Hey Era, thanks for the message.
I did really think hard about whether or not to have the abs and flanks done as I know I wasn't at all huge beforehand. However, having spent well over £1.5k on a personal trainer last year, combined with a strict 40 day 'detoxify' diet devised by my trainer to help shift the weight and burn the fat, even that did not bring my body fat down to either mine or his expected levels. I was properly training 2 or 3 times a week with my trainer for 5 months, whilst also going and doing classes like Body Attack and Body Pump on top. All of that did make me drop from 80kgs to 70kgs and tone up quite a bit (moreso than what I looked like in my 'before' photos in this thread) but I still had this 'layer' of wobbly fat all across my chest and stomach. It was absolutely infuriating!!
Also, I remember doing some exercise with my top off on holiday last year and was doing a plank, and to my horror I looked down (ie between my body and the ground) and there was all this loose flab literally just hanging off me, from my chest right down to my stomach. And this was after I'd been seeing the trainer for ages. The thing is, I didn't really want to lose any more weight as people had started telling me I was starting to look a bit too thin in the face which is not a good look.
I am also diabetic and one of the symptoms for men is to have on a disproportionate amount of weight around their middle which is hard to shift. It also means I can't do certain types of diets to lose weight or body fat as I have to eat specific combos of food at each meal in order to stop my blood sugars going haywire and making me feel crap. It's quite a science in itself.
So yes, it may look like I have taken the easy way out to the body I want - and maybe I have in some ways - but I know I am going to be much happier and more confident because of it. I even went back to
Dr. Karidis for a 2nd consultation last week, purely about the abs and flanks region, as I wanted to be sure I was doing the right thing for me.
How is your special diet going by the way? I must say, I do like the sound of eating a heaped teaspoon of peanut butter for a snack... YUM