0:00:01 - (Kevin Lowe): What is the toughest decision you've ever had to make? I'm talking about the big choices, the life altering choices. It depends on what you say in this moment that's going to depict what your life looks like tomorrow and for years to come. What was that for you? For today's guest, Tracy Lamarche, her choice was monumental. It was huge. And you could say that the choice she made ruined her life. It destroyed her life because, oh, my gosh, this decision she made would impact her body from that day forward.

0:00:37 - (Kevin Lowe): And yet, here's what's powerful, is the decision that Tracy made was empowering because it set her free. And she knew it. Today you're going to hear the story of a woman, a bodybuilder, an amputee, a woman who did not let the tragedies of life stop her from fulfilling her passion for living out her purpose, for doing the things that she loves. Today, you are going to be inspired, empowered and motivated by none other than Tracy Lamarch, my friend.

0:01:11 - (Kevin Lowe): Let's dive in. This is episode 280. What's up, my friend? And welcome to grit, grace, and inspiration. I am your host, Kevin Lowe. 20 years ago, I awoke from a life saving surgery only to find that I was left completely blind. And since that day, ive learned a lot about life, a lot about living, and a lot about myself. And here on this podcast, I want to share those insights with you. Because, friend, if you are still searching for your purpose, still trying to understand why or still left searching for that next right path to take, will consider this to be your stepping stone to get you from where you are to where you want to be.

0:01:55 - (Kevin Lowe): You know what gets me pumped up like nothing else? It's to be able to support an american owned and operated company. And that is why we are sponsored by Mypillow. Now, thanks to today's sponsor, you get to take part in their dollar 25 extravaganza. Use promo code Kevin to get an array of their best products for only $25. Check out today's show notes. I'll leave all those details below. And remember this, whether you want the $25 extravaganza or any of the other 250 products on their website, you use promo code Kevin.

0:02:33 - (Kevin Lowe): You're gonna get up to 80% off, my friend. It's time for you to get shopping at Mypillow.

0:02:43 - (Tracy Gariepy LaMarche): I am a little bit of a different case study than your average fitness enthusiast or fitness professional, where I did not play sports as a child. Growing up, I was the kid who, for gym class or PE class, I would do anything that I could to get out of it. And I was the last one picked when we had to pick team sports, I just. Physical activity and me, you would not have associated the two of us together at all.

0:03:10 - (Tracy Gariepy LaMarche): And then I got into adulthood. I had children. I had children pretty young. I was a young mom, and I felt youthful and young with my kids and started to look up to some other moms who were a little bit older, and they were going to aerobics classes, and they were kind of role models to me since I was such a young mother. And I saw that these other moms were, they had it all together. They were raising their kids and they were going to fitness classes, and they looked great and they felt great.

0:03:38 - (Tracy Gariepy LaMarche): And I thought, that's the kind of mom that I want to be. I want to be that person that's there for my kids and has all this energy and still has a life of her own outside of her children. So I started going to aerobics classes with these moms, and I have a little bit of a, some people might call me a control freak. I don't know if that's accurate or not, but it was not too long before I was in these classes. And I thought, I don't want to be a student in the classes. I want to be the person up there instructing the classes. I want to be the teacher. So I got certified as an aerobics instructor, and then I had an opportunity to open my own aerobics studio.

0:04:14 - (Tracy Gariepy LaMarche): And then my students wanted more personal training one on one. So I got certified as a personal trainer, and it really just snowballed from there. I started running. I started bodybuilding. I mean, the, the story is, you know, it gets kind of robust from there. But, yeah, it all just sparked from having great role models when I was a young mom.

0:04:32 - (Kevin Lowe): Wow, wow, wow, wow. I love that so much. And, I mean, talk about just a natural evolution, which is amazing.

0:04:39 - (Tracy Gariepy LaMarche): Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And, you know, and it's very different because so many kids grew up playing sports their whole life, and it, and it was such a huge part of their identity. But it changed. You know, my identity really changed when I, when I got into this. A lot of people said in the beginning, like, wow, we did not expect that to be the direction that your life went in, Tracy. But, yeah, that's where it went.

0:05:01 - (Kevin Lowe): Amazing. Now, at what point did you actually get into, like, competition?

