Transcript: This is David Brower with our special guest, Kelly Fernandes from Canada, and she is a fitness and nutrition expert, a certified fitness instructor, a certified personal trainer, and she’s a head SelfLove junkie. I love that. What does that mean?
Kelly Fernandes: It means I help you love yourself in body, mind, and spirit.
David Brower: Oh my goodness. That’s called balance, right?
Kelly Fernandes: Yes it is.
David Brower: What a concept.
Kelly Fernandes: Yeah.
David Brower: Good for you. And you have a registered name called Fit Chicks.
Kelly Fernandes: Yeah, so that is a certification that I have.
David Brower: Oh, okay.
Kelly Fernandes: With the company Fit Chicks, which is also an awesome company. Yep.
David Brower: Gotcha. Very cool.
Kelly Fernandes: Yep.
David Brower: And you’re a yoga teacher, you’re a manifestation coach. Wow. You touch people in a lot of ways, and probably a lot of ways that they need but don’t expect. Is that a fair statement?
Kelly Fernandes: Yeah. And you know, it’s funny, because when you think of a fitness instructor or a yoga teacher, or even like a nutrition coach, you don’t always see or think of the mind and the spiritual side. So, when I say spiritual, that can many things for different people. It can be your connection to source or God. But it can also just mean a connection really with yourself, and checking in with yourself. But in so many things that I do when I teach online group fitness, or I teach yoga, a lot of mindset comes into it. So, it really is a hand-in-hand thing.
David Brower: That makes a lot of sense. And you’re, there’s a lot of, let me think here, weight loss, food obsession, depression.
Kelly Fernandes: You’re talking about my life now.
David Brower: Oh my God. I’m talking about my life, kid. That was on my bio, I don’t know what you’re talking about. So, I mean you really get down in the trenches with these folks.
Kelly Fernandes: I do, and you know, how everything came about and what I’m doing now is because of everything that I had lived. And I really think that’s the way that we all really teach from. We teach from our own experiences. And so my journey started when I found myself 217 pounds, and I had two kids. You may think, “Oh, she gained the weight because of children,” no, actually I was heavy my entire twenties due to a metabolic disorder. And I looked at my kids, and I saw how I had little energy and I didn’t feel good in the body that I had. And I wanted to be able to, really my goal was I wanted to be able to run down the beach with the girls when we’re on vacation, and not just lay in the sun and just be like, “Ugh, leave mommy alone.”
David Brower: Nice.
Kelly Fernandes: So, that was really my first why. And after I’d gotten, after I had reached a healthy weight, and I was doing all those things, I started to look at my life. And I realized I was in a corporate job, I am also a certified industrial hygienist.
David Brower: So, there you go.
Kelly Fernandes: So, you can add that to the –
David Brower: Okay.
Kelly Fernandes: Yeah, so that’s occupational health and safety, asbestos, and I just realized that that wasn’t serving me anymore. I wanted to serve people at a higher level. And I actually left my corporate job, and my problem with that is, I encourage people to be entrepreneurs, but I actually left without a plan. And without that plan in place, I started to go into a downward spiral.
David Brower: You bet.
Kelly Fernandes: When I left that job, I believe I already was in a depression, but didn’t know it. I was kind of a walking zombie. And it actually took a year for me to realize that I was not healthy, mentally. And that I needed help. And so, I received the help that I needed. Part of that was yoga, part of that was therapy, I always kept up with my fitness and my health, so that was also a major part in keeping me healthy.
David Brower: You bet.
Kelly Fernandes: And as I started to get better, I realized that’s how SelfLove, health and wellness was born. I realized that all of these things are important in our lives. It’s not just losing weight. It’s not just our mindset, and it’s not just our spirituality. It’s all of it connected and who you feel you are, and feeling happy and content in the body, mind, and spirit that you have.
David Brower: Wow. That is amazing. I got to ask you, it seems like when you were going through therapy, and battling depression, one of the main things I would think that really helped you, was keeping up your fitness and exercise, and I don’t know how you do that when you’re depressed.
Kelly Fernandes: It’s tough, and I share that with a lot of my clients who are on anxiety and depression meds and getting therapy as well is the last thing you want to do when you’re depressed is get out of bed.
David Brower: Right.
Kelly Fernandes: To be honest, like you just want to lay in bed. And when I was in therapy, we were speaking about only doing things that you want to do. So, you would not make a move until you got into the right mindset, or the right feeling in order to do whatever activity it is. So, really bringing yourself back to who you are and what you really want, which in this day and age, we never really ask ourselves anymore.
David Brower: Right.
