Dan + Shay's Shay Mooney Has 'Never Felt More Alive' After Weight Loss: 'I Wanted to Change My Life'

Shay Mooney is opening up about his weight loss and journey toward "greatness."

The musician, one half of country super duo Dan + Shay, shared a montage of photos on Instagram Friday as a visual reminder for fans to see how far he's come.

"It's weird not recognizing yourself," Mooney, 30, captioned the video. "I got to a place mentally and physically that I will never go again. It matters what we eat. It matters who you spend your time with. It matters what you choose to spend your time on."

He added: "I'm so thankful for the people in my life that helped me make a change. No one forced me into this. I wanted to change my life for me."

"I wanted to change my life for me," Mooney continued. "I've never felt more alive. I'm not looking for mediocrity…let's go find greatness."

The video features several images and clips from the last few years of the star, who revealed in October that he lost nearly 50 pounds in 5 months. Some feature him with his bandmate, Dan Smyers, while others show the gradual change of his body in shirtless mirror photos.

The video, soundtracked by the group's song "One Direction" off their 2021 project Good Things, also shows the singer playing with his kids as his appearance slowly changes.

"Love you brother. I'm so proud of you I could cry. In fact, I just might after watching this. 🥹🥹," Smyers replied in the comments. "Truly makes me so happy to see all your hard work paying off, not only physically, but mentally and emotionally too. Inspires me and everyone else around to become better versions of ourselves. The best is yet to come my friend. ❤️❤️❤️"

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

Mooney opened up about his journey in the past, telling followers on his Instagram Story that their "kind words about me lookin' healthy" meant a lot to him.

"Been a little over 5 months I believe and I'm down almost 50lbs. For those asking: Eating clean/not drinking alcohol and walking 7 miles a day. And some weights. That's it! I've completely changed my lifestyle and I've literally never felt better physically, mentally, and spiritually," he said.

Mooney appeared on the Today show earlier this week and revealed he's lost even more weight since opening up about his transformation in October. When co-host Craig Melvin asked the country star what his motivation has been, Mooney's mind went straight to his bandmate.

"You know, I've got to stand next to this guy all the time," he quipped while pointing to Smyers. "I had this moment where I was just not feeling healthy. It wasn't necessarily for my appearance, but it was to feel healthy. And I'm down about 53 or 54 lbs."

Dan + Shay released their latest holiday single with Amazon Music last month, titled "Pick Out a Christmas Tree." In a behind-the-scenes clip shared exclusively with PEOPLE, they opened up about how they spend the holiday season.

"Our favorite thing to do during the holiday season is just be home with our families," Smyers said. "Our schedules are so busy, we're touring nonstop pretty much the whole year round — so the holiday season is a good time for us to slow down, to reflect, to spend time with the ones that we love, to be grateful for everything we have in our lives and this holiday season is gonna be no different."