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thedrifter
02-21-06, 07:40 AM
Wife loses 103 pounds for welcome home
By: LOUISE ESOLA - Staff Writer

CAMP PENDLETON ---- When Marine Staff Sgt. Kyle Marigoni returned from deployment Sunday morning, clearly, something was missing. His wife: 103 pounds of her and a handful of dress sizes.

His reaction when he saw Alisha Marigoni for the first time in seven months?

"Speechless," he said. "My jaw hit the ground."

Pixie blonde Alisha, 28, spent much of the last seven months eating "right," running on a treadmill in the garage, and weighing in to track her progress at a weight loss center in Oceanside.

The result? A perfect welcome home and birthday present combined; the eternally smiling Marine turned 29 on Saturday.

"He just has to unwrap it," Alisha joked, with her husband's arms wrapped tightly around her waist, their 3-year-old daughter Leigha trotting around them.

Kyle returned to Camp Pendleton on Sunday morning among thousands of Marines and sailors with the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit. While spending time in Iraq and on various training missions with an amphibious assault vehicle crew, he knew his wife was up to something.

She wouldn't send pictures of herself during the entire deployment, even when he sat gritty in Iraq craving a snapshot of home, he said. "I asked her to send me a picture," he said, adding that he mostly received photographs of Leigha. "She sent me one of the dog."

Before he left, Alisha had already trimmed 40 pounds off her tall frame, which once peaked at 270 pounds in size 18 clothing. Her goal when she joined L.A. Weight Loss in February of last year was to lose 100 pounds. "He was like, 'yeah right,'" she said.

On Saturday, Alisha donned a pair of size-8 slender black pants, airy-light pink shirt and matching heels, and went to meet her husband. Family members visiting from Utah watched as the couple hugged and kissed, repeatedly and unabashedly.

The dramatic weight loss was no surprise to the rest of the family. Kyle's grandparents, Utana and Jack Staker, said they were "sworn to oath" to not tell Kyle about the change, or to send pictures. "The look on his face when he saw her? Priceless," said Jack Staker.

Alisha's father, Roy Conaster, commented that she hasn't been that fit since her high school days.

"She's like a whole different woman," he said. Her mother, Emily Conaster, said she was concerned about her daughter's health for a long time. "She was so unhappy."

But clearly, those days were over, Emily Conaster said, watching Alisha chase a giggling Leigha around the parking lot.

Alisha's husband, still smiling, also watched.

Contact staff writer Louise Esola at (760) 901-4151 or lesola@nctimes.com. To comment, go to nctimes.com.

http://www.nctimes.com/content/articles/2006/02/20/news/top_stories/21906190119.jpg

Alisha Marigoni gets a piggyback ride from her husband, Marine Staff Sgt. Kyle Marigoni, after he and about 200 other Marines from the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit returned to Camp Pendleton on Sunday from seven months in Iraq. Marigoni had no idea his wife lost 103 pounds while he was gone.