0:05:08 - (Tracy Gariepy LaMarche): That was later because I spent a long time just enjoying being an aerobics instructor and personal trainer. But I just, on a whim signed up for a very short distance race. I think it was 4 miles, and loved it. And I wasn't that bad at it because I was teaching aerobics so much. I was pretty fit, and I finished the race kind of towards the top of the, you know, the finishing groups, and then it ignited a fire in me. I was like, oh, wow. Not only can I do something that I love to do, but I might be able to actually be competitive in it.

0:05:42 - (Tracy Gariepy LaMarche): So running took off for me, and then it ended up being longer and longer distances. I was doing, you know, ten milers, half marathons, full marathons. It got up to 100 milers. And then I did one race that was 300 miles long. It was, it was so many. And I was just built by bit by this competitive bug. But that running that long distance started to wear me down a little bit. And then I transitioned over to bodybuilding so that I could work on muscular endurance as well. And same thing. Just started to see how fun it was to compete. And, you know, I'm a competitive person, but also, it was just a lot of fun being with other competitors, kind of sharing that, that drive and that fire and that passion to get out there and just be your best self, even if you're only competing against yourself. It was a very empowering feeling.

0:06:29 - (Kevin Lowe): Yeah. Incredible. Well, let's just back up 1 second for everybody who's like 300 miles. I mean, that's crazy.

0:06:40 - (Tracy Gariepy LaMarche): Yeah, yeah, I know that. The common response that I get is, wow, Tracy, I don't even want to drive 300.

0:06:48 - (Kevin Lowe): I was going to say. I mean, that, that's like a full day road trip, much less running it.

0:06:53 - (Tracy Gariepy LaMarche): Yeah, it's a ten day road trip if you're running it.

0:06:57 - (Kevin Lowe): Yes. Wow, wow, wow. Now, like, where would you do those type of races at?

0:07:03 - (Tracy Gariepy LaMarche): So a lot of the really long distance races like that, they're usually across a state or down the coast of a state or trying to circumnavigate something. So I ran down the state of South Carolina. I started up in the north Carolina border. I ran through South Carolina, and I ended in Savannah, Georgia. And then I did a similar event in north Carolina, where we kind of hugged the coast of north Carolina.

0:07:30 - (Tracy Gariepy LaMarche): So, you know, even just north to south, north Carolina is not 300 miles long, but when you're, when you're tracing the coastline and all of those ins and outs and everything, it ended up being quite a long distance.

0:07:40 - (Kevin Lowe): Yeah, yeah, no doubt. My goodness. Now, as a runner, I guess I'm kind of surprised. I don't think of somebody who's into running like that to then switch to, to bodybuilding, because I feel like that would be two different kind of physiques that you're, you're going for. How did that kind of transition take place?

0:08:02 - (Tracy Gariepy LaMarche): They're night and day. Yeah, they're night and day. You are not alone in thinking that the mentality is very similar, especially when you're doing long, long distance races. It's very much, they say that the mental challenge is greater than the physical challenge. And I believe that, you know, you really have to be 100% dedicated to your cause. If your cause is finishing that race or whatever, your brain and your mind has to be all in and it has to be able to be stronger than your body because your body says, I don't want to do this anymore, and your brain has to say, yeah, I can do this, and I'm going to do this. Bodybuilding is very similar because there's so much discipline behind it.

0:08:40 - (Tracy Gariepy LaMarche): It's very extreme. It's a huge physical challenge, but also there's so much mental strength that, that comes with it as well because the diet is extremely regimented. The fact that you, you kind of need to be in the gym every day and focusing on whatever your workout plan is that day if you're going to compete. There's not a lot of room for error, and there's not a lot of time to say, I'm going to take a day off or I'm, you know, I'm going to, I'm going to phone it in today. So, although the physiques are very different, the fact that it is a very extreme mental challenge is similar. And so, yes, there was a complete body overhaul for me, but because I thrived on that mental challenge, I think that's what helped me bridge that.

0:09:26 - (Kevin Lowe): Yeah, I love it. Now. During all of this, you had children, and so how old kind of were they during this, when you really got into this big time?

0:09:38 - (Tracy Gariepy LaMarche): They were older. They were kids. When I was just teaching aerobics and running my own business, they would come with me to the studio. They learned a lot of my aerobic routine with me. It was adorable that I had three little kids that could do aerobics with me. But once I started to get more competitive, they were a little bit older, I would say, you know, 10, 12, 13 years old. So that it wasn't a huge ask for me to be able to leave my house for an hour or two.

