Donning a swimsuit is a vulnerable moment for many of us. For Jacqueline Adan, wearing a swimsuit, particularly without a cover-up, was something she avoided for a long time. The 30-year-old feared how others would judge her and her body — especially because of her loose skin from losing 350 pounds over a time span of 4.5 years. But on a recent vacation to Mexico, Adan decided to stop letting others' opinions of her prevent her from enjoying life — and her major accomplishments.
At first, Adan was nervous to take off her cover-up. "I still felt like that same 500 pound girl," she wrote on Instagram. "Then it happened."
As she explains in her post, she noticed a couple by the pool making fun of her by laughing and pointing at her — something that would ruin anyone's confidence.
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But she had a moment of clarity. She "took a deep breath, smiled, and walked into the pool."
"That was a huge moment for me," she wrote. "I was not the same girl anymore."
It was then that she decided to stop letting others define her self-worth, even though she still gets insecure about things like her loose skin.
"To be honest, yes it bothered me," she wrote. "But I was not going to let people like that affect me anymore! I am not going to let what other people think of me stop me from living my life. They do not know me."
But her loose skin shouldn't be something to be ashamed of — it's evidence of her weight loss journey, which wasn't an easy feat.
"They do not know how I have worked my ass off to lose 350 pounds," she continued. "They do not know how I am recovering from major surgeries."
According to a crowdfunding campaign for her excess skin surgery, Adan needed three to four surgeries to remove about 30 pounds of loose skin, which not only affected her confidence, but also gave her neck and back problems and bad headaches.
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Then she doled out some seriously wise advice: "It does not matter what others say or if they try to doubt you or try to bring you down ... "
" … What matters is how you react to it. How you feel about yourself. Loving yourself just the way you are is hard," she wrote. "Others might not like that. That's OK. I hope you love yourself."
Many folks cheered Adan on for her bravery against others' criticisms.
"I love this!" someone wrote. "You deserve to feel wonderful, beautiful, and powerful because you are all of those things!"
"What you have done is something to be proud of," someone else chimed in.
It's a small but powerful reminder that we hope Adan and others keep in mind.
