Zucchini Melody

Today's Diet Tip:  Water dilutes digestive enzymes.  Do not drink water within a half hour of eating, while eating or for an hour after eating.

Yesterday, I mentioned I use My Fitness Pal.  This online site is very user friendly and a excellent tool to use towards a healthier lifestyle.  It calculates your daily energy requirement then sets a daily calorie goal that will create a calorie deficit based on the information you provide.  My basic daily energy requirement is 1,560 calories.  My daily calorie goal of 1,200 calories gives me a calorie deficit of 360 calories so as long as I maintain my normal activity (eg. no exercise) and consume only 1,200 calories a day, I will lose a projected 0.7 lb per week.  If I do any extra activity (eg. shopping, housework) or exercise (eg. elliptical trainer, walking), the calories burned are added to my daily calorie goal.  For example, if I burn 100 calories walking then my calorie goal for that day increases to 1,300 calories.  Under this program, calories burned are meant to be eaten back because there is already a calorie deficit built in.  Essentially, the more I want to eat the more physical activity I do to increase that day's calorie goal.  The only criteria are to not go under the 1,200 calories in a day on a regular basis because it can put your body into starvation mode making it difficult to lose weight and to make sure eat the required macronutrients.    It's actually a very easy, nonrestrictive method of losing weight and getting fit.

Anyone on a diet quickly realizes the importance of eating vegetables.  Vegetables play a large role in our normal daily diet to begin with so there was no adjustment for me there.  Vegetables are low in calories and high in nutrition and fiber.  However, how you cook them or what you add to vegetables (eg. dips, sauces, dressings, cheese) can really increase the calories!

One of our favourite vegetable sides is zucchini melody.  This is a sautéed mixture of zucchini, onions and mushrooms.  It is simple yet tasty, filling but not heavy.  Zucchini melody pairs nicely with any meat, fish or poultry so we have it fairly often.   I paired the zucchini melody with salmon filets and a garden salad for a delicious, low calorie meal. 

One feature I really like about the My Fitness Pal website is the recipe section.  I can easily calculate the nutritional value of homemade dishes.  This is a real benefit for me given that we rely heavily on home cooking from scratch.  It helps pinpoint what changes to make for healthier versions of some dishes as well.

I calculated the nutritional value of the zucchini melody (zucchini stir fry).  A serving size as pictured (about 1½ c) is 59 calories yet still low fat even though I used butter.  The butter is for flavour, often combined with olive oil for these types of dishes.  In this case I could reduce the butter to by half to cut calories, fat and sodium per serving without affecting the flavour much.  As it the zucchini melody has fairly good numbers per serving.