When Kate Kernan married her husband Justin two months ago, she didn't try to change her body before the big event.
The 26-year-old tells 9Honey she was already happy with how her body looked and felt.
"Even though usually people go crazy before their wedding and try to get to a certain number, I didn't because I was already comfortable," she adds.
"I love all my wedding photos. In all of them you can tell I felt comfortable and that I am happy and healthy. That's all that matters."
However, Kate hasn't always been so happy with her body, having struggled with body image issues since she was a child and trying her first diet shortly after leaving high school.
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"I always loved my food, especially chocolate. I have a massive sweet tooth."
Kate, who lives in Tasmania, didn't know anything about how to lose weight, so simply stopped eating.
"Then I'd end up eating chocolate and stuff like that. I tried diet shakes at one stage but they were disgusting," she says.
Working in a cafe didn't help, surrounded by food each day, and despite persevering with the shakes for almost a year, she remained the same size.
"I just wasn't happy with myself. I was unhappy at how I had let myself go," Kate recalls.
"Then I met my husband. I went to hospital when my nephew was born and he was visiting my nephew as well."
Justin, 36, was a friend of her brother's. It was truly meant to be.
"I still wanted to lose weight and I wanted to be happy with my body, but I never was," Kate adds.
"Justin always said he liked how I looked, that he was happy if I was happy."
Kate says she gained more weight, reaching her highest weight while pregnant with her daughter Alice.
A month away from giving birth, a friend introduced her to Healthy Mummy.
"I had put on a lot of weight and I was unhappy with how I looked," Kate recalls.
Her first few weeks and months as a mum weren't her happiest time, with Kate saying she didn't go out much.
"I didn't have depression but I was very uncomfortable and none of my clothes fit," she adds.
"I was at a point that I had to buy bigger clothes."
Kate had started the Healthy Mummy pregnancy program towards the end of her pregnancy, kicking her weight loss efforts up a gear once she was home with little Alice.
Not a big breakfast eater, Kate started having smoothies for breakfast and following the healthy recipes for the rest of the day.
"The smoothies were much better that the ones I used to have," she says.
"Each day I'd get out and walk with Alice, and the Healthy Mummy support group was really motivating."
During her pregnancy, Kate began experiencing pain in her feet but doctors could only attribute it to pregnancy and weight gain. It wasn't until she fell pregnant with her son that she was diagnosed with arthritis.
"I now take medication so I can work normally compared to how I was," she said.
The first time Kate weighed herself was just after having a daughter and then following her weight loss efforts. During her second pregnancy with son Arlo she maintained her health habits and quickly lost the pregnancy weight the second time around.
These days she avoids the scale, choosing to focus on how she feels instead of a number.
"I stopped weighing myself. Now I know when my body is at its healthiest."
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The one thing this Tassie mum refused to do before her wedding day - 9Honey
