Greece Vacation Cheat-Sheet

Phone-friendly reference for a 3-week self-catering family vacation. Mediterranean food is protein + veg + olive oil forward — this is easy mode if you let the kitchen do the work.

The One Rule

Maintenance, not cut. Goal = don’t regain, not lose. Eat to ~2,000-2,100 kcal, keep protein high, enjoy the food. Coming back the same weight (or +1-2kg of water) is a win — most of any gain is glycogen/gut contents and drops within a week back home.

80/20 split: be disciplined on the meals you cook (breakfast + home dinners), let the social meals (gyros after the beach, taverna nights) be fully free. Don’t try to be strict at both — the home meals carry the average.

Masoutis Shopping List

Protein anchors (the priority):

• FAGE Total / Total 0% — real strained Greek yogurt, your top-tier protein anchor. Cheap and everywhere. Also Mevgal (ΜΕΒΓΑΛ) and Olympos strained yogurts — check label for ≥8g protein/100g.
• Eggs
• Fresh fish + chicken from the counter — grill these
• Feta (real ΠΟΠ feta) — salty, so portion it
• Legumes: gigantes (giant beans), fava (yellow split pea purée), fakes (lentils for soup) — protein + fiber, very filling

Veg / salad (load up — near-free calories):

• Tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, red onion (the horiatiki base)
• Horta (wild greens, boiled + lemon + olive oil) if available
• Lemons (the universal dressing with olive oil)

Bread:

• Paximadi / ντάκος (Cretan barley rusk) — dense, high-fiber, far better than white pita. The bread to buy.

Fruit (covers the sweet treat):

• Peaches, figs, watermelon, melon — summer fruit is excellent and cheap

Pantry:

• Good Greek olive oil (the one fat you don’t need to ration much — use freely on salad/veg)
• Olives, capers, oregano (rigani)

Breakfast Template

FAGE Total + 2 eggs + tomato/cucumber + a little paximadi. Or yogurt + fruit + a few nuts. Protein-forward, sets the day. ~30g protein, keeps you full to a late Greek lunch.

Home Dinner Template

Grilled protein (fish / chicken / lean meat) + horiatiki salad + olive oil. Add gigantes or fava on the side for fiber. This is a near-perfect meal and effortless to cook in a rental. Reserve starch (potatoes, bread) for one component, not two.

Taverna / Gyros Rules

• Gyros: order it as a plate (μερίδα / merida) with salad instead of wrapped — the damage is the fries stuffed in the pita + a second one. Or get souvlaki (skewers) — leaner than the gyros shaving.
• Best taverna order: grilled fish or octopus (χταπόδι), horiatiki, gigantes. Hard to beat for your goals.
• Mezze: lean on tzatziki, grilled veg, fava, octopus, salad. Go easy on fried (kalamari, cheese saganaki, fries).
• Take the bread basket once, not refilled.

The Real Watch: Drinks

The calorie creep on a Greek vacation isn’t the food — it’s the wine, ouzo, beer, frappé with sugar. This is the one thing to actually manage:

• Alternate every alcoholic drink with water
• Frappé/coffee without sugar (or sweetener)
• These liquid calories are the difference between maintenance and a real overshoot

Movement (covers a lot)

You’re sedentary at home — a beach vacation means swimming and walking daily. That extra activity quietly offsets looser eating. Lean into it: morning swim, walk to dinner. No need for “exercise” beyond just being active.

Don’t Panic

• Don’t weigh yourself there. Scale will bounce from heat, salt, travel, looser eating — it means nothing day to day.
• Weigh once a few days after you’re home, then wait a full week before reading anything into it (trip-rebound rule: +1-3kg is water/glycogen, not fat).
• Don’t compensate by skipping meals or panic-cutting on return — that triggers the binge-restrict spiral. Just resume normal 1,700/135g eating when home.

One-Line Version

Cook protein + veg breakfasts and dinners, let the gyros and taverna nights be free, watch the drinks not the food, swim daily, and don’t touch the scale until a week after you’re back.