Anna Geary Says Shes Living Life In Her Dads Honour After He Passed Away RSVP Live
Anna Geary Says She’s Living Life In Her Dad’s Honour After He Passed Away – RSVP Live https://bentoncountynewsnow.com/anna-geary-says-shes-living-life-in-her-dads-honour-after-he-passed-away-rsvp-live/
Anna Geary has told how she’s living her life in her late dad’s honour — and opened up about some of the lessons that she learned from him.
The Ireland’s Fittest Family coach’s father, Michael, passed away in March this year after a “short, aggressive illness”.
Anna told Star Chic magazine how life without him “has been an adjustment period” and how he was “one of my biggest supporters”.
She recalled, “He was always someone that encouraged me to get out there and try new things, to not be afraid to try something new — even if it doesn’t work out, the lesson is in the actual willingness to try it.
“My dad was a farmer and he had an incredible work ethic. Any farmer will attest to the fact that work has to be done 365 days a year — especially if you have livestock, you have to look after them. Or if you’re not going to be around, you have to make sure that someone is.
“He really instilled that work ethic in me. I’m really grateful that I have the life that I live right now, I’m almost living it in his honour — trying new things, saying yes to new things and not being afraid to put myself out there a bit more.
“Saying yes to something that’s completely different, it can be really daunting. Sometimes, you think to yourself, ‘Oh, I don’t know, can I do this?’ Whereas now, I nearly feel I have to do it because I’m like, ‘what would dad say?’ He’d go, ‘ah, sure, look — give it a go! What’s the worst that can happen?’
“It’s good to feel him with me in that aspect. But it’s also been really hard, because it’s still so raw. Every time I go home, I expect him to be there.”
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The Cork native added that the loss is something that’s “definitely tough for us to get used to” — and that having a good support system in place is especially important.
She said, “I think that having a really good support structure is really important, and giving people the space to just allow themselves to grieve and be upset. That’s important, too, to not bottle it up and to talk about it.
“I talk about my dad quite a bit, because it’s important.
“But some people, they don’t know how to act around you — how to be, or whether they should bring him up or mention it at all. Obviously, it’s extremely, extremely sad. My dad was only 64 and it was a short, aggressive illness.
“He was so healthy. He was your typical farmer in his 60s and had a few illnesses, but what farmer doesn’t? But all in all, my dad didn’t really drink, he was very active and for him to have gotten sick and be gone so quickly was a shock for everybody around him, and our local community as well.
“On the most basic level, it just makes you understand the fragility of life. Until it lands on your doorstep, you think, ‘ah, yeah, I get it — life is for living’. But when you’re met with something like this, with someone that was still so young, so active and had a lot of living to do and then he was taken away, it does make you realise things like is all that small, unimportant stuff worth getting stressed about? It’s just — life could change in the morning. I think we all nearly have the responsibility to make the most of it, for the people who can’t.”
Anna will be back on telly tomorrow night [October 2] as Ireland’s Fittest Family returns for its tenth season — something which she says is “hard to believe”.
She said, “Ireland’s Fittest Family is one of those shows, I think, where every season throws up different things — and this year, they’re trying to push the boat out and challenge the families in new ways while also keeping the audience guessing about what’s going to happen next.
“We have a new location this year and brand new challenges, so the families can’t prepare — but also it means that as coaches, we can’t prepare. You see the new challenge and literally have a few moments to gather your thoughts about the challenge, try and work out the best way to do it and then devise a tactic for them.
“It does get very chaotic, which is obviously very exciting from an audience point of view — you’ll see some errors, you’ll see all of the coaches taking up different strategies for things because we’re all trying to work out what the best one is. Having the new coach, Nina Carberry, in shakes things up as well.”
The coaches on Ireland’s Fittest Family (Image: Kyran O’Brien)
And there’s even more big changes in store this season, as Anna opened up about what viewers can expect from the latest season of the RTE One competition programme.
She continued, “It’s one of those shows where every year, it’s different. The family dynamics this year have changed slightly in that we’ve got families who have very young competitors. Often in the show, you’ll see the odd family with a really young competitor — but this year, there are more of them.
