010: Empowering women through fun in fitness with Carly Fauth

This week I talk to Carly Fauth, fitness instructor, mentor and founder of FitFunCarly, a company that helps people fit fitness into their busy lifestyles. Carly Fauth is a fitness instructor, mentor and founder of FitFunCarly. She is a lifelong fitness fanatic committed to promoting mental health through fitness. Her passion is teaching busy women how to fit FUN and EFFICIENT fitness techniques into their lives so they can get their self confidence and fitness motivation back using customized wellness techniques.
She shares her best tips for incorporating fitness into your life, and it's a really brilliant tip!
 You can check out Carly's offerings at FitFunCarly.com and reach her at Carly@fitfuncarly.com! Carly is also on Instagram: @fitfuncarly.

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If you have a story to share, please reach out to me at klaird411@gmail.com

Let's connect on IG @kacey.n.laird

Transcript

  Okay. Hey, everybody. Welcome back to Chick Chat Collective. I'm so excited for the conversation today. I'm very excited to introduce all of you to Carly Fauth of Fit Fun Carly. She is doing amazing things. She has multiple kiddos. She's doing it all and we are gonna just really dive into why she got started, why she's so passionate about fitness and how really she juggles all of this.

Cause as we know, just being a mom is hard enough. And then you add on the business and you add on the multiple businesses and you add on all the things. It's just really good to hear it from someone who is doing it, how they are doing it. So, uh, like I said, I'm super excited. And Ms. Carly, if you would just give a little introduction to everyone, so they know who you are and we will dive in.

Yeah, sounds good. Thank you for having me. I'm so excited to be on your show. Um, like you said, my name is Carly and I'm founder of Fit Fun Carly. So what I do is I help people fit fitness into their busy lifestyles and find the joy in fitness, which is possible. It is, it is possible to have fun while you're working out.

Um, I work with clients one on one and I've also built a fit fun community. Um, so we can inspire each other. So it's not just people having to listen to me. We can all lift each other up. Um, so that's, that's my passion. That has been my passion for a long time. I was a fitness instructor for. over 10 years and I've taught pretty much everything under the sun, yoga, bar.

Um, but I've really been a lifelong lover of fitness and I started to think about what exactly it was that that really helped me to be so consistent over my whole life with fitness. And I realized it's because I was always focusing on the things that I really enjoyed and love to do so it made a lot easier to connect.

And I just I like to help people find that for themselves as well because then. As life goes on, it's really important to be able to be like independent and have a sustainable relationship with fitness and not depend on other people to keep you fit. So that's my goal is to help people learn the tricks and the tips of how to stay fit all on their own.

Yes. I love that. And I feel like that is so needed. Like for me, I, you know, grew up dancing like five days a week. And so fitness was always just. This natural thing that I loved, but it's because I loved dancing. I didn't necessarily love working out or running or anything like that. Dance just happens to be a very, you know, physical activity.

And now in my, then I kind of moved to yoga later on in life. And you know, now, like I was telling you, I have all these little kids and I just cannot seem, I still love yoga, right? I love yoga, I love bar, I love dance classes. But I just can't seem to. Fit in a consistent time. You know, it's so crazy. Like some nights I sleep for two hours because the baby is awake.

And so the last thing I want to do is do anything besides try to keep them all alive and fed, you know? Right. Right. So like, what would be. Maybe like your top one or two tips that you could give to women who are kind of in this struggling space where they don't necessarily not want to work out. They just can't seem to find that consistency, that time, you know, that motivation.

So I usually, it's funny that you use that dance as an example, because when I work with clients, the first thing we talk about is I asked them to go back in time to when they were kids and figure out what it was that they, they, what was the first time they felt joy in a fitness experience, but not necessarily a sport.

Like you said, not something where you thought you were working out anything where you were moving your body. So a lot of people do say it's like a dance class. And so then we can try to think of ways we can incorporate that. Into their life now, because you really want to tap into that, that joy of something you like to do, because then it's going to take down that barrier of, I don't really want to do it, but I know I should.

