an emotionally draining time.
I'm so glad that I had like cooked earlier in the week
and also had healthy things in the house.
But believe me, I didn't stay quite on track.
Like we ordered out one night
'cause I just could not bring myself to cook at all
and I ordered pho.
I definitely had a cookie.
By day eight,
I was getting back on track because I wanted to commit
to taking care of myself.
But this wasn't really about work or anything like that.
Like eating healthy was about me.
And so I got back on track,
made myself breakfast and I had avocado toast
and I put an egg on it and it was delicious.
That night I made one of my favorite dishes,
which is whitefish piccata.
I just wanna show you
that I don't have enough counter space
so when I'm working here, sometimes I put it on a stool.
(laughing)
It's like a pile fish (indistinct)
Dinner on day eight is a white fish piccata.
I definitely struggled tonight with flipping the fish
and like lots of bits got stuck on the bottom.
- I think it looks great.
- Might've been too hot.
Maybe it was because I used whole wheat flour
instead of AP flour. Mmm.
- That's very tasty.
- It's different with the whole wheat flour for sure, but--
- But I like it though.
It still works really well
with the whole wheat flour. - Yeah.
Day nine, I was really getting into the diet.
It was feeling like less of a chore.
And I had made a beautiful lunch of tomatoes
with this kind of salsa that went over the top.
It was very yummy.
And Chris and I actually sat down and had lunch together.
That is something we haven't really been able
to find the time to do while we've been working from home.
Maybe he's in a meeting when I'm ready to eat
or I'm in a meeting when he's ready to eat.
But this day we found time,
we sat down, we had lunch together
and it was really, really nice.
Mmm, mmm.
- Oh, it is really good.
- It's got nice acidity, nice pick.
I love it. I love it.
For dinner though, it was my favorite.
I had gnocchi.
I am not sure if it's totally okay to eat on this diet,
but I don't care.
I had it. It was delicious.
I made it with peas and asparagus and it was so filling.
So I have never felt hungry while doing this diet.
Okay, are you ready?
- Yeah. - Okay.
- You know what I like about that?
- Yeah.
- Everything. - Everything.
- It was one of my favorite recipes. I found it online.
And if you have to make alterations for them to work,
it's pretty easy to do.
Just take out the butter, add some oil, not a big deal.
I'm having lunch at work
and I've definitely am breaking some rules.
Day 10 was a real challenge for me
because I actually had to go in to film at work.
We were filming a Lost in Translation.
I didn't eat breakfast that morning.
And when you're on set, you order lunch,
they choose to go out to somewhere
and I hadn't really ordered out
while trying to strictly follow this diet.
This diet's a little bit hard to order out.
I should have gotten some brown rice today.
I got regular rice,
but I didn't have a lot of time to make my lunch order.
I just went for it and I got spicy tuna.
At least I'm having fish. That's good.
And avocado. That's good.
Everything has processed or has something additive to it.
Oh wait, oh my gosh.
There's pistachios.
I could have pistachios.
It was really nice that day as I came home
and Chris was making me dinner.
What are we having?
- We're gonna have some sort of a
spicy crusted salmon and beans.
- Dinner tonight looking good, Chris.
Mmm, that is excellent. - Mm-hmm.
- I'm not a huge fish fan, I'm not a big salmon fan,
so I would say so fishy, but this doesn't taste super fishy.
It's like every meal I have I'm like, oh,
this might be one of my favorite meals.
- It's pretty good.
- Well, I guess it's another dinner
just you and me sitting here.
We always watch TV when we eat dinner, almost always.
But this is the 10th day where we had just sat down
and talked more.
And honestly, I think it's been really good
for our relationship.
Like if you could sit down with your family,
when you have time and eat together, I highly recommend it.
Day 11, I am really starting to crave some dessert.
So I find a recipe online,
a tasty recipe actually, for yogurt bark.
So you just combine some yogurt, some berries,
you blend it all up,
freeze it for a few hours and you've got yogurt bark.
For dinner this night I really wanted to mix it up.
I'm gonna make pizza.
I found a recipe for a whole wheat crust online.
So I'll do that tonight
'cause you can eat pizza on Mediterranean diet
and I feel like if you can, you should.
