Looking over some photos.

I was so camera shy at 500 pounds, I have no pictures.  I should have taken some, but I was just too embarrassed I guess.  I'm sure my family has some somewhere...There is always my driver's license :)

This was me at 130 pounds gone.

For the record, that shirt was a 5xl. 

this was me at 150 pounds lost

I was pretty excited to actually kind of see cheek bones.  

This was me last year at fire in the hills 2012 at 300 pounds--200 pounds lost.

and this is one picture of me at Fire in the hills this year 2013.  300 pounds lost.  at 200 pounds

Look at that neck tendon!  Woo! 

a selfie with my niece

Anyway, an update.  I did go see the surgeon to have the skin removed.  It seems the pannectomy will be covered by my insurance and he will try to prorate as much stomach contouring as possible, as a simple pannectomy is functional only and I will lose my bellybutton; however, the arms and boobs are all on me as they are both cosmetic.  We have recently started a savings account at the bank called "The Boob Fund" to get a nice start on the final surgery.  I struggle with this vanity.  Isn't it enough to just have the weight off?  I look in the mirror and see the sagging arms, the difficult pendulous boobs and the stubborn large pannus.  I still can't wear what I want to wear, I cant tuck in a shirt, I still have a belly.  My legs are still quite large.  It's weird how your body adjusts to this kind of thing, but like Curtis said, I have worked so hard for this.  The exercising, and disciplined eating, the sickness and the pain associated with this whole journey now, finally, getting me to my ideal weight.  A weight I have never seen or experienced in my whole life.   Yes, I have changed over the last 18 months and my body has paid for it.  I just want to feel beautiful once.  

Is that a bad thing?  I don't know.  

This is the weight I was when I graduated high school and I was nowhere near the saggy, floppy, deflated balloon I am today.  Before I can have the pannectomy, I need to lose a few more pounds to get to the ideal textbook BMI they want me at to have the pannectomy and I am to try to work off a little more of this belly meat that is so stubbornly hanging on despite all the effort.  Removing 40 pounds of stomach is evidently pretty traumatizing for the body and they want to make sure its as easy on me as possible.  At this point, the numbers mean a lot.  This is my last push to the end and I have been working like a maniac to get there.