0:10:04 - (Tracy Gariepy LaMarche): My youngest ones, if they were home and I didn't really feel safe, leaving them alone for a long period of time. Then I would run laps in my neighborhood, and if it was a nice day, they'd be sitting out on the porch and they'd be cheering me on. Every time I run past them, I'd say, you know, next time I come back, make sure you have a bottle of water for mom. Cause I'm getting thirsty here or whatever. So. Yeah. And then, of course, the older and older they got, the easier it was for me to take some more time for myself. Not that they didn't need the parenting anymore, but, you know, they were coming into their own, becoming their own personalities. They're, they're off doing their own things, and it gave me a little bit more time to do my own thing.

0:10:42 - (Kevin Lowe): Yeah, well, I guess my thing that also kind of blows me away by this is the fact of you had three children, you're a woman, and yet you're now doing fitness modeling. I mean, competitions. I mean, like, I mean, I think, like, every woman's like, whoa, talk about a badass.

0:11:03 - (Tracy Gariepy LaMarche): And I've been very lucky that my kids are supportive of that. I know that there are some kids that could be embarrassed by that. I mean, when I'm competing in a bodybuilding competition, I'm up there on stage in a bikini, and I just got very lucky that my, I have two girls and one boy, and they're all extremely supportive of it. And they're like, yeah, go, mom. And same thing. They're just like, my mom's a badass.

0:11:25 - (Kevin Lowe): Yeah. Oh, my gosh, I love it so much. Now, at some point in this journey, you would sustain an injury, though, to your leg. Talk to me about that.

0:11:38 - (Tracy Gariepy LaMarche): Yeah. So it was about three and a half years ago, I was coaching a running group I coached for the YMCA, and my team was out doing sprints. They were, they were running, and of course, they were all warmed up. I'd been, I'd been, you know, calling stuff out on a bullhorn, and they were all warmed up and ready to go. I wasn't, because I'd been standing still. I sent them off on their sprints, and then at the last second, I said, I'm going to take off and run with them and so not warmed up. And I wasn't really doing that much running because I was, I was more on the competitive bodybuilding side, but I was still coaching.

0:12:12 - (Tracy Gariepy LaMarche): I take off, I try to sprint, and I felt something go in my knee, and it didn't feel catastrophic. It was just, I was like, that's a little pop. That doesn't feel too good. And long story short, it ended up being a simple injury, but we addressed it with surgery. I had complications from that surgery and then more surgery to try to fix that, and I was just the unfortunate person where when you go into surgery, they say, you know, there are risks, there are complications, and a lot of them happened to me. So, yeah, that kind of started my trajectory into a whole new life.

0:12:48 - (Kevin Lowe): Wow. So what was the actual initial injury that you sustained?

0:12:53 - (Tracy Gariepy LaMarche): It was a meniscus tear in my knee, a tiny little meniscus tear.

0:12:57 - (Kevin Lowe): Wow. So what kind of complications did you experience?

0:13:02 - (Tracy Gariepy LaMarche): So we initially repaired it with a couple of stitches. The stitches held, which is. This is the interesting part, is that little repair was just fine. But then my meniscus started tearing all around it, and we didn't really know why. I had another surgery that we then had to pretty much just remove my meniscus because we saw that it was getting so damaged. I think at the time, we didn't necessarily notice that there was also damage to some of the connective ligaments, ACL, PCL, not major tears. So we didn't. We didn't really notice them, but. But they were starting to get damaged.

0:13:38 - (Tracy Gariepy LaMarche): And at that point, we were like, wow, you know, your knee is just. There's. There's some bad things happening to your knee, and we don't really know why. So then we decided to get pretty aggressive with surgery because I was in so much pain at this point. I'd had a couple of surgeries. It wasn't getting better. I was still in a lot of pain. We decided to go pretty aggressive and do what's called an HTO, high tibial osteotomy, which takes a portion of my tibia bone out. We removed a piece of my bone and had to put in a metal plate to then hold it back together.

0:14:10 - (Tracy Gariepy LaMarche): And really what it did was change the trajectory of the bone into my knee. To think, we were thinking, maybe my biomechanics are off. We've got to kind of change the alignment of the knee so that I don't continue to sustain the damage. That's where it started to go south. The hardware broke. I had screws that were broken off in my. My tibia bone that we couldn't get those screws out. I had more surgeries to put in, more hardware, so I had more screws, a huge metal plate in my leg.

