Mediterranean Diet Pyramid

As it is one of the best guides for eating a diet that adheres to the prinicples of the blue zones and is interchangeable with cuisines of each zone and beyond, I have designed my eating pattern to primarily follow the Mediterranean Diet Pyramid.

The pyramid summarizes the Mediterranean Diet pattern of eating – based on the eating habits of Greece and Italy – that indicates the types and frequency of foods that should be consumed every day.

Numerous research studies indicate that the Mediterranean Diet (and blue zone orientation) has benefits that include…

• Prevention of heart disease and strokes thanks to diet being high in Omega-3s and antioxidants
• Increased gut health and immune system function due to the higher amounts of good gut bacteria from the varied foods of the diet
• Reduction in the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease and halving the risk of Parkinson’s disease
• Reduction in the risk of cancer due to the absence of many processed foods that exasperate the development of various cancers
• Protection against Type 2 Diabetes by stabilising your blood sugar levels
• Reduction in anxiety and depression due to the high proportion of carotenoids (healthy guy bacteria that positively influences your mood) found in many of the foods of the diet

Overall, implenting the Mediterranean Pyrmaid in my lifestyle has proven extremely successful. I have found it easy to prepare and cook for and I immensely enjoy the varied and colourful meals it encourages me to eat.

Furthermore, as the pyramid orientation places a strong emphasis on using healthy high protein whole foods wherever possible, it is has proved easy for me to satisfy the short-term calory demands of my physcial activity program; while also allowing me to maintain a high level of long-term health at the same time.

16:8 Intermittent Fasting 

Intermittant fasting (extended periods of calorie restriction) also forms a key component of my diet.

I am currently on my own personalised form of the popular 16:8 intermittent fasting variant which involves…

6 days of fasting 16 hours a day with an 8 hour feeding window

1 day superfast that ranges from 18 to 24 hours of fasting.

The studies into intermittent fasting are very promising and the benefits include…

• Reducing body fat weight due to the body burning fat for energy when in a fasting state.
• Lowering the risk of Type 2 Diabetes by reducing the body’s insulin resistance
• Fighting premature aging and chronic diseases by reducing oxidative stress and inflammation in the body
• Increasing heart health by lowering your blood pressure and cholesterol
• Increasing the blood levels of growth hormone which in turn lead to greater muscle gain
• Inducing various cellular repair processes
• Increasing longevity in a similar way to continuous calorie restriction

I was orginally on the 5:2 fasting orientation which I started in 2012 and which involved 5 days of eating normally with 2 days of fasting. I experienced a transformative success with 5:2, hence why I stuck with it so long, but I wanted a fasting regime that would more greatly benefit my physcial activity program I developed for this final project.

I have switched to the 16:8 orientation because it allows me to exploit the muscular gain and cellular repair processes that you get from daily fasting.

I was also keen to switch to an everyday fast because it would enable me to keep a tighter rein on my daily eating habits. When I was on the 5:2, I found that I would increasingly drop the ball and eat crap on my non-fasting days.

Now that I am fasting daily, it not only keeps me on my toes with adherring to my fasting orientation, but it keeps me consciously aware of adherring to the requirements of the Mediterranean Pyramid.

I have retained a one-day superfast, like I had with the two fasting days of my 5:2 period, because on some days I find that I can struggle to meet 16 hours of fasting and that one-day superfast gives me an opportunity to make up for it.

Overall, I continue to experience great success with intermittant fasting and already I have started to see the improved physical performace brought about by my 16:8 orientation.

Periodic Prolonged Fasting

At the time of bringing all of the elements of this final project together, I undertook my very first prolonged 3-day fast. I had a very nasty viral infection one week and I had read about how fasting for 3-days or more has the effect of completely rebooting your immune system, so I wanted to see if a 3-day fast would kill off my viral infection.

It did. Amazingly so. Two days into my fast, I was already feeling back to normal and by the time I had complete the full three days, I felt beyond incredible.

Periodic prolonged 3-4-day fast every 2-3 months.

Hara Hachi Bu – 80% Full Rule

Hara hachi bu is an ancient Japanese concept, that is a part of today’s Okinawa Diet, and it’s very simple to follow… when you notice you are nearly full, but could have a little more, stop eating.

The point is to finish a meal when your stomach is 80 percent full and to leave yourself feeling a little bit hungry.

The 80 percent rule is a hugely beneficial component of a diet because it is a form of calorie restriction that has similar benefits to intermittant fasting.

