A body positive influencer says she made the decision to undergo several weight loss surgeries for the sake of her health.

British content creator Emily Jones keeps a candid account of her journey on her Instagram page, documenting her health in the wake of the deaths of both of her parents within six weeks of one another.

In a touching new video, Jones shared a clip she recorded more than two years ago of herself the night before going in for her gastric bypass surgery.

“What am I afraid of? Lots of things,” Jones says in the emotional video. “This is the first time that I will be having any kind of procedure or surgery done without my mum and dad being around.”

She then stops the recording as she gets audibly choked up. The clip then cuts to a more recent video of herself post-surgery, smiling as she walks in the sun.

“If you think this is just about weight loss… then you’ve missed the entire point 🥺” Jones captioned the montage. “I came across this video that I filmed the night before my gastric bypass surgery, talking about how I was feeling and my fears right before this big turning point in my life. It’s wild to watch it back now on the other side of it all.”

Jones added that “grief has been a big part” of her story after her parents died within six weeks of one another and her mom was diagnosed with a terminal brain tumor.

“Sometimes the physical is truly a manifestation of what is going on inside, and it was time for me to shake the monkey off my back and start living for ME,” she wrote. “Wish I could give this frightened little girl a big hug and tell her everything is going to be ok 🥺❤️‍🩹”

After losing 75 kg (around 165 lbs.) in the wake of her gastric bypass, Jones went on to shed even more pounds after going in for a surgery to combat her lipedema.

According to the Cleveland Clinic, lipedema is “an abnormal fat buildup on both sides of your lower body, usually in your legs. But it can also be in your arms. It can cause pain and make daily activities difficult. Lipedema doesn’t respond to diet and exercise like ordinary fat.”

Jones also had a surgery to eliminate the loose skin that built up in the wake of her massive weight loss. In total, she said she’s lost 80 kg (around 176 lbs.) on her journey to take care of herself.

“It’s so obvious to me that confidence isn’t about being big or being small,” Jones shared in one of her videos. “Confidence comes from within and it’s something that grows with time. It grows as you get to know yourself more, do all of the things that you promise yourself you’re gonna do. It’s really got nothing to do with how your body looks.”

Jones is aware that not all of her followers supported her decision to undergo the gastric bypass surgery, writing on one post, “I know my decision to have gastric bypass surgery made a lot of people upset, but you’ve only got one life to live and I choose to live for ME.”

She added in another video that her journey had nothing to do with “hating” herself before the surgery.

“Change doesn’t always mean that you must hate the old version of you,” Jones wrote. “Change can come from the greatest of self-love and care. This is so much more than ‘just’ plastic surgery.”