Kelly Fernandes: We never really sit there and ask ourselves, “Wait, how am I feeling today?”
David Brower: Yeah.
Kelly Fernandes: “Do I want to do this?” A lot of times we feel like we have to do things. “Oh, I have to do this,” and there are things we have to do, I get.
David Brower: Yeah.
Kelly Fernandes: You know, we need to pay our bills and stuff.
David Brower: I don’t need to read about my feelings on Facebook.
Kelly Fernandes: Exactly. Or read all the social media content that’s thrown at you all the time.
David Brower: Right.
Kelly Fernandes: You can totally take a detox off of that.
David Brower: Yeah.
Kelly Fernandes: And I realized that, especially for yoga for me, that was so important for my mental health. And it was almost like when I was in my depression, I was like okay, I need to do that, but it’s not just that I need to, I want to.
David Brower: There you go.
Kelly Fernandes: Yeah, and you need to, I find, I really believe when you’re in a depression, you need to get to that feeling place of what you want to do. So, not like, “I have to go for a run to stay healthy.” What is it that you want to do? Do you want to just dance in your kitchen, and just move your body? Do it.
David Brower: Yeah.
Kelly Fernandes: Because guess what? That’s going to get to you to a better feeling place anyway.
David Brower: And if you feel like you have to, and correct me if I’m wrong, but if you feel like you have to do something, doesn’t that feed the depression? Where when you want to do something that takes you away from it?
Kelly Fernandes: Exactly. That’s exactly it. Because that feeling of want to is you’re pushing.
David Brower: Yeah.
Kelly Fernandes: You’re pushing yourself to do something, and then, you can just go right back down into a spiral. But when you sit and you figure out what really feels good, and you’re like, “I’m going to do that,” then it’s almost easier.
David Brower: Yeah.
Kelly Fernandes: Right?
David Brower: Absolutely. So, the most important question is though, did you run down the beach with your girls?
Kelly Fernandes: Absolutely.
David Brower: That a girl.
Kelly Fernandes: Absolutely. Our first vacation after losing all the weight, was one of our best vacations, because I was playing in the water with them, and when they were like, “Mommy! Let’s go do the craft over there,” I’m like, “Yeah, let’s go do it!” And we would go and it was –
David Brower: I got goosebumps on that one. I mean, that’s special stuff that never goes away. That’s lifetime memories for you and for them, you know?
Kelly Fernandes: Yep. Yep.
David Brower: How old were they when you hit the water with them?
Kelly Fernandes: They were around, so one would be maybe two, and the other one was five.
David Brower: Nice.
Kelly Fernandes: So, yep.
David Brower: That’s, oh my gosh. They, I can visualize it with those little kids, that’s pretty cool.
Kelly Fernandes: Yeah.
David Brower: So, you have, let’s see, so you have live group fitness and yoga. How does that work?
Kelly Fernandes: Yeah. So, it’s actually really new in the industry. I’m one of the first health and wellness companies to offer this. And essentially what it is, is you get the same experience, or I say better experience of doing a fitness class, a bootcamp, or a yoga class, that you would get in a gym, only you don’t have to leave your house. And how it works is you come on into a virtual studio with me, and you meet me in my studio in my home, I have an in-home studio. And we all work out together live, and interactive. So, when I’m like, “How’s everyone doing? Woo! Woo!” I want to hear that woo woo back.
David Brower: Right.
Kelly Fernandes: So, you still get that feedback from everyone. And you know, you get an amazing workout in one hour. And then, you can just close your computer and go back to what you were doing.
David Brower: Wow.
Kelly Fernandes: Yeah. So, there’s no commute, there’s no fighting for a parking spot.
David Brower: Right.
Kelly Fernandes: There’s no fighting for a spot in class. If you’ve ever been a member of a gym, you understand that struggle. Yeah.
David Brower: And there’s the $35 a month that you quit paying, because you didn’t go.
Kelly Fernandes: Yeah.
David Brower: So, when you’re, I’m intrigued by that. So, it’s an online, live group fitness and yoga, so they can see you in your studio, can you see them also?
Kelly Fernandes: Yep.
David Brower: Okay.
Kelly Fernandes: And we all see each other.
David Brower: Really?
Kelly Fernandes: Yeah.
David Brower: Wow.
Kelly Fernandes: So, you still get that community feel without leaving your home.
David Brower: My goodness, that’s brilliant. I’ve never heard of that before.
Kelly Fernandes: I know.
David Brower: That’s gotta be, that’s life changing. Good for you.
Kelly Fernandes: It is. It is, especially for a lot of busy parents.
