Woman Who Lost 350 Lbs. Shares Her Excess Skin After Liposuction: ‘It’s a Big Insecurity for Me’
Jacqueline Adan is ready to share her biggest insecurity.
The Montessori preschool teacher, 31, lost 350 lbs. and now deals with excess skin, something she was body shamed for during two separate beach vacations. She’s undergone five skin removal surgeries — three on her upper body, one on the lower body and liposuction on her legs — but quickly learned that it isn’t an instant fix.
Adan has posted plenty of photos of herself since her surgeries, but for the first time, she decided to put up a video showing exactly what her legs — her biggest source of insecurity — look like now.
“This is getting very real, but I did want to be honest and open and share everything with you guys, so this is what we’re working with,” she said in an Instagram video on Monday. “They’re a lot more loose, as you can see. There’s a lot of it … There’s lots of dents, holes from the liposuction sucking out. This is kind of just what they are. They’re heavy, there’s a lot of it.”
Adan explained that she first had liposuction in January to get rid of some remaining fat in her legs, and is meeting with her surgeon this week to move on to the next step — skin removal.
“It’s a big insecurity for me, my legs, but at the same time, mentally it’s not just challenging, but physically,” she said. “As you can see, there’s a lot of weight. It’s heavy. Lifting my legs just to go up and down the stairs, in and out of bed, is hard because they’re so heavy.”
Adan said she decided to post this video to help her move past her insecurity.
“I wanted to share my legs with you because…well, because I am scared,” she wrote. “Even though I do not hate them anymore, I still feel very insecure with them. Even though I am insecure, I am not going to let them stop me from living my life or sharing them with you. This is real and this is me. This is what hard work looks like.”
And Adan — who certainly knows about body shaming — added that she refuses to be bothered by any negative comments about this video.
“You can call them ugly, nasty, big, fat, disgusting. Don’t worry anything negative you could ever say about them I have thought those things too,” she said. “I am now embracing my legs for what they are … I am not going to call them ugly anymore. These are my strong legs.”