Member Success Profile: Peggy

Peggy reached a turning point in her life when she met with a dietician and discovered the important relationship between food and exercise. 

Member since: 1995
Goal: Keep getting stronger
Advice: Love and accept yourself

Peggy appears in the Sports Hall of Fame at the University of Toronto as a member of the only basketball team in U of T history to win a national championship. Coming from an elite athletic background you might think there was no room for improvement. However, Peggy is in better shape today than she ever was.

In her 20’s Peggy aspired to be long and lean like the athletes around her. It wasn’t until she was in her 40s that she decided to accept herself as she is. Peggy met with a dietitian and began to understand the relationship between food and exercise. Over the next eight years she balanced cardio with weight training and developed a positive relationship with food.

Peggy lost 22lbs and is now more physically fit than when she was a competing athlete.

“The key to my success has definitely been my diet. I’ve learnt that you can’t expect to see results with a crappy diet.”

Peggy joined the YWCA Health + Fitness Centre in 1995. She enjoys the sense of community, the great relationship she has with the staff, and members like “the boys” who inspire her to push herself every day.

Faced with a competitive and mostly sedentary work environment, exercise clears her head and helps her to manage stress. The key to Peggy’s work-life balance is exercising in the morning before her work day begins. Peggy aims to get stronger as she ages. She could not do even one pull-up in her athletic days and now in her 40s she can do four. Her goal - 10 in her 50s!