It seems counter-intuitive for me to perform calorie restriction considering I only have an 8-hour feeding window in which to satisfy the high calorie demands of my physical activity program, but I am not convinced that comsuming large amounts of calories all in one go is the best thing for your body’s long-term health… even with the restorative effects I get from daily intermittant fasting.

It’s a personal choice, but I would rather eat smaller separate and spread out portions that give my body the time and space to thoroughly digest and process what I have already consumed, before I give it more work to do. I’m not interested in gorging myself during my feeding window, I absolutely hate being bloated and feeling half dead in a food coma!

The way I look at it is that the 80 percent rule allows your body to pace itself, builds and maintains your self-discipline and makes you less of a slave to your hunger cravings.

Blood Sugar Balance

Limited sugar intake is a key component of blue zone dietary practice and the reason why low blood sugar levels is highly beneficial for your health is because it prevents the development of Type-2 Diabetes.

If blood sugar levels become too high, the body responds by producing insulin which brings blood sugar levels down by helping energy-hungry cells to absorb the excess sugar. The problem arises when your body becomes insulin resistent – from continual blood sugar level spikes – and all of a sudden the body can not naturally bring down the sugar levels, which in turn leads to all the negative symptoms of diabetes.

Even before I adopted the full blue zone approach for my diet, I was becoming increasingly conscious of the possibility that I would end up developing diabetes due to the high sugar content of the standard western diet that I was consuming on a daily basis.

This was one of the incentives that convinced me to start fasting on a 5:2 basis, because fasting is great at bringing down and regulating blood sugar levels. However, I did not just want to rely on the fasting to keep my blood sugar levels balanced, I wanted to get into the habit of making a conscious effort to limit my sugar intake, even when I was not fasting.

What should be stressed is that not all sugar is bad, your body does actually need sugar to function properly, whether it is the glycogen that powers your muscles or the glucose that powers your brain.

Healthy blood sugar levels just have to be balanced and to achieve this, there are four food types I make a conscious effort to limit on a dialy and weekly basis…

• Carbs, starchy and easily digestible ones – Bread, pasta, white rice, etc.
• Processed foods – Almost all processed foods have added sugar
• Sugary treats – Cakes, chocolate bars, biscuits, sweets, etc. 
• Sugary tropical fruits – Bananas, melons, pinapples, mangos, etc.

I am not obsessive about counting my sugar intake, but, if on one day I have already had some heavy starchy carbs, I might think twice about having a sugary treat as well.

Microbiome Maintenance

The microbiome – the population of bactria that resides in the gut – plays a huge role in the body’s overall health and the foods that the body consumes determines the makeup and maintenance of that gut bacteria.

Like my sugar intake, I make a conscious effort to develop and maintain a healthy and thriving microbiome by considering the impact of my food consumption choices.

Unsurprisingly, following blue zone dietary practice is actually a really good way to develop and maintain a healthy microbiome. However, by adding in greater variety of foods, such as eating a broad range of herbs, spices and plant foods from all over the planet, you can cause your microbiome to positively flourish even more so.

I always try to include as much variety in my food choices and not just from the blue zones, I look for foods and food ideas beyond them aswell.

I also limit my sugar intake because sugar wipes out gut bacteria like the plague.

Beyond that, I do not obssess about my microbiome too much.

2 to 5 Meals with Snacks and Supplements

Most days I can manage to consume all of my calories in 2 meals with a few snacks and supplements within my 8-hour feeding window and by finishing each meal with a stomach that is only 80% full. It’s not always perfect and not always completely spot on, but I manage.

However, in addition to my snacks and supplments, some days I need to have more than 3 meals.

My daily calorie requirements range anywhere from 3000 to 5000 calories and my fitness tracking apps automatically readjusts my calorie requirements depending on my bodyweight and how much physical activity I do in single day.

As such, a day with lots of running or bulking will have a much higher demand for calories than day in which I have just done 10-minutes of HIIT with yoga.

So while I do stick to a feeding plan, I still need to be a little flexible and spontaneous with meal count.

Tracking and Training My Feeding and My Fasting

There are four apps on my smartphone and smartwatch that I use to coordinate and enhance my daily diet regime…

Lifesum – Feeding Tracker

Lifesum is a comprensive calorie tracker that includes a range of different diet plans to orientate your calorie requirements and personal goals; the app also factors in your exercise workout data and a has library of healthy recipes to help you meet your dietary requirements.

In many ways, Lifesum is a digital nutritionist and personal trainer.

Lifesum is not perfect and it does take a while to get used to, but it is conveniently accessible on my smart devices and I can easily enter in the foods I have consumed either manually or by scanning the barcodes with my smartphone’s camera.

