Ok, ok… I have to let you in on my little secret. When I got asked to do Dancing for the Stars, I really ramped up my workout routine. I was exercising more, eating better, and started to tone up! That was good, because the dress Amy Kirchen and I designed was quite skimpy and I didn’t have much fabric to hide behind! 🙂
But there were a few weird areas (like on my back right under my bra, under my belly button, above my knees, and on the sides of my thighs) that I was having a tough time targeting. I was talking with one of my clients, Dr. Gupta at the Dermatology, Laser & Vein Center, about it, and she said she had a few procedures that could help (of course she does, she’s a cosmetic surgeon! haha!).
The two she recommended were Vaser Liposuction, and Liposonix. Vaser is less invasive than traditional lipo, but it’s still done under local anesthesia, and you’re out of commission/in a compression garment for a couple weeks afterwards. Liposonix is the least invasive but it still kills the fat cells (it just takes the body three months to remove them naturally instead of surgically). Plus, you can be in for the treatment and back to your regular life immediately after the procedure. This was perfect for me because it was late January at the time and Dancing for the Stars wasn’t until April!
So, I opted for Liposonix and I told Dr. Gupta I would write about the process – good or bad – on my blog so readers would know what it’s like. The process started with an initial consultation where she took a look at the areas I wanted to target. Dr. Gupta did a lot of pinching around to get a good feel for what she was working with and how to best target the areas. She made her recommendations for what she would be doing, how long it would take and how to prepare for the procedure.
Dr. Gupta gave me the option of taking a prescription pain killer prior to the procedure, but I opted not to because I had a full day of meetings and a dance lesson afterwards. They require someone to drive you home if you take the pain killer for the procedure, and I wanted to be able to hop in a car afterwards to get to my meetings, so I didn’t do it. That’s my only regret in this whole thing – I wish I would have taken that darn pain killer!!!
It’s not that it was super painful, but it certainly doesn’t feel “good.” It was probably more my nerves than anything because you’re just sitting there on the table waiting for someone to zap you. Oh, plus I’m super ticklish, and that wasn’t helping anything! haha! So, if I were to do it over again, I would definitely take the pain pill to relax, dull the nerves and be able to get the full effect of the procedure.
They ended up doing it on a lower setting so I felt more comfortable. I was worried I wasn’t going to see any results because I didn’t get the full power, but I actually did get very nice results. It smoothed out the sides of my legs and really tightened my belly (I actually just posted bikini pics in a blog post today!! eeee!). What I liked about it is that I was back to work right after the procedure – so there’s no downtime, compression garments or scarring.
In my opinion, this procedure probably isn’t the best for someone with an aversion to pain or someone who needs to lose 100 pounds. This is mainly for toning and tightening targeted problem areas by making small tweaks that look like a “better version” of what you looked like before. It was perfect for what I was looking for, and I’m really glad I did it!
Check out the video below where I chat with Dr. Gupta about the procedure and my experience.
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