So if you can tap into that joy, and then in regards to busy professionals or busy moms, which is, I, I am one, I get it is really practicing grace and sitting down and thinking of like. What's the, what's the bare minimum you can do? And I, and I use the 15 minute timeframe. Um, 15 minutes a day is something that pretty much all of us can commit to even busy moms, not being so tied to, um, if you were somebody who was very schedule oriented before you have kids kind of letting that go and seeing like, maybe you can fit 15 minutes in when you put your baby down for a nap and maybe it's maybe you don't have the energy for the The HIIT class, maybe you just take a yoga class or restorative restorative yoga class and really try to focus on the benefits of fitness beyond just the physical.

So everybody. I mean, I'm not saying that the scale isn't important, because it is, but Take your mind off the scale, take your mind off of the physical benefits of fitness and focus on the mental benefits, because especially busy moms, we all know that mental health is extremely important and it's proven that exercise, even as little as 10 minutes a day, and it doesn't have to be extreme can really change the brain and help you stay positive.

So focusing on. Moving as much as you can, as much as you feel comfortable with not having to go overboard and really taking the time to appreciate it when you do fit in the 15 minutes. Celebrate that because that's a huge accomplishment as a busy mom. Yeah, for sure. And even it's funny because like, as you were saying that in my head, I was like, I could do 15 minutes, you know, for me, it like, it has to be this hour long yoga class that I get in the car and I drive to, you know, so that it's all this time, but I'm like, what is stopping me from just putting on YouTube and going to a 15 minute, you know, stretching yoga class when I put Jesse down for a nap like that.

Seems so much more doable than kind of what my brain is wired to think of like what working out is, you know, and, and it's true too. I feel like you just crave it more and more and more as you're doing it because you just feel better. You do, you feel better. And if you can, I think a lot of times what happens is, and I can put myself back in the experience of being a new mom, because I was It did not do well as a new mom.

I don't really do well with babies. Like my anxiety was through the roof. I probably had postpartum depression. It just wasn't an easy time for me. And part of the problem was that I was so attached to the way I was before I had kids. It was really hard for me to accept this new. I actually thought I was like, my wife's over.

Like I didn't like the way my body felt. I didn't like that. I had no time for myself anymore. And so I just kept, I kept comparing the new Carly to the old Carly, which was making me feel more depressed and not wanting me, not letting me want to do anything more. So I think a big, a huge part of it is letting go of the girl you used to be.

You're not her anymore. And that's okay because there's so, there's so many benefits to who you are becoming and there's so much out there. So that that's huge. That's amazing. Yeah. And it's so true. You know, I have a lot of friends and you know, a lot of us were having babies at the same time and some of us did better than others, sort of.

And I love the newborn stage 'cause I feel like it's so easy. I'm like, they sleep, they eat and they poop. And like they're not, oh, I wish I was like, you , like you don't have to make sure they're not putting everything in their mouths or pulling things on top. Right. They just like sit there like a little blob, a cute little blob, you know?

And now I'm in the Jessie's like nine months. Tyson's two and a half, you know, Isla's four now. So at least she's potty trained and like good to go. But now I just, I feel like there's no mental break, you know, it's like you're always waiting or, and watching. And it is, it's a lot, it's a lot for being a mom of littles.

You know, and so to be able to, uh, but I do have friends who kind of were like, I don't like the newborn stage. Like, obviously you're getting no sleep. I just feel like I run on no sleep. So I feel like that's kind of my normal, but I do remember in the beginning days. With my second baby being like, cause I had a C section and you know, you can't, you're like, cannot move for six weeks.

You can't even pick up your older kid. And I just remember being like, kind of depressed when they like put you on your seat, stuck on the couch, pretty much you're just, you get in this. Mindset of, am I ever going to be able to do the things that I want to do again? You know, you get in this spiral and it's so true to like what you said, stop comparing yourself to that person.

And I do want everyone to know, like, you will come out of it guys. Totally. That time will pass. Totally. Yes. Too fast. It passes too fast. It really does. You'll look back and be like, I felt like that was yesterday, but that was nine months ago, like how. You know, and so if you are in that brand new mom stage, I know it can be hard and just know that every day gets a little bit easier.

You get a little more confident and comfortable and, and it's all going to be okay. Um, but yeah, what, how old were your kids when you decided to found fit, fun, Carly, like, where were you in that stage of your life? And you were like, you know what? Okay. I got two kids, but I'm, I'm going to venture out and do my own thing.