0:14:36 - (Tracy Gariepy LaMarche): And then after that, I started to get a bone infection underneath the metal and in the screws that were stuck in my leg that we couldn't get out that infection. We. I think I had five different surgeries to try to clean out that infection, and it just didn't go away. It kept persisting.

0:14:52 - (Kevin Lowe): Wow. Wow. Now, how long was this process going on for?

0:14:58 - (Tracy Gariepy LaMarche): Two years. Two years of surgeries. I think all in all, between the initial meniscus tear and going through all of the subsequent meniscal repairs, the HGO, the different hardware, and then all of the surgeries to try to remove the infection, I think I had a total of nine surgeries over two years.

0:15:15 - (Kevin Lowe): Wow. Now, during this time, I'm assuming, was you completely sidelined from. From fitness?

0:15:24 - (Tracy Gariepy LaMarche): Pretty much. Pretty much. Most of the time I was in a pretty aggressive leg brace or on crutches, like completely non weight bearing. When I was dealing with the infection, I had a long period of time that I had to wear a lot of bandages and essentially a vacuum on my leg. We were trying to suck the infection out. So I had a separate piece of equipment that was strapped to my waist that was continuously trying to pull the infection out.

0:15:48 - (Tracy Gariepy LaMarche): So the one thing that I was able to keep doing through all of this was teach cycling classes, because I realized you can cycle with one leg. Indoor cycling, you can do that with one leg. So that was one thing that I was able to maintain. But as far as running, bodybuilding, because leg workouts really just didn't happen for me. Even being able to go for a walk, I could not just walk comfortably, even the times that I wasn't on crutches. So, yeah, a lot of it just felt like being completely sidelined. And all the times that I was in the hospital, you know, each surgery you're in the hospital, they keep you overnight for a few days.

0:16:21 - (Tracy Gariepy LaMarche): So, yeah, it was, it was pretty frustrating.

0:16:24 - (Kevin Lowe): Yeah, well, that's. That's kind of what I was wondering is, is just the mindset aspect during this time to go from the level that you were at to this, what was the mindset emotions like during this?

0:16:40 - (Tracy Gariepy LaMarche): I started getting angrier and angrier, and I was. I think I did my best to keep a positive outlook. I maintained a great base of support with friends and family and all of that. My employers, you know, I was very, very fortunate for the people that I had around me, but I was getting angrier and angrier. And I finally started telling my surgeon, it was kind of a joke at first with the initial surgeries, but then as surgeries went on and on, I was telling him, I'm like, you know, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. And I keep going in for surgery after surgery.

0:17:18 - (Tracy Gariepy LaMarche): You just keep saying, we're just going to operate and you're going to be fine, and I'm never fine. You know, each time we're expecting the surgery to be the one that's going to make me all better, and it's not. I'm just coming out of surgery feeling worse off than I was before. So, yeah, I was getting pretty angry.

0:17:33 - (Kevin Lowe): Wow. So at what point did this come to the climax?

0:17:38 - (Tracy Gariepy LaMarche): So, like I said, I was starting to joke with my surgeon. I used to tell it because I was saying all of this about, you know, we keep doing this and not getting good results. In the beginning, I was saying, you know, doc, I wake up and my leg is not attached to me anymore. I'm okay with that. I started telling him, this is feeling like a dead, useless, non functioning leg. I'm dragging it around. It's holding me back.

0:18:01 - (Tracy Gariepy LaMarche): And I was joking at first, and then I started being more and more serious about it. I'm like, I'm not joking around anymore. I think this is what we need to do. And so I started asking him, please amputate my leg. And he was very hesitant. I mean, he was a surgeon. He had dealt with a lot of people that had limb loss, and of course, this was brand new to me. I didn't know anything about amputation, so he really wanted to make sure that I knew what you're really asking for, Tracy. Like, when you ask for this, you can't sew it back on later. You can't change your mind and say, I thought this was a great idea, but no, it's not. So, so much hesitation.

0:18:35 - (Tracy Gariepy LaMarche): And eventually, he did refer me to a different surgeon and a surgeon who deals with trauma and cancer patients who does quite a bit of this type of amputation. And that surgeon did say, you know, yep, given your history and given how much time this has taken and the fact that we're really not getting results and we, we don't know if any subsequent surgery would be conclusive for you, we have no guarantees that you'd be able to walk comfortably again or ever run again at all.

