Meet Chatham Club Member, Colleen Markley! Colleen trains with Ivona and has made incredible strides in her fitness journey…including losing over 60 pounds!  Fitness Director Dennis Stacknick asked Colleen a few questions about her time as a member:

DS: How many years have you been a member?
CM: Five years!

DS: What are some accomplishments you’ve achieved at The Chatham Club?:
CM: I love feeling balanced and aligned with my physical and mental health. I joined The Chatham Club because I wanted to lose weight and tone up – and I’ve succeeded in that more than I could have imagined. I lost over 60 pounds and love how strong I feel and look now. But I learned that the mental health benefits are even more important – my gym time is for me to clear my head and anxiety. And that helps me show up as my best possible self in so many other aspects of my life, including my writing career!

DS: What do you like about the Club?:
CM: I love that it’s casual and fun and everyone is so friendly. There’s a great respect and courtesy of gym etiquette but not in a stuffy way. I also love that there are so many options and I’m never bored when I come to work out. I have such varied routines that it never feels repetitive.

DS: What do you like about training with Ivona?:
CM: Ivona (the most amazing personal trainer on the planet) has been an instrumental guide in my personal health journey. When I first started working with her, she was encouraging and helpful in teaching me proper form and safe techniques. When I was frustrated I wasn’t seeing results, she encouraged me to listen to my sister who had suggested I find a new doctor and get more extensive bloodwork done. It was after I did that I found out I had Celiac Disease. Once I stopped eating gluten, my body was able to respond to all the work I was doing at the gym and I’ve had great success. Writing about that journey led to my first published writing – which was so amazing. The award-winning essay was published in an anthology called Sisters! Bonded by Love and Laughter – and was published by the Erma Bombeck Writers Workshop last fall. Ivona has been ready to challenge me with each new accomplishment. She’s met me in each place I have been and encouraged me to take the next step. And she’s done it all with a fabulous sense of humor – which, as a humor writer, I greatly appreciate.

DS: What are your favorite exercises:
CM: I love core exercises – which is something I never thought I’d say! When I started a few years ago I couldn’t plank for more than 10 or 15 seconds. Now I love any exercise where I can use these hard-earned core muscles – pikes, reverse crunches on the TRX, that cool seatless chair thingy where you hold on with your arms and pull up your legs – I’m so amazed and impressed by the things this body is able to do.

DS: How about your least favorite exercise?:
CM: Anything that requires me leaving the earth. I’m convinced gravity affects me differently than most humans and that’s why jumping is so incredibly difficult. 

DS: How do you spend your time outside of the Club?:
CM:I love writing, which is how I spend most of my time as I try to lean into my career after being primary caregiver for my kids for so long. I’ve had the most success with my humor essays but I’ve also been working on a book about the end of the world where only the women survive (it’s a novel, not an action plan). I also love reading – just about every genre you can imagine: nonfiction, personal health, literary, bookclub/upmarket fiction, sci-fi and fantasy-  especially anything with vampires, werewolves and witches. I also love traveling and hiking. We were just in Costa Rica for vacation and hiked Rio Celeste where the stairs to the waterfall numbered over 200 and I was so glad I was in shape to be able to enjoy that view. 

 

Thanks for taking the time to talk with us, Colleen. Here’s to crushing MORE goals in 2022!
Want to read our past #MemberOfTheMonth stories? Check out: STEVE, ADAM & FOY!