I have an annual Lifesum subscription that allows me to access the app’s advanced features, including its dietary plans. I use the Food for Strength plan, which is the Lifesum plan that is best suited for my daily physical activity demands, and the app  automatically calculates my calorie demands, based on my height and bodyweight.

Furthermore, it automatically recalculates my daily calorie requirements depending on how my bodyweight changes and how much physical activity I have done in a single day; this is calculated from my step count and exercise workout data which it automatically imports from my Google Fit app.

Overall, Lifesum is a handy feeding assistant and a massive time saver. The only thing it can’t do is cook my meals for me!

Zero – Fasting Tracker

Zero is basically just a timer that keeps track of when I start and finish my fasting window (if Lifesum had this feature it would be even more useful)

My fasting and feeding windows can shift backwards and forwards from day-to-day, and the zero app allows me to keep myself orientated.

Ultimately, the Zero app gives my brain one less thing to do on a daily basis.

Google Fit – Physical Activity Tracker

All my physcial activity workouts and biometric data is collected in my Google Fit app and this data automatically syncs into my Lifesum app, which then automtically readjusts my daily caloire requirements.

I would actually be lost without Google Fit! Like Lifesum, it is a handy and time saving fitness assistant.

Headspace – Mindful Eating Guide

My mindfulness meditation is something I am very good at and I find that even when I am not meditating, I can be very mindful during a range of daily activities, not to mention the contents of my physical activity program.

However, I really suck when it comes to eating mindfully and I will almost always watch a YouTube video when I am eating.  At the moment, because I am not really paying attentionto what I am eating, I eat my meals too quickly and it is not something I am really comfortable with, not to mention it can cause digestive problems.

I want to become a stronger mindful eater because it will force me to slow down my eating and enjoy what I am eating that much more so.

So every so often, not every time I sit down to eat, I will put on the mindful eating session in my mindfulness meditation app and let it play and guide me in the background as I make a conscious effort to eat mindfully.

Foods

The Mediterranean Pyramid encourages the consumtion of mostly wholefood plant-based nutrition with minimal quantities of animal-based products and even less processed foods.

I aim for an 80:20 split, with 80% being plant-based and 20% being animal-based.

The blue zone eating pattern actually encourages a 95:5 split, but I have opted for an 80:20 split simply because transitioning off of animal-based foods is hard work, so for the time being I following an 80:20 split, but I would eventually like to get that up to a 90:10 split.

I have also incorporated Dr Michael Greger’s How Not To Die Daily Dozen guide into my daiy eating regime.

Basically, I always try to ensure that I getting the recommended servings across my daily food intake.

I also try to ensure that I am consuming the best quality wholefoods I can get my hands on.

What is especially great about the Mediterranean Pyramid – and the reason why I selected it as my diet guide – is that you can apply the principles of Mediterranean-style eating to the cuisines of the blue zones and beyond.

While I do always try to introduce and try out new dishes and foods, it is only an occassional indulgence as lack of time and money often prevents me from doing so.

However, I have now established healthy and blue zone adherrent meal orientations thar are regular staples of my daily and weekly eating regime.

I should also stress that these foods are not meal time specific, meaning I alternate what I have for breakfast, lunch and dinner depending on what I feel like having/what is readily available. And I (mostly) always try to avoid having the same meal more than once a day to insure I am hitting all of the serving requirements of the Daily Dozen guide and keeping my microbiome well-nourished.

Greek Style Yogurt or Coconut Yogurt Power Bowl

I eat this daily.

Load a bowl up with some Greek Yogurt or Coconut Yogurt and add in some berries (blueberries are my favourite), some walnuts, roasted nuts, plenty of mixed seeds and sometimes some natural honey too. Perfection.

I have recently started to alternate with coconut yogurt because I need to cut down on my weekly dairy intake.

This is an easy bowl to make and is a very good calorie consumtion catch-up If I find I am running short on calories on an especially phsically active and busy day.

Wholegrain Power Salad or Wholegrain Salad Wraps

I eat this daily.

I make this in lots of different variations.

It always has at least one wholegrain in it (Coucous, quinoa and bulgar wheat happen quite often), loads of greens, plenty of beans, sometimes some chickpeas, almost always avocado, plenty of herbs and spices, nuts and seeds too.

I’ll either have it as a salad or put it in a tortilla wrap.

Sometimes I might add some meat to it.

If it’s a salad, I keep it stored in a large bamboo container in my fridge, that way I can make last a few days and its handy if I am running short on calories.