David Brower: Right.
Kelly Fernandes: And entrepreneurs, right?
David Brower: Right.
Kelly Fernandes: Yep.
David Brower: Because you could lock up your office and just do it at work, you know?
Kelly Fernandes: Totally, totally.
David Brower: Wow. That’s fascinating.
Kelly Fernandes: And I teach classes at lunch for that specific reason.
David Brower: So, how many classes a day do you do, or a week, or how do you organize your schedule for those live shows?
Kelly Fernandes: Yeah. So, I have like a live, I have about seven classes.
David Brower: Okay.
Kelly Fernandes: And then I also teach in-studio yoga in my studio. So, I’m pretty busy. I teach most nights, afternoons, and a couple of mornings during the week.
David Brower: Okay. And then, do you have your own personal masseuse to take care of you?
Kelly Fernandes: Yeah. I have a whole slew of osteopaths, and RMTs and all that stuff [crosstalk 00:11:15].
David Brower: I mean you’d have to have that with that kind of schedule, you know?
Kelly Fernandes: Yeah. And I even have my own trainer, right? We all, you know, no matter how far up you get into that “expert,” title, you always need a coach.
David Brower: Right, right, right.
Kelly Fernandes: You know, accountability is a big thing, and we all need it. You know?
David Brower: Yeah.
Kelly Fernandes: Even the fitness instructor, super healthy personal trainer, we need that accountability too.
David Brower: Right.
Kelly Fernandes: And that’s actually another part of the online group fitness community is that I also provide free accountability and mindset coaching as a part of that program. So, you know David, if you’re like, “Kelly, I’m going to be there, you know, Wednesday, and Friday to your online class,” and you’re pumped, and then I start seeing, “Oh wait, where’s David?”
David Brower: Yeah.
Kelly Fernandes: You’ll get a little love note from me, a little text like, “Hey. You know, I didn’t see you signed up for class, are you coming?” And a lot of times, you know the reply you get is, “Oh my gosh, thank you so much for reaching out.”
David Brower: Right.
Kelly Fernandes: “You know, I was totally going to blow you off, and now I’m going to show up.”
David Brower: Yeah, it’s like the commercial where they’re pretending to be honest. You know, and they’re really telling you how they actually feel, “Oh, I was really going to blow you off, but oh okay.” I mean, that’s awesome. I love that. So, tell me about the mindset stuff. What does that mean?
Kelly Fernandes: So, within an actual like fitness class or yoga class –
David Brower: Yeah.
Kelly Fernandes: … I speak a lot to doing what your body can do with the body in mind that you brought into the studio. So a lot of times when we either walk into a yoga class or a fitness class, we look around, we see what other people are doing, “Oh, I can’t do that. Oh, he or she is better than me.” So, I really try to bring ourselves back into ourselves and focus on what we can do, and celebrating those successes. So, you know, specifically within like my bootcamp class, for example, someone that could only do a few push-ups from their knees, you know, four weeks later is banging them out like there’s no tomorrow.
David Brower: Wow.
Kelly Fernandes: Focusing on that and celebrating that, and really retraining our minds to focus on all the great things we can do, as opposed to all the great things that everyone else can do and we can’t.
David Brower: Wow. That’s a serious mindset –
Kelly Fernandes: Yep.
David Brower: … because you put yourself first, you face your fears, which I would think, I mean fear is such a big impact on everybody’s life in different ways, but that’s got to be a piece of this puzzle too, to help people turn the corner.
Kelly Fernandes: Absolutely. And like you said, we all go through our own fear in whatever we’re working on, whatever we’re doing, right?
David Brower: Right.
Kelly Fernandes: And the first step in any wellness or fitness program is just getting there, right? And then you get there, and you know that fear sets in of, “Can I do this? Will I do this?” And if you just have your coach standing there saying, “Yes you can. Yes you can,” that is all you need sometimes to just go and do it.
David Brower: Yeah.
Kelly Fernandes: And I’ve seen it with my own eyes. I’ve seen someone look up at me and I’m like, “You can do this.” And their head goes right back down and they’re banging out the rows, or they’re doing their jumping jacks, right?
David Brower: Nice. Right.
Kelly Fernandes: All we need sometimes is just that person to look you in the eye and say, “You can do this.”
David Brower: And the hardest part is to show up.
Kelly Fernandes: Yep.
David Brower: Right?
Kelly Fernandes: That is the hardest part. That’s the first step.
David Brower: That’s the first step, and then, wow. That’s terrific what you do. So if you have, if you’re doing an online, live group fitness and yoga class, and one of your students is in Canada, and the other one is in Florida, I mean, do they have an opportunity to connect and develop a friendship offline for lack of a better term?
