Spanish diet and your adrenal glands

I’ve been watching the Spanish and the way they live their lives. To be honest, it should kill off all their adrenal glands and send them scurrying to their beds for rest. Yet it doesn’t seem to and I’m wondering why not!
I wrote a while ago about eating like an Olympian and how the Mediterranean diet is good for you. The diet here can be fast food and pizza if you want and yet most people stick to the more traditional life style

So from what I have seen and sorry to those who work the unsocial hours in bars and restaurants as I don’t know how they cope….

Morning
More a grab a coffee with a cake. A drive or journey to work with the stop off at the coffee shop and there is always a great selection of herbal teas, for a chat with a friend before you start work.

Desayuno
Crucial to the smooth running of the country if you believe everyone. The time of the day sometime between 9am and 11am when you need to re-charge for the day ahead. A coffee con leche (with milk) or perhaps even a coffee with brandy! Toasted sandwiches with garlic, tomatoes, ham and cheese. A chat with friends and off back to work you go.

Lunch

Ladies at lunch in the Spanish sun

Sometime between 2 and 5 pm, what we call the siesta. It’s the time for lunch, a rest, chatting to friends. Lunches, normally the main meal of the day, can be long and involve good friends with laughter and sharing of their lives. 

Main meal at lunch is so much better for your body than later on in the day.
What suits our bodies is then to have a rest, of between 15 – 60 mins. Any longer and you fall into deep sleep that leaves you feeling ‘grougi’ or unrefreshed. 

Evening meal
About 10pm, its time to sit down and eat – again. A lighter more sociable meal. Work is done, time now to spend with family and friends. Maybe try a new hobby. It’s now cool enough to take a power walk along the sea front. Chat and relax in the open air. The weather means more time in the sun, or under the stars as you get away from the stress and strain of the day behind you. Moan about life, put the world to rights and leave the troubles out in the open air to float away.

Having the regime I have to maintain my health means

• I need quality protein at breakfast
• I avoid sugar in food
• removing as many chemicals from my food as possible
• sitting indoors under electric lights drain me
• I try to eat an evening meal before 7pm
• I wind down from 10pm and get to bed by 11pm

The Spanish are doing something right though. Breakfast should be the most important meal of the day and set you up with the proteins and vitamins your body needs for the day ahead. Lunch should be a long leisurely affair. Dinner, to be digested, needs to be at least 4 hours before bed time which means they have got that one right!
What does help the adrenal glands and prevents burn out and black bags under the eyes is the quality time spent with friends. Having plenty of water and there is always water on a table when wine is served. Unloading your concerns, laughing. Having friends and feeling as though you add value to their lives as they add value to yours. Being out in the open air, getting your vitamin D3 from the sunshine. Taking time to eat their food, enjoy it, relax with friends. Plenty of fresh food, often straight from gardens or the sea! Having a good refreshing sleep.

I’m not ready to totally try out the Spanish life style, I think it will have to be ‘slowly does it’ for me.