June 2023 Member Spotlight: Darrin Speegle

We are so excited to feature Darrin Speegle for our June 2023 Member Spotlight.  Darrin comes in quietly, puts maximum effort into his workout and lets his results speak for themselves.  We wanted to take this opportunity to let everyone learn a little more about him. 

Darrin grew up in Odessa, TX. He met his wife Aletta in grad school, and they were married in 1993. They moved to St Louis in 1997 to start work at Saint Louis University as a Math Professor. Darrin enjoys playing ultimate frisbee and table tennis, as well as reading and going on walks. A fun fact about Darrin is that he once played the top-rated table tennis player in the USA at a tournament. He lost 21-4.

We asked Darrin what made health and fitness important to him and this was his reply.  “I saw my parents have health problems starting when I was in high school, and from then on I wanted to make sure that I take care of my health. It has been off and on over the years, though!”  

His thoughts on making fitness a part of his life are, “For me, the type of fitness I do has to be fun or I won’t keep it up. I enjoy going to FF and seeing the friendly faces, as well as seeing the improvements over time.”

Darrin and Aletta live close to Forward Fitness, and he shared these thoughts on why he joined our Fit Fam, “Mike and Suzanne, obviously, are great coaches and motivators. I also really like the neighborhood feel to it, where many of the people who go the gym are also my neighbors here in Maplewood.

Darrin told us that his biggest fitness challenge has been portion control when eating. “Over the last 18 months, I have been keeping a food diary and getting regular weigh-ins with Suzanne, and that has helped me do better.”  When asked about accomplishments that he was most proud of he told us, “Fitness-wise, finally doing a pull-up, and reducing my body fat percentage from 30 to 18.”

Finally, we asked Darrin what he would say to someone considering adding a fitness routine to their life and his advice is, “Find something you enjoy, preferably with a group of people you enjoy doing it with and get started!”