Little Magazine 25
Cool Sculpt 411: I’m going to administer Cool Sculpt! WOO-HOO!
Winter is (almost) here.
Despite the singularly merciful act of 2020—the unusually warm weather this year—winter will, inevitably, fall upon us. And as much as we will shake our collective fist at winter whilst shivering inside of our parkas at any given point walking through the wind-tunnels that are the streets of Manhattan, there is one good thing that comes with cool temperatures—COOL SCULPT! Sorry (not sorry) for the corny transition, but winter is a notoriously good season to do “all the things” that may require downtime. With so many folks WFH, it’s an opportune time to finally address those stubborn love handles—or the newly found muffin top, courtesy of the popular Quarantine 2020 all-carb diet. Oh, is that just me on this diet?
It’s not about
weight or inches, for me. It’s about being healthy, fit, and looking like you feel. Save 2020 (the year that doesn’t count in life), I’ve been pretty active and make an effort to stay strong, because I feel my best when I feel strong, lean and efficient.
For me, personally, (yes, even though everybody says “where do you have fat to lose?”), the area that I struggle with is my mid section—alas, I, too, have fat. We all do. And depending on your body type (and despite it), after your teen years, it’s just difficult to stay lean overall unless you’re hyper-intentional about diet and exercise, or unless you’re blessed (you’re an alien). Women in particular are more prone to gain and retain fat as we age (awesome!). Since I was misdiagnosed a form of birth control that wasn’t compatible for my body back in college, I developed a tire around my waist and haven’t been able to recover my waist sans love handles since. Unless I get extremely lean (my body fluctuates about 10 lbs), they don’t seem to dissipate and they’ve been the piéce de résistance that I don’t want to draw attention to. It just feels disproportionate to the rest of my body and makes me feel self-conscious. (Thank goodness for high-waisted jeans.)
As many of you know,
I only recommend something or someone after I myself have “guinea-pig’d” first hand. It only seems right. So after being presented with the opportunity to collaborate with Dr. James of Central Park Beauty on 57th & 7th (I’m going to be administering non-invasive procedures at Central Park Beauty, including Cool Sculpt!), I had to try it! And boy was I excited! I had a friend that had a positive experience with Cool Sculpt when it started getting popular around 9 years ago, so I was curious to see if I’d have a similar experience. Here are my observations:
1. It’s not nearly as “bad” as I thought it would be. I always brace myself for the worse—and I can say it was mildly uncomfortable. I can’t even say it was painful. I have sensitive skin, generally speaking, so I anticipated some flare-up or something, but I had no issues whatsoever! I’m also quite frail, despite how I look, but, again—everything went great. And it all happened while watching Netflix, no joke.
2. It was a lot faster than I thought it would be. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but I didn’t expect it to be nearly as relaxing as it was. I thought “this is a medical procedure, this is going to suck.” But it’s more like a spa procedure that causes some discomfort. Time definitely varies on the areas and number of areas you’ll be treating, but nonetheless, it wasn’t several hours, as I thought it would be.
3. I didn’t know that you could do it repeatedly. There are many folks who apparently get Cool Sculpt regularly. GENIUS! I didn’t even know that you could do that! You can take preventative measures and do annual “touch-ups” for preventative measure in problematic spots. A-ma-zing!
4. You can target petite areas. Did you know that you can Cool Sculpt the extra fat on your knees? Yeah, neither did I. How amazing is that, though? This procedure opens a world of possibilities for me. Not gonna lie, I may do my friggin knees. They bug me. Y’all can judge me. But I’m gonna have cute knees.
5. It. worked. Mind you, results depend on the individual, of course, but minus that stubborn spot I was feeling alright (thank you Barry’s/ Keoni). It also hasn’t even been the full 2-3 months that the average individual will take to render results. Mine has been a little over a month. I have not let up from my carb diet (gotta stay consistent ya know) and yet I can already see and feel the difference in my love handles—I can no longer grab them!!! Woohoo! And I’m still eating bread. Hehe.
If you’re considering
Cool Sculpt, I’d seriously recommend it. I can’t believe it works. It’s so genius.
HOW IT WORKS (in Layman’s Terms):
These scientists found the specific temperature that freezes fat (Cryolipolysis) but doesn’t do any damage to surrounding tissue. The post-treatment massage (as simple as it seems—2 minutes) adds an additional 68% additional efficacy in mean (subcutaneous) fat layer reduction. These machines are designed to taper along the body’s natural lines resulting the targeting of bulges. It doesn’t address visceral fat, the deeper layer of fat, which is only addressed by diet and exercise. Basically, they found the most efficient and non-invasive way to address stubborn, subcutaneous (excess) fat. It’s awesome.
Having gone under the knife and not being particularly shy about it, I have to say some things are worth it—and some things are not. I think it should be avoided at all costs, if possible. With that said, there are some pretty awesome non-invasive options for us in the beauty industry these days. Thank you technology and science. If y’all have any questions about it, please feel free to shoot an email! info@lekitsune.com
I leave you with a poem by Kimiko Hahn with a commentary on the body. How beautiful and ephemeral our bodies are, which house our spirits.
Foreign Body
BY KIMIKO HAHN
This is a poem on my other’s body,
I mean, my mother’s body, I mean the one
who saved her braid of blue-black hair
in a drawer when I was little.
Meaning one I could lean against —
against not in resistance. Fuzzy dress
of wuzzy one. Red lipstick one.
Kitchen one. Her one to me,
bad-ger bad-ger —
or so I heard. The one body I write on
like Daddy’s blank studio wall
with my colored pencils.
About seeing her skin
as she bathed in the afternoon —
was I five? It was summer.
Then today’s winter where again
I call that bath to mind.
I cannot leave her body alone.
Which is how I found Mother in the bath
escaping the heat of a 1950s house,
Father on a ladder with blowtorch
to scrape the paint off the outside.
•
badger badger
•
The sun in the suburbs
simmered the tar roof over our rooms
in the town where only wasps lived
inside paper cells beneath eaves and roots.
And they hurt very much, the wasps.
•
Now I am sixty. Sweet as dried papaya.
My hair, a bit tarnished,
my inmost, null.
Memory is failing away
as if an image shattered to shards then
recollected for a kaleidoscope:
I click the pieces into sharp arrangements —
grouse, crow, craven
— no, now, my own daughter turns sovereign
See you next week! -Renee :)