Meet Healthy Living Cheerleader: Fawn Gill
Welcome to our world! Where we share stories, style and things that we love! Our first post is just in time for Father’s Day. While honouring all the amazing dads out there, this Father’s Day we want to celebrate women who take on the role of both mom and dad.
Meet Fawn Gill, an enthusiastic and passionate female figure athlete champion, health blogger and gym owner. Based in British Columbia Fawn has a love for fitness so infectious her clients call her their personal “Healthy Living Cheerleader”. She is an advocate and role model for living a body positive and healthy lifestyle even having national female rower, Meghan Robinson, crediting her for her career. She says that Fawn was the reason she was able to pursue her dream of rowing on the Canadian national team.
Fawn has affected so many people’s lives by inspiring and supporting them on their journey to a healthier lifestyle. And besides being all this Fawn is also a single mom, mother of three girls Sovereign, Bebel and Sofie. So SUZY wanted to take the time to catch up with Fawn and her three daughters, dressed in casual Suzy wear and take a glimpse into her busy life to see what she loves about being a mom and how she juggles it all!
I guess the first question would be how do you juggle it all? Between your passion for fitness and being mom, what do you do when it gets hard? What keeps you going?
Honestly, I don’t juggle it all.
It’s such a challenge to juggle everything and what I have come to honour is that I can’t do it all.
I think that’s a big myth for women. Somethings gotta give. So it comes down to priories. My priorities are my kids, my fitness and health and my career. Most single moms I know stress about their house being a disaster. Who cares if it’s not ‘Martha Stewart perfect.’ Your kids won’t remember that about you…They’ll remember all the fun times you had making a mess in the house! And of course, I exercise. It’s such a great stress reliever to sweat and work hard. And it’s empowering! After a really tough workout I think ‘okay…if I can do 3 sets of Kettlebell swings and chin-ups, surely I can handle 3 teenaged daughters!’ And just so you know, the workout is usually the easy part. I also practice being kind to myself. That includes reading inspiring books, going for a long walk in nature, exercising, taking a relaxing tub, listening to motivational podcasts…..Whatever makes me feel happy and joyful.
And lastly my daughters keep me going. Hands down. They are the reason I do anything at all. I feel so privileged to be their mom.
Wow that’s pretty inspiring and what is it that you love most about sharing your love of fitness with people?
Oh what I LOVE is when people get that ‘light-bulb’ moment when they realize ‘OMG! I can do this!’ Helping them change their mindset to one of health. And when people come up to me that I haven’t seen in awhile and tell me that I’ve changed their life. I’m so lucky to be in such a positive industry. I get to serve others and if something I said or taught them adds ‘life to their years’ then I’m a very happy camper.
After reading all your praises you can see your clients really appreciate what you do for them in their lives. Beyond what you hope to give your clients, what values do you hope to instill in your daughters?
I want so much for my girls.
#1. I want them to be confident in themselves. What I mean by that is I want them to be confident drumming to a different beat. I never want them to be followers. I want them to celebrate their individuality.
#2. Compassion… For themselves and others.
#3. I want them to be playful. This life is so short…I don’t want them to take themselves or life too seriously. Have fun! Play! Laugh out loud! No matter how old you are!
#4. Responsibility. I want them to understand that this life is up to them. They are responsible for their happiness. That they alone are responsible for how they see the world and how they respond to it.
#5. I want them to embrace mistakes. Because there really isn’t ever mistakes….Just learning lessons and wonderful opportunities to grow and evolve.
I am sure you pass those values and many more on to your daughters every day, staying in that vein, how do your daughters inspire you?
Oh my gosh! In so many ways. Honestly, they are so much wiser at their age than I ever was. Each one inspires me in different ways because they are so unique.
They’ve taught me more about life than anything. And they teach me every single day about patience and acceptance (whether I want to learn that day or not).
That’s awesome! Lastly since you are a single mom, and know firsthand the struggles of it, what advice would you give to other singles parents, both moms and dads, out there?
#1. Let sh*t go.
Who cares if your house is a mess or you’re drinking cold coffee. This is such a small window of time when our kids are young and want us there and need us. Enjoy the time with them. They won’t remember a messy house… They’ll remember you and the memories you made together. Don’t let the judgement of others cloud your authenticity.
#2 Taking care of yourself is NOT selfish. It’s essential.
Role model taking care of yourself not only so that you FEEL good about yourself but so your kids know how important that is and they do it too.
#3 You can do hard stuff.
Being a single parent is hard. Life is hard. But you can do hard stuff. Trust yourself enough to know that you can take on new things and do them. You can do hard things.
Thank you so much to Fawn for sharing her truly inspirational story and to her three daughters as well! Make sure to check out Fawns website http://www.fawngillfitness.com/ to get all her tips, tricks and advice. Photo credit Emmett Sparling http://www.emmettsparling.com/.
