20 Free, Easy, and Fun Ways to Follow the Mediterranean Diet in 2026 No Matter Where You Live!
“We should look for someone to eat and drink with before looking for something to eat and drink.”
― Epicurus
As we ease into 2026 it’s easy to become inundated with health hacks promoted by advertisers looking to sell specific products or services. Sorting out the good from the bad to figure out which will be most useful can be overwhelming. Plus, much of the advice bombarding the internet these days involves subscription rates, purchasing products, and other hooks that are obstacles to many people achieving their health goals in the first place. For this reason, I’ve decided to come up with a list of 20 Free, Easy, and Fun Ways to Follow the Mediterranean Diet from Anywhere.
Over the years I’ve heard skeptical people talk about the “obstacles” to the Mediterranean lifestyle. Some people believe that it costs too much to implement. Others believe that they must move to a warm climate to live better or that the change is too hard to bear. Those who embrace these tips, however, flood my inbox with success stories of weight loss, healthier outlooks, and transformed diagnosis. The truth of the matter is that many of the Mediterranean lifestyle “hacks” which can provide better physical and mental health are free and fun to do. I’ve spent my adult life researching them and sharing my results with readers and audiences around the globe. Each of these items is part of the much larger Mediterranean Lifestyle Checklist which I originally published in my Mediterranean Lifestyle for Dummies Book. Try them out when the mood strikes and your body, mind, and spirit will thank you for it!
1. Decide who to eat with before deciding what to eat. Eating communally is the backbone of the Mediterranean lifestyle — the more, the merrier! Look for creative ways to include other people in your mealtimes — even if it means going outside of familial bonds and using unconventional methods such as FaceTime and Whats App to do so.
2. Cook a meal for yourself and/or your family. Take pleasure in making more of your meals at home and sharing them with others for the mental and physical payoff.
3. Base each meal around produce. Decide which fresh, local vegetables you love, and make them the base of your meals. You can still enjoy dairy, cheese, meat, and seafood, just be sure to eat more of the produce.
4. Engage in physical activity that you enjoy. Doing what you love is as good for the psyche as physical exercise is for the body. Pick some activities you really enjoy, and you’ll get total body benefits at the same time. If you add nature into the mix, you’ll be getting three benefits at once!
5. Participate in a hobby or activity that you enjoy. This activity adds meaning and pleasure in your life while contributing to your purpose and lowering stress.
6. Learn a new recipe. This activity provides a sense of accomplishment while increasing your cooking skills and confidence.
7. Take a walk outdoors after a meal. Walking after a meal improves digestion and increases your exposure to nature and the outdoors.
8. Enjoy healthful foods as the base of each meal. Make sure that your meals are based on healthful ingredients such as leafy greens, cruciferous vegetables, beans, legumes, whole grains, fish and seafood, and dairy, with good-quality meat eaten sparingly.
9. Use aromatics to flavor food. Instead of adding more salt, butter, and cream to recipes to make your food taste better, opt for good-quality spices, handfuls of chopped fresh herbs, garlic, onions, and shallots to produce more taste without the calories and fat.
10. Aim for 5 to 12 servings of fresh fruits and vegetables daily. Eating lots of leafy green vegetables along with the “rainbow” of colors in produce every day is an easy way to fill up on fiber while ensuring that you’re getting a wide range of nutrients.
11. Add leafy green vegetables to your lunch and dinner menus. Artichokes, asparagus, avocado, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, celery, chicory, collard greens, dandelion greens, kale, kiwi, lettuce, purslane, spinach, Swiss chard, and zucchini are examples of nutrient-dense produce. Be sure to add at least one of them to every meal.
12. Listen to beautiful music whenever possible. Music will help boost your mood, energy, and concentration. Grapes grow better and are more resistant to disease when classical music is played in vineyards, so imagine what it can do for your body!
13. Beautify your space with objects that are meaningful to you. We all have our own definitions of beauty and what’s meaningful to us. Beauty has been found to be neuroprotective, and the more of those elements that you can add to your work and home space, the better.
14. Get a minimum of 30 minutes of fresh air per day as often as possible. Mental health professionals claim that fresh air is more beneficial to our moods than antipsychotic drugs are.
15. Laugh as often as possible. Lowering stress and increasing happiness is great for healing and preventing illness.
16. Make time for rest and relaxation. Rest and relaxation are a daily, not a once-a-year, practice in the Mediterranean region.
17. Look on the bright side of situations that are bothersome in your life. Making the best out of whatever life deals you is an art form in the Mediterranean.
18. Spend time in nature, preferably by water and/or green trees. The “green effect” and the “blue effect” of spending just 10 minutes a day looking at trees or water have emotional benefits.
19. Practice gratitude for blessings large and small as often as possible. “If you say only one prayer, make it thank you” is a popular philosophy in the region, and this attitude helps attract more of the things we love.
20. Get enough sleep. Take a 10- to 20-minute nap whenever possible. Naps help productivity, focus, weight management, stress reduction, and much more. Aim for 6 to 8 hours of sleep every night. Getting enough sleep promotes better overall body functions, such as blood sugar management, hormonal functions, and brain performance.
Bonus:
Use good-quality extra-virgin olive oil as your main cooking fat. This healthful fat provides powerful antioxidants and omega-3 fatty acids, which work to coax additional nutrients out of healthful foods and have anti-inflammatory properties that help keep many diseases at bay. I know that EVOO isn’t free, so I’ve added it at the bottom of the blog as an addition. Extra-virgin olive oil is the best investment you can make in terms of a healthful fat to use your cooking. Just a few teaspoons a day makes a difference, and the benefits outweigh any price difference between it and seed oils by far. Learn more in Olive Oil For Dummies here.
Wishing everyone a New Year filled with pleasure, health, and beauty. For additional info on my books, products, and services, visit: amyriolo.com.
