Karla, Adam, it’s so nice to meet you! Thank you so much for taking the time to chat with us. I did want to start off by saying a huge congratulations to you both on behalf of the Fitafy team, we’re so stoked for you. How long have you been dating? When did you first connect on the app?
Found their fit
Karla & Adam
share how Fitafy helped kickstart their lovestory!
Not even the dreary weather and lockdowns of Melbourne can dull the spirits of Karla and Adam! The loved-up Perth natives sat down with us to share their story, and how Fitafy helped reconnect them.
Karla and Adam’s commitment to a healthy and active lifestyle has all of us at Fitafy inspired. They discuss how they support and encourage each other to reach their goals, and how seeing each other working hard only motivates them further.
We also talked about their love of planning surprise dates for each other and how their Italian backgrounds contributes to a lot of delicious home cooking.
Read the transcript below and see for yourself...
Your chat has begun
Karla
So, we first started dating in December 2019/January 2020. But we both work for the same company, so we sort of knew each other. We, more, I guess re-connected on the app. It was kind of, we saw each other on the app, we’d already caught up…
Adam
Pre-existing before that.
Karla
In a good way, it just sort of re-connected us.
Oh amazing! What about each other’s profiles first caught your interest? What attracted you to each other and encouraged you to re-connect via the app if you already knew each other in person?
Adam
I guess, being around Karla, it was just knowing her already, it was just nice. I mean, the whole benefit of the app is that people are on there because they’ve got a fitness goal or that fitness mentality. So just knowing that … I didn't really delve into her profile too much to be honest, but I knew that we were on somewhat of a similar page.
Adam
Obviously, I had the luxury that I could just go up and talk to Karla, and vice versa and it kind of just went from there really.
And did you feel the same Karla? Was there a particular goal that you connected over, or just the fact you were both fitness focused, and it was something mutual that you didn’t know you already had in common?
Karla
Yeah, I definitely think that’s what it was… discovering that health and fitness and that mentality was a mutual thing that we shared... I guess what also connected us through that aspect is that we both did a fitness challenge through work. The office did a “The Biggest Loser” sort of style challenge, and we were both heavily involved in that.
Karla
And when we did reconnect, it was when they were announcing the results and it was good to sort of see what each had done to get to where they were at that point.
That’s so cool! Can you talk to me a bit about your fitness preferences then? Do you have a similar workout style, or is it an opposites attract mentality here?
Adam
For the most part, I'm more focused on strength training…which you [Karla] are as well. I don’t do a lot of cardio; I like to get that from external sources like sports and general walks and things like that.
Karla
Yeah, I like strength training as well, which is something that we do have in common. But then I also like doing classes… so a spin class or yoga or whatever. Sometimes I'll try and drag Adam along to a class if I can [laughs].
And how often have you joined a class, Adam? Are you open to it? Or…
Adam
[laughs] Look, I'm open to it…
Karla
Not very often! [laughs]
Adam
With the way things are going with lockdown and that, I think I’ll definitely show it a little more attention since it’s very hard to get back that motivation and get in that gym style workout when you're stuck in an apartment.
Have you guys been doing online workouts together while in lockdown?
Karla
Yeah! When we went into lockdown the first-time last year (2020), we decided to invest in some equipment that we could use in the house; dumbbells and things like that. But we’ve been doing some at home workouts, through an app, which has been something different for us. It’s been nice to mix it up.
What is a typical date for you? I know it’s hard when you're in and out of lockdowns. But you’ve said you like to play sports and be active in general. Does that cross over into your dates as well? Or what’s a weekend like for you?
Karla
Our first official date was a walk along the coast in Perth, during the summer. We did a massive walk along the coast, got a coffee, walked back along the coast, and then walked down along the beach. So, I think it definitely played a part. For either our second or third date, we went and watched a sunrise in Kings Park, in Perth, which overlooks the city.
Karla
And then went for a walk around since it’s like a national park. And now being in Melbourne, we like organising surprise dates for each other.
Oh, how fun!
Karla
Yeah, because we’ve been together for like, a year…
Adam
Yeah, one year, just over.
Karla
Just over a year now, and pretty much most of our relationship we’ve lived together. So, we try to create exciting date nights and all of those sorts of things. One of the dates that I organised was, we drove out and went hiking to overlook the beach. There were heaps of people surfing and lots of walks around there. We had a little picnic.
Karla
Actually, another thing we have in common is that we love to cook, and we love food.
Adam
Yeah!
Karla
We both come from Italian backgrounds, so we love homecooked meals and trying different recipes. Other dates we have, we like to either cook for each other or cook together, in the kitchen.
Adam
Yeah, we both really like doing that.
When did you guys move to Melbourne then?
Adam
I’ve been here for two years. And then we came in contact in 2019...
