I have just been watching the TV and noticed that there are so many adverts which are related to the way that we look. More than those aimed at selling cars, clothes or any other item. It seems that every second advertisement that you see is telling you that you need to improve some detail about your appearance and that unless you buy their product as soon as possible, you will end up a social pariah. There are adverts to help you look and feel better about different things such as your hair, your body and your skin. When it comes to your hair, there are things such as specialised shampoos and conditioners for the various hair types. There are also serums, lotions and sprays which deal with different issues such as frizz, split ends and thinning hair. As for the other things which people are concerned with about their appearances, it is usually their skin and how much they weigh. Both of these issues are also dealt with by the marketing people and you will find that there is a solution advertised for almost every condition that you can think of. These include remedies for being overweight, for being underweight, for having excess folds of skin, and for stretch marks. When it comes to your skin, there are lotions and potions for every type of skin problem, from dry patches to acne. Some of these do actually work and it is just a matter of just looking around and trying to find the product that is suitable for your skin. The problems arise when you find that none of these remedies are suitable for the problem that you have and that you need to start looking around for some alternative method of dealing with your particular problem. This is when you can start to look at the field of cosmetic surgery, which is a very popular field of medicine these days. The was a time when cosmetic surgery was a term which was not mentioned in polite circles, but these days you will find people discussing procedures at the dinner table. There are many things which can be sorted out with these procedures including being overweight and having sagging skin. These involve surgical procedures but there are also less invasive procedures in the field of aesthetic medicine. As far as your face is concerned, there are various procedures which can help to make you look good and therefore to feel better and more confident about yourself. Some of these procedures include having skin peels and the newer green peels. These are treatments where the top layer of the skin is removed to leave behind newer, fresh looking skin, with the use of chemicals. In the case of the green peels, the substances used are organic and made from natural ingredients. These will yield swift results and have a very short recovery time. You will experience a little discomfort, itchiness and redness for a short while.
It seems that with everything in life, there always seems to be either a shortage or a surplus. It is hard to find something which is balanced out well and certainly not without tweaking. Let us take the example of hair growth shall we? Humans have hair all over their body and on their heads and faces too. All of this hair has a specific purpose and although we sometimes do not understand what that purpose is, we realise that the hair is there by design and not by accident. When it comes to the hair on our head, we know that it is there to protect the head from the elements as well as injury, but it is also a part of our looking attractive. This is why we have people getting a hair transplant when they feel that they are losing the hair on their head. A hair transplant is a surgical procedure where the hair is removed from place and grafted onto the scalp in order to cover up a bald patch. There are two different types of hair transplant, the FUE transplant and the traditional type. Both of these involve similar techniques, with a little difference. With the FUE transplant the hair is not taken in one long strip, and so there is a quicker recovery period and there is less chance of the scars showing. On the opposite side of the coin, we have laser hair removal of unwanted hair. There are places where we do not find the appearance of hair attractive and so we do our best to remove this hair. On the body, we tend to wax, shave or use chemicals to remove the hair and on the face we use procedures such as threading, waxing and tweezing. The alternative to these treatments is to have either electrolysis or IPL, or laser treatments. The only permanent hair removal solution is to have electrolysis but this is often not suitable for large areas, and can be painful and costly. With the use of lasers now becoming more common in the field of aesthetic medicine and cosmetic surgery, there are new treatments being offered. Lasers heat the melanin in the hair follicle, without damaging the surrounding skin. This will reduce the rate of hair growth and will require a few treatments before the results become evident. The best results are those for people who have a light coloured skin tone and dark hair. Laser hair removal and laser tattoo removal are faster than electrolysis and there is less pain involved, although some people find that the hair can grow back in a treated area. The main thing that you need to remember is that the shill and experience of the person performing the treatment is important. The treatments take about fifteen minutes per session and are like a small electric shock to the skin. A cooling pad is administered before the treatments, and a soothing lotion is applied after the treatment.