Kelly Fernandes: Yeah, absolutely. We have a Facebook group that we all kind of connect in and share.
David Brower: Nice.
Kelly Fernandes: It’s called SelfLove Junkie Support Group, of course.
David Brower: Of course it is, yeah, duh.
Kelly Fernandes: And yeah. So that’s a way that people can connect. You know, and in this day and age, it’s so easy to send a message and like we’re doing now, Skype.
David Brower: Yeah.
Kelly Fernandes: And you can even see each other face-to-face. So yeah, it’s really great, and I’ve seen, what’s really been interesting is I’ve seen people’s businesses flourish just from being a part of the community. Because they have gotten ideas of collaboration and have gone out and created, you know, their own health programs in collaboration.
David Brower: Wow.
Kelly Fernandes: Yeah, it’s been really awesome, and really awesome to see people’s bottom line change.
David Brower: Right. And there’s a joke in there somewhere, but I’ll let it go.
Kelly Fernandes: Yeah. There is. We’ll let other people come up with it [crosstalk 00:16:19].
David Brower: But I got to think, as you say that, I got to think that when you, if you have, and I’m sure you do from time to time, have business people in there, and you’re improving their balance of their life, mind, body, spirit, and they go back to work, man, that’s going to, without even doing anything, just the aura if you will, that they now are giving off that they weren’t giving off a month ago is going to help their relationships and their business.
Kelly Fernandes: Absolutely. It’s funny that you say. I just did a post on that a couple days ago, and basically, I was saying when you feel good, you look good.
David Brower: Right.
Kelly Fernandes: And you exude that confidence, and it will help with closing that deal, selling that product, because people will be attracted to you. They’ll be like, “Oo, what is this person doing? Why is he or she so exuberant and has so much vitality?”
David Brower: I know, right.
Kelly Fernandes: They’ll be attracted to that, right?
David Brower: Yeah, and then they have that head SelfLove Junkie t-shirt on and so, you know, put a fork in me, I’m done.
Kelly Fernandes: That’s right. Yeah. Yeah.
David Brower: So, have you written a book yet?
Kelly Fernandes: Not yet.
David Brower: You’re going to, right?
Kelly Fernandes: Yeah. I’m going to have to, for sure.
David Brower: I think so.
Kelly Fernandes: Because, yeah. It’s a good story.
David Brower: Yeah, I think so. Yeah, it is a great story. So, how can people get in touch with you, and learn more about you, and learn how you can help them?
Kelly Fernandes: Yeah, well, of course they can always head over to my website, which is, selflovehw.com. So, SelfLoveHealthandWellness.com. I’m also on Instagram @selflovehw and you can find me on Facebook as well.
David Brower: Very good. And you’re offering a free 7-day radical SelfLove challenge, what is that about?
Kelly Fernandes: Absolutely. So every day you get me in your inbox.
David Brower: There you go.
Kelly Fernandes: For seven days, and we do different exercises to help you love yourself in body, mind, and spirit. So, it actually includes a free workout that you do with me, and each day it builds on that. So, I don’t want to tell too much, because it’s a little bit of a secret.
David Brower: Right, right, right. Yep.
Kelly Fernandes: But you know, we go into feeding your mind, talking about like meditation, and that kind of stuff.
David Brower: Okay.
Kelly Fernandes: And yeah.
David Brower: And they can access that on your website?
Kelly Fernandes: Absolutely.
David Brower: Okay, cool. Hey, I’m impressed, Kelly, really nice job, and you are touching, when you touch people, then other people touch people, and then other people touch, I mean you’re like creating this immense new version of word of mouth. You know what I mean? It’s really cool.
Kelly Fernandes: Yep. Yep.
David Brower: It’s really cool. Hats off to you.
Kelly Fernandes: A SelfLove Junkie movement.
David Brower: Oh my God. Yeah, seriously, I’m seeing t-shirts. I mean if you don’t have a t-shirt, you got to get on it.
Kelly Fernandes: I have a t-shirt.
David Brower: Outstanding. This has been great fun, Kelly. Thank you so much.
Kelly Fernandes: Thank you so much for having me.
David Brower: Yeah, you’re welcome.
David Brower: You’ve been listening to your 20 minute podcast with our special guest, Kelly Fernandes. Be sure to check out her website. Again, it’s selflovehw.com. You’ve been listening to your 20 minute podcast with David Brower. We hope you enjoyed the show as much as I did, and be sure to follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/your20minutepodcast