Elle Gordon meets Kathryn Thomas to discuss the highs and lows of the past year, her return as host of Operation Transformation and feeling grateful as she strides into 2023.
Kathryn Thomas arrives on the dot at Dublin's Dylan Hotel for our chat. It’s a grey early January morning but soon brightens thanks to her trademark easy, breezy and straight-talking manner.
We dive right into it. I wonder what kind of person she is coming into a new year – is she a maker of list or a setter of goals? Or maybe she is more likely to go with the flow?
As the host of Operation Transformation, (she is now in her 12th year), as well as a radio and TV presenter, owner of fitness and well-being business pureresults.ie, and mother to two daughters, Ellie and Grace, perhaps it’s a mix of both?
Kathryn says, "Maybe I approach it differently. This time last year, Grace was only two months old, and we were going back into a new season of OT. This year, she’s one, so we have gotten through that first year and I am probably going into this year grateful and much more present. When you are with a newborn, everything is sort of up in the air.
"This year, we had such a great Christmas. We hung around in Dublin. We didn’t do too much moving around because my sister Lynda had a baby girl on the 21st of December, and my brother came over from the Isle of Man with his wife and their daughter, and they are expecting a little girl as well, so it was wonderful.
"But I am really looking forward to getting up and running with OT again and just enjoying being a mom to my two girls. When I think about this year compared to last, I feel much more relaxed."
Speaking of her daughters, I ask if they are at that really fun age now. "Yes, Grace is 14 months now, so it is that age where everything she does makes us laugh, and Ellie is four and a half. They are two lovely ages. It is exciting, I feel 2023 is going to be a good year."
A new year often means a reset for a lot of us, but given the business she is in – both fitness and media – I’m guessing she is on a year-round health kick.
"Oh listen, I am the greatest one for sitting on my throne handing out all the advice I should be handing out to myself! I relax coming into Christmas, so for me, it’s all bets are off, we’re drinking wine, is it Tuesday, is it Wednesday? What are we eating? Pizza?’ So, it’s all of that and I love it because it is a time for me to really slow down, and it is a time that I take the foot off the gas. But I also look forward to this time with OT as it helps me to get back into routine.
"We are doing a lot of travelling with the show, shooting at the weekend. We are in studio down in Laois and doing the voiceovers back in Dublin so there are a lot of moving parts to it, but I love it."
So full throttle from now? "Absolutely. Well, my Monday is sacrosanct now because with filming, my weekend is Sunday and Monday. But yeah, I am the type of person who always like to be looking into something or after something. I think that is my make-up; I am not very good at sitting around not doing a whole lot. It is something I will check myself on, or my husband will say, 'OK, enough of the to-do lists!’ On a Sunday I will be all, ‘Right, let’s go visit Lynda or let’s get out for a walk’ so he’s good for saying, ‘Can we just sit down?’ He is the Yin to my Yang there. I suppose that’s just who I am. I am always up to something or on to the next thing."
After so many years, returning to OT must be like catching up with family for Kathryn. "Yes. 12 years. It just comes around so quickly every year. They are like a second family to me. The ethos of the show and what the experts bring to it in terms of their professionalism is amazing. And we are moving and evolving all the time: the show that went out all those years ago wouldn’t stand up today, so we are always listening to the audience and looking at what is happening in the world of nutrition and fitness.
"Particularly in the last four or five years, the people who watch the show will understand that mental health is on a par with physical health. The whole point of this is that the Leaders gain a whole lot of tools and knowledge to live longer, happier, healthier lives."
With such a full-on work schedule, I’m curious about how she minds herself. "I would be fairly good in terms of bringing food with me when I am on the road. We got a new freezer just before Christmas so I am planning on getting back into the batch cooking again. I also got a slow cooker. I couldn’t put it off anymore; everyone was on the slow cooker. But I would be good at getting meals prepped, stuff that when I am gone, Padraig can just whip out of the freezer, so yeah, we would be quite disciplined with that.
"On Friday, Saturday or Sunday, there will be pizza and takeaways or out for dinner with the girls. I think there is maybe this perception that I am a total health nut and that is just not the case. I love food, I am married to someone who loves food [her husband is a restaurateur]. Because I love my grub, I get out for my run and I do my Pilates and just enjoy both."
Kathryn put her interest in fitness and well-being on a business footing when she started Pure Results in 2016. "To get 20 or 30 women together and bring them away from their home environment, and away from the stresses of the day-to-day, there is something magic about that. I love the power of women together. This year, we have added hiking retreats over in County Clare, so they will be less focused on fitness and more on yoga, hiking and the odd sea swim. And then we have Bump Fit [an online resource for pregnancy fitness], so to be able to continue to evolve the business is exciting."
Looking back on 2022 and ahead to the rest of this year, does she often count her blessings?
"I am so grateful for my health and my wellness and my family. In my social circle, we have dealt with a serious illness, and I think the older you get the more you appreciate being well and having your physical and mental health. We experienced sickness and we are all still dealing with it. Something like that just stops you in your tracks and you go, ‘Jesus, we really do need to mind each other and appreciate what we have and how important our health is.’
"It has been a tough time, but Padraig has been through that with me. He has been my rock. When you come through a rollercoaster year where ill health visits the people that you love, you can’t help but go in 2023 with hope and positivity and energy.
I keep using this word ‘grateful’, but I do feel so grateful. I have great family and friends. I am very fortunate."
You can follow @kathrynthomasofficial on Instagram and pureresults.ie