0:19:04 - (Tracy Gariepy LaMarche): So he said, yeah, amputation is a, is a viable option. So it took me some time to think about it, and I had to talk to, actually, a mental health practitioner to make sure I was in a good headspace for it. But that was the ultimate decision and the ultimate outcome. We amputated my leg above the knee. So I am now a aK. AK stands for above the knee amputee.

0:19:25 - (Kevin Lowe): Wow, wow, wow. What was your reaction after the surgery?

0:19:34 - (Tracy Gariepy LaMarche): It was mind blowing. I woke up and I felt so good, Kevin. Okay. I didn't know how sick I felt. I mean, I knew I had this infection, and I could look at it on my leg. I didn't realize how much it was impacting me mentally. I think it probably was making me feel physically very sick. I mean, you've got bacteria coursing through your body. You can't. You can't feel 100% when that's happening. I woke up, leg was gone, the infection was gone.

0:20:06 - (Tracy Gariepy LaMarche): I felt so free and so happy and so relieved. Like, just this. This nightmare is over. And I know for some people they would be like, nope, nightmares. Just beginning. You now have no leg. But no, it was the opposite for me. I felt amazing.

0:20:22 - (Kevin Lowe): Wow. I mean, talk about fighting fire with fire. Wow, wow, wow, wow. So did you at this point realize how this would impact your career?

0:20:38 - (Tracy Gariepy LaMarche): Not at all. I did meet with an amputee peer counselor prior to this. She gave me a lot of information about what it's like to live as an amputee. Things to know about navigating the insurance process and mobility, you know, being able to get a handicap plate and all different things to know about being an amputee. But still, it's a very personal experience for each person, and I didn't really know what it would mean for my career, for my personal life. Like, that was.

0:21:08 - (Tracy Gariepy LaMarche): That was unknown territory.

0:21:10 - (Kevin Lowe): Yeah, absolutely. So at that point, then, what kind of happens next? How do you get back into the scene?

0:21:20 - (Tracy Gariepy LaMarche): So my amputation was on a Thursday. I went home from the hospital on Friday. I was back in the gym on Saturday. Like, that's how good I felt. That's how good I felt. And, you know, I'm on crutches. I got huge bandages all over my leg, hopping into the gym. But I think it did a few things. First of all, it just gave me a sense of, like, I'm back, baby. You know, like, I can now I can make a plan for moving forward.

0:21:45 - (Tracy Gariepy LaMarche): And it opened. I don't want to say it opened a lot of doors for me. I'm going to be a little bit selfish here. I opened a lot of doors. I sought opportunities, and I charged through them. One of them was I realized there's not a lot of athletic knowledge and training and coaching for people who are suffering from limb loss or limb difference or really just having any kind of permanent limitation that changes how they can move and how they can work out.

0:22:13 - (Tracy Gariepy LaMarche): I got certified as a adaptive and inclusive trainer so that I have the knowledge and the resources to be able to coach people like that. I felt good enough to be working out, and I figured out how to work out on one leg. I got back on stage as a bodybuilder. I competed twice in that, in that first, that first summer. Ever since after I lost my leg, like, I lost my leg in May, and I competed twice that summer.

0:22:37 - (Tracy Gariepy LaMarche): I'm still learning how to run, but I'm back to coaching cycling. I'm back to coaching running. Yeah, I just, I kind of looked for, how can I possibly adapt and move forward? And then I, I went after it.

0:22:51 - (Kevin Lowe): Yeah. Now, how soon did you get into, like, getting a prosthetic?

0:22:56 - (Tracy Gariepy LaMarche): So there's a healing process. You know, I wanted to be in a prosthetic leg right away, but here, you know, you're dealing with a major surgery and you have to heal from that. It ended up being about six weeks for me, I think, before we could even start that process. And even when you start it, it's a long process. They have to take essentially a cast, a mold of your leg, and then they make a prototype for you, and you have to try the prototype. And usually the prototype is not perfect. We go back to the shop and it's a lot of back and forth to get the right fit.

