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There are two kinds of moments.  The ones that run unremarkably into each other as we rush through the day ticking off the multitude of little milestones that demand our attention until the day is finally spent.  Those moments far too quickly turn into days, weeks, then years and while each of those moments seem of the utmost importance at the time, a week later they are unremarkably lost in a chasm of equally insignificant and unremarkable past moments.  For many of us, this is how life is spent, that is until we experience one of those other kind.

These are the far rarer moments, the special ones that hit you like a freight train and are never forgotten.  They come during the most significant events in our lives such as the experience of death or near death, the day your spouse surprises you with divorce papers, or when your child is born, or later on leaves home.  They can also sneak up on you quietly, like the day you glanced through a photo album or high school year book and realized things never turned out quite the way you thought they would, that time had passed and all of what that meant to you.  

Or like Lisa Marie Carrasquillo, that moment can come on a birthday, one of the big ones, when she realized that the weight she had started to lose years ago was still there and that she wasn’t just recovering from having babies.  She was 40 years old and had struggled with her weight her entire adult life.  It had been this way for so long it had become how the world saw her, how she saw herself and she wanted...no...needed it to change.

Those moments can be some of the most excruciatingly painful to face yet at the same time they can be the most empowering if you choose to see it that way. A place to start from and a place you never want to go back to.

At 16 years old Lisa Marie Carrasquillo was a firm and beautiful young Latina when she became pregnant with her first child.  She weighed 115 lbs then and her body image never crossed her mind.  It would be 24 years, spring of 2010 to be more exact, before she would feel that good again about how her body looked and felt.

To have a healthy pregnancy you must gain some weight.  Mother nature and her hormones will make sure that some of that weight is fat so that you can properly protect and care for your baby.  Unfortunately it often times goes beyond a healthy pregnancy weight gain and the pounds start adding up.  For LisaMarie it meant she weighed as heavy as 210 lbs at one point during one of her pregnancies.

After her third and final pregnancy she weighed 176 lbs and realized that she didn’t want to stay that way.  She did all she knew how to do to fix it, “I recall after my last pregnancy being 176 lbs. At that point I realized I didn’t want to look the way I did which to me was “fat” so I began using over the counter products to assist me with losing the weight.  I also joined several fitness gyms.  I would lose weight but also gain weight.”

That began the cycle of diet fads that turned into numerous losses that turned back again into gains, and years of frustration.  Carrasquillo was not afraid of the physical work or training, it was the food that she had the hardest time committing too, “I would lose weight but also gain weight.  I always ate crappy foods; fried foods, fast food restaurants, home cooking which included everything and anything, loved the mayo, butter, sugar, breads, cakes, chips etc.  My weight was always up and down and the older I got, the harder it became to loose the pounds.”

Carrasquillo joined the Port St. Lucie, Florida Police department and while the rigorous training she experienced at the Academy helped her loose some weight, she quickly gained it back and then some after she hit the streets and started working shiftwork.  Later she was promoted and became a major crimes detective and the time demands of work made eating well and on time an even greater challenge.  Her weight was up around 150 lbs and something had to be done.

She celebrated her 40th birthday on December 26th 2009 and decided it was time, “My 40th birthday rolled around and I knew I wanted to do something different with my life.  I wanted to get fit and stay fit. I didn’t want to put any more weight loss products in my body.  I wanted to get fit the healthy way.”

She was referred to a well known local trainer, Liza Hughes, and learned about the Bodysport Transformation Challenge and decided to go for it, “I thought that enrolling in the challenge will jump start me to getting fit and meeting my goals at a much quicker pace. I knew that committing to the challenge would tremendously motivate me to continue with my birthday plan.  So I decided to enter and boy am I soooo glad I did.”

She started working with Liza Hughes on her training and nutrition programs and immediately made many changes, most significant was her commitment to eating right.  She now carries all her food with her and rarely if ever misses a meal or deviates from her meal plan.  Soon the results of her hard work in the gym and commitment to eating right started to show and everyone in her world had questions about it.  Suddenly this woman that had struggled with her weight her entire adult life had inadvertently become a role model for others , “Many have asked me specifically what exactly I’m doing because I look fit and also I’ve been asked about my CLEAN DIET (how many meals, what they consist of, how many times a day etc). I have provided family, friends, co-workers information about eating clean and exercising.  I have encouraged many to join Liza’s fit camp. I have also motivated them to work out with me one on one which they have.   It’s been a lot of fun.”

In less than 4 months Lisa Marie Carrasquillo, a 40 year old mother of three and police detective has changed her life and has given hope to others who felt just as hopeless as she had felt just 12 weeks before.  Since the Bodysport Transformation Challenge ended, Lisa Marie has remained on track and is continuing forward in the new lifestyle she has chosen by setting new goals for herself.  Now that she has made the impossible possible by committing to it and consistently doing the work, she swears she will never go back.  

Lisa Marie’s 40th birthday was one of those special moments that became the catalyst for sweeping change in her life.  She made a choice, then followed through with no excuses amidst a torrent of obstacles and reached her goal.  Along the way she inspired many of those special moments for others such as her husband, her children, her co-workers, and many others by simply living the fitness lifestyle.  It’s that hard, but its also that easy, and its certainly that rewarding.  Just ask Lisa Marie Carrasquillo.

By Terry Goodlad

before and after pictures