Mom_love07 after Week 1

Mom_love07 has graciously agreed to share her weight loss journey with us. She's a 21-year-old mama to daughter, Addison, 2, and lives in Illinois. Her goal? To be more active and lose 100 pounds in one year. Each week we're checking in with her to see her progress and give her words of encouragement!

Let's find out what happened during Week 1...

 

I'm always so inspired by hearing other women's stories of how they've lost weight, increased their fitness, and adopted a more healthier lifestyle, aren't you?

Mom_love07 has graciously agreed to share her weight loss journey with us. She's a 21-year-old mama to daughter, Addison, 2, and lives in Illinois. Her goal? To be more active and lose 100 pounds in one year. Each week we'll check in with her to see her progress and give her words of encouragement! But first, let's hear a little bit about why she's embarking on this important journey...

Photo by DawnMarie1018

If you've eaten too much Halloween candy (I know I did!), check out these healthy links I love:

A bowl of cereal in the morning is great way to start the day. Most people generally think of cereal as a tasty, healthy breakfast, but it has the potential to be so much more. Here are four surprising uses for cereal:

Calcium and Vitamin D are essential nutrients for the development of strong bones in children. But are your kids getting enough? Here are some menu ideas for incorporating calcium and Vitamin D into your family's daily diet:

A writer for the Huffington Post was sick of eating an unhealthy diet and having no energy. She forced herself to like leafy greens by committing to eat 90 salads in 90 days. That's a ton of salad!

Do you think you could do that? I love salad, but that seems like too much even to me.

How did she do it?

I've never been overweight, but my metabolism is definitely is slowing down. I've recently discovered the hard way that my days eating ice cream in front of the tube at night are over. Ice cream -- that's always been my late-day snack of choice.

cleanmomma's also a late-day snacker -- she used to go for the Cheetos and Oreos.

"I eat so great the entire day -- lots of fruit, spinach, high protein, desperately trying to cover all four food groups," she says. "Then come 8:30, that food group triangle we all learned in elementary school slowly transforms into a rectangle, one that coincidentally looks like a graham cracker covered with peanut butter and jelly."

My best friend was addicted to a particular brand of diet cola. She needed it to function first thing in the morning, and she'd gulp down several more throughout the day. One day after a can, she got sick and threw up. She never touched the stuff again.

That's one way to quit drinking soda.

ilovexzavier is looking for a less dramatic fix. Cherry cola is all she drinks, even though she knows it's not good for her. Not only is it all artificial and packed with empty calories, some data suggests soda boosts the risk of kidney stones.

She wants to set a good example for her little boy, without getting withdrawal headaches.

Some of the ways other moms suggested she try to quit drinking soda:

Leafy greens can improve your mood!

Recently I've noticed that whenever I snack on lots of sugary foods—candy, cookies, non-diet soda, etc.—I often feel down in the dumps. I thought this was just a coincidence until I read about how diet can affect mood swings.

We all know that calcium builds strong bones and teeth and can prevent osteoporosis. But it does much more than that: It helps the blood to clot; aids the heart in functioning properly; lowers our risk of cancer; transmits nerve messages; and even helps some people lose weight. That's pretty important stuff. So how can we be sure that our family is getting enough calcium each day?