0:23:29 - (Tracy Gariepy LaMarche): So I would say, all said and done, it might have been three months after surgery before I got a leg. And even that leg. At that point, I had started bodybuilding again, and I was losing weight rapidly to get back on stage. So even that first leg, within a couple of weeks, it didn't fit me anymore. It was far too big. So I went without a leg for a while. When my weight stabilized, I got into a second leg, and that's the leg that I've been using quite a bit. Now we're working on a third leg so I can learn how to run, because that's a different leg. So I learned one of the things that I didn't really foresee ahead of time, but I'm learning the whole idea of prosthetics. There's no, there's no end to that journey. That's a journey you stay on for your life as an amputee. It's constant adjustments, getting new equipment. You end up being like this personal used car parts store. You have all these different parts and pieces, and you're constantly making new legs or changing your legs or getting new componentry to do whatever it is you need to do in that moment.

0:24:26 - (Kevin Lowe): Yeah. What was it like for you getting back on stage after this happened?

0:24:32 - (Tracy Gariepy LaMarche): Fabulous. Oh, man. It was amazing. The bodybuilding community is, you would think, because it's a very individual sport, it's a very aesthetic sport, you know, where we're out there to be as beautiful and as muscular as we can, and we compete as individuals. So you'd think that it's very narcissistic sport, and it's not. It is so open and engaging, and we all are backstage encouraging each other, even though we're competing against each other.

0:24:59 - (Tracy Gariepy LaMarche): I feel like the community just welcomed me back with open arms. I didn't get any, like, funny stares. It was, I expected it to be a difficult transition, and it wasn't. People were just like, we're so happy to have you here. We're so proud of you. And they treated me as an equal, as an equal competitor and not a special competitor. You know, I got out on stage and the judges judged me fairly along with everybody else. They just could only judge three quarters of my body. You know, I'm missing a leg.

0:25:30 - (Tracy Gariepy LaMarche): So. But that three quarters that was left, there was no special consideration. I was judged very fairly against all of the other competitors, and that was something that I really appreciated because it made me feel like I have my sense of self back. And I did this for me, but I'm still me. I'm not a new special person. I am just a different version of myself.

0:25:49 - (Kevin Lowe): Yeah. Wow. Wow, wow. Incredible. Now, that was one question I had, and I guess you kind of answered. It was, did you stay in the same realm, or did you have to go to, I don't know, like an adaptive sports type scene?

0:26:06 - (Tracy Gariepy LaMarche): There isn't an adaptive category, if you will, for bodybuilding, there is a wheelchair category, but the rules are very specific around that, and you have to be a person who lives and completes all of your aDL's activities of daily living, complete them in a wheelchair, which I don't, I am able, even when I don't have a prosthetic leg, I'm able to stand on my one sound leg. I hop around if I need to or get around on crutches. So I don't qualify for the wheelchair category.

0:26:34 - (Tracy Gariepy LaMarche): So, yep, I am up there with, with everybody else. There's no special, no special categories for bodybuilders that are amputees, and I don't think I would want one. You know, I, I enjoyed being judged among my peers.

0:26:48 - (Kevin Lowe): Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. When you weren't on stage, when you're not on stage today and you're at home. Did you have, though, some type of grieving process to get through this?

0:27:03 - (Tracy Gariepy LaMarche): I don't think so. You know, if you'd asked my friends and family, they might tell you otherwise. We don't always perceive ourselves the way others perceive us. So I feel like I stayed super positive. I feel like my attitude and personality stayed pretty much the same. I don't remember going through a grieving process. I do remember every once in a while when I was frustrated with my leg, my prosthetic leg, if I had trouble getting it on or if it felt uncomfortable, I remember getting angry and really just wanting to pick it up and throw it across the room. And to be honest with you, I still have those moments.

0:27:38 - (Tracy Gariepy LaMarche): But no grieving, the loss of my leg. No, because it was my choice. I wanted that leg gone. I was very fortunate that I had that choice. Most amputees don't, you know, it's due to a traumatic accident, like a car accident or cancer or diabetes. Things that they're left with no choice. I was very fortunate that I had the time to think it over and the autonomy to decide that for myself.

0:28:02 - (Kevin Lowe): Yeah, absolutely. Now, how long has that been since that happened?

0:28:10 - (Tracy Gariepy LaMarche): May of 2023 is when I lost my leg. So not quite ten months yet. On May 25 will be my one year anniversary.

0:28:18 - (Kevin Lowe): Jeff. And that's when we all just went, what? I mean, you. I mean, oh, my gosh, this is crazy that it's not even been a year since this happened. And look at you today. That's incredible.

