Not long after she reached her 40s, graphic designer and mother of three Shawn Towne realized that with her children getting older and becoming more independent, she had some free time. Rather than kicking back on the couch and binge-watching reality shows, she decided to transform herself, first as a model and then as a bodybuilder.
“I asked myself, should I go back to school or start a business?” Towne said. “I’ve been a model for six years now, but I didn’t start bodybuilding until October of 2013.”
She had been dieting on her own and had lost 20 to 30 pounds when she took on a personal trainer, Larah Kornfeind.
“When she came to me, she was 156 pounds,” Kornfeind said, consulting her extensive training paperwork. “People look at her and have no idea she was once where they are now.”
The Valley Forge, Pa., trainer said that Towne was stuck because she was eating the wrong foods.
“She was eating things that she thought were healthy but were kind of working against her body,” Kornfeind said. “Her energy levels were up, then they were down. She was inconsistent with her eating times.”
Kornfeind replaced the energy bars, nuts and gluten-free cereal with more whole foods.
“She was eating the wrong carbs, the wrong fats and getting a lot of hidden sugars,” Kornfeind said. “It took a while to convince her to eat the good fats, ones that would help her grow and balance her hormones. She was also fond of her wine, and that had to be adjusted.”
The result was a competition-ready body and a shift in her modeling looks that her major client, Las Vegas designer Camille Flawless, was pleased with. Towne got an apartment in a high-rise on the Strip and commutes between her family and her home near Philadelphia and her modeling career in Las Vegas. She has competed in several bodybuilding beauty contests, including her most recent competition, the World Beauty Fitness & Fashion Worlds Las Vegas competition in August.
“The competition was on Pay-Per-View, so my family got to watch it that way,” Towne said. “I was excited to be part of it. I didn’t expect anything. I was just happy to qualify and be asked to participate.”
Towne, her sister and her cousin were inseparable when they were young. About the time Towne took up bodybuilding, her cousin was diagnosed with cancer and died soon after. Towne has held annual fundraising events each year since to raise money for cancer-related charities.
“It’s called ‘A Purpose for Paula,’ and I do it the week before Thanksgiving, which is right around Paula’s birthday,” Towne said. “I haven’t worked out the details of this year’s yet, but in the first year, we raised about $1,000, the second was about $3,000, and the third, we raised around $7,000.”
Towne continues to commute between her two homes and models for Flawless, who has a store in The Grand Canal Shoppes at The Venetian, 3377 Las Vegas Blvd. South. She has a calendar coming out this Christmas season and is looking forward to having her family out for New Year’s Eve to see the fireworks from her high-rise and one other thing.
“I’ve got a billboard that’s going to be unveiled on the Strip on New Year’s,” Towne said. “That’s going to be amazing.”
Courtesy of: Las Vegas Review Journal