Vegetable Stir Fry with Fish or Meat

Not every day and not always with fish or meat, but if I am going to add fish or meat to a meal, this is usually the one.

Again this one comes in many variations.

It always has one cruciferous vegetable in it with other vegetables besides, beans, plenty of herbs and spices.

Home-Made Vegetable Soups

Almost everyday.

I make this in many varieties and sometimes I might add some meat into it.

I just chop up whatever vegetables I have, add in some beans, maybe some bean sprouts, sometimes some noodles, herbs and spices, and let it bubble away.

Omellete or Scrambled Eggs

Ocassionally.

The omellete I usually make with some feta cheese and anything else that is going spare in the fridge.

Scrambled eggs I usually have with salmon, sundried tomatoes, jalapenos and some herbs and spices.

Plenty of Fruit and Nuts

These are a daily staple.

I also aim to have at least three pieces of fruit on their own each day. Usually I have one pear, one apple and one banana.

I have a jar of unsalted mixed nuts that I keep stocked in my food cupboard and that I snack on if I am feeling peckish.

Unhealthy Snacks

As a rule, I don’t keep unhealthy snacks in the house.

I mostly have these when I am out-and-about and grab something quick from the shop.

Guilty pleasures tend to be freshly baked cookies, sausage rolls, pork pies, crisps, chocolate bars and sometimes sweets.

Already, I have masssively cut back on these, so I don’t feel all that bad when I do have them.

As hard as you can try, you just can’t fully escape the temptation of sugar in the western world!

Drinks

I keep my sources of hydration as simple and as natural as possible.

I almost never consume alcohol and I avoid cow’s milk, soda drinks, caffeine infused drinks and heavily processed energy drinks as much as I can.

And, unlike most people, I am also not a coffee person, so let’s not go there.

Here’s what I do drink…

Herbal Tea

By a long shot, this is the drink I consume the most!

I absolutely love herbal tea and it has the added bonus of being able to be consumed even when I am fasting, due to herbal teas basically having no calories in them.

It helps that herbal tea is one of my comfort foods, I find them very satiating and soothing, so they can be invaluable at curing the hunger cravings I can get during a fasting periods.

I am always changing the herbal teas I drink, I love trying new ones and I am a huge fan of the varied Pukka Herbs tea range.

Plus constatly switching herbal teas and tryng new ones is another way to ensure that my good gut bateria are wide, varied and nourished.

Water

I mostly drink plain water when I am out running and very occasionally at home. Sometimes I might add a bit of naturally squeezed fruit juice to flavour it up a bit.

Iskiate / Chia Fresca

Made famous in the best-selling Born to Run, this is a natural energy drink cultivated in Mexico by the Tarahumara Indians – the world’s greatest distance runners.

And it really does work! You can keep your Lucazade because Iskiate keeps me going for hours and hours and hours.

I have at least one of these on a daily basis. I always have one before I go for a run or when I hit the gym, and it’s also useful when I have to do a long slog of mentally demanding work.

It’s also super-simple to make, you just add 1 – 2 table spoons of chia seeds to a glass of water and mix in some natural lime juice and honey or syrup.

Raw Cacoa Hot Chocolate or Raw Cacoa Almond Milkshake

I drink this very occassionally. Although, it was more of a daily staple back when I was studying.

To make the hot chocolate I add 1 table spoon of cacoa to some warm water and mix in some almond milk and a bit of honey or syrup. Maybe also a pinch of salt for a more dynamic taste.

For the milkshake, I mix 1 tablespoon together with some almond milk and a bit of honey or syrup.

Protein Powder Shake

I blend this with water and drink it after a long run or a heavy gym session. Sometimes I have some to sooth the DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness) I get after my heavier workout days; I find that a glass of this gives muslces an extra burst of protein that stops them from complaining as much.

I avoid having it everyday because it costs me too much to keep replenishing the powder every couple of weeks, I always try to make a single tub last about two months.

I mix the powder together with some water in a blender and leave it in the fridge to cool. Room temperature shake is horrible!

Yanga Water

This is a purified and enhanedd water drink I get free with my PureGym membership that dispensed from a Yanga machine at each of my gyms. I use Yanga Water to keep me hydrated when I am working out at the gym and it has the added bonus of being cooled and available in a number of fruit flavours, and it is actually rather enjoyable to drink!

It’s not really an energy drink, it is just an upgraded form of pure water. It boasts not having any added sugar and it is enhanced with B Vitamins, so it is actually a really good source of hydration for your body.

