About Shawn Horwood

I’m Shawn Horwood.

No, I didn’t go through any major body transformation that quickly made me famous and allowed me to claim I’m the man.

I’m not a certified anything in regards to fitness and I’m not trained by the military or any major or minor instution.

In fact, some people (even family members) say I have no business teaching fitness because I have “lucky” genetics and I don’t do anything to stay in shape.

Yes, I have above average genetics for losing weight – but that doesn’t mean I don’t do anything to stay in shape.

So why did I start trying to teach people how to get in better shape? Because it’s a passion of mine. I gained a bit of weight while I was working as a manager at McDonalds (something about eating there almost every day and sometimes consuming 8,000 calories in one meal), but I never got to the point where a slightly loose shirt didn’t cover up my small layer of fat.

Ever since I lost my baby fat I was “Scrawny Shawny”. I was so skinny you could count my ribs through a dress shirt without straining your eyes. I could put my hands around my waist and have my fingers touching. Ya, I was skinny!

But growing up everyone told me that one day it was all going to come back and bite me. All that food I ate would turn into a huge pile of fat and I’d quickly become the average North American.

Hearing that constantly I made a promise to myself – I would never let myself get enough fat for people to actually notice.

So near the end of high school when I actually started to gain weight, I started learning about how our bodies work and started figuring out how I could stay in good shape without completely changing my lifestyle.

I realized I do things like shake my legs constantly (like right now as I write this I’m basically doing 5 calf raises/second and I don’t even realize it) and I do it while I’m eating. I eat slowly (because I’m allergic to food) so I don’t overeat like most people because my body has time to tell me it’s full.

There’s a bunch of other things I do to stay in great shape (like the things I’ve outlined in Everyday Fitness For Everyday People – available on Amazon.com), and I like to share them with others.

Fitness is a passion of mine, so I spend hours researching, testing things with my own body, reading what everyone else has to say about fitness, studying the science behind different weight loss & muscle building techniques and figuring out how to teach others what they need to know to have great bodies.

My life revolves around fitness. I created a business (Shawn Horwood Fitness) so I could get paid to do what I love, and despite the fact that many people believe I have no business doing what I do, I say look at the results I get people.

Roger Morin lost 50lbs in 30 days (extreme case – not usually healthy – don’t expect results anything like that!) using my advice. I’ve had others thank me for giving them just one simple trick that takes 30 seconds/day to help them lose weight.

Look, I’ve got a busy schedule too! I run a business from my home and sometimes I’m working 12 (or more) hours/day. Like at the time of writing this my webhosting company disappeared overnight and I lost all my websites and everything. I’ve got two years of work to try to rebuild and I’m working all day (and most of the night).

I live in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada where it is windy and going outside often sucks. Plus it snows half the year and trying to go for a run in snow/ice is not safe, not fun, and really hard to motivate yourself to do.

I’ve got bills to pay, an old house that’s always got something that needs fixing, meals to make (my mom won’t drive 2.5 hours to come make em for me for some reason) & groceries to shop for.

That doesn’t even include my leisure time! I like to hang out with friends (when they’re not in school or drowning in homework), go skiing in the winter, play video games (What? I teach fitness and I love video games? Yep. It speeds up my already insane reflexes – though I really just play em cause they’re fun) and I love watching movies.

I’m 20 years old and I’ve got a movie collection of around 150 movies. I love watching movies. Yet another activity that makes it harder for me to stay in shape.

I’ve got the same struggles as everyone else. I love chocolate and iced tea (the sugary Canadian stuff, not the real stuff) and I have them almost every day. Oops. Did I just admit that in public?

Yet through it all I keep my bodyfat around 10%. Want to hear a confession? I’ve completed one full lower body workout in my life. I’ve never completed a full body or upper body workout. I get bored working out!

I’ve been in a “real” gym once. And I left because I didn’t know what most of the machines were for and I found out I could max out all of the leg machines (they didn’t have the good equipment where you could add free weights to make stuff real heavy) and do at least 10 reps on everything and that’s before I’ve ever worked out my legs (I have genetically strong legs and a really weak upper body).

My only workouts are my everyday activities and doing construction for my dad about 1 week/month (to help him build his house).

So maybe things are a little easier for me than most people, maybe not. I don’t think so. I just think certain…quirks…of mine help me out in a few areas and I’ve learned to use them to my advantage.

In essence, you can listen to me or not. You can ask for my advice or you can go find someone more qualified. I won’t try to convince you either way. I’m here to help you and if you think I can do that, let me know how I can help!

I think this about page is getting a bit long, so I’m going to stop there. Check out the blog to see some of what I have to say & browse around the site. Once again, if there’s anything I can do for you, just send me an email!

Shawn Horwood