Chuze Love: The Story of Our Team Members Nathan and Julia Muzquiz

When it comes to love stories, some of the best have flourished under the roof of Chuze Fitness. And today, we are going to tell you about Nathan and Julia Muzquiz, whose story is no exception. In celebration of Valentine’s day, we want to highlight their story to inspire you in love and life. So, let’s get into it.

How It Began 

Nathan and Julia’s story had its start in high school, where they were acquaintances. Their relationship  took off in 2009 when they officially met through some mutual friends at the pool at Julia’s parents’ house. On that first day, they laughed so much that Julia had sore abs. Their early days were full of adventure; Julia says, “Our days were filled with snorkeling, riding on the back of his motorcycle, drives through the mountains, stargazing, snowboarding trips, trips to Six Flags, and pool parties with our greatest friends. That was my favorite summer.”

Joining The Chuze Fitness Team 

Nathan joined the team at Chuze Fitness in March of 2011. At the time, he and Julia were members who were still dating. He started off as a team member in Santee, California, and has since taken on every operations role, including Assistant Manager, General Manager, District Manager, and Regional Director. Now—through all of the opportunity at Chuze—Nathan has worked his way to his most current role, “Most recently I took on a VP role and now oversee all operations for the company, spanning seven districts and four states. It’s been a wild ride, and I’ll be hitting 9-years with Chuze next month on March 2nd!” Back in October of 2012, Nathan told Julia about a Supervisor position in Orange County, and with all of her management experience, she seemed like the perfect fit for the job. Julia told us how her journey unfolded, “The General Manager took me through a very long recruiting process and wanted to be 100% sure I was the right person for the job. I was very thankful for that! After my time at Cypress, I was promoted to Assistant Manager and opened our next location in Garden Grove, California. Westminster, California, was my next destination as the General Manager. After that, I spent three years as the District Operations Manager for all gyms in Orange County locations before moving on to my current role where I’ve been for the past two years. It has been so cool to see our company grow from 8 locations to 30!” Julia is now the Director of Recruiting at Chuze Fitness.

The Proposal

Julia and Nathan’s story grew (and continues to grow) throughout their time at Chuze, and we were curious to hear all about their engagement story. Julia shared, “Nathan and I had plans to go stargazing after work one day in October, but because it was raining, we decided to carve pumpkins instead. Even after him trying VERY hard to convince otherwise, before coming over, I had to stop to get my pajama pants—PJs are very important to me. When I pulled up at his house, he met me outside and said I needed to pick which pumpkin I wanted to carve. He opened the trunk of his car where there were two pumpkins, I picked the large one on the left. He grabbed the other pumpkin, and we went inside. When we entered his house, I immediately noticed that the house felt darker than usual. Before I was able to ask where his parents were or why the house was so dark, he nudged me toward the kitchen. In the completely dark room, there stood a carved pumpkin lit by a single candle with big block letters, “WILL YOU MARRY ME!” I stood there for a second questioning if this message was for me. Once I realized that his parents were already married, and his only other sibling was living in New Jersey, I turned around to find Nathan on one knee with the most beautiful ring in a box with a bright LED light. After I said yes, I heard Nathan’s parents shout from upstairs, “Can we come down now?!” All photos from this day include me, my brand new fiance, and my pajama pants.”

Their Favorite Things

We know all of our favorite things about this dynamic duo—from their hard work, leadership skills, and the laughter they bring to our entire team—but what they love about one another is even better! Nathan told us about the attributes that make him love Julia, “My favorite thing about Julia is her passion for helping others and her love of animals. She will go out of her way to try and make someone’s day and is super thoughtful and sensitive to other people’s feelings. She is the reason we love boxer dogs since she had a boxer when we started dating, and now we have three of them and two cats! She is also super determined and disciplined with her work. And if there are things to be done, she won’t stop until it’s complete, even if it means putting together packets for her workshops into the wee hours of the morning.” Julia still enjoys the laughs that make her abs hurt to this day, “My top two favorite things about Nathan are his humor and his intelligence. From the day we met until now, laughter has always been the core of our relationship. It has gotten us through the tough times, the arguments, stress, and even grief. For me, specifically, laughter gets me out of my own head whenever I’m too worried about something.”

Their Wedding Day 

All of those things lead to their beautiful wedding, which was filled with love, laughter, and a little bit of Chuze. Nate gave us some insight into the day, “Our wedding was awesome, and we had a huge showing of support from our Chuze Family. We had fellow teammates, managers, owners, and even a few members that we became friends with in attendance. We even incorporated the Chuze slogan and logo into a few table centerpieces for tables that had coworkers at them. It was a great day, and we were so glad to share it with everyone.”

Chuze In Their Story

With our slogan on the table at their wedding, we had to dig a little deeper. When asked how Chuze is a part of their story, they shared, “Working together has really helped our communication with each other outside of work. When the two of us made up the Orange County District Team, we HAD to communicate effectively with each other and with the teams. If we didn’t, it showed in the performance of our teams and the clubs. Chuze has played a huge part in our story as we’ve made some of our closest friends through Chuze. Chuze has been there for us when we’ve had incredible highs but also when we’ve experienced our lows. When we found out we were pregnant, we were just as excited to share with our Chuze Family as we were our parents. Because of Chuze, we’ve grown both personally and as professionals and couldn’t see ourselves being a part of another organization. Chuze is ingrained in our family at this point, so much so that even our 11-month-old son has a uniform and a name tag for when he comes to visit our kids club.” 

Keeping a Work/Life Balance

But, when you work together, live together, and grow together, it can be hard to keep work and life separate, “It’s a long commute to work for both of us, so we always call each other when we’re on our way home from work. This is our time to talk about our day and to talk about work. When we’re home, that’s our time to be together and focus on our family. I won’t lie, there are plenty of moments where work gets talked about when we’re out to dinner, playing a board game, or sitting on the couch. Our work and life balance is definitely a muscle we’re constantly exercising. We also love camping trips! Lots of camping trips! Any opportunity to disconnect from our phones and computers, we take it! We also maintain professionalism at work by never referring to each other as ‘my wife’ or ‘my husband’ in the workplace and ask that other people don’t do it either. It’s been important to us that each of us is viewed as individuals first. When we’re at work, we are Nate and Julia only.”

Their Favorite Memories 

With all of that time in the club, (And a baby with a uniform? We’re so in love!) they have built a ton of great memories within our four walls, “It’s hard to name just one, but I think the Cypress club and it’s members will always have a special place in our heart. Having opened that club in a new district together, we made lasting connections to the member base there early on. Everyone knew that the opener each day was Julia and that her fiance was Nate, and he closed the gym at night. Anytime I (Nate) visit the club now, I still run into members I’ve known for close to 7 years now, and being able to share life updates with them is really special. For the original members there to know us as youngsters dating, to being engaged, to married, to now parents is a real special tie to that location. Heck, we’ve even been able to purchase our first house AND our current house with the help of a Cypress member. ” 

Their Advice in Love

Finally, we are asking all of our Chuze couples for their best advice in love. Nathan and Julia shared a beautiful sentiment with us, “Laughter and communication. Don’t take things so seriously and keep your life’s challenges in perspective. Know that little gestures of affection to make the other smile and know you were thinking about them matter, like leaving a single flower tucked into the door handle on their car for them to find after their day at work, or knowing when to come home with Poke.”

We are so grateful for our Chuze Family. From our team members to our members, everyone who walks in our door is a piece of the pie that we need to move forward. We hope that our stories on Chuze love inspire you, and we cannot wait to share more insights from behind the scenes as we grow. If you would like to share a story with us, send us an email at [email protected]. We cannot wait to hear from you!