For some, there comes a time after childbirth (often, after the second or third kid) when certain stubborn areas of fat just aren’t magically melting away. You’ve exclusively breastfed, gone sugar and gluten-free, jogged and walked for miles, and even stopped breastfeeding. Juice detoxes, spirulina, green tea, activated charcoal, and master cleanses have been great for your energy levels, but often the postpartum body doesn’t quickly respond aesthetically to dietary tweaks. A flabby tummy, maybe saddle bags or love handles just continue to haunt you (and your untouched wardrobe).This happened to me, with my stomach, after my second child came along. My son was eleven pounds at birth, and although I’m six feet tall and no waif in anyone’s book, my tummy area wasn’t just bouncing back. And that’s wording it nicely. Being almost 41 years old may not speed things up either. OK. Here’s my review of a revolutionary new fat destroying procedure called SculpSure.
I began to safely try every healthy diet. I had never been under so much bodily stress in my life, and with no sleep it can feel daunting. Days melt into weeks and months, and all of a sudden you wonder if this is just going to be the ‘new you.’ Although I refused to accept that concept, I felt hopeless. My clothes looked ridiculous- pinched and pulled around my torso. I stopped trying to wear them at all, and relegated myself to continue donning my pregnancy stretch clothes. And although some women have freed-up personal schedules to spend lots of time exercising, I just didn’t.
It wasn’t until I was invited to an event for something that sounded too good to be true that I started to get my hopes up again. Something called SculpSure by a company by the name of CynoSure. As the website states, “Over time, the body naturally eliminates the disrupted fat cells with results seen as quickly as 6 weeks and optimal results usually seen in as few as 12 weeks.” Cool! Who doesn’t want to believe in something that dreamy? It is supposed to eliminate about 24% of fat targeted per session. My son was about 13 months old, and I was interested in this non-invasive technique that treated these pesky cells with light therapy to the point of their permanent destruction (supposedly painlessly) all within twenty five minutes. At $1,200 a pop, I jumped on the gratis trial visit offered.
When I arrived at the luxe, cozy Upper East Side plastic surgeon Jennifer Levine‘s office, the nice pretty assistant wheeled in the SculpSure machine. It helped me to think of all the people who had sat in the same chair there, before myself, hoping and searching for esthetic upgrades for a million varying reasons. I was going to be fine. It kind of looked like a blood pressure machine contraption that you’d see at any doctor’s office. Attached to it was a rectangular frame with laser plates that snapped in, according to where you wanted your fat zapped. Obviously, mine was the tummy region. Although if I had lots of extra money, of course I’d spring for the whole torso. Anyway, the women at the office assured me that it was safe and painless. As the treatments began, a cooling sensation could be felt strongly tingling into the area. A wintery sensation of Jack Frost dancing across the area is my best description. I gently asked a few times for it to be “turned down,” which was easily facilitated by the assistant. The plates normalized and then the revving up to cool that fat down would happen again. And again. It was kind of fun.
May I gracefully add that I had my baby son with me in his stroller, and while he watched “Home” on their in-office flat screen and played with a squeezy toy meant for women getting fillers and Botox injections no doubt, I was perfectly able to sit there and receive the treatment. We were both great. Really, it’s not in any way uncomfortable. For a couple of weeks afterwards, I felt a slight tenderness to the area. A sore feeling. That went away within a month in every way though. It’s been approximately nine weeks post-treatment now, and there is totally a difference.
As the tremendously helpful Dr. Levine explained, the skin is also tightened via the procedure, and this I definitely have seen. There is, without a doubt, a decrease in fat flabby dimply skin. I can’t say exactly how much because I don’t have time to measure, and I don’t have a scale, and I don’t take selfies. In the before-and-after pics taken by the lithe assistant at the office, there was a big change. Am I publishing those pictures for all of Brooklyn and the nation to see? No. Sorry. I’m too self conscious! A sentiment that many women who actually need this can attest to identifying with. But I can attest to you, readers, that I am telling the truth.It’s the perfect thing for you to consider if you have tried every other option, but refuse to go under the knife/vacuum combo of Lipo. If you have an area of stubborn fat, try it out! If you have a hunk of good change, you can do it multiple times and/or on multiple areas.
Rebecca Conroy is an artist, stylist, and Editor of A Child Grows in Brooklyn. She is from New York City, and has an MFA from Columbia University in screenwriting. Rebecca often finds herself on film and photography sets making things run or look better, and is the mom of two outrageously wonderful kids.