A bride who lost a remarkable 60 pounds before her wedding day shared her tips and tricks for how she did it, crediting not a diet for her transformation, but rather a total "lifestyle change."
"I didn't want to be that 'fat bride' at my wedding," Mountain, 35, said. "I just got tired of looking at myself in the mirror and seeing what I was seeing every day."
The mother of two said her first step was to get her diet in check, and she started by swapping out sugary drinks for plain old water, and lots of water.
"I was a huge soda addict," Mountain admitted.
She also says she paid closer attention to portion sizes. She said her favorite healthy hack is to ditch salad dressing for salsa.
"Dressings just tend to have more calories," Mountain explained.
After making a few adjustments to her diet, Mountain also decided to make fitness a priority, creating an entire workout room in her home and staying motivated to meet her goals using the free app "Lose-It!"
Mountain recommends celebrating the small victories to keep yourself motivated.
"By setting small goals, you keep pushing it out and more, as you reach those goals it's going to motivate you even more," she said.
MORE: Weight Watchers rebrands as WW and puts the focus on wellness, not just dietingAnother big incentive to lose weight, she said, was her wedding gown.
"I actually had to end up exchanging my wedding dress for a smaller size about a month out from the wedding," Mountain said. "The fact that I had to get a smaller wedding dress made me feel that much better."
But perhaps her biggest motivator of all, was her husband Kevin Mountain, who lost more than 60 pounds himself.
"I think having him motivate me and do it by my side it helped me tremendously," she said.
Kevin Mountain added: "It's hard to do it by yourself without someone there to encourage you."
"Life's just a lot easier now," Kevin Mountain said. "The more weight you lose, the more energy you have now, the better you feel. It's just such a better life now."
Melissa Mountain said she looks at it as "a lifestyle change."
"It's not a diet, this is my life now, eating healthier, making smarter choices," she said. "I wanted to be around for my children."
