A little vignette from my past:

The lights were low in our favorite Irish Bar on 52nd Street and 2nd Avenue. U2 and Van Morrison blared on the jukebox as my posse of head-turning girlfriends and I lit up the place like a candle when we walked in. Per “yoozh”, beforehand we drank cheap chardonnay and primed ourselves for yet another work night of drinking pints of lager and listening for sexy Irish accents to emerge from the darkness and appear at our shoulders.

Like most girls in our 20s, we were filled with self-doubt and self-loathing. On days off, we sat around drinking too much coffee and talked about the boys we liked. We had little impulse to focus on ourselves or our own goals, professional or otherwise. There were no Ted Talks and Self-help books in those days to set us on the right tract.

Um….not to blame our mothers or anything, but girls do learn a lot from them, like whether or not you center your very existence around a man. Case in point, when my big sister took me to get my ears pierced at 13 without her knowledge, Mom said aghast “but what if your husband someday doesn’t like pierced earrings!?”

Maybe in response to messages like that and I guess to mock our lack of self-possession, my posse and I jokingly called ourselves “The Girls Rule Club.” Well, we were far from that, indeed! Yet, we were young and beautiful….and, surely, that was something. Right?

Maybe the central irony of life is when you are young and stupid, that’s when you are hardest on yourself and your looks. We don’t realize how lucky we are to look like that and that we will likely never look better in our lives!

With aging, we take ourselves much more seriously. We know that we matter and our dreams and desires are valid and worth pursuing….all while the wrinkles, weight gain, and sagging skin multiply. Lacking hormones is like getting a prescription for glasses for the first time and seeing your life clearly. Women caretake and caretake and caretake….at some point, you just want and need it to be all about you, before this life is over. Don’t we DESERVE that?

I like men. I do. But, as a 62 year old woman, no man or their opinion of my looks will ever be a guiding force in my life again. I just don’t give a fudge. I don’t really mind aging mostly. And, believe me, I know one day, I’ll have to give up my beauty pursuits, my med spa appointments and just succumb. But for now, I’m giving myself the best shot I can at looking good for me, just me and only me!

Case in point: My once lovely neck. Dang, I always really loved my neck, my profile, my sharp facial features. People would stop me and say, “Did anyone ever tell you you look like Meryl Streep?” Yep. That and for the artsy lads who hang out in museums, “um….you look just like one of those John Singer Sargent paintings!” I think to myself, in fact, I would have been quite the catch in the Edwardian era!

As I have aged, in the past 10 years or so, my neck went into full bore senior citizen mode. Maybe it’s my fair skin, or forgetting to put sunscreen on my neck, or tech neck, since like everyone else, I’m addicted to scrolling. But one day, I woke up and was like, “Holy hell, when did this happen and who is responsible for this travesty??????” Embarrassingly, I realized one day I had become my mother, at least in terms of my once lovely neck.

But lets just stop talking and bring out the photos. Ugh….I both hate and love “before and afters,” especially when I’m in them.

BEFORE (Taken after Coolsculpting at Med Spa #1)

AFTER Thermi-Tight Treatment in MedSpa#2

I could show you an older photo that looks worse than the #1 above, before I got Coolsculpting treatment #1. But, I was also 40 lbs heavier then. So there is no way to tell what caused the appearance of my neck at that time. Probably, it was a bit of both. FYI, the first picture was taken about three months after my first Coolsculpting, at Med Spa #1. (NOTE: I learned from experience that Treatment techniques really matter, hence why I needed to go to a second Med Spa), so if you want more info on that, reach out.

While I saw improvement in Photo #1, I decided to go to a different Med Spa for a Consult. That doc there recommended more rounds of Coolsculpting, which I got one of. When I went back for my f/u post-procedure, the doctor said the final treatment I had paid for wouldn’t help me, since I didn’t have enough fat left in my neck to treat. (Your fat gets sucked up and cooled & fat gets destroyed this way, in this vacuum-y wand thingy.) She said the problem was more an issue of laxity. She recommended Thermi-tight, which I proceeded to do in March of 2025. The second photo was taken about a month after Thermi-tight. I think the difference is pretty clearly a big improvement.

My experience with Thermi-tight is that it’s a pretty dramatic, more painful procedure, compared to Coolsculpting. It’s possible, if I knew it was going to be as severe as it was, I might not have gone through with it. But, heh, I’m a chicken.

The recovery takes minimally a week for the bruising and most of the swelling to go away. You sort of look like a monster for a while. Plus, you have to wear a binding neck bandage for about a week, which makes you look like you’ve been in a major car accident and massage your neck several times a day, which is quite painful due to the bruising and swelling. But I trusted the doctor, who is very experienced.

The full tightening/sculpting effects of Thermi-tight occur usually at about 3-6 months. This is me today, at about 6 weeks post-procedure. What do you think? Was all the pain and money worth it? For me, it’s a resounding yes, cause I feel so much better about myself. I don’t know if the effects of tightening will get even better, but I’m hopeful given these results.

Seeing my self change like this, seeing a bit of the old me, has really boosted my self-confidence and helped me to get back on my weight loss journey too. And that makes me so happy! Being food-centered, seemed more of a problem when I was man-centered. It is a really great feeling to feel stronger and lighter everyday and not be obsessing about the wrong things. I feel more at peace and am so much more productive in pursuing my own goals, which I do still have in my 60’s.

If anyone wants to know more about either of these procedures, just reach out and I’d be happy to tell you more, as well as, some tips & tricks I learned, that really helped me through my recovery.

Anyway, thanks tons for listening to my story. I really appreciate it!

XOXO,

Ms. Sassy Pants