Woman Who Lost 350 Pounds Refuses to Let Body Shamers Ruin Her Vacation

09/25/2017 06:19 pm EDT

After dropping 350 pounds, Jacqueline Adan felt nervous, yet excited to put on a bathing suit for her first vacation in Mexico.

"For a brief moment, I thought to myself, 'I can't do this. I can't take this cover-up off,'" the 30-year-old told PEOPLE. "It took a lot for me to actually tell myself, 'It's OK, you are beautiful just the way you are.'"

When she worked up the courage to show off her body, a couple near her started pointing and laughing at the loose skin on her legs.

"I did not know if I was going to cry or put my cover-up back on and not go swimming. For a moment I froze," Adan said. "I could not believe how someone could judge me and make fun of me. They had no idea who I was, what I had been through or what I was currently going through."

Though she admits their comments bothered her, "I was not going to let people like that affect me anymore!" she told Instagram followers of the incident. "I am not going to let what other people think of me stop me from living my life."

So Aden smiled at her haters and jumped right into the water. "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," she added.

Though she reacted with courage and confidence, the San Francisco native said the incident would've ended much differently if it had happened before her major weight loss. Being "embarrassed and ashamed" of her looks, she said she likely would've run back to her room to cry.

"I would have allowed their comments to affect my vacation and I probably would not have gone to the beach or pool again," she told PEOPLE.

Instead, Aden spent nearly four years to transform her body from 510 pounds to her current 160 pounds through a healthy diet and exercise.

"...It took me around 2.5 years of just eating right before I was mentally ready to really start working out," Adan wrote on her Facebook page.

Because of the massive amount of weight Adan lost, she carries about 30 pounds of extra skin, which causes back and neck pain and tension headaches. In July 2016, she had her first surgery to remove that skin, and she has undergone three additional surgeries since to alleviate her pain and tighten the skin.

"I want people to know to never give up," Adan said. "No matter what your dreams or goals are you can achieve them. If you work hard and believe in yourself you can do it."

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