I'm a Fraud.

you are not a fraud!  just give yourself more time to get used to it, and stop calling yourself names.

wouldn't hurt to practice saying nice things about your looks.

Jen, you've obviously spent a ton of money on all these procedures, and gotten fantastic results!  Let me suggest that if you are really conflicted about the attention you're getting, and feeling like your inside doesn't match your outside, you may want to spend a bit more money and explore some psychotherapy.  I was in therapy before  my VSG and I am still going a year after surgery, and it's the best money I spend.  It's really helped me to adjust to all the changes in my life since the VSG!

 There is a term for this, although it was coined more for women who appear to be successful professionally and academically, but feel like "if they really knew me, . . . ."     It's called the imposter syndrome.  

Here's a link  
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impostor_syndrome

 Man, this sounds so familiar to me.

I definitely struggled, for a long time, to reconcile what I saw as two distinct selves, into the body I was inhabiting after weight loss and then plastics. 
I was not this new girl, and I was no longer that old girl...and it was VERY confusing.

I loved how I looked. But I also in some weird ass way felt like I was betraying that old self. 


Long story short: I did, eventually, get a grip on all of this. 

You are not a fraud. You ARE a sexy, attractive, beautiful woman. You ALWAYS were. You just need to find that confidence. 

Changing your body doesn't change your personality. You're in a new body, you're wearing a new skin--it's like a pair of shoes, you have to break it in and get comfortable. And that takes time! 
It took me a couple of years, to be honest.

My advice is to just go slowly and move through this emotion with gentleness and compassion towards yourself: this is no small thing you have achieved. You just need to give yourself the permission and room to enjoy it. Spread those swan wings, baby! 

And get a new driver's license! 

Wow, you must look awesome, I just wish I had the fuinds to do half of that. It's taken forever just to get the surgery paid for. I have the sleeve april 18th. I am sure we as people who have had shame in our looks( I should say me) and then becoming a dazzleing beauty, our thoughts probably go into a spin. But you have worked for these results. Be proud and happy about that now! I have spent long enough feeling less than. It is our time to shine. Congrats! Sara

I have to say, I'm really happy to hear you had PS. I thought you were one of those lucky people who didn't have a lot of loose skin and every time I looked at your avatar, it was ******g me off a bit that you looked so fantastic and I still have a panus.

Anyway, I can kind of see where you are coming from. I grew up in the "just be natural" generation and so I have these irrational prejudices against making too many alterations in appearance. Part of me feels like it's shallow to care about my looks enough to do such things while the other part of me wants to be constantly improving myself including my appearance. It's a conflict.

But a lot of this is under your control. I mean, if you are feeling a bit like you want to hide one day, you can always throw on a too big t-shirt or sweats. Until you feel like flaunting it again. You could always stop doing things to your hair too. Heck, you could even buy those fake glasses my daughter is always getting because she thinks wearing glasses is "cool."

I'm betting you don't really want to do those things though, at least not most of the time. So I think that's your answer. You aren't a fraud, you are metamorphosing into the ideal you and on a path you want to be on even if it freaks you out sometimes.

MacMadame you crack me up. My bikini body came with a hefty price tag, believe me.  =)  

I think you have hit on something important. Like you I always prioritized "smart" over "pretty". So now, spending so much time and money on my appearance, it's almost like I am in conflict with my own values. 

Now I am spending time shopping, getting pedicures and hair color and bikini waxes... there is nothing wrong with that, but part of me clearly thinks those activities are shallow. And it probably has less to do with the weight loss and plastic surgery than the ongoing "beauty maintenance."

I guess I just need to decide if looking "pretty" is important to me or if I can tone it down and just stick with "healthy". I don't know the answer, but your post made me realize why I have been feeling uncomfortable with myself.