Bianca Liberatore was afraid people wouldn’t like her unless she was skinny.
So, for a time, she was willing to do whatever it took to be thin.
“When I was younger — I think I was about 13 — I was obsessed with wanting to be like the other girls and be skinny, stuff like that,” Liberatore, now 23, told KTW.
“You get in this mindset, especially being a young teenage girl, that the only way people — especially boys — will like you is if you’re skinny and pretty and all these lovely things.”
For a period of four years, she fought with the bingeing-and-purging cycle of bulimia, battling pressures at school and the urge to lose weight.
Things got so out of control, there came a time she was unable to swallow water, her esophagus so burned by stomach acid.
“It just clicked for me one day,” she said.
“I was like, if you want to be healthy and spread health and fitness to other people, you’re not walking the talk, you have to do something about it.
“That’s when I started bodybuilding — and it changed my life.”
The turnaround for Liberatore began at 16, when she started a job as a receptionist at a gym in Kamloops.
She wasn’t new to the world of working out, but she didn’t have the sort of knowledge the personal trainers and bodybuilders around her did.
With their help, she began training for her first bodybuilding event.
Liberatore competed for the first time at 18 and went on to become a provincial and national champion.
Everything seemed to fall into place the moment she decided to stop trying to be the person she thought everyone else wanted her to be.
“I was like, why am I so obsessed with this? Why can’t I focus on being strong and feeling good about myself?” she said.
“Like anybody else, I have my insecure moments, but I’ve never felt more confident than I do in a gym, lifting weight and feeling strong.”
A few years later, Liberatore made another change — she left the world of bodybuilding in pursuit of powerlifting.
And, as she did in bodybuilding, she thrived.
Just three years into her powerlifting career, Liberatore holds provincial and national records in the benchpress, squat and lift total (a sum of an athlete’s heaviest weights in squat, benchpress and deadlift).
Her record benchpress is 165 pounds (75 kilograms), her squat 297 pounds (135 kgs.). Her lift total record weighs in at 815 pounds (370 kgs.).
Her achievements in her three-year career have been enough to land her on the Canadian team for the Commonwealth Championships in Richmond from Nov. 30 to Dec. 6. There, she will be one of 100 Canadian athletes on a team competing against powerlifters from 11 other countries.
“I’m really excited about it,” Liberatore said.
“I honestly didn’t think I was going to get chosen, so I was pretty excited when they gave me a letter saying I got in.”
Liberatore trains six times a week at her gym — she owns NXL Athletics — and will continue to do so in preparation for the Commonwealth Championships.
But, considering how far she has come, the Kamloops powerlifter has no concerns about being ready to take on the world’s best powerlifters.
“I always knew I wanted a gym and to compete and inspire others. And, I knew that with hard work, I could accomplish whatever I wanted,” Liberatore said.
“I can say I feel I’m exactly where I should be. I feel with a strong and positive mindset, anyone is capable of doing anything.”
Liberatore is fundraising and looking to secure sponsorship to help cover the costs of her upcoming trip. For more information, or to donate, contact Liberatore by phone at 250-573-6444 or by email at info@nxlathletics.ca.
Courtesy of: Kamloops This Week