This is a continuation of a post I did earlier today about plastic surgery.

New resources have shown me that a plastic surgeon can offer many different forms of cosmetic surgery but the two that stood out the most for me were beverly hills liposculpture and my personal favorite which is called the mommy makeover.

Naturally learning more about these procedures is something that I had to do so I’m going to give a pretty quick break down of what each of these procedures really mean for those who are at all interested in them.

Beverly Hills - Liposculpture - This is a new procedure that focuses on not only the unwanted fat but the overlying skin. Traditional liposuction and liposculpture removes the fat and the surrounding skin will more than likely remain loose, which minimizes the desired look that the patient was going for. One of the doctors at Rodeo Drive Plastic Surgery is utilizing a unique form of liposuction to minimize this potential problem. The technique that this doctor uses is to not only suck out the fat but tighten the area so that you don’t have the excess skin to take care of. I’m sure this would also work financially considering it’s cheaper to have one procedure of lipsculpture than it would be to have liposculpture plus a tummy tuck later on, in order to tighten or remove this excess skin.

The combined skin tightening with the removal of fat is what makes Rodeo Drive Plastic Surgery’s Skin Activating Liposuction TM so effective. The technique can be used anywhere liposuction is done, from the chin to the chest to the love handles to the thighs. It also helps achieve improved results in larger volume liposuction procedures, since the skin needs to shrink by a large amount in these instances.

Mommy Makeover - This is one that I can personally understand. After a woman, no matter what age, has given birth the skin just doesn’t do the same thing that it used to. The boobs may need a lift considering they grew to at least two cups larger during pregnancy and then shrank back to their original size, almost over night. As a larger woman, I also understand skin losing it’s elasticity so naturally if you’re carrying a child around for 9 months the skin around your stomach isn’t going to go back to where it was before. There’s going to be sagging that exercise won’t fix, unless you were active during the pregnancy this is something that can’t be over looked if you truly want your old figure back.

These surgeons don’t give them the body they WISH they had before pregnancy unless it’s requested. What they do is place a small implant in the breast - not to increase the size but to bring back the volume that was lost during and after pregnancy. They can and will do a formal mastopexy or breast lift but for the most part they’re just going to put you back to where you used to be, they also do liposuction. They’ve done these sort of makeovers on women as young as 22 and as old as 64.

The thing that gets me, however, is the fact that there are 22 year olds with plenty of energy and elasticity left in their skin and they’re taking the route of surgery. I understand that young mothers are just as busy as mothers in their 40’s but if you’re going to be chasing around a child for the first 7-10 years of life, could you seriously NOT work off the fat that was gained during the pregnancy?

Dieting can extremely hard for everyone but I have to say that the one thing I have trouble accepting are those whom skip right over hard work and feel they can go straight for plastic surgery. I fully understand that there are people who are so severely over weight that having the gastric bypass is more than likely a necessary thing, and that’s fine. But, even with that surgery you do have to work out or you’re going to wind up with a lot of extra skin with absolutely no elasticity.

Procedures like a Los Angeles tummy tuck will more than likely give you the results that you were initially looking for but you’d also be dealing with a rather hefty price tag in the process. Yes I’ll admit that sometimes you may have to take that route if working out didn’t do it for you but while insurance would cover something like gastric bypass (for qualified patients) cosmetic surgery like a tummy tuck or even something like rhinoplasty for that matter - are coming straight out of your pocket - and trust me, it isn’t going to be cheap!

I personally think that the only way to go would be to work hard and then concern yourself with going under the knife. I also know that many people would agree with this as well, mainly because they - like myself and many others - are working on losing weight the proper way. A proper diet and exercise should give you the results that you desire. Not everyone is going to go from a size 12 to a size 2 with dieting, this is true, but if you can even get yourself close to that result by doing it the hard way they you’ve earned your new pant size, no questions asked.

For a few years now, I’ve been interested in learning more about paintball. It looks like it could be a lot of fun for all age groups of men and women alike. A friend of mine used to go every weekend with his father and he said it’s not only a great work out when you’re on the course, but it helps your hand-eye coordination as well. So I’ve been reading into many resources about the subject because one day I’d like for Sean and I to try it out.

One of the first things I’ve looked into are guns, and I’ve managed to come across Spider paintball guns which are really cool looking. I came across a set for around $179 that includes everything, my issue is that I don’t really understand what any of it does. All I really know is that if you’re going to use a paintball gun, you’re going to need a helmet and proper padding. The gun’s can come in many different colors, I found a Blue one that I thought was rather cool looking so that’s good enough for me.

Another paintball gun that I found interesting was the Spyder VS3. It’s an all black gun that looks rather small but I’m sure up close it’s a monster, you can’t really tell that well with the pictures found. Most of the sets that are sold I’m unsure if all of the images are pictured in true size or if they were multiple pictures morphed together for the sake of creating the set. Then there’s the Spyder Pilot which is a black and red combination that I’m literally falling head over heals for. I love the color red, half of my closet is filled with multiple shades of red so naturally being the girl that I am, I’d make it a point for not only the shoes to match the purse, but the purse to match the paintball gun. That may sound a little strange but I’m itching to get myself onto the course.