Karla
Adam was already living in Melbourne when connected on the app. He was back in Perth because both of our families are in Perth. So, he was in back for Christmas which is when we connected on the app and went on our first date. And then Adam went back to Melbourne for work, and we kept in touch and spoke every day since we went on that date. I moved to Melbourne 6 months later.
What a whirlwind.
Adam
I know. It was constant text messages, phone calls and facetime calls and then six months later she’s moving in. It was good.
It seems awful to ask what you do for fun when you're in a lockdown at the moment… but other than board games and existential crisis, what’s going on? Is it a split of active time and chill out time? Do you discuss in advance what you want to do for date nights or in general?
Karla
Yeah, we try and plan as much as we can. At the moment there’s not a lot that we can do, so we focus a lot on cooking and activities we can do together. The weather isn't the best, but if we can go for a walk, we will. With the lockdown we can – or could – only go 5km, it’s just changed. But we try and do the best that we can. We really enjoy cooking, so we do a lot of that.
Karla
We don’t have a set ratio or anything, but we split it. Some weekends we’ll be really active and then others we just cook something really nice and play boardgames or watch a movie or something like that. We always try and find something different to do or plan something new.
It sounds very romantic…. Long trolls in the parks and along coastlines with great food. No wonder you like spending time together, it sounds amazing! [laughs]
Karla
Yeah, I moved to Melbourne in July last year, and four days later we went into that second lockdown. I’d never lived with anyone else before and it was pretty much, we moved in together and then were stuck with each other 24/7 for like four months.
Karla
It was probably one of the best things that could have happened to us though, because we learned so much about each other and just got to know each other really well!
I can imagine! I feel that given the crazy circumstances that you were in, if it’s worked out, it’s going to work out! Given that you already knew each other, how did you find out about the app? How long had you each been on it?
Karla
I heard about it through a friend … I think you [Adam] were the same?
Adam
Yeah, I got it from a friend too.
Karla
I’d never really used dating apps before, but what made me download Fitafy was the people I was told were going to be on the app. To be able to filter fitness preferences and lifestyle choices, I could align what I was looking for in a partner straight away.
Adam
I had got on Tinder when I was in Melbourne, but it’s just a different crowd. It wasn’t me. My mum is a real stickler for “you’ve gotta be on the same page as the person you end up with” …. So, it made sense to join an app that had fitness as a main priority.
And do you feel like it delivered in terms of you got – I mean, you obviously got the experience you wanted, you're engaged! …But prior to that did you feel like it delivered on what you were expecting? Those lifestyle elements were aligned already, and it cut through the noise and made it easier to find authentic matches?
Adam
Yeah, correct. It might be a “smaller pool”, but when you have similar interests, it kind of makes it a bigger pool in a sense. With those other platforms, you’ve got a wide selection, but it’s very hard to really match. Whereas with Fitafy, you’ve already got something in common and it can act as sort of an icebreaker.
Your relationship was set in motion via the app, so what did you enjoy most about your experience? Were there particular features that helped out?
Adam
It’s hard to say, I didn't delve too far into her [Karla’s] profile. I knew the name, and we knew each other enough that I could just go up and start a conversation with her. I'm probably not the best person to answer to that.
But that’s what makes it great. Everyone’s experience is so unique and the fact that the platform just acted as a springboard for you, since you already knew each other in real life... you didn't have to rely too much on the app, but it just established that common ground. Enough for you to then connect in person, which is lovely.
Adam
Yeah, correct. I guess what a lot of people are doing on the app, we could do in person. It just helped knowing we had the similar interest.
I imagine it took the pressure off a little bit since you already knew that the other was on an app and looking, and that you had similar preferences. You could approach each other with a little less anxiety since your chances were looking pretty good! [laughs]
Karla
Yes, exactly! [laughs]
Adam
Absolutely [laughs].
What would you say is your favourite part of your relationship? What have you discovered so far that’s your most cherished aspect?
Adam
I don’t know about you [Karla], but Karla moving in with me was just the absolute pinnacle of life. I'm 27 years old, so I’ve had past relationships, but when you find the right one, life just becomes easy. It’s just bright, and everything is just amplified.
Karla
We’ve got a quote that we love and we’re going to have on a wall at our wedding which is “When you know, you know. You know that you know”. We’ve found ourselves saying that so much. Even though we were living in two different states – I think that’s my favourite part.
Karla
When we connected and started on those first few dates, and we had more in common then we even initially thought. It just clicked. I just knew that I’d found my person. That’s my favourite part.
Proposal aside, do you have a favourite moment from the relationship?
Karla
Yeah! We work for the same company – they have offices in Melbourne and Perth – and I would occasionally come to Melbourne for work sometimes, even before connecting with Adam again. I came in February for ten days once we started dating.
