Illinois bride who lost over 60 pounds before her wedding shares her story

A bride from Illinois determined to get healthy before her big day is sharing how she dropped more than 60 pounds without surgery.

"I didn't want to be that 'fat bride' at my wedding. I just got tired of looking at myself in the mirror and seeing what I was seeing every day," says 35-year-old Melissa Mountain.

Step number one: Getting control of her diet.

"I drank more water, I was a huge soda addict. Chicken, pork, salmon -- a lot of it was controlling the portions," says Melissa.

Her favorite healthy hack -- ditch the salad dressing for salsa.

"Dressings just tend to have more calories," Melissa says.

Step two: Making fitness a priority. Melissa brought the gym home by adding an entire workout room, and stayed motivated by tracking her food and workouts with the free app "Lose It!"

"By setting small goals, you keep pushing it out and more, as you reach those goals it's going to motivate you even more," Melissa says.

Her other big incentive -- the dress.

"I actually had to end up exchanging my wedding dress for a smaller size about a month out from the wedding. The fact that I had to get a smaller wedding dress made me feel that much better," says Melissa.

But perhaps her biggest motivator was her husband, Kevin, who lost more than 60 pounds himself.

"It's hard to do it by yourself without someone there to encourage you," Kevin says. "I think having him motivate me, and do it by my side, it helped me tremendously," Melissa adds.

Melissa says in addition to wanting to look good for her wedding, she also wanted to be around longer for her kids.

She says that people who want to lose weight and keep the weight off need to look at the journey, not just as going on a diet and exercising, it needs to be a lifestyle change.

It worked for her, and she says she hopes it works for others.