Trainers

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Hello everyone, my name is jocelyn Peckham and I am the owner of Modest Fitness Club. This is my “WHY”.

The Lord gave me the vision for Modest Fitness Club after overcoming my own struggles with modesty, that had developed from a very young age. Before my husband and I came to Christ, I I took pride in wearing sport bras, crop tops, leggings and even short shorts that were far too revealing. 

I never understood that wearing these types of clothing bred lustful sexual attention. From a young age I was programmed to believe that the “dress code” only applied to girls with curves. It was implied that skinnier girls were never sexualized and the rules of modesty were based strictly off of one’s appearance. 

I remember bringing every single pair of shorts that I owned to my grade 6 male teacher. In front of the entire class, he went through each pair and one by one said they were all too short, knowing the skinnier girls in my class would wear the exact same shorts and no one ever said a word. This became the catalyst for my horrible relationship with body image and food. 

Fast forward to 2013. I had my first radical encounter with Christ and became a born again Christian (before falling away a couple years later). To my surprise, there were a few girls- myself included- who were given a different dress code than everyone else. The pastor explained that “it was because of our figure” and all of the flashbacks from grade 6 came rushing back again. 

It wasn’t too long after that that I had begun to develop anorexia. I was determined to get down to a size that qualified me to wear whatever I wanted without judgement or objection, but I lost control. Soon anorexia overtook my life and I couldn’t eat even if I wanted to. Taking extreme measures to avoid eating wreaked havoc on my body. I was slowly dying. My systems started failing and I even lost my ability to walk for 7 months. I was in so much pain and for so long couldn’t do anything about it because of the hold darkness had over me. 

But God- in my mess picked me up and carried me through a season of healing. After losing all of my muscle (and my hair), I began to rebuild. I learned to walk again and was able to graduate high school 6 months later. 

Unfortunately, set on a path for my own destruction, church hurt and trauma followed me into relapse again. I would be lying if I didn’t say that life got a whole lot harder after falling away from the faith. But the Lord was with me. He restored every part of my life, including my health! 

But this didn’t mean all of my problems had been resolved. After regaining my strength I began to workout at the gym. Telling myself I was going to get into the best shape of my life (for my future children) had the purest intentions, but quickly turned into idol worship. 

Although I was no longer anorexic, I believed that all the “dress code rules” from middle school still applied. I had the body to wear whatever I wanted and was able to get away with it because I looked skinny and athletic. I turned to social media for validation and left feeling vindicated by the response. 

But God- in summer of 2023 the Lord began convicting me of my immodest gym-wear and not soon after completely transformed my life. My husband (who was my boyfriend at the time) and I began walking with the Lord together. We walked in purity until marriage as the Lord brought us through a season of restoration and healing. 

So why Modest Fitness Club? 

We believe that our MINDSET. Will propel the MISSION. To start a MOVEMENT.

We recognize that modesty first begins as a shift in heart posture. It cannot be enforced by somebody else. Modesty is not simply just about the clothes that we wear, but also our motivation for wearing them in the first place. Your clothes may not be revealing, but your wardrobe could be full of materialism and overconsumption- desiring attention or status from the way that you dress. I challenge you to seek out the Lord and ask him to reveal your heart in this matter.

MFC is not confined to a building. We, as likeminded people, are building a Christ-centred community that stands up against a provocative culture.