So when I founded Fit Fun Carly, they were older, but, but I do remember when I first got my first fitness, um, I did my first fitness training and that was for bar and I was eight months pregnant with my second son. That's amazing. Yeah. Yeah. So like I. Um, I feel like I never, fitness has always been a huge part of my life, whatever it looked like.

So like that was, that was an interesting experience, but like I, but once I had him, I did have to take a little bit of a break from it all, obviously, because I just had a kid and, but as they got older, even, even when they were little, I felt like it was easier because I could. As long as you go into your, whatever it is you're doing, your fitness experience with a little patience, you can, it's okay to like stop and start and you may have to pick them up and keep going, but you can incorporate them into your fitness experience and you can show them.

At a very early age that mom is making time for herself, that fitness is important. So they see it. And then as they get older, it's going to naturally become a part of their life. You won't have to talk about it so much. Yeah. Or like, sometimes I feel like we can think we need to like ask for permission for that.

That's huge. I'm just going to let my, I'm letting, I'm taking it with me, but my dog is going out. Well, and it's funny, cause I just saw this Instagram. Like real or whatever. And my fiance had, I guessing at the same day, cause we both brought it up to each other because it was like, let her run, it was talking about a mom and this one mom happened to like running and it was like, let her run, like, don't make her feel like she needs to ask for permission.

Like, let her do it because the kids who see the active moms are the kids who become active. Like if they, cause that's, they see their moms the most, right. Like normally not all situations are the same, but. Usually it's the mom who they're spending the most time with. And so if they see her being active and see her doing healthy things and see her exercising, it's just going to be this natural thing for them that they do it too.

And so it was just like, don't make her feel like she has to ask for permission. Like give that time. Allow her to have that time, like allow her to do those things that bring her joy, that are healthy for her. Cause ultimately it's healthy for your children. Yeah. And it's funny. I'm glad you brought that up because what I'm finding as I'm working with clients who have older kids.

And I'm not saying their husbands or spouses or partners said that they couldn't, they wouldn't give them the time, but what happens is I think as a mom, you get so used to taking care of everyone else. And especially if you're a working mom too. So you're, you're, if you're successful at your job and you're spending so much time there, then when it's time to take the kids.

You almost feel like you don't deserve the time for yourself, whether or not you're really that you're really telling yourself that in the back of your mind, that's what happens. And I'm working with a lot of clients now who feel so guilty about taking the time for themselves. Yeah. We have to work past that.

And that's why those, yeah. And that's why those little 15 minute. Um, workouts that I specialized in, like less time, more consistency, really help. And then all of a sudden you realize that the world doesn't end if you're doing a 15 minute workout on the sidelines of your daughter's soccer game. She doesn't care, the daughter probably doesn't care, probably doesn't even notice, but you're getting something out of it, you're still there.

You're a better mom because you're taking care of yourself. So it's hugely important. No one is going to give you the time ever. You have to take the time and be confident enough that it's what you need. And if there's someone in your life that doesn't support that, you need to have a conversation and you need to let them know that it's, that it's important because it is like exercise is so important for physical health, but it's It's just as important and sometimes I think more important for mental health like we all need that like there's there's no excuse not to be able to fit 15 minutes in maybe not every day, but most days.

Yeah. And it's, it's like it's not even, of course we need it but it's like we deserve it. Seriously, think about all the things that we're doing. We totally deserve that 15 minutes to sort of just like ground ourselves and do something healthy and good for our bodies because we can't run on empty all the time.

I mean, it's just not very well, you know, and I talked to my fiance about this. I'm like, I, that's why we start, we ended up getting a babysitter now a few days a week, because I was like, I just feel like I'm running on empty all the time. And. I, you know, I have my business and yes, I have this podcast. It's a passion project for me, but I love doing it.

It's very important to me to do this podcast. And, and then I have the three kids, you know, and I was like, I just feel like. We need to do something and it ended up just getting a babysitter a few times a week. Right. It wasn't like some big step that we took. And then I also something huge, which my business partner had actually mentioned about was she has like a laundry service that helps her.

