First Published February 2015
KATHRYN THOMAS TRANSFORMING TULLAMORE
During the course of her career so far Kathryn Thomas has established herself as one of the most high-profile and well known presenters in the country. She’s someone many of us will remember from her earliest days on ‘Rapid’, with then Dublin football star Jason ‘Jayo’ Sherlock. From there, we clocked up God knows how many miles around the world with her, taking in all kinds of weird, wonderful, mad and exotic locations during her tenure as presenter of travel show, ‘No Frontiers.’ These days, of course, Kathryn graces our screens as host of the hugely successful, and influential, lifestyle show ‘Operation Transformation.’ Kathryn was in Tullamore last Saturday to open Clinical Fitness Tullamore (Thomas McLoughlin) in the Tanyard, and I had the pleasure of spending some time in her company. And on Valentine’s Day, too!
I began by asking Kathryn what she reckoned were the advantages of coming somewhere like Thomas’ superb new facility, Clinical Fitness Tullamore, for someone thinking of either starting a fitness plan or joining a gym for the first time?
“Well I think everybody needs support and everybody needs a bit of a kick-start when they’re looking to try something like that. Because if you haven’t been following a fitness plan I think it’s really difficult to do it on your own. So to be able to come somewhere like this, and have the likes of Thomas, who’s professionally trained, walk you through all the equipment and all the stations, well that’s exactly what you need. And also, I think once you make a decision to join, the first thing is you’ve parted with your money so that in itself is motivation to go! But as well, if you’ve made an appointment on a one-to-one basis, that’s an incentive too because you’re not going to let anyone down. I always say that the most difficult thing for people is actually walking through the door of somewhere like this and getting over that first fear. But I think Thomas is great and for people to have his level of support behind them will be brilliant, I mean, his knowledge of fitness is huge. And he has a huge passion for it as well, and I think for anyone starting up a business like this, passion is everything. You put your heart and soul into it, because it’s a big step to open in times like these. So what you have to be is passionate, and you have to believe in yourself, and that’s exactly what he does. It’s a fantastic facility here and I know he’s going to do really well.”
In both her role as presenter of ‘Operation Transformation’ and in her own personal life, I was sure that Kathryn had probably seen more gyms than some people in need of gyms have probably had hot dinners! So what would Kathryn say makes Clinical Fitness Tullamore that bit different to what else is out there?
“Well basically it’s all body-weight focused here. If you go into other gyms, most gyms, you’ll see thread-mills, you’ll see spinning bikes, you’ll see all this sort of stuff. But what Thomas is doing is focusing on strength and conditioning using your own body weight. And what I like about that is that everyone, whether you’re 10 stone or 20 stone, can use this facility and it’s going to suit YOU. And you’ll see your strength increase as you go, and you’ll be able to gauge it. If you were able to do 3 rungs of the monkey bars starting off and then collapsing, well over the weeks if you can get to 5 and then 10, well you can see and feel the progress that you’re making.”
Again, taking into account Kathryn’s position as presenter of ‘Operation Transformation’ and her own passion for fitness, I wondered what she saw as being the biggest threats to Irish health at the moment?
“Well it all comes down to our diet, Anthony. I mean for the World Health Organisation to turn around and say to us that with the way we’re going, in 5 years time we’ll be the fattest country in Europe, I mean that’s just shocking! In the past we’d always talk about America and the obesity crisis there, but we’re in the throes of an obesity crisis here, now. So I think it comes down to education and to teaching our kids early. ‘Operation Transformation’ has been campaigning for 4 years to get calories put on menus and finally it was enacted and announced that it was going to be law by Minister Varadker last week. And that was a lot of the pressure that was put on by the show. Not solely, of course, but what we did definitely contributed in a big way, I think. We got literally hundreds of thousands of people to sign up their support for something like that. And it’s about getting kids moving as well, you know, encouraging compulsory P.E. in schools. And again, through ‘Operation Transformation’, we’ve been showing that kids simply aren’t getting enough exercise. Even 30 minutes a day would make a massive difference to kids. So we need to start early, we need to get real about it, and people need to realise that it is a problem that we do need to tackle.”
So where does Kathryn think the line is between governmental responsibility and parental or personal responsibility in this regard?
“I think it’s both. And I think if it’s enacted into law, as it was last week, then the government are taking it seriously. So what that means in turn is that parents are more encouraged to look at their kids and take a harder line with their diet and with exercise, you know. Because this is about the health of the next generation, and for the first time what we’re looking at now is seeing diseases like cancer, and heart diseases, in teenagers. All related to obesity, which has never happened before in the history of the modern world! And again, this is something I didn’t know, but it’s only through my involvement in the show, reading the stats, listening to people like Professor Donal O’Shea, well it leaves you going, my god, we have a major problem here!”
