September Member Spotlight: Aletta Speegle
Our September member spotlight is on Aletta Speegle. Aletta usually attends evening FIT Camps. She comes in quietly and puts all her effort into her workouts and we thought it would be nice for everyone to get to know her a little better.
Aletta was born and raised in Stellenbosch South Africa. She was the non-athletic child in a relatively athletic family. Her mom, who grew up on a farm, won several trophies racing with her horse, Poon, and her dad was the captain of his high school rugby team. Her fondest childhood memories are of summers at the beach with a stack of library books next to her. Other than her mom forcing her to play tennis for a couple of years (to which her mother told her that she would thank her later – and she did) she wasn’t very active until her forties when she fell in love with Ultimate Frisbee.
Aletta joined Forward Fitness in the fall of 2018 after seeing the difference that it made in her son, who had joined for the summer before going back to college. She wanted to get fitter and stronger for Ultimate and she liked that FF was walking distance from her house!
On why health and fitness are important to Aletta, she says that she has always been a picky eater and became a vegetarian early on in life. She feels fortunate to have a husband, Darrin, who loves to make healthy dishes with fresh veggies and vegetarian proteins. She adds, “Now that I’m older, getting exercise has become a lot more important to me, in order to stay healthy”.
When it comes to challenges, Aletta has the same struggle that many of us do in just finding the time to work out. “For many years exercise was not part of my daily routine, so I have to work hard at making time for it. This semester has been really hectic at work and I had to make some hard decisions to make time for workout, Ultimate and my new favorite activity, Pickle Ball!” Asked about what accomplishments she was most proud of, Aletta had this to say, “After only a year of joining FF I was able to tell a difference in the way that I played Ultimate. I was able to keep up with the running, and I was faster and stronger. One highlight was in the summer of 2019 during Summer league. Our last game was very close and we ended up beating the other team 15-14. I contributed with one D and three scores (including the game winning score)! My FF highlight was, after lots of “slow lowering” practice, actually being able to push myself up to complete a push up! (Thank you Suzanne for your encouragement!!) I think it’s safe to say that Aletta can no longer describe herself as a non-athletic person.
Aletta would give this advice to someone considering adding a fitness routine to their life, “I highly recommend it! It’s wonderful feeling healthy and fit, and getting stronger. And being able to do things that you weren’t able to do before!”