Mesotherapycomes from the Greek words “mesos” meaning “middle” and “therapy” meaning “to treat medically”. This treatment has been around for a while now but is gaining in popularity as a method of weight loss and weight control. It is a treatment which requires multiple injections of various chemicals, plant extracts and vitamins which are compiled together by your doctor, according to your needs. These injections are put directly into the subcutaneous fat in your body to induce lipolysis and cause rupture and cell death of the fat cells. These fat deposits are then flushed out of the body so that they do not accumulate elsewhere, something which can happen with liposuction. Mesotherapy requires no hospitalization, anaesthetic or downtime, making it one of the more popular slimmingtreatments which are available. Some of the things which this treatment is used for are acne and acne scarring, stretch marks, other scars, promote weight loss, eliminate cellulite and rejuvenate aging skin on the hands and neck. The resulting skin is smoother and plumper, leading to a more youthful appearance. Many people report seeing results after only one treatment, but generally, results are apparent after three or four treatments, depending on the problem being treated. There are also factors such as age, general health, and skin types which can affect the results. Many people can undergo these treatments with no anaesthetic but for others, there is the option of a topical anaesthetic cream which is applied about a three quarters of an hour prior to the start of treatment. After you have decided to go ahead with the treatments, the doctor will give you an allergy test of two injections and you will have to wait for twenty four hours to see if there is any adverse reaction. If all is well then the treatments can begin the next day. Most treatments are done on a weekly basis and if you miss one week of treatments, then that is fine. The only thing that you may have after the treatments is a little bruising, which will soon fade away. During the treatments you may experience a slight burning sensation which is only a little uncomfortable. You are advised to avoid wearing make up and using toiletries for a few hours, as well as showering. Another thing that you may be advised of is to have a protein rich diet for a while and avoid caffeine. Mesotherapy is a safe and effective treatment, but even so, you need to make sure that you go to a fully qualified mesotherapist and that the injections are administered under the eye of a doctor. There are other slimming treatments and body contouring procedures available, but these treatments have the advantage of being affordable and not needing too much time taken out of your busy life. The results do last but then the natural aging process will occur and you will need to have top up treatments to maintain the skin.
The first time I heard the word epiphany was during the viewing of “HOOK” when Dustin Hoffman mentions the word. Since then I have often used it as a part of my vocabulary and have even had the chance to use it as a revelation about certain parts of my own life. the last time I had a major epiphany was a few years ago and I found it to be a turning point of sorts. Over the years since leaving college, I had put on weight steadily and because it was not an overnight thing, the realisation took some time to sink in that I had managed to gain a considerable amount of weight. Even then it was never a major issue since my partner never said anything and the subject was never raised. Seeing photographs of myself during that time made me think that I should go on a diet but somehow it was never made into a priority and the pounds just kept piling on. Occasionally I would start to do something about it and half heartedly make a few attempts such as trying a new diet or joining some exercise classes and at one point even joined one of the slimming clubs where you are guaranteed to lose weight if you stick to their system. This was the problem; the sticking to something for the duration or time it would take to achieve lasting results. I would give up far too easily and then find myself back at square one. The turning point came when I read an article in a magazine which was a man who had recently recovered from a heart attack and had decided on drastic measures to try and reduce his massive girth. He was the same age as me and had children the same age as mine. He said that he did not wish to leave his kids with only one parent and what he said struck enough of a chord with me to join the gym. Unlike him I did not want to go for the option of cosmetic surgery procedures such as stomach banding or liposuctionto help me in the battle to lose weight. I wished to do it the old fashioned way by controlling my calorie intake and increase my activity level. This is the best method of not only losing weight but of keeping it off, which is even harder than losing it in the first place. Even a few years later on I have found it easy to maintain the routine of diet and exercise. I worked hard and even though it took me eight months of hard work and determination, I was successful in losing forty pounds. Also because I had done it the slow way by losing just over a pound per week, the weight loss did cause the skin to sag and require the need for skin rejuvenationprocedures which come under the heading of cosmetic surgery or aesthetic medicine.
Like most people, I have often thought about how great it would be if I could change certain things about my appearance. I will admit that on the whole I have a lot to be grateful for in the looks department. I am not being vain, but all my separate features are very nice and even when they are all put together, the result is quite pleasant. The problem is that no one wants to be described as just pleasant, and the least that we want to be referred to as is attractive. Even better than this would be the use of terms such as pretty, beautiful and gorgeous, but we take what we can get on the whole. In my case, I have large eyes in a light brown shade, a legacy from my father. I also have a nicely shaped mouth and my nose is small and pert, a legacy from my mother. In fact, out of all my siblings, I am the only one who has inherited our mother’s nose, with the rest of them all having the larger nose which my father has. We all have small ears and so at least that is one thing which we do not need to worry about. However, the thing that we all really want to inherit from our mum, are her prominent cheekbones! In this case, my younger sister drew the winning ticket and she has the same lovely bone structure as our mother. The rest of us, well I at least, all have to work hard with make up to make our cheekbones noticed. This got me thinking about how we can alter some things about our appearance very easily, and some other things with a lot more work, but there are certain things which we have to accept. We can alter our flesh and the amount of it we have on our bodies, but there is not a lot that we can do about the shape of our face and the bone structure which we have inherited. Here we have to be grateful for whatever small mercies we have been blessed with. In some cases we can alter the shape of the bones on our face but not without considerable cost to our pockets and to our comfort. The main way to change your appearance on a permanent basis is to have cosmetic surgery procedures done to alter certain things. There are also laser treatments available which are not as invasive and have a shorter recovery period. One of the most common laser treatments is laser tattoo removal. The most common cosmetic surgery procedures are eyelid surgery, nose surgery, or rhinoplasty to give its proper name. This is where you can have the shape and the length of your nose altered to make it more to your preference. There are of course limitations to what can be achieved and there is a slow and painful recovery period but it is all worthwhile when you are happy with the way you look.
