“I don’t talk about the EmSculpt as a way to get a six pack,” Dr. Colbert says. “Being obsessed with any body part like that is unhealthy psychologically.” Rather, he points out, he uses the machine as an option for his clients who want to complement or supplement the work they’re already doing to stay fit—whatever their own personal definition of “fit” is.
Either way, I was grateful to have had a real, bona-fide launching pad to feeling better about myself. But of course, right as I was getting into the swing of things—forcing myself out of the apartment, getting back to the gym, meeting up with friends for dinner rather than cooking for one—New York City issued its shelter-in-place orders. And then, just as New York started to re-open months later, my fiancé’s job relocated us to California, which was well behind the Empire State in terms of its infection rates.
Once again, I found myself staring in the mirror (this time, in a new apartment), grabbing my “flanks” with a very familiar disdain. At this point, neither EmSculpt nor CoolSculpting were an option. Beyond the financial burden of the treatments (they each go for a couple of thousand dollars or more for a package), med-spas weren’t yet open in California. It felt like a sign.
Defeated, I found my way to Diego Salinas, a world-class bodybuilding champion and strength coach based in LA. While we were limited in terms of how we could work together due to the pandemic, I did get the chance to explain my dilemma for him to offer some advice.
Salinas is not a lithe, fashion-adjacent New York City personal trainer. You will not find Barry’s Bootcamp or Soulcycle on his résumé. He is not vegan. He laughed when I told him about how I was trying meditation. He actually looks like he could be the poster boy for Gold’s Gym, or appear in a montage for Muscle Beach. (In fact, he won the Arnold Classic for his weight class in 2017.) Immediately, he started our dialogue with tough love. In Salinas’ world, there are no shortcuts—there’s just good old-fashioned hard work, mixed with smart and scientific approaches to achieving your personal goals.
“Poor nutrition mixed with inactivity can lead to a hormonal imbalance—likely low testosterone—especially if you’re consuming alcohol chronically, which can lead to unwanted deposits of fat,” Salinas told me. We all get deposits in different places, but the mid-section tends to be a pretty common area, particularly for men.
Instead of demanding an elimination diet or a punitive calorie goal—all things that have caused me to psychologically crash and burn in the past—Salinas gave me macronutrient goals, encouraging me to think smarter about my intake of lean protein, vegetables, and alcohol. He challenged me to cook all my meals from home for a full month, and taught me the difference between high glycemic and low glycemic carbohydrates (rice versus fruits, for example). I swapped the “I-swear-it’ll-just-be-two-glasses” of wine each night for one glass of tequila on the rocks. I started to sleep better and wake up without feeling groggy. And, thanks to the gym being closed, I had to challenge myself to do workouts that would keep me mentally engaged—bike rides that turned into tours of different corners of Los Angeles, runs that helped me get more familiar with my neighborhood, sprints up the city’s many, many steep hills.
I’d love to tell you that I’m back to where I was right after my EmSculpt treatments with Dr. Colbert, but I’m not—not yet, at least. (And maybe not ever!) The doctor’s procedures made it a hell of a lot easier to hit a target goal, but it didn’t change much in terms of my mindset. Rather, I think it perpetuated a harmful idea that’s always nagged me in the back of my head: that I can achieve a certain body ideal quickly if only I’m willing to work hard enough (or pay enough money) for it. I’ve spent so much time chastising my body for coping with all I’ve thrown at it, that I’ve completely missed being grateful for having this big, healthy body in the first place.
There’s a whole host of lessons I’ve learned from the good, hard work—eating cleaner, prioritizing a sleep schedule, and committing to an outdoor activity multiple times per week. But the best of these lessons was that our bodies change, and impatience or anger isn’t actually going to get us anywhere.
Now, it is a little tempting to book in for an EmSculpt treatment and see what kinds of results I could expect with all these adjustments I’ve reluctantly made to my lifestyle. Maybe I could finally pay my way into getting the six-pack I’ve always dreamed of. But if I’ve learned anything, it’s that fitness results—no matter how they’re earned—are only temporary.