But I was like, how can I maybe help a single mom or something? And so I just put out a little ad in my mom's group. If someone would want to come over at my thing, I hate, I hate folding laundry and putting laundry away. I don't mind washing it and drying it. I just. I don't have time and so I have a woman who comes over once a week and helps me fold and put the clothes away.

Yeah, it has taken so much stress because I used to look at that laundry pile and for me it would be like, okay, do yoga or do the laundry, right? It was like an either or. Yes. And I would feel guilty if I didn't pick the laundry. So you made a decision. Yeah. And you made like kudos to you for like recognizing that and making a decision.

To take what you need to alleviate your stress and have somebody help you, like never be afraid to ask for help with, with anything, even in fitness. Like we all have things, we all have superpowers and we all struggle with things. So don't be afraid to ask for help where you need it. So fitness is my superpower, but other things are not.

So I have to ask help for help, ask for help in a bunch of other things. But that's, that's what you need to do. You have to advocate for yourself and what you need. You totally do. And I just love that your model of this is, it makes it very easy for people. Like, I just keep going back to that 15 minutes.

You're right. Anyone can have 15 minutes. Anyone can incorporate 15 minutes for themselves. And so, what really, drove you to do this? Like what was the decision when you were like, okay, you know, I've been teaching yoga and bar, but like, I want to go out on my own and I want to create these offerings. Like, where did you just sort of have this idea?

I know you had been in the fitness space for so long, but what was sort of that driving force and now have this amazing business that you have? So it's funny that when. It was during COVID that it all kind of hit me because what was happening after COVID especially is when I was training women, we were spending a lot of time talking and working out, but mostly just talking.

And I was realizing that COVID threw a lot of people for a loop. I think you either got really fit and developed a love of fitness because you had more time or you completely fell off the wagon and lost your self confidence. So I was dealing with so many women who had lost so much self confidence. And fitness that they didn't know where to start.

Even if there were people who were super fit before, they didn't have the confidence to go back to a gym. They almost didn't even have the confidence to call a trainer. They were so stuck and didn't know where to turn. So that's when I came up with my one on one fitness mentorships. And I, I thought to myself, you know, I, I.

There is not one thing that I teach that I love more than the other. I can't think of like, I thought maybe I should like get more yoga certifications or go further with barre. But I was like, no, I, I, I think I just love teaching everything because I love teaching. So I decided to create the one on one mentorship so I could work directly with women and teach them.

How to get back into shape with where they were at, help them have to do it themselves because it's all virtual and work with them one on one and be there for daily support, um, and, and customize it to their, their world. Like, let's be real about your world. Like what time do you, how much time do you have?

What obstacles are you up against? Let's create something that works for you. So we can get these small wins and build you back up. And then when I found was that I started doing these specialized programs, these monthly programs, where I would do a core challenge and it was 15 minutes a day for 21 days.

And I started getting feedback from a lot of my clients that they were like, I cannot believe the results I'm seeing. I have done your workouts 15 minutes a day. This is the most consistent. consistent. I've been and I'm stronger. I can do a push up now. This is amazing. And this makes it so fun. Like I want to do it.

And I was like, There's something to this. So I started doing more of them. And then I thought, why don't I build a community based around the 15 minute model and, but then always the 15 minute model is the base, but then encourage people to stack the 15 minutes, or I still teach longer formatted classes or stack on a longer formatted.

For my class when they're ready, but let's build the base together. Let's get people excited about fitness and get their self confidence back and give them those small wins. So they can make that attachment to fitness and they can take it wherever they want to go. So it's starting small, celebrating, and then just realizing that consistency is the thing that's going to get you the results.

And let's focus more on the mental side of fitness. Then the physical, let's not look at the scale that will come, but that's not going to consistently come unless you find the love of fitness that you can do for the rest of your life, no more starting and stopping. And I'm going to teach people how to do it.

So regardless of your income or what happens in your life, maybe you can afford a trainer now, but what happens if you can't, if you lose your trainer, you're not going to lose everything. You need to be self motivated. You can't depend on somebody else. To keep you fit. Yeah. It's nice now, but what are you going to do when you go on vacation or life happens?

Right. So that's what the community is built on is like really helping people build the self confidence so they can, they can build that connection with fitness that takes them through the rest of their life. And so they feel good. Yeah. Yeah. And so, um, if someone, you know, were to sign up with you, is, is it all virtual?