If you are the type of person who has never had to try and lose weight, then you will not be able to understand the kind of desperation that some people feel when they think about losing weight. Some people are lucky enough to be able to eat whatever they wish to and not have it appear on their bodies. These people are in the minority and for most of us; it seems that we only have to partake in the slightest indulgence for it to show immediately. Gaining weight is very easy to do and we need to be careful about this from an early age. When we are children, our eating and exercise is controlled in part by our parents and it is their responsibility to teach us healthy eating habits. As we gain more independence and have access to more junk food and unhealthy snacks, we tend to develop bad eating habits. It is at this stage that a lot of us will start to gain weight and if we are not monitored by parents or other people, the problem can get out of hand. The weight gain is not an instant thing and it creeps up on you slowly, sometimes so slowly that you do not even notice it until it is too late. At this point you need to take action in order to try and lose the extra pounds which have piled on. This can be the start of a life long struggle for some people, who will find that their weight will go up and down at different times in their lives, and it can often be a source of frustration and despair for those who struggle with controlling it. This is when we will start to try different ways of losing weight. At the beginning we will try and control our diet and ensure that we only eat healthy things which will not cause us to gain any more weight. Then we will start to cut down on the amount that we eat, even of the healthy things, if we do not see results. Along with this we will start up an exercise regime and try to stick to it. The next stage is to get obsessed with trying to lose weight and this will lead on to the final step which is the road of cosmetic surgery, in various different procedures. The term shedding a few pounds refers to losing a little weight but at this stage we are also talking about losing the financial pounds, since most cosmetic surgery procedures have to be paid for privately. The most common procedures for losing weight and looking slimmer are the gastric band surgeries, liposuction and the tummy tuck. All of these come under the broader heading of body contouring and this is just a fancy way of saying re-shaping your body to the way you wish it to appear. All of these procedures are now very popular worldwide.
There are some people who are terrified to have surgery and will often do anything to avoid having any surgical procedure. This could be a simple as a tooth extraction (which does count as a type of surgery, since there is a cutting of flesh, and blood involved) or as complicated as elective heart surgery. Yes there are people who decide to have certain surgical procedures done but these are usually on the advice of a doctor or consultant. The whole idea of going to a hospital scares some people that they will even avoid going to a clinic or medical centre, and instead rely on natural remedies and alternative practices. These all have their place in the scheme of things and are very useful for some illnesses and ailments. However there are times when the only solution to a problem is to have surgery and at this point the patient has to try and overcome their fears. For some people the fear stems from a bad experience in their earlier life, either involving surgery, hospitals or doctors, but for some people it can be a fear of never waking up from an anaesthetic. There are also those people who are so afraid of catching germs that they do not visit hospitals at all. All of these reasons are valid and even irrational fears seem valid to the person facing them. We should not judge people and ridicule them due to their fears and insecurities. On the other hand there are those people who have no objection to having a surgical procedure done. Among these are those women who prefer to go for an elective caesarean operation instead of having a normal birth. Then there are those people who suffer from Munchhausen’s Syndrome where they enjoy the attention that they receive while they are in the hospital, or the attention of the doctors and nurses in the clinics. There is another group of people who have no objections to going under the knife, and these are those who decide that they wish to undergo cosmetic surgery. This could be due to the way feel about their appearance because of various reasons, such as being overweight or having a certain feature that they wish to change. These people often feel insecure about themselves and they believe that they will fell better if they change their appearance. For some people, it could be the ravages of time which are causing them to consider having cosmetic surgery done. In these cases a lot of people will have a full or a partial breast augmentation. This will make them look attractive and younger and this in turn will give them a renewed confidence in them selves. For still others, the problem could be that they have lost a lot of weight and have excess fold of skin which are unsightly. In this case they will want a skin tightening treatments such as a tummy tuck. All of these procedures involve some surgery.