However, Yanga Water does use artifical sweeteners and, while Yange does say the sweenteners are FDA and UFSA approved, I am still slightly skeptical. At the end of the day, though, it probably won’t cause any long-term damage. After all, a glass of Yanga water is hardly a glass of Diet Coke.

Supplements

Supplements are typically what you think of when you think of a Biohacker, the image of someone taking an endless stream of pills on a daily basis.

I, however, avoid taking supplements as much as I can. they can end up costing you a fair bit.

This is not an exhaustive list of all the supplments I could take, and certainly there are a few more I thinking about adding to my daily intake, but the ones listed here are the supplements I currently take on a daily basis.

Protein Powder Shake

My favourite protein shake is the USN All-In-One Muscle Fuel Anabolic Powder, because it is a good price and it is an all-round source of protein to maximise gains from all the physical activity I do.

Tumeric and Curcumin

Curcumin is a compound that is extracted from Tumeric root (which is more comonly known as the spice used in curries), but both Tumermic , and especially its most active compound curcumin, have many scientifically-proven health benefits that have lead to them being touted as a miracle cures in the field of biohacking…

• Anti-inflamatory effects that combats chronic, low-level inflammation that plays a major role in diseases like heart disease, cancer, metabolic syndrome, Alzheimer’s and various degenerative conditions
• Increases the body’s antioxidant capacity by illiminating free radicals that lead to premature aging and chronic diseases
• Stimulates brain-derived neurotrophic factor whch initiates the growth of new neurons, improves brain function and combats the development of degenerative brain diseases, such as Alzheimer’s
• Can help to treat depression by boosting the brain neurotransmitters serotonin and dopamine

Overall, consuming both tumeric and curcumin on a daily basis is a very good thing for your long-term health and general wellbeing.

It’s very easy for me to consume tumeric, because its present in many of my herbal teas and I can add it to many of the things I cook.

However, to ensure I always getting a daily intake of both tumeric and curcumin, I take daily supplment pills that contain both substances and a little black pepper that assist the curcumin’s absorbtion into my blood stream.

Vitamin D

Often referred to as the sunshine vitamin, because our bodies primarily produce it when exposed to direct sunlight, Vitamin D supplementation should be a dietary staple for anyone who lives in a sun deprived country.

The benefits of Vitmain D include…

• Maintaining the health of bones and teeth due its high level of calcium
• Supporting the health of the immune system, nervous system and brain
• Helping to regulate insulin levels and aids in the prevention of diabetes
• Supporting overall cardiovascular health
• Influencing the expression of genes involved in cancer development and can fight other chronic diseases
• Helping to reduce depression has the research suggest it may play a role in regulating mood
• Boosting weight loss due Vitamin D’s extra calcium which acts as an appetite suppressor

I take Vitamin D supplment pills to make up for the lack of sunlight we get in the UK, especially during the Autumn and Winter months. Plus I work nights anyway, so even during the Spring and Summer months I get less sunlight exposure.

However, I do not only rely on my supplement pills to pick up my Vitamin D and calcium levels, as the body’s Vitamin D and calcium can also be sourcesd from a range of foods; some of my favourites being: kale, spinach, salmon, mackerel, tuna, oatmeal, oranges, cheese and eggs – so I try to make these common occurances in my weekly diet.

Furthermore, I try to get as much daylight exposure as I can on weekly basis and this is one fo the advatanges commuting around my city on a bicycle and having a weekly run.

Magnesium

Even with a very healthy diet, the human body is often still lacking magnesium which is the fourth most common mineral in the body.

I have started to take magnesium supplements because magnesium is great getting rid of muscular cramps and delayed onset muscle soreness, which is something I was really struggling with as a result of my increased weekly training from all the running, weighlifting and bodyweight work I do. Some days my muscle cramps were so bad, the pain would put me in an exceedingly black and grouchy mood!

So, thank sanity, these supplements work!

Cheats and Treats 

With my fasting, my 6-day 16:8 fast and 1-day superfast are not always water fasts, meaning that during my fasting window I don’t always just consume fluids. Sometimes I’ll be having a really shit day and I will switch to a calorie-restriction fast, whereby I let myself have a small amount of calories as a pick-me-up. Maybe it might be a glass of Iskate, some nuts or sometimes something a little bigger, but I try not to go over six-hundred calories.

At the moment, the majority of my unhealthy treats are consumed when I am out-and-about, sometimes I will get a takaway at home, pizzas or a subways tend to be quite popular. I have been toying with having a weekly treat day on which, aside from ensuring that I am consuming the correct amount of calories my body needs, I do not worry too much about what foods and drinks those calories are coming from, but we’ll see.