Caroline Lowe's Makeover Journey Before Leaving WCCO-TV
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Caroline Lowe has been at WCCO-TV for 35 years, but she recently announced she's leaving Minnesota for a new TV job in California. It's a perfect chance for her to restage her comeback with a total makeover.
Being a television reporter isn't always a glamorous job. She's been tasered, maced and covered stories where smoke bombs went off.
She has plenty of recommendations for new reporters, but always one piece of advice for finding the big stories.
"Probably the main thing I've learned is to ask," said Caroline. "If it doesn't seem right ... ask."
The other question she's always personally asking: what's next?
Over the years we've watched her transform from reporter to working mother and from covering cops and reporting crime to going back to school to become a police officer herself.
"It just kind of evolved over the years," she said, "I just found my niche seemed to be the crime beat."
It seems there's nothing she won't try for the camera including her most recent struggle with losing weight.
"Part of (being a) reporter -- you're on the run," says Caroline, "Particularly in a crime thing, you're off and racing to a scene, going out to get an interview. It's very intense. The clock is ticking, so often lunch is driving into a SuperAmerica grabbing an egg-salad sandwich and a bag of licorice."
She said seeing herself in one particular story really made her stop and look at her weight.
"My image was my backside and it was a lot bigger than that beefy cop's," she said.
Caroline has admittedly tried all kinds of fads and products.
"I dabbled in diets along the way," said Caroline, "But it was really just about four or five months ago that I got serious."
She joined Weight Watchers and has found the meetings and leaders very inspiring. She's changed the way she eats and what she eats and goes for walks as much as possible.
Caroline didn't know what to expect when it came time to step on the scale at her weigh-in meeting earlier this week. She was in disbelief when her Weight Watcher coach, Mary Schmidl, told her she had made her goal weight.
Schmidl described Caroline as the new Jennifer Hudson -- a role model for hitting her target loss of 36 pounds.
"The take away from this -- and main reason I feel like sharing this -- is if I can do it, any number of other people can do it because I've got all the factors you hear about -- stress, the age and all these different things," said Caroline. "If I can do it, I really believe anybody can do it if you make the commitment. And it's really not a diet, it's committing to a healthier way of living."
With a new body comes a new look.
Caroline met with Christopher Hopkins at his uptown salon -- reVamp.
"He knows exactly what he's doing," said Amelia Santaniello, "And I like the short hair, but you like a little bit longer."
"The big thing in any makeover is however a cut is, we have to look at your eyes," said Hopkins. "So I feel like I want to bring it up some."
In addition to her hair, Caroline got a lesson in dressing too.
Overall, with her weight loss and new look, she said she feels younger and ready to embark on her new journey in California.
"It's scary on one level, but it's also very exciting. I feel 10 years younger, just the idea of going out and being young again," she said.
Check out a slideshow of her last 35 years at WCCO, a recent blog post she did on the subject and the story on the day she announced her departure.
