Episode 64: The Mediterranean Lifestyle and Longevity with Dr. Rick Zullo

Hi, I’m Dr. Rick Zullo, and I’ve been preaching about the Mediterranean diet since back in my days of living in Italy. Those years showed me first-hand how the Italian lifestyle is at once delicious, healthy, and easy to maintain. I didn’t set out to make these “discoveries,” but rather they came as the natural consequence of trying my best to adapt to the local culture.

Years later, when I eventually found myself back in the United States, I couldn’t believe how difficult it was to export those same eating habits and lifestyle norms. Our culture doesn’t encourage it and our food delivery systems make it almost impossible. 

I gave up on it pretty quickly and fell back into the standard American diet and sedentary lifestyle. Slowly but surely, I began to gain weight, lose energy, and generally became less healthy. Poor sleep, aches and pains, mood swings… you name it.I’m not sure what was the final straw that inspired me, but one day I just decided that I was going to make it a priority to practice the lifestyle habits I had learned in Italy, despite all of the head winds I would have to fight against.

Well, eventually it worked. And it wasn’t even as hard as I thought it would be. Turns out, most of the resistance was in my own head. It simply took a shift in my mindset and a willingness to make some small tweaks to my daily routines.

I knew from experience that trying too hard to go “all-in” at once would only cause frustration and ultimately, failure. So I plotted out six incremental steps that I would take to gradually get back to the Italian version of myself. None of them were individually difficult, so it never really felt like a chore.

 

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