OK, I'll jump in on this one...

...and I KNOW I'm gonna catch hell for this suggestion, but I found that when I spent a little time at the electric beach (tanning beds) my marks were considerably less noticable and I was much less self conscience at the beach.

From having lost weight on several occassions (once more than 100 pounds the hard way...starving) I can say that with time the marks fade. They never go away, but if you lose weight and maintain the loss, they will fade down.

They're battle scars, plain and simple. We have to take responsibility for them and own them, accept them, and love ourselves even more because of them.

Donald