We have always believed that when we are children we can eat whatever we want to and not to have to worry about getting fat. Well this is only true to an extent. A child can eat a lot more of the bad things before putting on weight, but only if these are tempered with an active lifestyle. If you let a child have fast food, sweets and fizzy drinks every day, and they do not run around and burn it off, then you will be faced with an overweight child, as well as one with rotting teeth. There is a lot of child obesity in the western world and the predictions for the health of the new generation of children are not good ones. Many parents will brush away concerns with the attitude that the children will be fine when they grow older, but by then it is often too late. A child needs to learn healthy eating habits at an early age and be taught to avoid junk food as much as possible. I have three children and each of them have gone through various stages of changing eating habits. When they were all young, it was a battle to get them to eat as the bottle was an easier option. Then it was because they were developing their tastes and didn’t like everything at some point. As they got older things got easier as they started to appreciate different food types and by the time adolescence caught up, they were conscious of their diet and body shape. Even now, I have to admit that I am proud to say, they do not have a lot of fast food, sugary drinks and other items on the list of unhealthy foods. I have always made sure that they know what constitutes a healthy meal and about why should eat at the right times. These things together are important so that the child grows up learning to make the healthy choice and knows that eating certain foods at certain times is better than eating them at others. Breakfast should never be skipped and this is a firm rule in my household. So far I have been lucky that they all have the weights in the normal range and that they are fit and active. I have seen the many teenagers who want to have cosmetic surgery procedures such as liposuction. Any sensible parent would put their foot down and say no, but this is considered to be a personal choice. I have seen the way that some people will rely on cosmetic surgery to fix small problems on a regular basis. These people will allow themselves to put on weight and then go under the knife to correct the problem. This is why procedures such as liposuction, body contouring and even a tummy tuck are becoming so popular. This is seen as the quick and easy way to look good and hence to feel good about yourself.
Last night I was listening to some music by Shania Twain and her most famous song came on: “Any Man of Mine”. This is one song which is guaranteed to make me feel better, no matter what kind of mood I am in. It is such an uplifting song, both in terms of the music being upbeat, and the words being almost an anthem for the modern woman. I love the line when she says that even when I’m ugly he still better love me. To me this is the crux of the song. For as we all know there are days when we feel wonderful and believe that we could give Angelina Jolie a run for her money. Then there are the other days when we feel as though we look more like Brad Pitt in “Kalifornia” than his wife! The thing that keeps us going is the thought that somebody loves us, no matter what we look like. To me the ideal looking woman is Shania Twain. I think that she is perfect right from her glossy hair to her manicured feet. However I know that a lot of the image which we see is carefully cultivated and that even she must have days when she feels ugly. However I do not think that she could ever look ugly, only not as glamorous as we are used to seeing her. There have always been beautiful women who have been lucky enough to have been born that way, and then there are the rest of us who have to work hard at looking good on a daily basis. For some women, it is enough to just put on a coat of lipstick to look great whereas for some it is a full sixty minute job with the whole contents of the make up bag. The thing to realise is that no matter how hard we try, we are never going to look as good as the Hollywood celebrities, simply because we do not have the resources available to us that they have. They have unlimited money and influence to hire the best personal chefs, trainers, stylists and make up artists. This is all without mentioning the access to the best doctors in the field of cosmetic surgery and aesthetic medicine to deal with any problems which may arise that cannot be dealt with in a conventional manner. We only get to see the best side of these people, and they try to ensure that we only get to hear about the positive things in their lives. This is why you will never hear of a celebrity having varicose and spider veins treatment, or stretch marks treatment. These procedures do not fit in with the carefully projected image which we are shown and which many people take to be the true persona of the person. In reality, they are like many normal people who have to try and look good on a bad day.
Here we are again, another birthday and another day to reflect upon my life. I have to admit that I am one of those people who still enjoy celebrating my birthday and last year I even threw myself a party. There are those who say that once the children come along, there is no need to celebrate your own birthday but I disagree. I believe that there is an even greater need to enjoy the day because you spend the whole year doing everything for others that it is nice to have one day when you can be as selfish as you wish to. On the whole I am content with my lot in life, even happy with a lot of things. Like everybody else, there are things which I am not happy about, but I have a lot to be thankful for and on this day I will be counting my blessings. The first thing that I have to say is that I have a loving partner, beautiful children and a supportive family. These are enough to be thankful for but I have to add that I also enjoy good health and a good standard of living as well as being respected. There are always things which you can find to complain about, but I have realised that you should not moan about things which you cannot change, and never complain about things which you can change but do not. The only thing that I have decided today is that I am going to start a routine which will enable me to lose weight and tone up before my next birthday. I know that this sounds familiar and I will own up to the fact that I have tried to do this before, but this time I have been given an added incentive. Somebody I love very much told me that even if I did not lose weight for myself, I should do it because there are so many illnesses attached to being over weight and that she did not want to lose me just yet. So I am determined to lose the excess weight in order to improve my health and appearance and I know that it will not be easy. There are many slimming treatments around but the best way to do it is through sensible eating and exercise. It is really quite simple, you need to use more calories than you consume and the weight will start to fall off as long as you continue. However these days there are alternative methods to losing weight and a lot of people are turning to anti aging treatment and cosmetic surgery when they find that conventional methods are not enough. Some of these include liposuction, which means having the fat sucked out of you by machines and then there are the other procedures such as skin tightening where excess folds of skin are removed and the body is shaped to look sleeker and firmer.
|
RSS Feed