I spend a lot of my life in a swimsuit, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. And believe it or not I have things about the way I look that bother me, just like everyone else. I often get the sweetest emails from you that praise me for being perfect, which makes me feel so good but today I want to go over things that aren’t so “perfect” and things that I have had to overcome.

1.I don’t have a thigh gap

I wish I did. I have even had consultations to get rid of my inner thighs, but back out every time.

2. My “11”

I am getting wrinkles! Sometimes in pictures I get two line creases in between my eyebrows. I am going to wait on botox for as long as possible while keep on smiling.

3. My big toe &  princess toes don’t touch, there is a huge gap between them. I do not wear flip-flops for this reason. I feel like it accentuates the problem.

4. I have 4 nips, the extra 2 look like cat nips. When I was younger I used to tell my friends when we would swim, they were cat scratches and where the thumb claw went into my skin, which is a complete fib.

5. I can never have short hair. I have scoliosis and like to cover my “s” curve with my hair.

These are 5 “Shannonisms” as my husband calls them. He is really liking that I am accepting my athletic build and that he no longer has to help me surran wrap my inner thighs when I feel like I am retaining water lol

I have embraced the fact that I am who I am, and I need to be a body positive role model to my children. I am so grateful to have a body that brought my family here and one that allows me to play with them day in and day out. I love my body it is the biggest blessing of all.

Sometimes we as women focus too much on what we don’t have and not enough about what we do have.

I always say with every negative thought you have about yourself you have to say 2 positive things about yourself.

So here are 10 things that I am grateful for about my body. This has seriously taken me 30 mins. to come up with. It goes to show how much easier it is to point out our flaws than our blessings.

1. That I am a girl, I love being a girl!
2. That I have been able to have 3 babies
3. That I have been able to nurse my babies
4. That I am athletic
5. That I can play with my kids
6. That I am not allergic to anything
7. That I am healthy
8. That I have the ability to be healed -post bells palsy, babies etc.
9. That my hair finally grew after cutting it in an aggressive a-line
10. That I haven’t gotten pregnant while nursing, it always happens the month I stop nursing