JULY 2019/MUSCLE & FITNESS 79day, the importance of recovery and the
desired and realistic outcome he was
looking to achieve.
SURGERY DAY
The clinic kindly put me up in a local
boutique hotel, a stone’s throw away from
the clinic. I walked over to Bella Vou and
arrived for 10am and was greeted by
Amir. After having a selection of before
photographs taken, Amir marked me out
for surgery and I was dressed for theatre.
Once in theatre, I laid on the surgery
table where the team ensured I was
comfortable before the anaesthetist
hooked me up to a drip and put me
under twilight sedation.
Amir then made insertions and filled
my fatty areas with a saline solution,
containing local anaesthetic, this then
numbed and expanded the fatty layer
and contracted the blood vessels,
reducing the risk of damage and
bleeding.
Small incisions were then made on
both my nipples, belly button, chest and
pubic line and ultrasound waves were
fired into the fatty layer to make tiny
bubbles in the solution. The bubbles then
expanded to nearly 2cm and acted as
mini crowbars forcing the fat cells apart.
Next came the sculpting. With the fat
cells now well and truly broken apart,
they were carefully removed from my
body to create my new shape. The
surgery took around three hours,
although it felt like an hour (thanks
to the twilight sedation).
Once the surgery was over, I was
hooked up to three drainage tubes
to wear for the following 24 hours to
ensure all the saline solution and any
remaining melted fat had left my
body, for the best possible chance of
creating the optimum results.POST-OP RECOVERY
Following the surgery, I was dressed
in a compression foam and garment;
worn correctly and this can be extremely
beneficial to the reduction of swelling.
Luckily, as Bella Vou was in my
hometown, I was able to stay close to
the clinic. It’s extremely important to
do this as you require daily 60-minute
drainage and lymphatic massages for
a consecutive week to reduce swelling
and release any remaining fluid from
the body. MLD uses methods such as
specifically tuned ultrasound energy
to preserve connective tissue, which
is clinically proven to enhance skin
retraction and reduce blood loss.
My aftercare notes suggested I stuck
to a healthy eating plan. I ate a lot of
mashed up baked potatoes with either
tuna or salmon, to build up my protein
and on the night of the surgery, I drank
Lucozade to start putting sugar and
glucose back into my body.
After what felt like a lifetime (one
month) of wearing compression
garments, I was thrilled when my
surgeon checked me over and told me
I didn’t have to wear them anymore
and could return to exercise. For me, not
exercising was the hardest part. The idea
of eating for a month and not burning off
the calories scared me, I find daily
exercise very good for my overall health
including mental health, and I didn’t want
my newly revealed abs to disappear
because I hadn’t trained in over a month.
When the garments came off, I had lost
mass on my arms and muscle definition
in my shoulders, so I needed to trainthose parts of the body even more to
match the defined abs I now had. I took
up callisthenics and CrossFit, as I knew
I needed to regain my overall body
strength and mixed this with cardio/
HIIT at Barry’s Bootcamp and reformer
Pilates, to stretch out and tone my body.
Diet wise, I now have a fear of putting
the fat back into my body, so I eat a lot
of meats with veg and cut out the carbs
(I include the odd piece of toast or
potatoes).
Next for me, is maintaining my new
physique and showcasing my fantastic
results.PHOTOCOURTESY OF ED LEMONT