Thank you so much Roni and Sanadora!! If there was one thing I had always wanted out of transition, it was to feel balanced from shoulder to hip. I feel like I've done as much as I can at this point without doing 5 million lunges every day
I'm glad that you see what I see, and I feel like a huge weight has been lifted!
Roni- the fat redistribution offered by Cardenas is exactly what I had done. It's basically a fat transfer. First, they lipo areas with localized fat deposits (the best area being the abdomen and lovehandles). Then, they reinject the usable fat into areas like hips and butt. You can really use it anywhere though, it's kind of like having a permanent filler made of your own cells.
I used to wear that padded bodywear stuff, it does help a lot. But it always felt kinda icky- knowing when I take my clothes off, the curves disappear. I was pretty used to dealing with this, because I'd been padding my butt since I was probably 13
I have to say that now, for some reason the new distribution is even more apparent when clothes are off. The pictures truly do not do it justice. I am so incredibly happy with what I see in the mirror with no clothes on.
Now it's been two days over 3 weeks since I went through with round 2 to the hips. My thighs are a lot less swollen, and I am starting to notice the difference post inner-thigh lipo. My waist has also lost a lot of swelling, and I am back to a 28 inch waist. Hip measurement is 41", which is a kind of ridiculous .68 waist/hip ratio. Still, I think most of it is in my butt, but the curvature from waist to hip is noticeable from any angle. I catch people looking at my hips from the front now, which I take as a compliment
I've also lost a bit of weight since the procedure. I went in at 165, and now I am about 158. I stopped eating so much (for a long time there I was kind of "fat farming" by eating a ton so I could gain weight to be transferred). Returning back to my normal diet, my body is quickly getting rid of excess. My goal is to get back to 140s (when I first started gaining weight for round one, I started at 135). I don't want to lose too much weight, because I know I will also lose some of the volume from the fat transfer. What I am more concerned with is how my arms, upper body muscles, neck, and face all got a little larger from the gain. It feels a bit unnatural to me to be bigger up top, so losing some weight is my next main goal (crossing fingers that my hips n bum don't shrink too much!). I'm not really trying to lose weight though, I plan on letting my body settle wherever it wants to. I am in my 30s now, and I know my metabolism probably isn't what it used to be before I gained 25-30lbs. We will see
Thanks again for all the nice comments!
