Meet Marisa Palles, she is a Tampa native (like me) and she recently accomplished her goal of winning her 2ndshow in Tallahassee at the OCB Winter Classic. There she earned: Best Presentation, 1stPlace Open A, and 1stPlace Overall, which landed her the highly coveted PRO CARD as an OCB Bikini Competitor.
Words cannot describe the joy I have felt watching this shining star, and highly motivated athlete step into her DREAM of accomplishing such a difficult task. Her next goal is to enter and complete graduate school at the University of South Florida (USF) with her master’s degree in their Physician Assistant program, and I have full confidence in her ability to conquer this new task.
As a Nurse Practitioner, I had the pleasure of working with Marisa during her prep process. She was feeling run down, super lethargic, and her mood was starting to impact her workouts. She had been seen by her family doctor, who ran labs for her annual physical, and for the most part, there was nothing out of the ordinary. I was able to listen to her symptoms and make recommendations for a few additional labs that she needed to have checked. Not only was I able to pinpoint her specific symptoms to actual medical diagnoses, but these were slight nuances that her primary physician did not explore further. Marisa was serious about continuing on her bikini prep journey, but there was no way that she would have been able to continue at the pace she was on with her 2 new diagnoses that I discovered. It is not that her family doctor did not care enough about her symptoms, but I believe that there is a disconnect between quality and quantity in the traditional insurance-based medical world. I know because I worked in that system for >10 years before I made a serious change in how I view medicine and how I want to practice. Since Marisa was doing a natural show, we were not able to start her on any new prescriptions that were on the banned list, so we made modifications to her prep itself. It only took Marisa a couple of weeks to start feeling the increased energy to push forward and claim her PRO CARD as an OCB Bikini Competitor!
This experience has been humbling to me. I absolutely LOVE what I do and the patients I treat but being able to help Marisa work towards this goal and the feelings that I have felt watching her step into the spotlight and claim her victory have been more rewarding than words can describe.
Join me in congratulating Ms. Marisa Palles, OCB Bikini Pro!!
Marisa, I want to personally thank you for trusting me and allowing me to share a very small space in your story!
~Christee Bond
Hormonechick 
So glad you could be at first show with our little fire cracker girl. She is BULLDOG and that was her nickname at soccer. Small but might and stubborn too. I know it meant a lot to her that you and Jesse came.
It was great meeting you too
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Awesome story!!
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I did hormones my body didn’t like them. I now have tremors , head tremors and muscle twitches which I didn’t have before hormones. I just want to feel normal. I’m not taking any hormones.
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