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I am very honored and proud that they chose me as the featured author of the day.  As you may or may not know, I’m am VERY new to the blogoshpere and this was completely unexpected.

Scribnia is very active on Twitter and you can follow them to keep up with the latest blogging trends.  Keep an eye on this site…it is going to be huge!

Omelet with Summer Vegetables

A great hight protein, post-workout meal!  Just take out the corn to make it a low carb breakfast.  Recipe courtesy of CookingLight.com.

Ingredients:

Cooking spray
2/3 cup frozen whole-kernel corn, thawed
1/2 cup chopped zucchini
3 tablespoons chopped green onions
1/4 teaspoon salt, divided
2 tablespoons water
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
3 large egg whites
1 large egg
2 tablespoons shredded smoked Gouda cheese

Instructions:

Heat a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add corn, zucchini, onions, and 1/8 teaspoon salt to pan; sauté 4 minutes or until vegetables are crisp-tender. Remove from heat.

Heat a 10-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Combine 1/8 teaspoon salt, water, pepper, egg whites, and egg, stirring well with a whisk. Coat pan with cooking spray. Pour egg mixture into pan; cook until edges begin to set (about 2 minutes). Gently lift the edges of omelet with a spatula, tilting pan to allow uncooked egg mixture to come in contact with pan. Spoon corn mixture onto half of omelet; sprinkle corn mixture with cheese. Loosen omelet with a spatula, and fold in half over corn mixture. Cook 2 minutes or until the cheese melts. Carefully slide omelet onto a plate.

 Yield:  1 serving (serving size: 1 omelet)

CALORIES 281 (33% from fat); FAT 10.3g (sat 4.3g,mono 3.4g,poly 1.4g); IRON 2.1mg; CHOLESTEROL 229mg; CALCIUM 162mg; CARBOHYDRATE 25.3g; SODIUM 947mg; PROTEIN 24.8g; FIBER 4.2g

“I’ve been doing a 5×5 routine with an upper/lower split but I think I’m going to incorporate some heavy negatives and some supersets.  The routing uses linear periodization but I think I’m going to switch to alternating periodization to try to stimulate more muscle growth.  On my off days,  I’ve been doing some HIIT on the bike.  On lifting days I just do some boring steady state cardio.”

Huh?

Getting started in the gym can, as you can see, be very confusing.  If you haven’t figured it out yet, it can be almost like another language.  Hopefully, after reading this, you’ll be able to understand some of it.  For some readers, this may be very, very basic but it is intended to be!  Maybe there will be one or two terms that are new to you and you’ll be able to take away some knowledge.

Ok, so let’s get started!

Marinated Grilled Shrimp

I’m going low carb for a while and this is a great low carb entree.  It is a quick and easy to fix recipe from AllRecipes.com.

Prep Time: 15 Minutes
Cook Time: 6 Minutes Ready In: 55 Minutes
Servings: 6
 
Ingredients:

3 cloves garlic, minced
1/3 cup olive oil
1/4 cup tomato sauce
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil 1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 pounds fresh shrimp, peeled and deveined
skewers

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, stir together the garlic, olive oil, tomato sauce, and red wine vinegar. Season with basil, salt, and cayenne pepper. Add shrimp to the bowl, and stir until evenly coated. Cover, and refrigerate for 30 minutes to 1 hour, stirring once or twice.
2. Preheat grill for medium heat. Thread shrimp onto skewers, piercing once near the tail and once near the head. Discard marinade.
3. Lightly oil grill grate. Cook shrimp on preheated grill for 2 to 3 minutes per side, or until opaque.

Nutritional Information:

Calories: 273
Total Fat: 14.7g
Cholesterol: 230mg
Sodium: 472mg
Total Carbs: 2.8g
Dietary Fiber: 0.2g
Protein: 31g

Every now and then you hit a plateau and you just have to bust through it.  In fact, I just wrote about this very thing here.  I feel like I’ve hit that plateau and thought I’d try something a bit different to get past it.

Starting today, I’m doing the Men’s Health TNT Diet written by Ph.D. Jeff Volek and Adam Campbell MS CSCS. TNT stands for Targeted Nutrion Tactics and it includes the TNT diet and a complete workout routine designed by Alwyn Cosgrove. 

As I sit here eating my salad with tuna, onions, and cheese (anybody wanna kiss me?), I thought I’d share my thoughts on the book and the plan so far…even if this is only my first day on the plan!

The TNT Diet Premise

The TNT Diet is a low carb diet.  There really are no calories to count…just a list of acceptable foods depending on the program you choose.  There are four programs you can choose from based on your goals.  I really want to cut down so I’m following Plan A (for losing 20 lbs or more and reducing waist size by 4 inches or more).  The other plans have similar goals.

There are three eating time zones in the plan: 1.) The Fat Burning Time Zone   2.) The Reloading Time Zone  3.) The Muscle Building Time Zone.  The plan you choose dictates what time zones you use.  Since I’m following Plan A, I only use the Fat Burning Time Zone and the Muscle Building Time Zone.