Meh.

That's how I felt more the majority of today, in a nutshell.

I now truly know I'm in a caloric deficit because for about half the day I'm lacking energy.
Case in point: after my Voice and Movement class, I came up to my dorm to take a nap. I ended up sleeping for over three hours and missed my ballet class.

Oops.

I'm sharing this because I don't want people to get the impression that losing weight  fat is all sunshine and rainbows. It's hard work! Weight loss is simple; but it's not easy. (If it was easy, we wouldn't have the obesity issues we do today.) Trying to lose fat without losing muscle is even harder; when you lose weight, it's usually a combination of fat, muscle, and water weight. To try to minimize the muscle loss, it's recommended to eat a crap ton of protein and to keep lifting heavy weights, all while eating less calories. Simple, but not easy at all!!

Today has been the worst I've felt in a long time. I'm still motivated to reach my goals, but setbacks like today sure make it tough.

In other news, check out this great article that popped up on my Yahoo page. It's all about metabolism (and further enforces that weights>cardio)

Click here to check out the super awesome metabolism article!

Tommorow I'm going to be starting my Woman Crush Wednesday posts, were each Wednesday I'll post about a health enthusiast woman that can help you with your goals, as she's helped me with mine!
Tommorow's WCW will be Sophie Gray of WayOfGray :)

Even though I haven't been able to make a protein shake in a while, here is a recipie for an amazing Pumpkin Pie Protein Shake from Fitness RX for Women, one of my favorite magazines.

Pumpkin Protein Smoothie
- 3 ice cubes
- 1 c water
- 6 oz greek yogurt 0% plain
- 1/2 c pumpkin puree
- dash of pumpkin pie spice
- 1 scoop vanilla protein powder
Blend and enjoy!

Note: I like to use unsweetened vanilla almond milk in place of water and 2% cottage cheese in place of greek yogurt...both ways are delicious!

(Here is the video of Nicole Wilkins making the smoothie)