“The age is from 14 and up, and sometimes you might underestimate a really young person, comparing them to someone in their mid 20s, due to their physique or think that they may not be strong enough mentally or physically.
“But I was really blown away by the mental attitude of some of the families this year.
“The biggest thing, I think, about this season is that it’s the first time in ten seasons where we’ve had a water eliminator, which completely throws everybody off. You can be really fit, but unless you’re calm under pressure and you’re comfortable in water, it can swing the favour in the direction of the other team.
“It was a real shock for everybody. As coaches, we weren’t expecting it either. We can’t be on the water at the time the families are doing it. It was a real challenge for us, as well, to come up with tactics for it. It was just really, really exciting.
“Some of the things that happen…to say edge of your seat stuff, that’s putting it mildly. It’s really unpredictable.”
Anna Geary (Image: Kyran O’Brien)
Anna told how the coaches’ competitive sides emerge once the challenges begin — and how they “fully immerse ourselves in it”.
She said, “People have to remember, first and foremost, we’re four former athletes in our respective fields. We always try to push ourselves — and thankfully, we’re very successful in each of our respective fields.
“When you come onto Ireland’s Fittest Family, even though you’re in a coaching capacity, you’re still very much involved with your family. You become like the fifth family member, eventually. When the referee says, 3, 2, 1, go — we all genuinely forget that it’s a TV show.
“All we see in front of us is a challenge, the course and the vents, the obstacles and ultimately the competition. Oftentimes, the coaches do the debrief afterwards and it’s like, ‘oh my god, I can’t believe I did that’ or ‘I can’t believe I said that’.
“You’re nearly telling your friends and family like, ‘I may have been a little bit animated this episode — don’t take any notice of me!’ You just get so invested in the show.”
As for how she de-stresses and unwinds once the cameras stop rolling, Anna said that that’s still “a work in progress”.
She explained, “They’re quite long days — people see the hour, or 90 minutes, of TV that goes out. But we’re on set from 7am until 8pm and we’re often staying over at the location if we’re there for a few days.
“It does take you a while to come down from, particularly if there’s a high adrenaline-fuelled event.
“Usually, my way to deal with stress, or even if I’m on camera and the adrenaline is high, I find that exercise is really good to bring me back down and ground me. But I mean, if you’re doing long days, the thought of getting up at like 5.45am to exercise or do it afterwards…you’re just not really in the headspace for it.
“Typically, we’ll have dinner and unwind and take our mind off of the show and not talk about it. It would be really easy for us, as coaches, to be fully immersed in it all the time. But you have to be really protective of your energy.
“It’s like going to work. If you had a really tough day at work and you came home to your family and all you talked about was work, then you went to work the next day…your energy would just be depleted.
“Whether I’m with the coaches and we’re going to dinner or I’m going home to my house in Sallins with my husband — I love to talk, as a lot of people know. But often, I’ll be the quietest that I ever am after a long day. I just want to unwind and relax and read a book or watch TV. The last thing I want is to be debriefing and unpacking what happened that day, because you know that the next day you have to go back and do it all again. You have to be fresh again.
“It’s definitely a challenge — but I think it’s a challenge for anyone, you just have to find the ways to switch off.”
In addition to Ireland’s Fittest Family, the new season of her radio show Supercharged with Anna Geary kicked off on RTE Radio One last month.
Previous topics from last season have included “grief and bereavement, disordered eating and fertility” — and there are even more big topics ahead with this season.
Anna told how she hopes to “start normalising conversations when it comes to our health” on the show.
She said, “It’s about making sure that people are aware. That’s the big thing about the show, it’s awareness — giving people the tools and knowledge from credible experts and then hearing shared experiences.
“I think it’s nice for people to realise that they’re not alone. Whatever they’re going through, whatever they’re suffering — there’s someone who can empathise.
“We’ve some big topics to cover this season in the coming weeks. What I really love about Supercharged is that people are so willing to text in share their stories or go into the questions, and that interactive format is quite rare in radio, I think. It’s great that we’re giving them ...
