Jacqueline Adan had struggled with obesity since childhood, and it only got worse during college, when she subsisted on pizzas and other junk foods that are staples of collegiate life.
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At her heaviest, the San Francisco preschool teacher weighed more than 500 lbs. But she didn’t hit rock bottom until the end of 2011 — when she got stuck in a turnstile during a visit to Disneyland with her sister and now-fiancé.
“I kinda just got unstuck, clawed my way out and didn’t really make eye contact with anyone,”she later said.
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She laughed it off at the time but was secretly mortified, so she committed the very next day to losing weight through diet and exercise. She knew she had to lose hundreds of pounds to get down to a healthy weight, but the number was so staggering that she instead set her sights on short-term goals — first, 5 lbs., then 10, then 20.
By the end of that 4 ½ year journey, she’d shed a staggering 350 lbs.
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But even as Jacqueline continues to motivate others, she still has some cosmetic loose ends to wrap up: She recently underwent the first of several surgeries to remove 30 lbs. of excess skin.
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Unfortunately, that excess skin made her the target of cruel mockery during a vacation to Mexico last month.
She recalled standing on the beach for a long moment, trying to decide whether she had the confidence to take off her cover-up. It was the first time in a long time that she’d worn a bathing suit. Finally, Jacqueline told herself, “‘It’s OK, you are beautiful just the way you are.'”
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But not everyone saw it that way. A couple sitting poolside started pointing and laughing, and she again froze, wondering whether she should wrap back up or run away and hide.
But she made the best decision possible.
“I took a deep breath, smiled and walked into the pool. That was a huge moment for me. I had changed. I was not the same girl anymore. Yes I still have a lot of loose skin, I may still feel insecure at times, and yes I may still get made fun of … But I was not going to let what other people think of me stop me from living my life,” she wrote.
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“They do not know me. They do not know how [hard] I have worked to lose 350 pounds. They do not know how I am recovering from major surgeries. They have no right to sit and point and laugh at me.â€
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“That’s why I smiled. 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. Others might not like that. That’s ok. I hope you love yourself. Love your body.â€
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