Wholehearted Living and the Gift of Self
Viva and Chase Crouse live in Texas with their four children. They share a vocation rooted in faith, family life, and service. As the co-founders of Hypuro Fit, a Catholic-based personal training and nutrition coaching company, they integrate Pope St. John Paul II’s Theology of the Body with exercise and nutrition science to help clients grow in self-mastery for the sake of self-gift. Viva also serves as a spokesperson for PeakDay and the Couple to Couple League and hosts The PeakLife Show, where she engages Catholic guests in honest conversations about fertility education, wellness, and women’s health. Together, the Crouses embody “Wholehearted Living” by nurturing body and faith within their profession, marriage and family life.
Q: Can you share a little about how you met, your faith, and how you became involved with NFP, PeakDay, and CCL?
Viva:
“I went off to college at 18 and attended John Paul the Great Catholic University. Two months in I joined our campus apostolate, which Chase was the president of at the time. I joined the worship band as a pianist and began helping to lead Adoration with him. We became fast friends and then, obviously, more.”
She was introduced to NFP in college and began charting with a Creighton practitioner during their engagement. The couple married in 2018 and soon welcomed their first child.
“My passion at the time was acting,” Viva shared. “But after I started to have kids I decided to let it go. Yet somehow the Lord has always gifted me an opportunity to dive back in. A few years ago that happened to be PeakDay!”
What began as a commercial filming grew into an ongoing collaboration, and Viva now serves as PeakDay’s official spokesperson.
Q: Let’s focus on Wholehearted Living. What does that mean to you, and how do you cultivate it as a family?
Viva:
“To me, wholeheartedness means to put my heart into what I do and to do it well.” As a young mother of four who also helps run a business, she admits this is a continual challenge. “I’m trying to find ways to let go of what is unnecessary and focus on what is going to bring us joy.”
For Viva, wholehearted living includes prayer, health, work, and play- each affecting the other. “With the kids at home, they get to witness me doing all of these things, and my hope is that they can see me do it with joy.”
Chase:
For Chase, the idea of wholehearted living is linked to the idea in the Old Testament that the heart represents the entirety of the person. “The heart isn’t merely a place of feeling and emotion but gets to the very core of who that person is.” He hopes to inspire his family “to live a single life, and not one that is split between their spiritual life and how they act in the world.”
Q: How do you balance family life with the demands of a wellness ministry?
Viva:
“This is hard and has required a lot of help both from Chase and my community.” She describes learning to ask for help, say no, and accept limitations—especially after welcoming their fourth child. “Balance is a work in progress… some weeks I’ve managed well while others I feel like I’m swimming for dear life.”
Still, she believes certain seasons are meant to be hard. “It’s important for me to keep up a habit of prayer and self-care so my well doesn’t run dry.”
Q: What lessons from your early marriage still guide you today?
Viva:
“Something I really need to credit Chase for is teaching me early on what it means to assume the best in others.” Growing into adulthood together shaped how they learned to listen, forgive, and love in the details.
Chase:
Their first year of marriage in New York City was formative. “Living in a tiny studio apartment… forced us to truly rely on each other.” That season cemented a conviction that marriage comes first. “Everything else [is] a fruit of our union.”
Q: You speak often about self-mastery for the sake of self-gift. What advice would you give newlyweds?
Chase:
“Each and every day you will be called to give of yourself, even and especially when you don’t want to.” Drawing from Theology of the Body, he emphasizes that virtue and asceticism prepare spouses to love well. “Your marriage is meant to be a total gift of self to the other, like Christ on the cross—but you can’t give what you don’t have.”
In their marriage, ministry, and message, Viva and Chase Crouse reflect a deeply integrated vision of Wholehearted Living, one where faith animates daily choices, the body is honored as a gift, and love is strengthened through self-mastery and joyful self-gift.
Chase Crouse is the author of the new book The God of Endurance. Check it out online here.
Written by Martha Haenni, CCL Family Foundations Assistant Editor. Join us as a CCL Patron to support our mission! With a monthly gift of $5 or an annual gift of $60 or more, you will receive our complimentary award-winning magazine, Family Foundations as our thank you for supporting CCL. Find courses for a lifetime of fertility at LearnNFP.org.