Having already mentioned Minister Varadker, I wondered if he were to step down tomorrow and the call came through for Kathryn to fill the breach, would she have maybe 3 things in mind that she would try and implement straight away, given all that she’s learned and been exposed to from her time on ‘Operation Transformation’?
“Certainly. I’d be making P.E. compulsory for every child of school going age. I personally would introduce a health initiative whereby kids would be weighed yearly. It might sound severe, bu I think it would be a good way to help kids keep their weigh in check, and for adults to help them that way, too. Because I think what we’re seeing now is people who are overweight, and we’re saying, ‘Ah sure they’re grand’, you know? But in fact, they are overweight, or even obese. I mean, we’ve taken 4 years just to get calories on menus. I’m going out with a restaurateur and I know some people in the business don’t agree with that, but what it’s actually doing is facilitating people to make healthy choices, so I would definitely be a supporter of that. And I think it will make a difference. But people have to be realistic as well. If you’re going out for dinner and you’re looking at a meal and it’s 800 calories, you’re still going to enjoy it, you’ll just know you’ll have to work harder in the gym or on the road the next day! Or else, eat a little bit less the next day. It’s just about education.”
So as regards staying fit and healthy herself, what are Kathryn’s main motivators? What keeps her going?
“Well Anthony, I love my food! My biggest downfall is cheese and red wine! Not the healthiest of choices! And I love going out for dinner, hanging out with my friends. I have pizza on a Sunday, I have take-aways, I do all of that. So because of that, I’m actually prone to putting on weight. So I have to work really hard to maintain what I am. I work out twice a week with a personal trainer, and I have 2 dogs as well, who need to be walked every day, twice a day. So all of that kind of keeps me fit. I’d be quite healthy during the week, in terms of I’d eat a lot of fruit and veg. But at the weekend the pause button is pressed and all of that goes out the window! But I try and get back into on Monday.”
And would Kathryn be the kind for setting yearly goals for fitness? Or because her job can kind of take her anywhere at any time, is it more consistency that she aims for?
“Yeah, that’s pretty much the way it is and the way I am, in that I try to stay consistent. I don’t really have a routine job that has you somewhere from 9 to 5 and all that. I can kind of be all over the place. So yeah, I would say that it;s consistency that I strive to achieve.”
Kathryn has already been to the fore in 2 hugely successful shows which have revolved around subjects about which she’s passionate; travel with ‘No Frontiers’, and health and fitness with ‘Operation Transformation’. I wondered if Kathryn’s role in either of those shows came about because of her passion for those subjects, or if it was the other way round, that those subjects became passions because of her involvement in the shows?
“Hmm, good question! Well, I was very lucky to get into travel. I used to work on a sports programme years ago , ‘Rapid’, with Jason Sherlock, I think I was only 19 or 20. So what happened there was that Jayo, who was the big sports star at the time, his role on the show was all the serious sporting interviews, and my role became sort of action/adventure girl! I did bungee-jumping, sky-diving, shark-diving…..anything that he was too scared to do, I’d end up getting to do it! And we did a lot of travel at that time, I mean that was even my first time ever in America with the show. So on the back of that show was where ‘No Frontiers’ came knocking, asking would I like to put a back-pack on and go travelling around the world for a year? And I thought to myself, well this sounds like an easy decision to make! So that was it. And obviously my love of travel grew because I worked for 10 years on the show after that. And I’d always try to maintain my fitness on the road too, you know. I always had an interest in fitness. The travel developed because of the show, but with ‘Operation Transformation’, I’d say it was the perfect show for me because I’d already developed a huge interest in health and fitness. And the producers of that show, they knew I was already genuinely interested in that. And of course, that I’d struggled with my own weight before, when I was in school I was overweight and I’d spoken openly about it. So I think they thought that I’d be a good fit for the show.”
So, with 2 great passions of Kathryn’s life already in the can as far as tv shows go, I wondered if there’s a 3rd great passion that we might expect to see Kathryn grace our screens with sometime in the future?
“Oooh, well! Well I’m innately nosey! And I think through the little bit of radio I’ve been doing over the last few years, I’ve realised I’m actually a better listener that I thought! I always thought I was the ‘mouthpiece’, because that’s my profession, talking for a living. But actually I love the radio and I love listening to peoples’ stories, hearing all sorts of stuff about their lives. So, even though it sounds like a cliche, Anthony, I would love to do a talk-show or a chat-show a little further down the line. I don’t think that I’m ready for that couch just yet, but I’d like to think that it’s a plan for the future.”
On The Right TRAX 