Low-carb, juice cleanses, and intermittent fasting were just a few of the diets that Darcy Bell had tried. “They all promised quick results,” she remembers, “but I always felt tired, hungry, and angry.” That was before she learnt about the Mediterranean way of doing things, which changed everything.
Darcy liked the Mediterranean diet because it was a way of life, not because it was a quick fix. It was based on tradition and whole foods, and it stressed balance instead of restriction. “It felt good instead of bad,” she says.
Darcy wanted a weight loss plan that would last, so she chose a Mediterranean-style lunch plan. She was mostly thinking about lunch. She admits, “Lunch is when I’d crash, reach for sugar, or eat too much.” “So I thought, what if I just get lunch right?”
She began by changing how she planned her day. Instead of rushing out with a granola bar and then feeling hungry at noon, she made sure to have a light breakfast and a filling, tasty lunch based on Mediterranean principles: fibre, healthy fats, lean protein, and colour.
One of her favourite mixes is A big bowl of quinoa with grilled chicken or chickpeas, roasted vegetables, olives, and lemon juice. Other days, she’d bring a whole-grain wrap with hummus, cucumbers, spinach, and a little bit of feta. She says, “It wasn’t about cutting back on portions; it was about eating smart.”
Darcy started to see changes over the course of a few months, not just on the scale but also in how she felt. Her energy level stayed the same, her cravings got less strong, and her mood stayed the same. “I didn’t feel like I was on a diet,” she says. “I felt like I was finally giving my body what it wanted.”
For Darcy, the secret wasn’t to eat less; it was to enjoy the taste, texture, and satisfaction of food. “When lunch fills you up, you stop fighting food,” she says. “And that’s where the real weight loss starts.”
