My world, my way: Kathryn Thomas reveals how she juggles her high-energy life

Kathryn Thomas is learning the power of saying no to extra demands on her time and yes to early nights, which have become key to sustaining her fast-forward life. It’s this simple discipline — not HRT, which she dropped — that is helping to fuel her high energy levels

Kathryn Thomas: 'My life experience has taught me that being a parent is an incredible gift, but not to lose yourself in it. I’m still very much me.' Picture: Moya Nolan

KATHRYN THOMAS has been superbly “juggling” it all since she first appeared on our screens 26 years ago, and until last year, the Carlow-born broadcaster thought she thrived on “flying by the seat of your pants”.

In February 2025, for the first time in her working life, she settled into a routine, having joined Dublin radio station Q102 to present The Morning Show with Kathryn Thomas from 7am each weekday.

“I wasn’t sure how I was going to cope with that,” she says of her new regimen. “But physically, emotionally, and mentally, it’s been really good for me. I’ve learned that, actually, I’m not unlike anybody else, and routine is good for us.”

Most would consider Thomas’s new routine punishing — up at 5.30am, at her desk by 6am, then a three-hour radio show followed by a stint in the gym and either an afternoon filming Forever Young, her upcoming documentary for RTÉ, or the school run.

Kathryn Thomas: 'After a week of 5.30am starts, I don’t generally agree to going out on a Friday evening with the girls, or with my husband on a date night, because I know I need that time to restore.'

Also in there is recording episodes of Are We There Yet?, the podcast she launched last November; running her Pure Results retreats; co-presenting the Rose of Tralee; being a mother to Ellie (seven) and Grace (four); a wife (she married businessman Pádraig McLoughlin in 2019), and fitting in friends, family, and a bit of self-care along the way.

She has a live-in au pair to help with childcare, but it’s still full-on by anyone’s standards. She acknowledges her life is “insanely busy”, however, she thrives on the variety her many hats bring. For Thomas, organisation and boundaries are key to achieving balance amid the busyness, and she’s “saying no to stuff when previously I would’ve said yes”.

“I’d often be asked to go to things, and if it’s on the weekend, no. If it’s on a Thursday, no, because [my daughters] have swimming and gymnastics. 

By the time I get to the end of a week of 5.30am starts, I don’t generally agree to going out on a Friday evening with the girls, or with my husband on a date night, because I know I need that time to restore. 

"I need that time to be in my four walls with my family, with the fire on, in order to replenish myself. So it’s about saying no a lot more, getting early nights as well, which are key to allowing me to do all the things that I love to do, and those things that I love to do actually give me energy.”

Evening ritual is vital

Thomas’s evening prep facilitates the smooth running of her pre-dawn start. “My evening ritual is key to my morning ritual.”

She decides her outfit the night before, leaves her makeup and packed breakfast in the car, her bags and computer at the door, and having put her girls to bed and read to them both, she’s in bed with a book by nine and asleep by half past 10. “Literally, I jump out of bed at 5.30, wash my face, into the clothes, gone. By six, I’m having a coffee at my desk.”

She loves getting “to wake people up and brighten their day” on her gig at Q102. She’ll be a year at the helm next month, but deciding to accept the role took “a long time” as she was aware she’d miss out on breakfast with her girls and the “magical morning conversations” the trio had walking to school. 

A chat with her husband and other mums brought the realisation that she’d have them back at the end of the day, and “there’ll be lots of days that I can [collect them from school]”, so she’s “had that trade-off, and it’s working”.

Kathryn Thomas: 'I’m a huge advocate of strength training, especially for women in their 40s.'

At 46, Thomas is slightly older than the average mother (in 2018, the year she had Ellie, the average age for first-time mothers in Ireland was 31.1 years; Thomas was 39. She has been open about the fact that she suffered two miscarriages before having both children through IVF).

Having “done a lot of living” and travelling in her 20s, which gave her “a zest for life — I feel like I’m 30 still”, at this juncture, she finds her children “make me feel like I’m young again”, although she acknowledges that “for sure, you’ve got to manage your energy levels”.

“They keep you laughing, there’s lots of laughter in our house. As an older parent, I appreciate that. And I appreciate what I’ve learned from them. I’ve had a great life, I’ve done a lot of travel and so many incredible bucket-list experiences that actually now it’s the simple things with them. Their view on the world is just so magical.”

