If you live here in Southern California, then you likely have many friends and neighbors for whom a healthy lifestyle is paramount. It’s all about feeling good. Yet if you’ve been out and about in San Diego on a sunny day, you also know how much we all pride ourselves on looking good as well.

If you think about it, looking good and feeling good are two sides of the same coin. You’ve heard of a person having “that healthy glow?” Nature, however, doesn’t always grant an ideal figure in exchange for healthy habits. Sometimes, nature needs some help.

Although Taunya leads a very busy life, she always tries to find a little time each day to exercise. Her three children, two boys and one girl ranging in ages from 2½ to 7 years old, all have one thing in common—they were very large babies. “My first two children were 9.5 and 10 lbs. My third child had to be delivered by caesarean two weeks early because of how big my babies grew, and he was already 8 lbs.” The children brighten Taunya’s life in so many ways, but carrying such large babies wreaked havoc on her fit body. “The skin just kept stretching with each pregnancy, and no matter how much I worked out, it never bounced back.”

Four years ago, Beth went on a journey to rediscover herself and her body. She began with gastic bypass surgery that led to an amazing 130 pound weight loss. Along with the great accomplishment, Beth also experienced excess skin that most patients with dramatic weight loss experience, which also led to sagging breasts.

Her next step on her journey led her to a breast lift (mastopexy). “I asked friends for recommendations and turned to the Internet to research everything I could about breast lifts. I repeatedly kept coming across La Jolla Cosmetic Surgery Centre in my searches.” After researching information, before and after images and doctors, Beth decided to visit Dr. Lori Saltz, the Centre’s Medical Director.

Is there a “right age” to begin having plastic surgery? That’s something 26-year-old Jessie always wondered. Spending most of her youth and young adulthood playing sports, Jessie described herself as having a body that never made her feel very feminine. “I had this strong, athletic build combined with a very flat chest. I hated that.” Jessie recalls being in high school and imagining one day she would have a breast augmentation to make herself feel better about her body.

Christy knows what a struggle it is to lose weight. In 8th grade, just when life is beginning to throw so many challenges at you, she weighed 225 pounds and wore a size 22. “I’m a southern girl from Alabama and grew up loving food. When I was a teenager, I moved in with my grandparents and started to become aware of how unhealthy my weight was. My grandmother sent me to nutrition classes and I lost some weight.”