Karla
I think that was one of my favourite parts because it was after having spoken to each other every day for like a month, and then finally I was able to come to Melbourne. We squeezed so many dates into the ten days and it was just such a fun time. We always refer to them like “oh remember the ten days…” …
Adam
Mine might sound a little bit cheesy, but honestly, every day. I can pinpoint nearly every single day leading up to now. Just before the lockdown, Karla said “Alright, you're coming out with me”…she just told me what to wear and nothing else. I had no idea what was going on. We drove out to a place called Werribee and she’d organised a nice massage and spa day.
Adam
So, just every day. Coming home to Karla is great. She’s the person I want to see at the end of the day and the person I want to wake up to. Every day is a good day for me.
Do you want to share the story of the proposal?
Karla
Yeah! Our one-year anniversary and my birthday were about one week apart in March. In January Adam had said “you're only getting one present, but we’re going to go away for our anniversary”. I thought, ‘ok, no worries, that’s fine’, I'm not a big present person anyway. As long as we got to spend it together.
Karla
Adam had gone back to Perth in February for his brother’s wedding and had to quarantine for two weeks. We’d just moved into a new apartment, so I was busy setting it up while Adam was in Perth. He flew back the first week of March which was the weekend we were going away. I didn't know where we were going, just that it was for two nights, and we’d be having lunch at a winery.
Karla
The room wasn’t ready when we arrived, so we had a bit of time and just relaxed with a couple of drinks and talked. When we went back to go to the room, I waked in and there were rose petals everywhere, and I was thinking “this is so cute, so nice for our anniversary”…
Karla
And Adam says, “there’s something on the bed you need to read”. I went up and on the bed “Will you marry me?” was written in rose petals. So, he proposed, and I was just in complete shock – in tears and shaking. Just not expecting it at all. It was beautiful.
And Adam, from your perspective, how nervous were you if at all?
Adam
I wasn’t too bad. I was more nervous about asking Karla’s parents for permission. They were in Perth, so luckily with those weeks in quarantine I got one afternoon to myself, so I made sure I went over and asked. That’s probably the most nervous I was. But it goes back to that quote “when you know you know, you know that you know”.
Adam
I wasn’t nervous. When you know what you want, you just generally go for it. I knew by then we were obviously on the same page too, so, for once in my life I wasn’t actually too nervous [laughs].
What's on the cards for you from here? When’s the wedding?
Karla
The wedding is in April next year, in Perth – since all our family and majority of our friends are in Perth. So, we’re planning it from here [Melbourne], but it’s happening in Perth. Obviously, there’s a lot of finger crossing with the lockdowns… it’s always going to be a question mark. At the end of the day if we have to go back to quarantine, we will.
Karla
But I guess the question mark for all our family and friends is ‘when we are moving back to Perth?’ [laughs]. But we’ve still got some things we want to achieve in Melbourne, some work things, personal things, so we’re planning on staying here. But apart from that, it’ll be starting a family. That’s where we want to go from here.
To be honest, that’s all of my questions, so is there anything you specifically want to chat about and have included that we haven’t talked about already?
Karla
I guess just that we are sort of in that lead up to the wedding. As it always happens when you get comfortable in a relationship, the fitness, the exercise can dwindle a just little bit. As we said, it’s always been a focus, but now leading up to the wedding it becomes that much more important in our day-to-day lives as well.
It offers a bit of added motivation for sure.
Karla
That’s right.
Adam
Absolutely. And we can work out together, knowing we have that similar interest, makes it easier leading into the wedding.
Do you do couple workouts? I know you said you're using an app at the moment, but do you regularly work out together, or you tend to motivate each other but keep the actual workout separate?
Karla
We definitely motivate each other but the actual working out … sometimes we do things together as we said… but our main sort of workouts… we keep it separate.
Adam
Yeah, the only time we generally work out together is when we’re in lock down and forced to – not that it’s a bad thing! [laughs]. But that’s generally when we’re together. We’re pretty similar at home anyway, it’s just different weights and reps. But it’s good, we push each other, especially when we both have our minds set on the goal we’re trying to achieve.
Adam
To look over and see Karla smashing it just makes me want to do it more.
Well, that’s all from my end. It’s been such a pleasure and privilege to get to chat to you. We’re so happy for you. Thank you sharing your time and story with us and allowing us to do this piece.
Karla
Thank you so much.
Adam
Hopefully there’s more stories like ours to come in the future. Best of luck, I guess.
And best of luck to you! We’re so grateful that we get to be a part of your story, even if it was just as the springboard to reconnect, so congratulations and good luck with the wedding!
We hope you enjoyed hearing Karla and Adam’s story as much as we did!
If you’ve found your fit and want to share your story, we’d love to hear it! Get in contact with us at
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