Age has also given her the wisdom not to allow her identity as an individual to be subsumed by her mothering role. “My life experience has taught me that being a parent is an incredible gift, but not to lose yourself in it. I’m still very much me, and I know what feeds my energy — I’m not afraid to go out and do that and have my career as well as being a mother.”

She acknowledges she wouldn’t have taken on the radio role, or indeed any other projects, two years ago when her youngest was still a toddler. While the girls “still very much need me”, they’re also now both in school during the week, meaning there’s a little more leeway for Thomas to take on projects.

Safeguard your body

Thomas works hard to make her projects and self-care seamlessly fit into her day: the podcast studio is across the road from Q102, as is the gym that supports her three-times-a-week habit. Having exercise “boxed off” is something she prioritises weekly. Sometimes she mixes it up and runs with her husband, but weights are a pillar of her routine. 

“I’m a huge advocate of strength training, especially for women in their 40s. Going through perimenopause, heading into menopause, I think it is so important for our bone health, for our mental health, to safeguard your body as much as you can, going forward. That, for me, is key.”

Unsurprisingly, sleep is another priority. About a year and a half ago, she went on HRT because she wasn’t sleeping, but didn’t find a huge benefit and, having spoken to her doctor, came off it after six months.

Kathryn Thomas loves getting 'to wake people up and brighten their day' on her gig at Q102.

Stopping the hormone treatment coincided with starting at Q102, and she began to notice how her much earlier bedtime made a positive change in her sleep. “My energy levels increased and improved just by going to bed earlier… I’d never really taken on board that the sleep that you get before midnight, as opposed to after, is light years ahead.”

Up until then, she hadn’t joined the dots of poor sleep equalling low energy and brain fog, “but now I feel like I have more energy by getting those couple of hours’ sleep before midnight”. She will, she says, “go back on HRT when the time is right”.

She’s been running her Pure Results retreats for over a decade. The name change from its initial iteration, Bootcamp, speaks to the fact that she’s embraced the benefits of a more holistic way of life as her own has evolved. 

Her retreats advocate for “the importance of time out, time away from your four walls, time away from your job. Step away from being a mom, from being the boss, from being the provider, the carer, and actually focus on you. Put the oxygen mask on yourself first,” and she’s ever mindful of practising what she preaches.

Every aspect of her work life makes her feel “vibrant and alive”, but she also schedules in date nights and time with her friends, “to make sure that I’m getting that energy from the people that I love, so it’s not just a work focus all the time”.

The former Operation Transformation host is “a real believer in fun and socialising”, and to relax, she loves a book, or the double delight of an audiobook on a solo car trip (no ‘are we there yet?’ interjections), but also finds hanging out with her kids to be a de-stressor. “I know there are parents who are going: ‘Sorry, what?’ There are times when my children send me into a spin, 100%, but I actually find hanging out with them really relaxing.”

Recent years saw cancer enter her world for the first time, when one of her best friends, whom she’s known since they were 13, “got very sick”. The realisation that “it could have been any one of us” gave her pause, so when I ask where she sees herself in five years’ time, her reply is unsurprising and heartfelt. 

“I hope I’m as happy and healthy as I am now, and all I can wish for is the happiness and health of my family and friends as well, because you realise nothing else matters. That’s all that matters — living your life to its fullest, and enjoying it wherever you can. Trying not to sweat the small stuff. All of the things that we hear said all the time, but actually it’s so important to keep hearing it.

“So that’s where I hope I’ll be [in five years] — as happy and healthy as I am now, enjoying my work, enjoying family, and enjoying life.”

See: pureresults.ie

Kathryn’s top tips for health and wellbeing in 2026

Figure out your why

The pressure to jump on the January bandwagon of new habits and resolutions often sets people up for failure. “If you haven’t figured out why you’re making the changes, why are you putting yourself under pressure? In health and wellness terms, you really need to figure out your why: what are your goals, and why do you want to achieve them? Drilling down into the ‘why’ of those goals is really important.”

Prioritise wholefoods where possible

"Have healthy recipes you can cook. I’m not the greatest cook in the world, but having five recipes I can cook or have in the fridge takes the pressure off and keeps you feeling well.”

Laugh a lot

"That’s my top tip. I remember reading that kids laugh 400 times a day, while many adults laugh 14 times. When you spend as much time as I do with a seven-year-old and a four-year-old, you realise how much they laugh at themselves, at the world, at each other. There’s such power in that. I think we could all learn a thing or two from them.”