I’m in a committed relationship with cellulite. The bad news? There is no amount of products, treatments, eating, not eating that I can do to get rid of it once and for all (cellulite is not a condition, it’s an aspect: it’s created by fat cells pressing against the connective tissue, making your skin dimple, in fact the thinner your skin the more it is likely to appear, it would seem). The good news? I’m not alone: everyone has fat cells (although it’s true some have fuller ones than others…) so more than 90% of women have cellulite, which also means cellulite busting is a market with millions of opportunities, and if noone has found the miracle cure yet it might be because there simply isn’t one. The better news? Usually most of us have no time to address this in a systematic manner, but this little pesky thing called the CoVid19 lockdown is giving us all a chance to spend more time bonding with our energetic children, our anxious thoughts, and, you guessed it, our beautiful, if a bit jiggly, thighs. And I’m going to give it a try for the next thirty days, by tweaking things a bit in my routine, just to see if I can improve things before the holidays (which we’ll most likely spend at home, at this rate, but we never know).
If you’ve read point one in the first paragraph of this by now quite lengthy post (which of my posts isn’t), you understand that whilst you can’t get rid of it completely, you can work towards minimizing its appearance, camouflage it basically, by following a few tips. Disclaimer: usually I get a weekly treatment of Endermologie or VelaShape, and the key for either is to be super consistent as they help with the appearance of cellulite, but at the moment that’s not an option hence my home-based experiment…
Tip One – Eat healthy and drink plenty
Ok, talk about obvious. Also talk about very difficult to implement in the current set-up when there is always some kind of baking going on and having bubbly everyday seems to be the perfect solution at the end of my daily video call marathons. Still, I do notice my cellulite less when I focus on fiber and whole grain foods, and drink loads of water, as they flush the toxins out of the system and dehydrated, thinner, skin makes anything appear worse. Lockdown diet notwithstanding, I’m much better about drinking my requisite eight glasses of water each day, and I have a pot of Moroccan mint tea each afternoon, that has to count for something.
Tip Two – Sweat it out
Like I said, no exercise will remove cellulite, but any work-out will help with blood flow to your skin (yes, you also get that tomato face as a result) so most will be great to help with the dimples, especially anything cardio. Although there is also a couple of poses in Hot Yoga which are also amazing for circulation. Good that I’m already doing all of that. Next?
Tip Three – Body brushing
Very topically, my girlfriends and I had a debate about this recently (on WhatsApp, where else do you people manage to debate with anyone at the moment?). To body brush or not to body brush. I believe in dry brushing every morning before shower is almost like getting a lymphatic drainage, and since none of us is getting one of those anytime soon, this is as good as. I use that in addition to a strong scrub every couple of days, again to keep everything smooth but because I love the texture of a salt scrub: in fact mixing a good salt scrub with a bit of coffee spikes it up a little and makes skin a little plumper on the out.
Tip Four – Birch oil
We don’t all have access to a good herbalist these days but if you can get your hands on birch oil, use that after washing, ideally with one of those massage roller things. Day one, you won’t see a difference except your arms will be a little sore. Day seven, your arms will be firmer and your skin will be rosy. Day fourteen, I think you’ll agree the dimples are less visible…
Of course, if all else fails, there is a little trick for swimsuit pictures I thought I’d share right away: cellulite totally disappears if you tilt your hips backwards or sideways a little (stretching the skin basically) whereas it’s very much in your face if you squeeze your butt. Anyways I’ll let you all know how I get on in about a month, in fact if this goes well I might even post a cheeky picture on my Insta, how about that.
With love, S.
A Styled Life 