Confidence?

Still. after all this weight loss. after all the changes that I have physically made to my body, to my health and to my well-being...the one constant, the one continuous obstacle I lack is confidence.  And I am not the only one who is a witness to this.  I am placed under scrutiny every day.  by me. by others. by friends and by family.
Yet. I hear amazing compliments.  More so lately.  More so now than ever before.
And yet the confidence escapes me.  For a moment, in time. I am ever elated after hearing this:
You are stunning.
You are so good looking.
Don't you feel so good about yourself?
You are sexy.
You are beautiful.
Yet.  I do not feel these things at all.  I do not see the compliments. I do not see what people are saying  I don't see it. period.
I still lack the confidence to, how do you say.. pull it all off.  And yet. at times I seek validation, if you will.  I know that I do not need anyone's validation of the person I was or now have become.  But the lack of confidence is paramount to the future of my well being.  Of feeling important.  Of feeling justified as a person. a woman.  It's a very extreme weird concept.  For years as a heavier person I had no problems being confident. I was confident for all the wrong reasons.  Confident for the girls I worked with.  Confident that I looked good in the same three or four dresses I wore on a weekly basis(usually it was two of the same style and different color.)
But that confidence has, for one reason or another, left the building,.  Maybe it's because my body is in such a sad, distressed and stretched state, under the clothes. My weight loss has left my body in such a deflated, ugly blob state that I cannot see past it.  Nor do I think anyone else will or can see past it.
It is symptom of my lack of confidence.  It is a constant reminder of the damage I repeatedly placed on my body.  I reeked havoc on my body for 30 years. The sheer pressure of walking, of standing, of doing 'normal' things, that you take for granted, drained me, exhausted me and completely turned me away from things I liked doing.
Today. I look in the mirror and there are monumental moments that I look back at myself and ask, "who the hell is that staring back at me?"  I am afraid of the person staring back at me.  She seems confident and beautiful and, for a lack of a better word, skinny.
Yet. there are days when the mirror lies to me. and my confidence that I may have had from the day before washes away. completely.
I look in the mirror and I see the "fat or morbidly obese" girl.  That image, that thought scares me. beyond.  How can I overcome that image. that thought?  hard days ahead.  courage to see the difference.  confidence. always.