My active and healthy lifestyle began as a dancer for ten years, then as a personal trainer in college, alongside a general desire to look a certain way and maintain a very specific physique: Being lean and toned.
Quarantine just like everyone else hit me hard. Gyms were closed, I had no social obligations, I was home all the time, so even though I had plenty of opportunity to exercise and eat clean, I didn’t feel as motivated to do so as I usually do due to quarantine and boredom. I began to develop this stir craziness that didn’t seem to go away, though I had no desire whatsoever to work out, especially because I was used to working out at the gym or the dance studio.
For the first time, I experienced what it feels like to gain weight and not know where to begin to lose it. Suddenly, I had no desire to work out, I was ordering in all the time, and I lost all my healthy habits that I had built over the past few years. I just wasn’t comfortable with my appearance, so I needed a way to motivate me to get in shape.
The success, the results, and the progress people make toward their goals motivate people to keep trying. When I asked my friend about it, she told me about her experience with CoolSculpting, which is a machine that claims to freeze fat away. For the first time, I was skeptical, yet intrigued, since for me, it was unclear where to begin and how to get back into my regular fitness routine. I was never interested in cosmetic treatments, especially for body sculpting since I essentially had always had this “perfect” body.
Once I tried this treatment, I must say, it truly did motivate me to hit the gym again and hop back onto my healthy habits. Once you see results, you want to keep going and maintain them.
I started small. In the past, before I got back into my 5 days a week gym routine, I treated it like I would have treated clients undergoing personal training for the first time in their lives. Consistency is key, so I began by doing shorter workouts three to four times a week (20-30 minutes). It may seem insignificant, but it’s about building a habit, not training for 3 hours and barely being able to walk the next day. My workout included boxing and deadlifts (cardio, coordination, dance, and all the squats and butt exercises I’ve been missing out on for so long) This ticks all of my boxes. Three to four weeks after I began working out, I began paying more attention to my eating habits. I didn’t necessarily give up any foods, but I focused on increasing my protein intake. In my case, it was the CoolSculpting treatment that helped me start seeing results right away. My initial reactions were somewhat skeptical, but I have to admit that I was pleasantly surprised with the results.
The bottom line is, if you’re feeling like you’ve lost all motivation and can never get your body back, you’re not alone, whether it’s working out with friends, having a strong support system, or talking with others about your experiences. My main goal at this point is to maintain a steady flow without getting obsessed with the little things, while maintaining a healthy lifestyle and a body that makes me feel good about myself.
I got my CoolSculpting treatment at Skinly Aesthetics, where experts went into more detail about how it works and how it differs from other treatments.
The main difference between CoolSculpting and liposuction for example is that CoolSculpting is a non-invasive option for fat reduction. Liposuction requires surgical intervention and downtime, while CoolSculpting does not.
In addition, there are various types of butt enhancements, surgical and nonsurgical. We’ve all heard about butt implants, which are surgically implanted underneath the muscle, giving you a bigger backside. It is a procedure by which fat is extracted from an area of the body (usually the abdomen, back, arms, or legs), and then injected into the butt to enhance volume and projection. While less invasive than a butt implant, this procedure still involves surgery since liposuction is required to remove fat from your body. It stimulates collagen production in the treated area, causing the area to grow over a two-to-three-month period. Clinics like the one I went to for my treatment, and places with medical experts like MiracleFace MedSpa are the reason why I was able to bounce back and feel good about my body, allowing me to carry on and go back to the gym.
What are the risks associated with these treatments? Why do people get them?
The popularity of body sculpting treatments can be attributed to a variety of reasons. Many people want to get in shape with liposuction and CoolSculpting, and some are unable to lose excess fat naturally, so they turn to procedures like liposuction and cryolipolysis for help.
Surgical treatments, such as liposuction, implants, Brazilian butt lifts, and fat grafting, may cause more complications, such as infection, bruising, swelling, granulomas, and blood clots. The side effects of CoolSculpting, for example, include bruising, swelling, numbness, and itching around the treatment area. Treatments like these could be suitable for you depending on how your body reacts and what kind of result you seek, and allow you to lose fat without the surgical downsides.
I find it amazing that there are so many options available to help us reach our body goals, whether they are to lose weight or to add volume to certain body parts. Ironically, a big bootie trend has been blowing up on social media and in pop culture alongside a massive body positivity and self-love movement. Celebrities and influencers are posting flawless photos of themselves, then posting unaltered pics of themselves to promote body positivity and to remind their followers that not everything you see on the Internet is true. It may be part of body positivity to include getting your work done as well (if that’s what you want to do), because we have the freedom to choose how we want to look and what makes us feel confident.
