As the new presenter for one of Ireland's most beloved series, Kathryn Thomas has added yet another string to her already heavy bow.
With a new baby to balance, as well as another hosting gig on Operation Transformation, there's no doubt she learned a lot from watching families battle it out and overcome adversity.
"What I did learn was don't step off a plank on top of the Irish Life building on the quays of Dublin!" she laughs.
While it was Donncha whose face launched a thousand memes on Twitter as he watched the families teeter on that plank in abject horror, Kathryn recalls that this was her ultimate OMG moment of the show, too. A bit of an adrenaline junky herself, having skydived and bungee jumped around the world, she initially thought she could handle the challenge herself.
"Of course I do, that's what I do, I'm so brave!" she jokes. "And then I went up in the lift, 50 million floors up and stood out, and all of a sudden I went 'er.., you know what? Something in me has changed.' So I'm blaming Ellie entirely, and I will continue to do that for most of her life!"
She adds that after welcoming baby Ellie into the world, her focus on extreme sports has waned quite a bit as her "priorities have changed". You've got to be brave to do something like that."
But what truly impacted on her while presenting the show was watching the families collaborate and pull through the challenges together.
"No, what was interesting for me was seeing the families work together", she continues." Every family make up is different, every dynamic in every house in Ireland is different so when you have a mom that's been put forward to do Ireland's Fittest Family by her three huge sons who all work out but she doesn't really, like she goes for a walk with the girls. And all of a sudden she finds herself on Ireland's Fittest Family and she's just like 'How did that happen?'
She remembers marveling at seeing family members like that showing their strength and strategy shining through, "whether that's in how they tackle a challenge, or whether that's hanging tough".
"Sometimes, when you're that big and you're that heavy and super fit, you can't hold on. You can't hold tough for as long as that particular mom could do, so she brought the bacon home in that particular challenge."
She says that the greatest lesson was in recognising people's strengths, so for her own perspective on fitness and her business, it was great to be "reminded of that".
Whether or not she can imagine battling it her way through an abandoned tannery with baby Ellie in the future, Kathryn thinks it's still a little too soon to call.
"She can't even get out of her cot yet, thank god, so Ireland's Fittest Family might be a long way off! Maybe in three months time."
Being a new mum is an adjustment for anyone, but Kathryn notes that Ellie has put a lot of areas of her life in perspective. When it comes to managing the fitness and mammy lifestyle, Kathryn admits that she’s seeing difficulties that she didn’t see before.
While she says that she doesn’t think "there can be an excuse" when it comes to getting exercise in, she adds "I have to say I was banging on the last couple of years on Operation Transformation, ‘find the time, there’s always the time, there’s 24 hours in a day. But now that I have a 7-month-old, it is so hard".
"You’re up half the night, you’re wrecked, you’re tired. There were months when I couldn’t get off the couch and was ordering the pizza on a Friday night."
She notes that tiredness, emotions and stress is going to change your schedule, so best not to always fight it and beat yourself up for being tired. "So I think it’s about being kind to yourself and allowing that, allowing yourself downtime and to fall off the wagon, but then saying to yourself ‘Okay, something’s got to change’."
"It’s really hard and I’m more sympathetic than I was before because I’m like ‘what the hell was I doing with my life? My time was my own!"
She says she’ll squeeze in 20 minutes in the morning when Ellie sleeps and 20 minutes in the evening if she can’t get to the gym. "It’s about having a little bit of balance, a little bit of structure and putting it in the way that you have to get them to school or you have to get them dressed."
Ireland's Fittest Family airs every Sunday at 6.30pm on RTÉ One.
