Shannon has dealt with some terrible losses in her life but has come back fighting and is now stronger than ever! We are proud to present Shannon with $500 Motion Room Dollars to use for herself or for a friend. Watch her video to learn more!TMR: Take us back a little bit to what started your Motion Room journey?

Shannon: In 2007 I lost my father to esophageal and lung cancer and that started several years of sadness in my life.  Filled with this loss that really affected me emotionally, but I began to realize it affected me physically as well. In 2014, I then experienced the loss of my mother through an aggressive form of brain cancer which was the final straw in what I had left to give emotionally.

I remember waking up one morning feeling like it was the day after the apocalypse and I looked around and I felt like I had nothing above me and nothing beside me and I didn’t know how to bring myself back up. All I knew was that I had a fantastic job, and an incredible partner and the most amazing little five year old that anyone could ask for and I realized that those were the reasons that I needed to come back from my sadness.

The Motion Room came after the fracture of my ankle while I was training for a 10k race. I had been off for six weeks, not able to run, and the surgeon told me that running wouldn’t really do anything for me in the future.  After I fractured my ankle I didn’t really know what else to do (and didn’t feel motivated to get back to anything else).

I went on an incredible trip to Croatia and although the scale has never really been a part of my life, I remember stepping on the scale (when I got back) and I was 2 pounds heavier then I was when I was 9 months pregnant. I remember that moment, feeling like my life had caught up with me and knowing I needed to figure out a way to get my strength back.I came across TMR on Groupon. I took a long look at the website and watched some of the videos and I actually didn’t quite understand how it all worked because it was so different from what I had experienced in the past, so I figured 30 days wasn’t going to harm anybody. I came in that first day and it was such a warm welcome that I kind of felt at home already. I was quite intimidated walking in because I saw people doing things that I had only ever dreamed of doing and so I wasn’t sure at what point I was going to walk out on this opportunity as well. Although I wasn’t exactly waiting for it, knowing my workout history, I wouldn’t have been surprised if it had happened.

I started in Personal Co-Training Video and I remember getting that first sheet with all of those workouts, and actually still to this day, I sometimes see the diagram with the little name on it and I have no idea what I’m doing, but I’m never worried or intimidated because there’s always someone on the floor to help me. I used to work out in the same spot every time and I would look at the reflections of people on the other side of the room in the mirror doing things that I knew at some point I was going to have to do, but I remember those first couple of weeks doing 100 squats and thinking there was no possible way that I would be able to lift weights over my shoulder, there was no possible way that I was going to be able to do more than one push-up in a row. Even doing push-ups, I was on my knees and I could only manage 4 or 5 of them.

What kept me coming back was that each time I left I didn’t feel intimidated or discouraged.

“I felt like I was walking into a place where somebody was going to watch out for me. The only effort I had to put in was the physical effort; I didn’t have to think about what I was doing. I didn’t have to worry about doing something wrong. I didn’t have to worry about what I was doing next or if I was exhausting one muscle group, and if I was actually making a difference, because I trusted the program.”

After those first couple of weeks I trusted the program enough to know that all I have to do is walk in and give 100 percent every time I’m here and I started to notice a difference right away.

TMR: How did you feel entering the Member Spotlight?

Shannon: My original thought was ‘there’s absolutely no way I’m putting this whole thing out there for everybody to read’, because I felt it made me quite vulnerable and that wasn’t very comfortable.

However, in going home and thinking about, really thinking about what brought me here and what The Motion Room has allowed me to do in my life, I realized it was able to get me to a place where I didn’t just feel physically strong, but I felt emotionally strong and THAT’S the key part to my story. After experiencing three considerable losses in my life I wanted to be able to say that I made it back.

So I thought about what it would mean if I told my story, and yes it would make me vulnerable and it might be a little bit uncomfortable to put some of those words onto paper, but I also thought that it would be something that I would have that I would get to share with other people.

In a way I kind of think of it as a thank-you to my friends and family who have helped me along in this journey and who have spent countless hours talking to me and really helping me feel as great as I feel today.  All of their hard work in supporting me has paid off.