0:28:35 - (Tracy Gariepy LaMarche): My life is so much richer now as an amputee, and I took this as an opportunity to take advantage of whatever resources I could. And not in a bad way, but, you know, there. There are resources out there for people who are experiencing a change in life like this. And so I googled, I talked to people, I got on social media. You know, I looked for every opportunity that I could, and then where I didn't see opportunities, I looked for ways that I could change that. I want other people to feel like they can have a very rich and fulfilling life. So if I can help be a catalyst for that change, too, then that became part two of it. You know, part one is take this life by the horns and live it. And then part two is make whatever changes I have the power to make as one person so that other people can feel like they can take life by the horns and live it.

0:29:30 - (Kevin Lowe): Yeah. I love it so much. Now, in your competition, you haven't just competed, just as anybody, you've actually gone and won some titles, correct?

0:29:42 - (Tracy Gariepy LaMarche): Yeah. So, my first competition back was in Tennessee, and there's different categories for bodybuilders. I compete in women's figure and women's physique, which, muscularity wise, we're kind of in the middle. You know, there are categories that are a little bit less muscular than this. There's a category that is much, much more muscular. I'm kind of in the middle, but I compete in both categories. So, first competition back was in Tennessee, and I won the overall title for both of those, for both women's figure and women's physique.

0:30:11 - (Tracy Gariepy LaMarche): And then I competed again a few weeks later in Georgia at the Georgia state championships. I missed out on the overall title for figure, but I did get the title for women's physique, and both of those qualify me for nationals. So I'm not sure if I'll go to nationals this year or next. That's a. A longer process to really prepare for it. I don't want to step out there on stage unless I feel like I've given it my best and done my all and taken the time that I need to get prepared for it. So either this new year or next, I'll be out on the national stage again.

0:30:41 - (Kevin Lowe): Wow. I mean, look at you. We're talking not even a year after this tragic incident in your life, and yet you're winning championships. You're winning on stage, competing against people who, quote, unquote, don't have anything, you know, wrong with their physical body, and yet you are crushing it. That's incredible.

0:31:06 - (Tracy Gariepy LaMarche): You know what, though, Kevin? We all have a story. You know, we all have our own journey. Mine is very visible to everybody else. I walk out on stage and you know what I'm dealing with, or you think you do. You know, you. You know, at least part of what I'm dealing with because it's. Because it's visual. Everybody's dealing with demons. Everybody's battling demons. There's probably people out there that are going through a divorce or maybe have lost a loved one or are struggling, trying to make ends meet by working four jobs. You know, we just can't see the journey that they're on in the struggles, but we're all dealing with something, and I've learned that, that, you know, some people will come up to me and say, wow, Tracy, I have no excuses. Like, I look at you and.

0:31:46 - (Tracy Gariepy LaMarche): And I realize I've got to keep moving forward, and I'm like, no. I mean, I don't so I'm missing a leg, but I don't go around saying, if I cut my finger, saying, well, I can't be upset that I cut my finger. You know, there's people out there that are missing a finger. I don't do that. It's, if you're struggling with something, you have every right to acknowledge that and to feel that struggle and to know that that struggle is real. So mine's visual. Other people's are maybe not so obvious, but we've all got stuff we're dealing with.

0:32:15 - (Kevin Lowe): Yeah. Yeah. That kind of really segues into the next question I wanted to ask you is going through what you have and sitting where you are today, what would you say to the person listening today? Who, who, they've gone through something serious, too, a life altering incident. What would you say to them?

0:32:37 - (Tracy Gariepy LaMarche): So the way I really approach this, I mentioned that my life is very full right now and very rich. And anytime you go through something traumatic, it's change, you know, and change happens in our life constantly. You can't, you can't avoid that. And in order for change to happen, like, loss has to happen, but that makes room for something new to come into your life. So for me, you know, I lost my leg, but it opened the doors to a community I didn't even know about.

0:33:07 - (Tracy Gariepy LaMarche): I was so blind to the amputee community and the limb loss community or even, like, on a greater scale, the disability community, if we want to use that word. And I know that's a polarizing word, but I'm going to use it because I feel positive about it. But if you're experiencing some major sort of trauma or loss, you can focus on the loss, or you can focus on the space that this makes to bring new people into your life and new opportunities into your life. And, and I think that, that we're allowed time to grieve and we're allowed time to go to a dark place. You just can't live there. So take a few moments, acknowledge what you're going through, but then look for opportunities to, to make your life richer because of it.

