Groovin' Right Along

Well, I was at my sister's house yesterday, and it went surprisingly well!!  I went over the 1500 limit, but I'm okay with the 1625 I landed at.  Those extra 125 cals came from snacking.  Kids = stress = snacking.  When I got there, they had a big ol' pot of Northern beans simmering on the stove.  Excellent!!  I HATE BEANS!!  I ate the tuna salad sandwich on a whole wheat bun that I brought with me, and outside of a couple of snacks, I felt good about last night.  Brandy's house is rampant with crap food, which kills me, knowing how slim she is.  She's just way more self-disciplined than I am.  Although I didn't touch either of these, here's a pic of just a couple of things I was faced with:

And remember how I told you my niece Carla is smarter than I am?  In that she'll NEVER eat too many cookies so she doesn't get fat like me?  Well here's a pic of my niece Grace and nephew Elijah, who are also smarter than their Aunt Tammy, eating their healthy beans:

I skipped the gym yesterday morning because the sun was shining bright and I wanted to be out in it.  So Scarlette, my sister Amy, and I went for a 2 mile walk at the park.  Today's calories were good.  Normally, I take the kids out to lunch on Tuesdays when I babysit because I don't leave from there until 2:30pm.  But in the effort to stay comfortably within my calorie count and minimize temptation, we stayed home.  I'm sitting at 1510 cals for today.  As much as it stresses me out sometimes to count every single one of them, never feel really "full", and not give into any yummy temptations (i.e., Chinese food!), it definitely makes for a much anticipated weigh-in on Friday.  I'm really looking forward to it, and that's the first time I've been able to say that in a couple of months.

Now....for tonight's happenings at the gym.  I had asked the personal trainer to tell me what amount of calories he thought I should be eating when we met with him this past Saturday.  He took all my stats, said he'd do some reading in his book at home, and let me know tonight.  Oh he let me know alright. 

He said he triple-checked it, because he was surprised it was so high, but I needed to start eating 2306 cals/day. 

I totally freaked.  My quick and succint reply to that was "Are you effin' nuts???  No way!!"  lol

We talked back and forth for a few minutes.  He admitted that he thought it was a little high.  I asked him hadn't he ever heard that when someone just wants to maintain their current weight, that they should eat around 2000?  He said yes, between 2000-2100.  So I said well then you can see why when you tell me to eat 2300, my brain thinks I'm going to GAIN instead of lose??  He told me to go ahead and stay at the 1500 cals/day for a couple of week and let him know what my losses are.  He said if they stall or slow down significantly then we'll bump them up.  I told him that I did expect him to tell me something like 1800, but 2300 just sounds unreasonable for any kind of real weight loss. 

So, if I like what I see on the scale this week, and I'm pretty certain I will, then I'm shooting for 1500 again next week.  I'm also not going to freak if I have one "bad" eating day out of the week.  I am not perfect and that's not what I'm striving for.  But I do want to get back on track with some significant losses and the blinders are on.  I'm counting my calories again and I'm exercising 5-6 days a week. 

Since I know a lot of you have been doing the strength training WAY longer than I have, then I need to know if you think the 2306 cals/day sounds as insane as I think it does?   I know a couple of people that are in the gym 5-6 days a week, and they have a couple of high calorie days a week....but ALL SEVEN DAYS??  Seriously??  Does anyone else that's working out consistently eat like this?  I'm really curious to know why his "book" told him that.  'Nite friends.  :)