So I find a recipe online
and I make this whole wheat dough.
It takes a while because it has to prove
and then prove again,
but then Chris joined me
and we did all the toppings together.
We just use some stuff I had left over from the (indistinct)
like tomatoes, cherry tomatoes,
we added some fennel 'cause we love fennel.
And we did a little bit of ham,
but usually I would do like a ton of cheese,
but meatless cheese on this diet,
so trying to stay true to that.
- Hey!
- California pizza. Can't even wait to sit down.
I'm gonna try this pizza. I'm so hungry.
- How is it?
- It's very good,
but it's definitely a tomato pie.
Don't have like the cheesiness
that like a big, big, cheesy pie would have
but I don't mind it.
And the wheat crust is good.
Definitely not as good as your regular old pizza crust,
but it's still yummy.
Survey says one Chris thumb up.
Chris, I made dessert tonight.
- Whoa, whoo!
- My hand's freezing up. My hand's freezing up.
- Oh my God, you're gonna burn your fingers.
- Should we try this? - What is that?
- It's yogurt and berries. - Oh!
- I just said berries like you said berries.
- Berries. Some berries.
- It's a little tart.
- I like that though.
- Yeah.
- It is tart. - It got you.
For breakfast this morning,
I'm having some toast with an egg and some berries.
This is my second egg of the week.
I don't think that's too many eggs.
I usually would have like two or one a day.
So I've really cut back from my normal eggs for breakfast.
And I didn't have any avocado so couldn't use any avocado.
So this is what we got. Cheers.
It's oozing.
Yes. I like your sweater.
Your sweater's very cute.
Day 12 of Mediterranean diet.
I'm almost at the end of it.
I thought it would be like,
oh, I can't wait for this to be over.
But actually it doesn't feel crazy different.
I feel healthy, I feel happy,
I'm going on a walk with my dog.
So just a couple more days to go, definitely can do it.
I also had pizza leftovers for lunch.
It was a super easy day,
but I knew the real challenge was coming the next day.
Day 13 was my mom's birthday
and we threw a big party for her with all her family.
It's a party, I'm having a cocktail, just a little one.
There was many Bundt cakes.
There was a beautiful charcuterie board.
My sister made tons of Mexican food
that we ordered from my mom's favorite Mexican restaurant.
Cocktails and I partook in them all,
but it was a special occasion.
Yes, I went away from the diet,
but again, I didn't feel guilty about it
because on special occasions you can indulge in this.
Morning. It is day 14 of the Mediterranean diet
and I've got to say, I woke up.
I slept in and I still feel so tired.
Like my body feels very lethargic
and I honestly think it's because
I ate all that food yesterday, like really rich food
and I just kind of kind of amazed how quickly my body has
I think started to change with that diet.
I'm gonna go down and have breakfast with my family
and there's gonna be lots of temptations,
but it's the last day of the diet
and I'm just gonna try to like keep on track
and hopefully I'm gonna feel better by this evening.
And that night I flew home and when I got back,
Chris was cooking for me again
and he made a beautiful dinner
that was zoodles and shrimp.
And I hate zucchini, like I hate it,
but I loved this dinner.
So maybe I don't hate zucchini. Maybe I love it.
We did however, on the last night,
watch the season finale of one of our favorite shows
while we ate.
This diet for me was never about losing weight,
but I did lose four pounds.
And in two weeks, that's a pretty healthy amount
of weight to be losing
and to be indulging in some sweets and stuff during it.
I feel good about that.
I overall just feel like my mental health is better
and I have more energy, I think, across the board.
It was a lot of work to make your meal plans and go shopping
and do all that prep,
but at the end of the day,
it made my life so much easier.
Planning my meals for the week,
that is so helpful as the week goes by.
And it helps you make the right choices.
If you have the right food in your house,
you're gonna make better choices.
The diet is super customizable.
So there's no quantities that you have to eat or something,
there's no calorie counting.
I didn't feel any guilt,
which I think a lot of times guilt
comes when you're dieting.
And I don't like that.
It sets me up for failure.
Give it a try if you want to.
Thank you guys for watching.
(upbeat music)