Like what sort of, what are the, all the offerings that you offer them just so in case people who are listening, interested, they can kind of get an idea and then they can go check out your site. Yeah. So it's all virtual. So I can work with people anywhere. Um, so the one on one, we start out with a 60 minute virtual meeting where we really do a deep dive into your fitness joy as a kid and all that.

Um, and then it's 30 minutes of virtual meeting 30 minutes. every week, but then I'm in touch with my clients daily. So it's pretty much the closest thing to me living in the, in your guest room, because like I'm on top of you, like it's, I'm your accountability partner, but I make it fun. It's not, you can, I think if you ask any of my clients, it's been a fun experience, I think.

Um, and then, uh, for the FitFun community. That is, um, on my website as well. That is more of a group setting. So you have live 15 minute, um, virtual workouts every day, every weekday, Monday through Friday, stacking suggestions, and then you have access to my entire fitness library, which includes pretty much everything.

Um, then you have, uh, you do get a little bit of the mentorship too, because it's 15 minutes with me once a month and we can talk about anything. Um, my goal is to keep you on track. Um, I check on my clients all the time. It's really bringing the personal connection to the virtual fitness experience, because I want to know you.

I want to, I want to speak to you in the classes. I want you to feel like, you know, me. Yeah, it's very real. Um, we have live motivation sessions with special guests talking about different topics. We have somebody coming in on Friday for breath work, um, different types of yoga. It's, we have a private Facebook page.

So people are meeting it, which is really cool. Um, people that had never met before. Um, so it's a real community feel. So it's, it's, it's, it's so, it's, it's actually so much fun. I, I am absolutely loving it. That is amazing. And I can tell, I mean, you just, you light up and you're so just talking about it, it's, you can tell that you really, really enjoy doing that and helping your clients.

And so I would like to ask what. piece of advice or say there's someone listening to this and they have been out of their fitness zone for a while and they are right like you said maybe they don't necessarily want to go to an in person gym either because sometimes they can be judgy you know it's like it just depends and so what would be your One piece of advice or a little motivation telling these people who like, they know they want to do it.

They just haven't taken that step yet. What would you tell them? So I would tell them to take some time to really sit down and think about what, and maybe like, it's too strong of a word at this point. Maybe it's what they, they mind the least as far as moving their body. And then sit down, maybe on a Sunday, whatever you consider like the beginning of your week, sit down on a Sunday.

I use, I'll use Sunday as an example. Look at your calendar and pencil in three days during that week that you are going to commit to doing 15 minutes of whatever it is that you don't mind doing. 15 minutes, pencil it in. And I even want everybody to go a step further. And pick a backup plan for those 15 minutes.

Like let's say your kid gets sick, you have to take them to the pediatrician during the time you thought you were going to work out well, then you should have a plan B of another time you were going to do it, or it could be a different day or a different time that day. And then before the week starts, think of something that brings you joy.

So something simple, something that doesn't involve anybody else. It could be something like having a cup of coffee in your favorite mug or, um, daisies, buying yourself a bouquet of daisies, something small that brings you joy, and I want you to attach that to a celebration that you are going to do at the end of the week when you have accomplished your three 15 minute workouts.

So you're going to sit down by yourself, the flowers, have the cup of coffee and take a moment to appreciate what you just did. My best tip. That is so good. I love that. I'm going to do that. Like, that is such a great advice, Carly. Thank you so much. You're welcome. Thanks for having me. I know if you would tell everyone where they can find you guys, I'm going to have all of this and then show notes to you.

But you know, if you happen to be riding in a car and you want to look Carly up. If Carly, you'll tell us your Instagram, your website, Facebook, wherever the best place is for them, check you out, connect with you. Uh, that would be awesome. Yeah. So, um, fitfuncarly. com is my website and then Instagram is at fitfuncarly.

Um, and then you can email me at Carly at fitfuncarly. com. Um, um, I would love to talk with anyone and schedule a call with me just to go over your fitness experience. I love talking to people and meeting new people. So feel free to reach out. I'm here for you. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for everything, Carly.

Thank you for this conversation. Thanks, Casey. Have a good one.