I followed the Mediterranean diet for a week, and I get why it's so popular (2024)

The diet includes things like a focus on foods like fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, and nuts; olive oil, rather than other oils or butter; red wine in moderation; and meat and dairy in moderation.

As a pescatarian who eats mostly vegetarian, this is one of the few diets I feel I could actually follow. Paleo, Whole30, Atkins, and keto diets focus too heavily on meat for me, but this one seemed easier.

Here's how the week went:

Day one: I cheated already

First off, I knew my challenge would be getting enough of everything. Recommendations are about six to seven servings of fruits and vegetables and five to six servings of whole grains each day.

I love fruits and vegetables, but that is a lot of servings. I also eat mostly gluten/grain-free, so I was going to have to make a point of incorporating more grains to make this work.

With that in mind, my day started out fine.

For breakfast, I had oatmeal with flax and chia seeds, and an apple with coconut peanut butter. Aside from the addition of the apple, this was fairly similar to the oatmeal I would normally eat.

I was out running errands at lunchtime, so I stopped into Jason's Deli for the salad bar. I shied away from all the things on the bar I would normally get — pasta salad, croutons, avocado ranch dressing — since I wasn't sure about the ingredients. Instead, I had a colorful salad of veggies, beans, and a hard-boiled egg.

For dinner, I made zucchini noodles with mushrooms, onions, and tomato sauce. Since there wasn't any protein, and I don't particularly like seafood with my pasta, I cooked up some faux meat crumbles.

These are definitely not a "whole food" and therefore probably not allowed on the diet, but I had to break the rules just this once.

Day 2: Following the diet while dining out was harder than I thought

For breakfast, I had cereal with chia and flax seeds, shredded coconut, and almond milk. After breakfast, my day was full of the usual Sunday errands and then some, so I didn't get to prepare any food the rest of the day.

My fiancé wanted to go to a barbecue place near our house, and I didn't want to ruin his lunch with my diet, so we went. This was my biggest test so far (and probably all week). Normally, at that restaurant, I get a five-cheese grilled cheese on Texas toast and fries, but that wasn't going to work this week.

Instead, I chose a salmon salad that included quinoa, chickpeas, and lots of veggies. It was tasty, but I started hating the diet for taking my grilled cheese from me.

We finished the day late, and I didn't feel like cooking so we ran by the grocery store and grabbed a bunch of stuff from the deli. I chose a chickpea and tomato salad, quinoa, and riced cauliflower.

I think I did OK given the circ*mstances, but I didn't get nearly enough fruit.

Day 3: I spent all of my time in the kitchen

I made an egg and vegetable scramble for breakfast that I paired with a banana.

I cooked some extra vegetables to go with some whole-grain pasta I was making for lunch. Cooking both meals simultaneously meant I had to get up earlier than normal, and I was not happy about it.

As a mid-morning snack, I had an apple and a Mamma Chia pudding.

Dinner was a shrimp fajita bowl with whole-grain rice, pinto beans, avocado, and salsa.

Day 4: I stopped trying to prepare intricate dishes

I was already tired of cooking every meal, which I know I didn't technically have to do, but I felt like if I cooked meals I was more able to control the ingredients and amount of whole foods in each one.

For breakfast, I again had cereal with chia and flax seeds, shredded coconut, and almond milk. Since I was too lazy to prepare anything else my lunch was leftover pinto beans, rice, peppers, and onions from dinner the night before.

I was still feeling tired and lazy when I got home from work, so I threw a bunch of stuff in the oven and called it a night. I had roasted chickpeas with balsamic brussels sprouts and zucchini.

It was actually one of the best things I'd made all week and took practically no effort.

Day 5: I started getting bored with the foods

I had eggs and kale with a banana and coconut butter for breakfast. Even though it was a decent amount of food and protein, I was still starving pretty early in the day. I ate another Mamma Chia pudding and pushed through.

For lunch, I had leftover chickpeas, along with some rice and asparagus I hastily cooked that morning.

As I usually do, I had bought way too many vegetables at the store that week, so this night was a "clean out the refrigerator" kind of night.

I hate wasting food, so I basically cooked all the vegetables I had. This amounted to garlic-roasted swordfish steaks, the rest of the rice from lunch, roasted asparagus, with sautéed peppers, onions, and baby kale.

It was so good that I was nearly finished before I remembered I should have taken a picture.

Day 6: I'm not sure if I broke the rules or not

I went back to my quick breakfast of cereal with chia and flax seeds, and almond milk. I left out the coconut this time since having it in the milk started grossing me out. I also had a banana and coconut butter.

I was really rushed this morning, so I grabbed an Amy's microwavable meal from the freezer for lunch.

I looked over the ingredients and thought they looked OK, but that's actually one of the issues with the Mediterranean diet — there aren't super defined rules, so you're kind of on your own to figure out what is "allowed."

For dinner, I made one of my go-tos — a Mexican casserole. I used black beans, whole-grain rice, corn, tomatoes, and avocado. This is one of my favorite recipes, and I was so glad I was able to use it on this diet.

It also makes enough for leftovers, so I planned to have them for lunch the next day.

Day 7: I decided this 'diet' wasn't so bad after all

I finished the week with a breakfast of yogurt, seeds, almonds, and a banana. My lunch was leftover Mexican casserole from the night before.

For dinner, I celebrated by giving myself a break from cooking. I grabbed a French Quarter Bowl from a Grabbagreen, an organic/whole foods restaurant nearby. It had shrimp, quinoa, onion, tomato, and avocado — and it really hit the spot.

As my final act on the Mediterranean diet, I had a delicious glass of red wine.

Overall, I don't feel drastically different, but that's likely because my diet wasn't drastically changed

The Mediterranean diet felt, to me, more like a basic guide for healthy eating — which is exactly what it claims to be.

Because of that, I think it's something I'll actually be able to follow moving forward, with some treats added in here and there. The lack of formal structure was actually a problem for me, though. There were too many things up for interpretation.

What exactly is eating dairy in moderation? Once a week? Once a day? Without knowing, I just avoided it altogether for the most part.

It's a complicated verdict — I wish there were a few more rules, but I also think the best part about the Mediterranean diet is that there aren't many strict ones.

Read More:

• The biggest differences between the keto diet and the Mediterranean diet
• 7 of the best things to eat for breakfast on the Mediterranean diet
• What a full day of eating looks like on the Mediterranean Diet, according to nutritionists