{"id":164257,"date":"2025-11-05T13:13:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T13:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/164257\/"},"modified":"2025-11-05T13:13:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T13:13:09","slug":"when-my-son-told-me-about-fittest-family-i-was-horrified","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/164257\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018When my son told me about Fittest Family, I was horrified\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Like many other households, the Walshs have always enjoyed watching RT\u00c9\u2019s Ireland\u2019s Fittest Family together.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe love talking about what we\u2019d do in the different situations, if we\u2019d do anything differently, and what our strategies would be,\u201d said mum-of-three Amy.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s all from the comfort of their couch in their West Cork home, though, and never in a million years did Amy think she\u2019d be taking part herself along with her GAA-mad sons Michael, 22, Aidan, 21 and Alphie, 19.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne evening last May, my eldest son Michael asked if I\u2019d like to go for a meal to Athlone the following day \u2026 and then he dropped the bombshell that we\u2019d be going for a fitness test to try out for Ireland\u2019s Fittest Family first of all. I was horrified,\u201d remembers physiotherapist, Amy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a choice though, and that was to say a flat \u2018no\u2019; or to opt for plan B and go along with it and take my revenge against them and publicly humiliate them,\u201d she laughs.<\/p>\n

\n \u201cMore seriously, as my children are growing up, I figured this was a real privilege, that they wanted to do this with me \u2013 even if it really was out of my comfort zone.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

Amy and the lads, who play hurling for Barryroe and football for Ibane, got through the fitness test with relative ease. The boys go to the gym even on Christmas Day, so that wasn\u2019t surprising.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I actually surprised myself and the lads surprised me in how supportive they were and how they all worked together,\u201d said 50-year-old Amy.<\/p>\n

However, when it came to the actual competition, she admits that it was \u201cpretty intimidating\u201d.<\/p>\n

The three lads were thrilled to be assigned Dublin GAA legend Michael Darragh MacAuley as their coach \u2013 even if Amy admitted she\u2019d never heard of him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it helped actually as I had no pre-conceived ideas about him at all,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The course \u2013 which has changed this year \u2013 was very tough, said Amy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d jokingly describe myself as a \u2018menopausal sloth\u2019, and here I was going on national TV, almost crying and vomiting with the effort, cursing at my children, just trying to get through it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t even register the cameras being there most of the time as I was so focused on what I was doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The family escaped elimination by a one-second margin in the first episode, which aired on Sunday night, and viewers will have to wait to see how they get in future shows.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it wasn\u2019t really about the result as such, well, not for me,\u201d said Amy, who works as a cancer rehabilitation physiotherapist with Cork ARC Cancer Support House in both Cork city and Bantry.<\/p>\n

She said the experience was like capturing \u201ca moment in time\u201d.<\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt was like myself and the boys against the world, sort of magical. We were like a really solid unit. It was also really interesting to see adult traits in the children, their leadership, their drive, determination, and willingness to complete a task.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

But this wasn\u2019t the first time the family has had to show leadership skills. Their quick thinking and cool-headedness led to the rescue of a swimmer who was trapped in a sinkhole at their local beach, Dunworley, in 2021.<\/p>\n

\"AmyAmy Walsh and her son were honoured for their bravery in assisting a women in difficulty at a Cork beach.<\/p>\n

Amy and then 17-year-old Michael were walking on the beach when they noticed a towel on the ground near the sinkhole. With nobody else about, it occurred to them that there may be someone down there. When they shouted down, they got a reply of \u2018help\u2019. Immediately, Amy rang the emergency services and Michael got buoyancy aid, dropped it down the sinkhole, and the swimmer caught the end. He and Amy helped her stay calm as the full tide approached \u2013 until emergency services arrived. They were later honoured for their bravery by Water Safety Ireland and the SEIKO Just In Time Awards.<\/p>\n

\n Ireland\u2019s Fittest Family, Amy also admitted, was a bit of a personal wake-up call.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would have been very fit say 15 years ago but I really let that baseline slide. It happensto a lot of women who are busy working, bringing children to matches, drop-offs, and all that, that we forgo our own fitness because we simply don\u2019t have the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut this was a reminder to me of how much I love being active. It\u2019s important that parents try not to sacrifice their fitness \u2013 a study showed that kids with two active parents were nearly six times more likely to be active, compared to parents of inactive children. My take home from the whole experience is that as women, we tend to give away our best energy and keep the scraps for ourselves, which is something to be mindful of,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Amy is a huge advocate for sustainable movement within the community. She\u2019s the founder of Ladies Who Launch, a kayaking group for women who have experienced, or are living with, cancer, now run independently by the participants with the support of Kinsale Outdoor Education Centre.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s also a qualified pilates instructor, volunteers with West Cork Special Olympic Kayaking Club, and has also recently completed a masters in outdoor education.<\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt\u2019s all about movement for me \u2013 it doesn\u2019t have to be about winning medals,\u201d she said.\n <\/p>\n

With the new series of Fittest Family already enthralling households around the country, Amy would wholeheartedly encourage other families to give it a go.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, some families will be obvious candidates for something like this, but others, like us, should definitely think about giving it a go. You\u2019d be surprised what you can do if you support each other as a family.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Like many other households, the Walshs have always enjoyed watching RT\u00c9\u2019s Ireland\u2019s Fittest Family together. \u201cWe love talking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":164258,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[265],"tags":[18,117,19,17,128,8073],"class_list":{"0":"post-164257","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-tv","13":"tag-wow"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115497272040733735","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164257\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}