DIETA

Is it me or do I feel that Greek girls have more trouble than most for losing weight? Maybe it has something to do with genetics, but as far as Greek girl physiques go, I’ve seen two types–the stick insect, can’t pinch your skin kind, and the rolly-polly love-handled mama like me. Maybe it has something to do with the original race of Greek we are descended from–the Dorian being the skinny types, the Achaens, the thick ones. Be it as it may, as a Greek girl whose tendency is to have lots of babies and eat platefuls of pastichio and mousaka, you are probably always on the lookout for ways to pat the fat and keep the lean.

1. Try a diet that focuses on protein and vegetables. For example, don’t opt for the pastichio but the kalamari or the grilled tsipoura with Greek salad
2. Drink plenty of water. Frozen or chilled water makes your body lose more calories to get it to body room temperature.
3. Don’t cook or eat with salt or sugar. You will get used to it after a while and you won’t miss the gliko.
4. Eat mila and achladia instead of galaktobouriko and kadaifi. Fruit over chocolate or heavy sweets any day. Fructose, a natural sugar, is better than sucrose, the processed white sugar you find in most things manufactured in America.
5. Start checking food labels. Compare nutritional values. If you make this a habit, you will start avoiding foods whose main ingredient is listed as “high-fructose corn syrup.” Pick foods that give you the most nutritional punch per calorie for your lunch.
6. Eat three meals a day, including something for breakfast. Although breakfast is a thing close to impossible for a Greek to do, it is the one meal that gives you that “go” the “umpf” to get your day started. Nothing too much but a bowl of cereal or oatmeal with a half cup of O.J. and a coffee would be good. If you suffer your body through long stretches without a morsel to eat, it starts storing fat instead of losing it because it thinks it is slowly being starved to death.
7. Watch the portions! Share an entree with a friend the next time you’re at your Uncle’s diner. It’s all you’re probably hungry for anyway. It saves food and money.
8. Avoid carbonated drinks. Coca-Cola and ginger ale are diet anathemas. Drink water first and foremost ( 62 ounces a day) and some fruit juices (100% pure) when you can.

Remember, the Mediterranean diet varies enough to provide you with very healthy choices. So, kali orexi!