Somewhere on this wide spectrum lies Kathryn Thomas’s experience. To the outside world, she appeared as busy and productive a broadcaster as ever in 2020, fronting Operation Transformation and ‘staycation’ series No Place Like Home, as well as presenting slots on RTÉ Radio 1. But it wasn’t all plain sailing.

“It’s been such a bloody strange year,” Thomas reflects. “I put on 10 pounds in the first lockdown.

"There was definitely a time, mainly when I was without childcare, when I didn’t know whether it was a Monday or a Saturday, and the bottle of wine and tube of Pringles in the evening wasn’t so much a treat as a requirement.

“My weight would tend to fluctuate anyway, so I wouldn’t necessarily panic in any way, but when I stop running and training and my 80/20 (being ‘healthy’ 80pc of the time, and less so 20pc of the time) soon became 60/40, you’re no more in the mood to be good.

“That wasn’t sustainable for me. Never mind the pounds — mentally, I wasn’t feeling the best in myself.”

Thomas says she found solidarity in the online community of Pure Results, the wellness/heath retreat company she founded in 2015.

Inspired by residential bootcamps in Spain and Costa Rica, the Carlow-born presenter decided to launch a wellness venture of her own.

What started out as a week-long diet and training experience, designed by a battery of life coaches, trainers, nutritionists and Kathryn herself, has now become an online community of hundreds of subscribers.

And in the time of Covid, Thomas says the community has done wonders for her own mental wellbeing.

“It’s been a bloody godsend,” she says. “When you can feel you’re healing people and you’re providing that bit of structure for people, be it through classes, recipes or workshops, that helped me to be present, to have that connection and to put a shape on the week.

“There’s a huge sense of camaraderie and understanding and no judgement among the people in the online community.”

The question does beg to be asked: why did one of Ireland’s most prolific broadcasters create a side venture in the first place?

In 2020, filed accounts for Thomas’s media firm Aquarius Productions showed accumulated profits of €421,488, so it certainly isn’t as though she is in need of a career Plan B.

“I think it was because I had a lot of time off in the summers,” she says. “When I wasn’t working on Operation Transformation, and The Voice of Ireland hadn’t started up, I would have this window of time where you’re pitching and coming up with ideas for shows.

“And there’s only so many [TV] things you can appear on at any one time. I’m not good at all at sitting around and not doing a lot.

“Usually I’d put a rucksack on my back and go travelling for the summer, but when I got older, and got into this relationship and had (her daughter) Ellie, I realised it wasn’t quite as easy to disappear as I once did.

“I didn’t know how long it would last, but I did want to do something I love. Was it (Pure Results) going to make me the biggest earner in Ireland? Absolutely not. Is my broadcasting career first and foremost? 100 per cent.

"But it boils back down to the testimonials I get from people. That’s an amazing feeling, so it was a no-brainer for me.”

Users of pureresults.ie discuss their health wins and wellbeing worries in a dedicated forum. They also partake in online yoga or fitness classes or even attend a ‘pyjama party’.

There are ‘Sit Back Sunday’ events in which Thomas interviews a wellbeing expert like Niall Breslin or psychologist Colman Noctor.

“I often tell people to pour themselves a glass of wine or make a cup of tea for that,” she says.

“There are two distinct camps of people: those who have done the classes and meal plans all the way through the pandemic, and then those who have gone ‘screw this’ and taken their foot off the gas, but have no idea how to get back into the swing of things.

"Others have been using the workshops from a mental health perspective, but maybe aren’t in the humour to do the live classes.”

Thomas is aware that mental health is likely to be the next big post-pandemic health catastrophe.

“It’s quite scary to think about,” she says. “I have friends who I thought maybe might have been better equipped to handle situations like this, but they found it hard. Others I know have really struggled their way through it.

“I think there’s a feeling with the vaccination programme, that once people can start seeing their loved ones again it will make a huge difference.

"Once we are in contact with each other again and the (Covid case) numbers aren’t on the news every bloody night, I hope we’ll be really surprised how quickly we get back into it.

“That said, I think there will be some people who suffered massively — kids and teens especially.”

Thomas had her three-year-old daughter Ellie at home in Inchicore, Dublin for much of 2020. When she started work on Operation Transformation in January, Ellie returned to childcare.

On her experience of being mum to a toddler during lockdown, Thomas says: “We (she and her husband Padraig McLoughlin) both feel really grateful.

"She’s had two lockdown birthdays but she’s at an age where she doesn’t really understand what’s happening. There has been a little more talk of germs and the like, but that’s grand.

“Having seen some of my friends’ kids, where the children are afraid to go back to school, she’s kind of been in this little bubble of blissful unawareness, bouncing around the place.

“That said, I am looking forward to a time when she can go have a sleepover at grandad’s house, or stay the night at her auntie’s house, as she’s never really been anywhere but her own bed. Also, I’m looking forward to a lie-in…”

Ellie made her TV debut last summer when she accompanied her mother on a campervan tour around Ireland for a couple of episodes of No Place Like Home, as Thomas travelled the country covering hidden and much-loved holiday spots.

The series returns to RTÉ One later in the summer, and it’s thought that restaurateur Padraig, now head of Food & Beverage at Kildare Village, might be in tow, too.

Thomas is ironing out the finer details of the next series, but does note that taking a toddler to film a travel series was easier than she first anticipated.

“I was initially terrified, not for me or for her, but for the crew,” she laughs. “The days are so long, and you can’t exactly hold off on filming until you change a nappy or get a tantrum out of the way, or have a nap.

"To be fair, Ellie was absolutely brilliant, although she might be less easy to manage this year, now that she knows more of what she wants and when she wants it.”

Pure Results’ bootcamps will resume in late June at the Seafield Hotel in Wexford, and will also operate later in the year. For more information, see pureresults.ie

Irish Independent