Disclaimer: This post is a doozy, y'all. But in the spirit of transparency, I wanted to be honest with you guys and share what I've been doing for the last few months!
I've always been pretty petite – I'm 5'2 and have hovered around 120 pounds for the last several years. I'm active, walk to work almost every day, and eat (for the most part) pretty healthy. And while I have a lot of confidence, I've always been pretty self conscious about my legs.
I know, I know. What seems a little silly and crazy to some of you was a pretty big thing to me. Regardless of the exercise, squats, and lunge variations, I could never see any results. It was frustrating and while I wouldn't like to admit it, definitely irked my confidence a bit.
A few months ago, I heard about Skin Spirit and heard rave reviews. I knew they did a variety of treatments from Botox to facials to laser hair removals. Curious about all their services, I went one Saturday morning in January to SkinSpirit in Presidio Heights and was introduced to CoolSculpting.
New to CoolSculpting? Me too.
Basically, it's a non-surgical fat-reduction treatment that uses controlled cooling to eliminate fat that resists all efforts through diet and exercise.
I was a little skeptical, but curious since it was non-surgical – something I wasn't willing to do! After a lot of thought, I decided to go ahead and do it. And not for anyone else, just me.
I read up and while I'm still in the process (have a consultation next week and my second treatment in May), I wanted to let you guys in on the process:
Pre-CoolSculpting
During your first visit, you'll meet with a CoolSculpting clinician during a one-on-one consultation. I'm super lucky in that I had an amazing certified medical assistant named Madison Nerviani (at the SkinSpirit in Presidio Heights) who literally held my hand through the entire process. Madison took the time to discuss my goals for reshaping my body – with my outer thighs being a focus. We took a look at my body from different angles and took photos for the before, during, and after process. The meeting was effortless and took an hour! We made a date for the CoolSculpting and I went on to read a little more about the process. Overall, SkinSpirit in Presidio Heights is beautiful (and so calming!). The front staff was super friendly and made me feel at ease – offering tea, water, and trail mix (yaaaaaas!) It made going in the second time so much more approachable!
During CoolSculpting
During my treatment, a gel pad and applicator was applied to my targeted area – the outer thighs. The CoolSculpting applicator delivers controlled cooling to the targeted fat and honestly, was seriously painless. Yes, it was cold. And I made a TON of cool jokes during the process, but really, you can read, sleep, check your e-mail – whatever you want. For the outer thighs, it takes a bit longer, an hour and a half or so, but you best believe I was snoozin' the entire time. After the hour, I even went to a blog event and socialized with people – no pain at all.
Post CoolSculpting
I'm still waiting for my second treatment, but I'm already seeing results. While you may be sore for the night, I had no side effects except for a little itchiness on my outer thighs – with the itchiness going away after a day or two.
I'm so excited to share my "full" results in the coming weeks, but I thought this was as good a time as ever to talk about my treatment!
So, I have to ask...have you guys heard about CoolSculpting and if so, what are your thoughts?