Originally born in OHIO,and raised on a yuppie farmh in a small town outside of dayton, ohio. Her mother is a professional and has worked for the government for almost 30 years and her father is retired.   Traci was raised on staage at the age of 2 starting with ballet then tap, then jazz.... she was a natural on stage..... throughout her childhood she was in pagaents and sport like softball, volleyball and track in high school, she competed in many events: Miss Wright State of OHIO,All American Drill Team.  After Traci graduated, her love of dance and people took her to a business college, where she studied basics in business management.  Then she learned ins and outs of banking and later took on another degree in Medical Techology. She also did promotional work for , bartended , ran local bars and competed in bikini contests for extra funds.  In 1996, Traci started lifting weights with a friend and saw a photo of Marla Duncan winning a national competition. Her beauty and physique impressed her enough that she wanted to try what she was doing - Fitness Competitions. At the time she was developing some problems medically and noticed herself gaining some weight.   Traci thought weight training would help but she found that because she is a natural she responded almost imediately to the weights which caused her to get pretty stocky and very strong quick.  She was still eating normally but when it comes to bikini contests you need to be lean and feminine.... well this is when the Army Soldiers took a noticed to her.  She was at Ft. Hood, TX and was left alone because a lot of times soldiers are away for months to years and she was pretty shy meeting others because she had always been very much independent.  So she decided to check out while in studies some competitions related to the Army.  This is where she found out about obstacles course contests... so she knew she was strong and stocky so maybe this would be better for her.  So she entered her first WTF competition with little or know training and out of 100 girls made nationals in top 10. but something happened ... she started noticing her weight wasn't changing and she was developing back problems and fatigue.   She had always had problems with being healthy as a kid and seemed to get sick a lot.  Her Father was always on her about bundling up.  One day her discomfort and taken so much that she ended up in the emergency room... this is when she found that her bowels had backed up into her system and she was lucky because if was really serious... the only time she had ever dealt with hospitals is with her hearing... she had lost her hearing at four along with being sick all the time... and at 17 had to have implants put in which was a miracle cause it gave her 80% back... but she is still considered hearing impaired... now this is happening to her... she had gained a weight up to 180 and looked very stocky... the doctors didn't know what was wrong with her.... she spent three days being detoxed so to speak... when they didn't know if she had lupus, rheumatoid, but later found traces of cancer in her colon... but she didn't let it get her down. So she reenrolled in school again for more college degrees towards nutrition in NC.   Up until 2002 she only competed for fun, not as a money making career. In 2002 she was honored with several titles in many organizations like Hawaiian Tropic, Venus, Ms Fitness and Sport Aerobics and WTF.. it wasn't til she had heard she was on ESPN2 every month for one year and honored on the front page of her local newspaper and found herself in several articles in OXYGEN. This helped Traci realize that she had potential to earn some actual money in the fitness industry. She kept competing and in April of '2002 moved to an organization which she had heard was tough and very different from others called NPC /IFBB.  This is where Arnold S. Slyvester Stalone and many more came out of you know the BOYS CLUB Once she arrived, competing in her first NPC she had found a very different way they handled threi shows and treated the competitors... Shoop coming from a strong female in charge background family life saw that this was going to be a challenge for her... she had dreamed of maybe getting more exposure and getting the chance to really be friends with some of the hollywood celebrities.  During the time she was studying nutriiton she always had more than several ideas and projects in mind to bring to the future.... now she has alwsy felt competing natural was always her best route and found with no help and little support she was able to conquer her enemies and achieve her goals.  She was always wnadering why thes other girls who seemed to get covers and major sponsors did it... where she found herself funding everything on her little $7 an hour because she as a military spouse never made as much in those cities because the husband was the provider she was tired of the little she wanted bigger she knew that she wanted to have her own financial freedom.... this is where she decided to take her weight problem seriously and entered the Physque Transformation ( now body for life)  and she won the first few weeks this program helped with her dealing with her colon... cause everything she had tried still wasn't working she had trouble with her hair being thin and her nails never growing... although she made do she never could seem to get the sponsorship... so she  dove into what would become her career and competed in the NPC/IFBB organization two to three times per year.  Now Shoop was very pleased with her successes but she seemed to not be able to win in her medical or financial life. She knew all her life as a child she was different but she wandered why and was hoping to be able to succeed on her own in these areas... she used to have many dreams and experiences growing up that she kept to herself because no one would seemed or never understood her but they were always drawn to her... she seemed to be the one who everyone went to for advice or to gripe at or to get help... she liked being needed but it was getting to the point where she never seemed to find out why she couldn't break the barrier and blocks in her medical and financial life.... this is when she decided to go back to school AGAIN and study in social science, history and religion.... she went to gifted coaches to seek advice for herself and figure out how to conquer these obstacles.... she was noticing a lot of negativity around her still where there were close times of accidents, stalking fans and threats along with where when she thought her finances were doing great and her relationship was souring , she had gotten conned and found her relationship crumbling.    She was changing and didn't know why all this was happening ... she had hated God and blamed because she felt why would this be happening to me when I have earned just as much as others and should be where she wanted in her life and very successful.....   She started having more dreams where before she couldn't remember .... she saw and felt things that she ahd found happening later... which became more clear to her as her studies were progressing.... she had found that she pocessed a special gift since she was born and that she was supposed to do something very wonderful on this path and this life time... so she studied several areas of religion to now completing honors for her ph.d which has been used to help make individuals and companies major changes in areas of career , health and love... she never gets sick and she has created programs and techniques to creating the physique that you want....  so Traci decided to pursue her career and develop a practice to help others and give her gift to helping others achieve their goals...  she has helped develop many programs with her ideas and working on her practice with a wide range of network of coaches...  she has also launched her official personal website for her fitness career and asking for sponsors to help achieve and develop better programs...   Traci has returned to competition in 2006 with the announcement that figure competition would be part of the sport of bodybuilding and bringing new spirit to the industry.     Traci Shoop   get free access to her coaching network  http://gofigurephonecoaching.com