Selfies are widely popular, and if you're reading this, you've probably taken a selfie once or twice in your life. With all the different editing apps and filters available, we can easily alter our selfies to look exactly how we want them before we show them to the world.

Unfortunately, you can retouch your photos all you want but you can't hide reality. This was the case for Casey Gemmell from Perth, Australia. One simple selfie motivated her to make major changes in her life.

It all started when she rented a Batgirl costume for her son's super hero birthday party. It was a little small, but she wore it with confidence. She felt great until the photos were posted on Facebook.

Mixed feelings

When she saw the pictures, she thought, "That's not me, what a terrible angle." As more pictures were posted she kept waiting for a better angle — but it never happened.

After feeling sad and depressed for a little while, she decided to make a change in her life and work on her weight. Gemmel modified four habits, leading her to lose 154 pounds. If you're trying to lose weight, try out these four habits as well:

1. Get rid of four foods

• Cheese is a product obtained from cow's milk, so it contains concentrated nutrients such as calcium, phosphorus, zinc, vitamins, fats and proteins. Excessive consumption, however, makes it hard for the body to digest and leads to weight gain.

• Bread contains 50 to 60 carbohydrates. Carbs have a lot of sugar, and when you put butter, jam, honey, peanut butter and other things on bread, it can get fattening fast.

• Pasta is made with flour and has tons of carbohydrates. Excessive consumption makes it hard for the body to digest, causing fat to build up.

• Soda is loaded with sugar and artificial flavors, so take it out of your diet if you want to lose weight. New studies have found that diet soft drinks also contribute to weight gain even though they don't have any calories.

2. Exercise

Exercise is a key part of losing weight whether you like it or not. Gemmell suggests downloading apps to get you motivated. She downloaded the 5K Runner app, and she was running five kilometers straight (a little over three miles) before she knew it.

After four months of running, she signed up for a gym membership and started training and strengthening her muscles with resistance training.

3. Support

Her husband was by her side throughout the whole journey. He goes running with her everyday. He gives advice and motivates her to exercise and continue with her diet. Having a good support system is SUPER important.

4. Patience

Just like Gemmell, we sometimes want to throw in the towel and forget about our end goals. Losing weight is hard but worth it. She learned that it won't happen overnight, but when bad habits change one by one, the weight will come off eventually.

Losing weight is achievable when the person is completely determined, modifies bad eating habits, exercises and drinks lots of water. Remember — don't invent a diet or do anything unhealthy. A specialist will provide you with what's best for your body based on your age, weight and physical activity.

This article was adapted and translated from the original "Mujer perdió 70 kilos SÓLO dejando de comer estos 4 alimentos" which was originally published on familias.com.