Summary: Today we bring you an interview with Shannon C who won the latest Venus Index Transformation Contest. Check out her pictures: A few years back Shannon hated her body and every single picture of herself. Being over 30 and not satisfied with the way she looked and felt about her body, she decided to get back in shape. She started doing roller blading and slowly got into weight training. This helped her, but not in a way that she could stand in front of a mirror and say "wow", it just wasn't anything exceptional. It was one of the previous Venus Index winners Naomi who introduced her to the Venus Index approach. She would listen to the podcasts and hang around for a long time before trying the workouts. It's important to say that when she decided to start training with the Venus Index Shannon was pregnant, which many people would be against. Pregnancy itself is a challenge and most women would not want to train and watch their diet on top of it. However, Shannon herself told us that her first pregnancy was a disaster. During her first one she gained a lot of weight, and like she said, she just used it as an excuse to eat whatever she wanted, anytime she wanted without setting any limitations at all. As a result she gained a lot and felt terrible, having all sorts of weird health issues. She admitted that it was completely ridiculous. But this time, it was different. She didn't allow herself to gain so much, felt great the whole way through and even her doctor told her to keep doing what she was doing, because it obviously improved her well-being. Disclaimer: If you want to train or follow the Venus Index approach while being pregnant, consult your physician first, this is for information purposes only. This time, for the second pregnancy Shannon followed the Venus Index workout, she would just do fewer sets than in the plan and was slowly lowering the intensity of the workouts towards the end of her pregnancy. And you can't really argue with this because like she and her physician both said, this time the pregnancy was healthier and felt way more comfortable. And her doctor was monitoring her the whole time. And while she ate a bit more then she would normally, she still managed to stay at a reasonable weight. She walked a lot and lifted weights and even received comments on how beautiful a pregnant woman she was. Pretty drastic difference compared to her first time, when she felt (in her own words) 'like a whale'. Obviously guys can't imagine what it means being pregnant, but she told us that despite the challenges of being pregnant, it still should not be used as a licence to not move around (walking, weight lifting) and eat too much, that's just plain unhealthy and it will be tougher for your to get in shape afterwards. This time Shannon had more of a plan. She would even use Facebook and follow other pregnant athletes to keep motivated and inspired. Another technique she used was visualizing her post-pregnancy time. She reveals more of her approach in the interview. Shannon's Challenges, Well...Apart from Being Pregnant Obviously pregnancy is not the easiest and most fun time in the life, but Shannon still decided that she will stay at a reasonable weight and keep fit and it worked, she did gain less weight and was fit and felt "pretty good". And once she started nursing, she decided that she will enter the Venus Index competition. Which is exactly what she did and not only that, but she won the whole thing too! Here are a few of her challenges that Shannon talks about in the interview: Waking up in the middle of night to take care of the baby Making sure that she was walking a lot during the day Nursing and staying in a caloric deficit Not seeing results on a daily basis The weight loss was slowing down towards the end of the contest Having to feed the baby in the middle of the workouts Not being able to set a fixed schedule
