Body By Covid-19
It’s August 2020, month 6 of the COVID-19 craziness and my girlfriends and I just finally got together. In the back yard, 6 feet apart and we brought our own coolers and sanitizer wipes. I was so desperate to see them I offered to pee in the bushes so I didn’t go in the house … our host politely said that wouldn’t be necessary, hence the sanitizing wipes.
After we caught up on the basics, we quickly got to how fat and toxic our bodies feel. All of us were in the same place, gaining weight in our bellies, thighs, and arms. We all admitted to less activity and eating a bit more but the amount we had gained, specifically in our bellies, was pretty noticeable. Yes, we all stood up and showed each other. We like to share our misery.
Later it reminded me of a conversation I had with a guy friend of mine who has been going through an extreme amount of stress over the last two years. We were talking about exercise and belly fat and I told him that it would be impossible to lose his stubborn belly fat through exercise and calorie counting. I said that because of how long he had been under acute stress, but I realized after talking to my buddies they were suffering from the same thing. After only 6 months!!! It just shows how difficult this time is on all of us regardless of our varied situations. We are all feeling it and it’s affecting our bodies. Body by COVID!!!
Why Does Your Body Store Fat?
So why is stress making us fat? And I do not just mean eating our feelings. I mean the fat your body stores when it is under stress and where it decides to store it. What your body does with the food you eat is completely determined by hormones. When it comes to stress, we’re talking about Cortisol. It is the hormone that gets us up and going when we perceive a threat.
Cortisol was extremely helpful hundreds of years ago when crops would fail, animals would get sick and Vikings would periodically raid and pillage our settlements. Under stress, our bodies turn into fat storing machines and the favorite place it puts the fat is our bellies. It’s a great survival mechanism that shuts down some hormones and amps up others so that we can stay awake to man our arrow holes, store every calorie we can as fat because food is scarce (Vikings eat a lot), shuts down reproductive hormones and makes us hyper aware of our environment.
But the Vikings are just on history channel now. Why are our bodies storing belly fat now? The body doesn’t know the difference between invading Northmen and losing your job, scared to go to work, being a teacher to young children at home, not seeing your friends, desperate for a pint at the pub or just going grocery shopping without feeling like your life is on the line.
The stressors I have just listed are unique to COVID but what about before that? Living in the Western world basically means constant exposure to stress: mortgages, teenagers, mean bosses and so on. People now are under stress 24/7 and unless we decide to drop out of mainstream life and move to Alaska, we must deal with the negative effects it has on our bodies, i.e. muffin tops, Spanks and sleep aids.
A Healthy Lifestyle Is Important, But Might Not Get You There
This is probably where you find yourself. You’re at the top of your game in your career or maybe just getting back to work after having children. You’re doing everything you’re supposed to do to have the body you want: cutting calories, cutting carbs, doing cardio and restricting sugar. Is the belly fat going away? Nope. You’re stuck in the negative metabolic loop where the harder you try, doing all the standard weight loss protocols, you don’t see any difference in the stubborn areas of fat deposits in your body. You think that if you do countless hours of cardio, the fat should go away, but it doesn’t. You’re eating close to nothing and pounding out sit ups until you see dots, and the fat doesn’t go away. Why? Because you’re not addressing the issue that made the fat collect there in the first place. Stress.
Yoga, exercise, and a reduction in sugar is a great place to start. Walking or biking with the kids won’t do it though. I’m talking about lifting weights, reducing carbohydrates and sugar in our drinks and taking up meditation, mindfulness or seeking professional counseling.
Will that get rid of the belly fat? My friends and I have been trying to get rid of it through all the regular tactics. So has my guy friend. Bottom line, the belly fat, thigh cellulite and flying squirrel arms flaps aren’t budging. We don’t have any plans of giving up on the positive lifestyle changes we’re making but we’re ready to do something about it.
What to do? Remove, modify or melt the fat in the stubborn areas where cortisol makes your body store it: belly, hips, thighs and arms. This is where Coolsculpting comes in. It is one way to create the body change you’re looking for without completely changing your life. Diet and lifestyle modifications are encouraged but if you want that extra boost to your efforts and are tired of hours on the stair master, and not getting the results you want, then getting some help from modern medicine is a great option.
What is CoolSculpting?
Coolsculpting fat-freezing technology is a nonsurgical, scientifically proven way to reduce pockets of fat in trouble spots such as the abdomen, flanks, or under the chin in as little as one session. CoolSculpting® is not a weight-loss treatment—it’s the #1, FDA cleared, nonsurgical fat reduction treatment used by doctors.
CoolSculpting® is FDA-cleared to treat 9 different areas of the body: visible bulges under the chin and jawline areas, thighs, abdomen and flanks, along with bra fat, back fat, underneath the buttocks, and upper arms.
To get the real skinny on Coolsculpting I spoke with Barbara Tryk, COO, with Mystique Medical Spa. “One of my favorite, favorite things about my job is when patients come back and you can see the smile on their face; you can see the spring in their step, and Coolsculpting is definitely one of those services that gets the biggest smiles. Women come back and say, ‘It’s working!’ or ‘I can’t believe it,’ and they’re excited to show you the difference. I have had women, and men, tell me that the results they are seeing from Coolsculpting gives them MORE motivation to eat better, or work out more. And I know exactly how they feel. I had gained weight before I got married. I was working out, on a strict diet, but the bulk was not coming off and I’m positive it was from the stress of work and arranging a wedding. So, I tried Coolsculpting and ‘boom’ it was the last piece of the puzzle that got me to the size I wanted to be before the wedding,” said Tryk.
Bottom line, Cortisol induced fat storage is incredibly hard to reduce. You know that because you’ve been trying for years to get rid of it. No matter what you do, the flat stomach, smooth thighs or rocking arms are impossible to achieve. You can practice Yoga, adopt a sugar, carb and preservative free diet, remove all stress from your life and basically drop out of western civilization. Or, you can continue on your positive lifestyle change efforts, keep the kids and the house, do your best to manage stress, and look into Coolsculpting at Mystique Medical Spa.
