Sometimes you gotta ask for help!

So it has obviously been way too long since I last posted and I had such good intentions to post and each day that I went to bed knowing I didn't I would think "Darn it....didn't do it AGAIN today!". This week has been a lot more work/more hectic than I had imagined it was going to be. I tend to live on ideal time and on ideal circumstances in my head downplaying how things will be and then surprised when it comes to reality lol. This time I did this with moving and just how much it takes to move/work and how much stuff I had accumulated over the last year in my apartment. I am moving Saturday from my apartment to my house for next year with my new roommates, it should be a lot of a fun and I am very much looking forward to it and the change :). I really feel the new place, new school year and such is the perfect time to embark on this new chapter of my life and getting to my goal, and letting the last two years go with all the family stress I went through and changes and losing the hold the guilt of regaining some of the weight.

The picture above is the reason for my title tonight on this post. For the last 4 months or so I have watched my best friend Heather lose almost 40 pounds and slim down before my eyes and still eat and not workout like a maniac. Heather is a lot like me with weight always being a battle and often felt hopeless like she couldn't do it, until she joined the program called Thin&Healthy, which is based out of a fitness center here in town called Studio 22. It is owned by a fitness trainer who is awesome name Brad and where a nutritional coach Vicki works at who does the food portion of it. Anyways long story short I have talked to Heather the last couple weeks about my frustrations on eating and knowing how to be healthy and low calorie without being too low. What worked for me before doesn't work now because my body is at a different set point, I am not 309lbs but starting in the 190's and losing from there. My body has a lot more muscle than I did before and I can workout a lot harder than before as well so I burn more. Any type of cutting calories at 309 is going to show results because I had plenty of fat to burn (not to say I don't now) but my body just burns differently and needs to more to lose more if that makes sense. So after Heather telling me all about Thin and Healthy and seeing here success I decided I needed to gave in and check into it. 

One of my many flaws is it's tough for me to admit when I need help, especially in this area because it seemed like I had this down pat and covered, I would say to myself "At your smallest you were down over a 170lbs I think you know what your doing, just figure it out already!". Well I don't and didn't know what I was doing, I just knew how to eat less but not always the most smartest. We can all eat lower calories amount of crappy food and lose weight but still be off on the nutritional part which was totally ME! I went though yesterday and signed up and had my first meeting with Vicki and started "Phase One". I had the first weigh-in with her and we took all the measurements of every area of my body which is exciting because the first time I lost weight I did not take measurements and I so wished I had because sometimes those can be a huge encouragement when you don't see anything on the scale. This phase though you do for 4 days and then weigh in and in you lose more than 3-4 pounds they keep you on it until you plataea. It is very basic and has you eating protein, fruit, a little carbs in whole wheat bread, and whole grains or carby veges like corn, then all the raw veges you want and light condiments and yogurt. It's very simple and basic and as of today day 1 I love it! It's really not anything magical or anything I didn't know, it's just something new and something structured two things I needed. I write it all down in my food diary, take it in with me to see Vicki and also just document my exercise/mood. 

Breakfast was a bowl of oatmeal, , should have had fruit but was running late and out the door for work and forgot, Lunch was a PB&J with all Natural Peanut Butter and Organic Strawberry Jelly, 1 low fat string cheese, and carrots, then dinner was what you see above which is a new favorite of mine! I pulled out my George Forman grill for the first time all year because it was the easiest thing to get to with my boxes all packed full of my stuff and grilled a 4oz chicken breast and it was amazing, then boiled a cup of Quinoa(rice/cous cous) like stuff that is so good and has protein in it as well, added a tiny bit of my Brummel and Brown butter( compliments of Hungry Girl) and 2tsps of Parmesan and threw in the chicken and I had myself a nice little healthy meal, and of course some carrots too! I normally would have another vege but I am trying to clean out my fridge before moving too so this is what I had so lots of little bags of organic carrots....yum! To say the least it was great, the flavors were good and made me realize just how much better the flavors of healthy food are over fast food and unhealthy. Even though I didn't use a ton of spices, I often forget how good just natural food tastes on it's own cooked, like my chicken breast, it was so good and just plain. I think the food so many of us eat now has so many "fake" processed flavors you get the instant taste but after your like "what did I just even eat??". 

All in all this day was great, and it's nice to have some help in doing this and some accountability. I know for a fact you CANNOT get thin/stay thin without support and people to keep you in check. I have learned it's not easy as well to ask for help but it feels good once you do, I am still the one putting in the work and discipline I just need to admit that I need some boosts along the way ;). Can't wait to post more on this! Have a great day!

~Kassey 

p.s. started with my friend/neighbor who is a trainer today and it was great she had me drenched in 15mins flat doing some P90x stuff and Body Rockers moves from online, intense but good!