The most wonderful time to heal

Maybe it’s cold outside

… so it’s a good time to be inside! If the change in the seasons changes your daily routine, social calendar or overall personality, maybe it’s time for some intensive self-care. After you’ve unpacked your sweaters and put away your skirts and shorts, take some time to schedule that aesthetic surgery you’ve been considering forever. What will you do with your time this winter? 

There are tons of hobbies and activities that can be done in the comfort of your home while the ice and snow rage outside, including puzzles, knitting and painting. You can lay on the couch and binge on Netflix… while you recover from plastic surgery! 

Who needs a puzzle? Put yourself back together!

The cooler seasons are the perfect time to have aesthetic surgery done because:

• The lower temperatures of autumn and winter - in the Northern Hemisphere - are Mother Nature’s way of helping you with swelling, inflammation and bruising control. 

• If you wear larger clothing when you’re cold, you can hide recovery garments more easily.

• The sun’s harmful UV rays are typically less severe during fall and winter, which is great news if a scar reveals itself accidentally.

• Having downtime in autumn and winter means you’ll be ready to hit the beach by summertime.

Cool your jets (and everything else) 

Many plastic surgeons do not suggest using ice or heat packs on any part of your body post-surgery. Your nerves are still recovering - trying to figure out which of your ends is up, getting their own little nerve lives back in order - and they can’t tell you when you’ve been sitting on the heating pad for too long. You will need to manage your pain and swelling another way, like opening the front door and letting a little snow in.

Cooler weather can organically help regulate your body temperature, as long as you don’t do anything absurd like participating in a polar plunge. Let catching a glimpse of your newly sculpted body give you that adrenalin rush instead. 

Is that a drain in your sweater?

Cooler weather usually means bigger clothing and that’s perfect for discreetly disguising dangling drains. Fluffy sweaters can conceal fajas and other types of compression garments. Thick, warm socks will slide right up your compression-socked legs. 

Now is the time to layer up, lay down and veg out. Relish in the dormancy of cold weather with baggy clothing and some hot chicken soup. Make sure your fluffy bunny slippers have good tread because you’re going to put some miles on them, shuffling around your house or apartment when you’re not resting.

SAD = Sexy And Delicious

You may have heard of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) causing depression in people as fall and winter bring less and less sunshine. This year, as winter creeps in and the nights get longer, turn that frown upside down, just as you’ve aesthetically turned the tables on gravity. Use this extra time without the sun’s damaging UV rays to your benefit. 

All surgical scars should be kept out of the sun until they are “mature,” at least a year after surgery. The Washington (Missouri, USA) University School of Medicine wrote a great article about scar care and sunshine. Avoiding the sun will pay off later, when you have thin, light scars.

UV rays aside, the sun can also make you sweat. When you’re recovering from plastic surgery, bound to your post-tummy tuck faja and perched on your BBL pillow, the last thing you want to do is sweat. Sweating can add inflammation and quite honestly, stank. Choosing to recuperate in cooler months can help you avoid hot and schweaty discomfort.

Planning ahead now will set you up for comfort later

Remember the story about the lazy grasshopper who lays around and watches the ants scurry around all summer, saving food for the winter? It’s Aesop’s ”The Ant and the Grasshopper” that ends with the moral of hard work paying off and laziness resulting in despair.

While having plastic surgery usually isn’t as life-and-death as the lifeline of a food supply, there’s a parallel to be drawn. If you do the work (surgery and recovery) now, you can live comfortably (enjoy your new body) later! You can be an industrious ant (with a snatched waist) instead of a lazy, untucked grasshopper. 

To wrap it up

Now is the time to get yourself ready for the beach, the pool and tighter clothes. You still have months before warm weather creeps back in. Take advantage of the cooler weather of the season - unless you live in the Southern Hemisphere and in that case, it’s not too early to plan for NEXT year - and put yourself in the best shape of your life. You even have an extra day this year since it’s a leap year! Finish this blog, find yourself a great surgeon and plan your surgery today.