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The plastic surgery world is the intersection for medicine, beauty and lifestyle. Our patients’ lifestyle habits are actually an important part of what we do because, in the long run, those habits can make or break the effects of a procedure. When we consult with our patients on the best ways to prepare their bodies for surgery and maintain the results, the advice goes further than flat tummies and lifted brows.

Part of being ready for surgery is being healthy enough to undergo surgery in the first place, but there’s another reason too: Having healthy habits will maintain surgical results. Being physically healthy ensures a successful surgery without recovery complications, but having defined habits is what keeps facelifts from fading and tummy tucks from stretching back out. It’s also what keeps patients happy for years to come. This is why we look at cosmetic surgery as a “jump start” to a better quality of life.

A Better Surgery and Recovery

Even though cosmetic surgeries are pretty routine from your surgeon’s perspective, your body isn’t in the routine of enduring the physical effects of the procedure, recovery period and associated medications. Your body will weather the disruption of surgery much better if it is already fit and healthy.

The recovery period sometimes comes with unexpected challenges, but having healthy habits in place will help you make it through this phase without stress or complications. This includes mental and emotional habits just as much as what you eat and how much you work out.

For instance, patients recovering from breast augmentation may find that they gain weight in the six weeks following surgery because they are required to be more sedentary than usual. Other people may experience mild depression during recovery, due to medication, decreased activity levels or a combination thereof. (Remember that a wholesome diet will not only speed up recovery, but will help keep the blues at bay too.) These patients must have healthy eating and coping habits in place to get through this period of physical or emotional discomfort. They may have to adjust their diets to their temporarily low activity levels, maintain their productivity levels when faced with the blues, and then get back on track once their surgeon tells them it’s alright to resume life as usual again. They must also have the patience to wait for the surgeon’s go-ahead, rather than risking injury by rushing the recovery process.

Maintaining Surgical Results

Happiness, like most things in life, seldom “just happens.” Sustainable happiness comes from a lot of behind-the-scenes work on lifestyle choices that are going to produce positive results for you. That goes for everything in life: work, relationships, fitness, and in most cases, health.

Surgery is permanent, but the body nonetheless is a living organism that faces infinite subtle changes based on your specific combination of genetics, environmental factors, lifestyle, hormone variations and overall health. With so many factors at play, even surgical results can fade and change with time. Therefore, the most successful approach to maintaining a new look is to uphold your health through behind-the-scenes work involving nutrition plans, regular exercise and skincare. The same things that slow down the natural aging process will also help maintain the best possible surgical results. Liposuction and tummy tuck patients in particular should be diligent in adopting healthy portion sizes and a regular exercise plan in order to avoid revision surgery in a few years’ time.

And of course, as important as healthy habits are to maintaining appearance, they’re even more important to warding off illnesses and diseases, thereby improving quality of life for a lifetime.

Get Your Jump Start

A healthy lifestyle will improve mood, mental function, athletic ability, tension levels and appearance – so if it’s happiness you’re looking for, look inside to determine if your body is getting the TLC that it needs. If it is and just needs that extra bump to enhance your natural beauty, contact Livingston Plastic Surgery. We’ll help you complement a healthy life with a body to match.