Originally when I saw, Spyder paintball, I assumed that it was the name of the game played, I was unaware of the fact that it’s actually Spyder paintball guns, a brand name. There are many other brands to choose from though. There’s also a brand named Tippmann but I didn’t personally find any of those paintball guns to be appealing. Just because it’s main purpose is to shoot multi-colored paint pellets, doesn’t mean they can’t look good too.

The one thing I haven’t found out, however, is in regards to the actual paint balls themselves. Do all of the canisters come in multiple colors or can you have ‘ammo’ that is based solidly on one color? Say you’re out on the course and you’re on the blue team, you’re playing against the red team…can each team have pellets that are based primarily on the color of their team? I’d think it’d be strange to be hit with a blue pellet when you’re on the blue team; How would you know that your own team member didn’t accidentally shoot at you? Maybe I should do some more reading into this before I load up on the gear and head for the course, shouldn’t I?

I know down here it’s a very popular past-time, this whole state is filled with gun lovers of all ages for both hunting and painball so naturally they would be the ones to go to for advice, however I’m sure they’d consider me a ‘city girl’ and take me for all I’m worth. This is why I find the internet to be such a valuable resource when it comes to thinks like this. This way I’m not taken advantage of by any means necessary.

Last night Sean and I headed up to the 24-hour Wal-mart in Milford. We had a pretty late start yesterday and the last thing I want is to be rushed when I’m grocery shopping. I’m Italian, I’m also considered a damn good chef so naturally you can find me in the fresh produce isle sniffing all of the fruits and vegetables for freshness for the upcoming weeks menu.

In Delaware, the tap water is disgusting so we basically overload ourselves with bottled water to get through the week. Since there are a lot of tourists in the area, there’s naturally going to be some slim-pickings as far as the water supply is concerned and at $.66 cents per gallon, it’s also easy to take home a lot of it. He wound up picking up 7 cases, each with three gallons of water in them and since he made the mistake of picking it up first, we had to truck it around the entire store with about 200lbs in the cart that was not easy to maneuver. We typically go up with two carts though, by the time you’ve filled one with water and soda it’s hard to fit anything else in there. My cart was in the 200lb range as well, considering it was holding all of the food and especially the meat products, those things can get heavy when you’re feeding six. 20lbs of it went just to the meat logs that’s used to make the meat loaf for the dogs. Yes, they’re pampered and spoiled but you won’t hear any complaint out of me in regards to the recent dog food scares, now will you? Home made is always the safest way to go, you know exactly what’s going into the food.

So anyway, pushing those carts around for a few hours and then chugging it all up a flight of stairs about 30 times (trips to and from the car) made for a pretty damn good work out. I didn’t even have the energy to take a walk afterwards when Sean walked Bella. My legs feel great though!

I loaded up on fruit, veggies and low-fat meat. There was hardly any fat left on the meat that I picked up, it’s a little bit more expensive but factor in that even more of the fat will be melted off on the barbecue and portion control - makes for a damn healthy meal!

Living not even a mile away from the beach makes me a very happy person. I’ve spent a lot of time on the boardwalk and nothing relaxes me more than the sound of the waves. The boardwalk is only a mile in length so basically parking at one end and walking it puts 2 miles onto my daily routine. It sometimes can seem a little boring when there’s nothing really going on (tides wise) looking at the same buildings all night can prove to be repetitive. I’d like to do something a little different though, instead of walking I’d like to really pump up the cardio work on a bike, instead of on foot. I found a company that has beach bikes. I think you can even take these things on the sand, which I find to be really cool considering the boardwalk may be a mile long but it’s a good five miles of beach once you go past the boardwalk, it would make for a really interesting run, I think you can actually go straight to Dewey and maybe even beyond that if it’s at all possible. That has to be a lot of fun and a damn good work out in the process.

Even if I wasn’t on the boardwalk, it’s a high quality bike that I could use just to ride around the complex in the morning. They’re not that expensive either, I think their most expensive one is only in the $115 range, and they come in some pretty awesome colors as well. I’m kind of digging the metallic blue at the moment. I found it in their beach cruisers catalog. They design the bikes for both men and women so I’m sure the comfort level would be great for anyone. I’d recommend them, no doubt about it. Sean and I hope to take a trip out to California sometime in the next few years due to business leads so I assume that while we’re viewing the gorgeous California sunset, we’ll have to try one of these out for sure!

The company is fairly new, I think there may only be a few people working for them considering their blog houses only a little bit of their information. It’s cool that they’ll even announce closing times online for those looking for information, I can see the benefit to quite a few companies if they actually did that. From a design stand point, they could use a little help but that’s my business end talking. Either way they seem to be doing very well and for those of us that are just looking for any little bit of help in making exercise just a little easier for us, it’s good to know we don’t have to drop $400 on a specialized bike that’ll wind up being stolen or just not give us everything it claims it does.