Recently Elna Baker wrote an article for Refinery29 describing her personal experience with losing 110 pounds, including the mental impact it had on her. Overweight for most of her life (weighing 265 at her heaviest) in her mid-20s she decided enough was enough. But once her weight loss journey was over, something she didn’t think was even possible, she was still miserable due to an enormous amount of sagging skin. 
She says that after dropping the weight she could, “lay on my side and pull it a half-foot in either direction.” She would go on to have four surgeries to remove the excess skin and got implants the size of her old breasts and a body lift. “Two years later, she went in for a circumferential body lift. “They made an incision around my entire waist, cut out a 6-inch belt of skin, and then sewed me back together, removing ten pounds of skin altogether… Now I have a scar that runs completely around my waist, as if a magician cut me in half,” reports the article.
Elna’s “before” pic.
Below is her “after” look (Photo by Jessica Peterson via Refinery29).
She also noticed, upon arriving for a spa weekend with her boyfriend, that her “feelings” about her body- even though it was now a healthy size- were still off. She finally understood that she alone had to decide how to feel about herself and her body and how to SEE her body. For so many years she had seen it as less than and those feelings had become part of her identity.
Given the climate in our society, where we don’t show pics unless the lighting and our outfit (or moment) is perfect, this story is a breath of fresh air. No one will ever benefit from hiding in the dark alone- and Elna’s transparency can bring hope (albeit realistic) to many people currently struggling with the same issues.
We applaud her for going on the weight loss journey, knowing she and her body are happier and healthier. We also applaud her honesty and transparency with the world!!
Source: Good and Refinery29
