Recently my wife and I took a trip to the Beachwood Mall which is just a couple of miles outside of Cleveland. As we were getting ready to leave, I saw an advertisement for Coolsculpting and was intrigued. On the way home, I did a little research with my cell phone to learn a little more about it. On the official website, they had this to say about the procedure:
The CoolSculpting fat-freezing procedure is the only FDA-cleared,* non-surgical fat-reduction treatment that uses controlled cooling to eliminate stubborn fat that resists all efforts through diet and exercise. The results are proven, noticeable, and lasting—so you'll look great from every angle.
Basically it's a procedure that cools your fat cells down enough that they actually die. Once the cells are dead, your body gets rid of them naturally over the course of a few weeks to months. I was obviously interested in this, but of course, it's really expensive. My hopes were raised and dashed in only a few minutes.
The next day I decided to do a little more research while my wife went to visit her father. I found that there were at home versions of this procedure that had similar results. One of these that looked promising was the Blue Fat Freeze System. I was quite interested in this system as well, but of course, it's really expensive. They have different packages that range from about $300 to $500. Having just purchased a home and still paying off a lot of student loans, this is a luxury that I can't afford right now.
I wondered if the same effect could be had by using just ice packs. What were these products doing differently than just strapping ice packs on your fat would do? I watched some YouTube videos and found a few people who had tried the same thing. I was amazed that they actually had pretty significant results. I decided that I was going to go for it and try this for myself.
Now, I have been getting into cryptocurrencies recently over the last few months, and have come across this website a few times because of it. I figured, 'Why not combine these two new interests?' I've never blogged before in my life, but this seemed like a good place to start.
Anyway, I'll get started with some initial measurements and a before picture. I'll also talk about my first experience doing this.
I measured my waist about an hour ago and it was about 35 inches. Here is a picture from the front of me:
It's not the worst picture of me, I've definitely been fatter in my life. You can see that flap of fat under my belly button and that disgusting sludge on my sides. That's what I'm aiming to get rid of. Based on what I've seen online, this seems more than doable.
As for the ice itself, we just picked some up at Walmart in the outdoors section. Although, I did order some better packs of ice that should be arriving at my house on Wednesday, according to the tracking number. The ones I got at Walmart will be fine for a few uses. In order to hold the ice on my fat, I got a Gold's Gym waist trainer belt, also at Walmart. Below is a picture of the whole thing:
After waiting overnight for the gel packs to freeze, I put the belt on pretty tight and crammed the ice packs in there. It surprisingly wasn't as big of a shock as I thought it would be. It kind of hurt more than felt cold. I was on the lookout for frostbite though, because what's the point of a flat stomach if your skin is dead and gross? It was uncomfortable for a few minutes, but after a while I didn't even notice it anymore. I had to be conscious of keeping the ice packs evenly distributed. I feel like this won't be as much of an issue once I get my new ones. I kept the ice on for 30 minutes, and honestly, that time did not go by too fast. When I finally took the ice off, my skin was red and numb. It warmed up quickly though and felt normal after a few minutes. Hopefully 30 minutes was enough time to murder the fat cells that have been latching on to me for all these years.
Now that I have finished up my first session of this, I think that it's something that I'll try to do every day for the next few weeks to months. I didn't get any frostbite from it, so I don't see the harm in continuing. I plan on documenting my experiences and progress on this site every few days or so. My wife, Jess, has also decided to try this with me. I don't know how keen she'll be of posting pictures on here for a before picture, but I'll have them in the next post if she does.
I look forward to seeing the results of this little experiment. If it doesn't work out too well for me, at least I saved you some time of trying it yourself. If it does work out well, then you can try it for yourself. You know, after talking to your doctor and I'm not responsible if you try this and all that. If anyone has any suggestions or anything, I'm more than willing to hear them. If this gets some good feedback then I'll continue writing these and maybe even try a few things along the way, like ice baths.
Wish us luck!