About Shana Ross

629 W 22nd St, Unit 1 Houston, TX 77008 713-861-7272 ph, 713-861-7290 fax [email protected]

About Shana

I'm Shana Ross and I am the founder and co-owner of Shana Ross Fitness in Houston, Texas. It is my mission to share my real-world knowledge and experiences in the health and fitness world with you to help you become a healthier, more vibrant and alive human being.

I have been training to do this work for most of my life. You see, I grew up in deep East Texas where if your food wasn't fried and your potatoes weren't mashed with whole milk and butter and covered in cream gravy, then bless your heart, your Mama didn't know how to cook. Well, my Mama knew how to cook and I grew up eating lots of unbelievably tasty food, that wasn't always good for me or the rest of my family.

My Background

Most of my family had and has weight issues. My mom and her three sisters were all diabetic, three of the four developed heart disease and my mom was also diagnosed with Lupus at a time when not much was known about the disease. When I was 13, my mother at the age of 48, had a massive debilitating heart attack. I awoke in the early morning hours to find her on the bathroom floor with my dad struggling to get her to her feet so he could take her to the hospital. We lived in a rural area and ambulance service had to come from the nearest town to reach us. Driving her would be faster.

My mother survived, but never really recovered. Open heart surgery left her depressed, at times suicidal, and she slipped deeper and deeper into despair and sadness. She lived for 15 more years, but was never really alive. She didn't enjoy life and became a weak, depressed, sedentary shell of her former self.

I knew from an early age that I didn't want to live with sickness and disease. I vowed to take care of myself, keep my weight in check and stay active. All was well and good until I moved away from my country home where I baled hay, rode horses and played high school sports to attend the University of Houston. Well, the weight gain commonly referred to as the freshman 15, for me was more like the freshman 20. Okay, 25! So, in a little more than a year I had gone from a muscular, athletic 125 pounds wearing a size 5-7, to 148 pounds in a size 14.

I Thought Dieting Worked too...

I went on a diet, and I lost a few pounds. Then I gained them back. So I went on another diet. I lost a few more pounds. Then I gained them back, plus a few more. I struggled for years to regain the athletic body and energy that I once had. Not until I joined a gym did I begin to learn the value of weight resistance training and cardiovascular exercise. The two combined helped me tremendously. But I also found that if my schedule got crazy and I didn't make my workouts, my weight loss didn't stick. The scale would start inching back up along with my frustration.

You see, I was still missing the boat on the "eat right" part. My knowledge about nutrition and its effect on metabolism was still sorely lacking. I had always heard how important it is to set goals to work toward, so I decided to commit and follow through on my dream to compete in a bodybuilding competition. I knew I had to finally understand how the three pieces; nutrition, resistance training and cardiovascular exercise; fit together. I found a great coach and mentor who unselfishly shared his knowledge with me. He taught me about nutrition and showed me how to train for maximum results. I listened to him, and I studied on my own. I did research, and finally the pieces of the puzzle started to fit. With the help of my coach, I figured it out. I competed. I won two trophies. AND I never gained weight again, until (wait for it) MENOPAUSE!

Hot Flashes - Night Sweats - and "I'm Losing My Mind" Time

And then my body went ape-sh*t crazy! Weight gain, night sweats, hot flashes, foggy brain, unbelievable fatigue, mood swings. The combination was wicked and turned me into a stressed, exhausted, weight gain machine. Once again, it was back to the drawing board. I had figured things out before, and I knew I could do it again. I found a great book "Women, Weight and Hormones" by Elizabeth Vliet, MD. It helped me understand what was happening in my body and gave me clues about how to begin tweaking my nutrition to combat the hormonal changes.

The tweaks I began to make in my nutrition helped, as did herbal supplementation. Eventually, I sought out Dr. Vliet and consulted with her about bio-identical hormone replacement therapy when I continued having hot flashes and night sweats that just wouldn't go away. The therapy, combined with the nutritional and exercise changes I implemented, began to work. The pounds started coming off, my head cleared, the flashes and night sweats went away and my strength and energy slowly returned which allowed me to get back to regular exercise. I'm not happy that I had that experience, but I am grateful that I was able to learn from it.

I knew I had a mission to share my knowledge. After being the executive director of a non-profit wellness center for a year, I decided the time had come to become an independent coach. I became a certified professional fitness trainer in 1999 and opened my studio in November of 2007. I love working with my staff to teach them what I've learned so that we can reach more people. They are some of the best in the business and we are committed to help you set and reach ambitious goals. We'll support you and teach you, but you have to bring the commitment. You must be very clear on why you want to embark on a journey to better health. Just wanting to lose weight is not enough. Just wanting to look good for a specific event is not enough. Those can be short term goals that get you moving in the right direction. But, I challenge you to think bigger. You need a burning desire to improve your health and your life long term to succeed long term.

If you've been a yo-yo dieter and led a sedentary life, your journey will be slower. The body is a miraculous machine, but can only take so much abuse. But -- it can heal and begin to respond again.

If you think change is impossible, we can show you that is it possible. It won't always be easy -- I'm not going to lie to you. But if you understand that success doesn't come overnight and you are willing to take a hard, honest look at your circumstances and start to make small shifts, then you will see change happen.

When you're ready we're here. We look forward to meeting you.

"If you think change is impossible, we can show you that it is possible. It won't always be easy -- I'm not going to lie to you. But if you understand that success doesn't come overnight and you are willing to take a hard, honest look at your circumstances and start to make small shifts, then you will see change happen."

When you subscribe, I'll send you two free reports packed with nutrition tips to help get you started.

"The tragedy of life doesn't lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach"

-Benjamin Mays

629 W 22nd St, Unit 1 | Houston, TX 77008

713-861-7272 | [email protected]

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