0:33:47 - (Kevin Lowe): Wow. Amazing. You know what? You kind of sound like a coach. And. Yes, yes. So talk to me about your, your coaching business that you have.

0:34:00 - (Tracy Gariepy LaMarche): Yeah. So, you know, like I said, I started as an aerobics instructor a long time ago, and that, that really snowballed and kind of catapulted me into the fitness industry. And especially once I started bodybuilding and with the explosion of social media, you know, now each person can be on a world stage if they want to be, you know, because social media has. Has shrunk our world and exposed us to everybody.

0:34:24 - (Tracy Gariepy LaMarche): So people started reaching out to me, asking for advice on fitness, nutrition, and so I. And I benefited so much from having a coach who entered. She was actually online. I have only met her in person a couple of times, and she said, you know, trace, all these people are coming to you for questions. You should be an online coach, too. And she offered to mentor me through that, through that process.

0:34:47 - (Tracy Gariepy LaMarche): So I have an online coaching business, which is for bodybuilders or runners or really just anybody that wants to learn more about nutrition and physical fitness and have someone customize some workout programs for them. I am now married to a man who has a very similar background to me. He's not an amputee, but as far as fitness and nutrition and the education that he and I both have, we both have master's degrees in the field.

0:35:13 - (Tracy Gariepy LaMarche): So he and I together. His name is Blair. My name is Tracy. Our last name is Lamarsh. So Blair and Tracy Lamarsh. B a t l. That's battle. So our company is called Battle fitness.

0:35:25 - (Kevin Lowe): How fitting. I love it. Oh, my gosh. So I will be sure that anybody who's interested, I will be sure that that website is left in the show. Notes for easy access. Tracy, last question for you is, back when this whole thing started, when you first had your injury and when you started to realize that it wasn't a simple fix, looking back at it now, what would you tell yourself now to encourage you to keep going forward?

0:36:01 - (Tracy Gariepy LaMarche): So I think if I. If I knew then what I know now, I would have slowed down a little bit more. And I don't know if that would have changed my trajectory, but I was so frustrated that I wasn't able to do the things that I wanted to do, and I tried to jump back into them so quickly all the time. I don't know if that exacerbated the injury or not, and I don't know. Like, I don't think anybody could tell me that, so I don't spend time dwelling on it. But the advice that I would give to other people if they were going through an injury and a time that they felt that they had a setback in their life is to take a little bit more time than you think you need to take care of yourself. And I don't mean to dwell on what you're going through, but just self care. And if that means rest, it means rest. If that means improving your nutrition so that you can feel healthier or quitting smoking or whatever, just practice a little bit more self care, because in the long run, like I said, I don't know if it would have changed my trajectory, but there is certainly no downside to self care. So I think that's kind of the advice I would give to my former self and the advice that I would pay forward.

0:37:13 - (Kevin Lowe): Yeah. Amazing. Tracy, thank you so much for being here today and for sharing your story. You, as I said, you're an amazing, amazing woman. And even more so, just an incredible example of what we are truly capable of. As people hear the fact of your story, you went from somebody who wasn't into fitness to being on stage, winning competitions to a woman who sustained a life altering injury, and yet you have done everything but allow it to alter your life.

0:37:54 - (Kevin Lowe): And I think you and your story are truly empowering.

0:38:00 - (Tracy Gariepy LaMarche): Thank you. And thank you so much for the opportunity to share my story. You know, I feel like I'm living my best life, and I enjoy what I do, and I enjoy talking to people about it. And if this inspires one person to go out and live their best life, then my job is done.

0:38:20 - (Kevin Lowe): Yeah. Fantastic. Well, thank you for being here and for you listening today. As always, I hope you have enjoyed today's amazing conversation with Tracy. Be sure if you want to plug into her world. Check out today's show notes, where I will leave links to all of her info. And with that, I mean, my goodness, if you didn't just get inspired to start upping your game a little bit, then who? Then you didn't listen to the same woman I just listened to.

0:38:52 - (Kevin Lowe): I encourage you to take what you heard today, put it into action in your own life. And, hey, let's all be inspired. From Tracy to all, all be badasses in our own lives. Until next time, I'm Kevin Lowe. Get out there and enjoy the day.