KATHY SMITH
WHEN FITNESS MEETS FOCUS 

by
Steve Osborne
      

Kathy Smith is surrounded by the good things of life.

Professionally, she is recognized as America’s leading fitness expert – the creator of an empire that has sold more than $500 million of products in 16 countries. Personally, her life has been blessed with a loving husband and two beautiful daughters, plus a bevy of close and caring friends. Physically, she is beautiful, healthy, and fit at 48. Millions of her devotees around the world – many of whom are less than half her age – will exercise harder and eat better today because they want to look as good as Kathy Smith looks.

But it wasn’t always like this. She wasn’t always surrounded by life’s bounties.

In fact, at the vulnerable age of 19, Kathy was alone – heartbreakingly and devastatingly alone. The daughter of an Air Force pilot, Kathy moved with her family frequently from base to base, living in a diverse spectrum of locales ranging from Brazil to Wisconsin, but always having to pull up stakes before new friendships could mature.

Then, when she was 17 and the family was living in Hawaii, her father died suddenly of a heart attack at the age of 42. She had always relied on his love and strength, and now he was gone. Two years later Kathy suffered an even more devastating loss: her mother was killed in a plane crash.

"I felt terribly lost and depressed," she recalls. "Suddenly no one was there for me. I couldn’t even turn to my older sister because she had responded to the tragedies by losing herself in alcohol and drugs. It was a very confusing time. I didn’t know what life was all about. I got involved in destructive behaviors – this was the early ’70s – experimenting with drugs, drinking, wild parties ... just living for the moment."

Running for Her Life

In the midst of this cloud of pain and turmoil, something happened that permanently altered the course of Kathy’s life. Her boyfriend, a football player who ran to stay in shape, was ill-equipped to deal with her despair. He began to withdraw and date other girls. Sensing that this final abandonment would be more than she could bear, Kathy started running with him just to be near him more often.

After her first run she realized that she had fallen in love with something that would change her life and never go away: the bliss and clarity of repetitive physical exertion.

"Every time I came back from a run," says Kathy, "I felt clear and calm. I could make better decisions. It brought order back into my life again. It was a real turning point. Plus, I became part of a ‘family’ again: a family of runners. I felt like I belonged."

At first Kathy couldn’t keep up with her athlete boyfriend. But her naturally competitive spirit kicked in and she was soon running shoulder-to-shoulder with him, building her endurance, increasing her range. As she got into shape, she discovered that her body would not tolerate the indulgences of the destructive lifestyle she had been living. Nor did she feel the emotional need for these behaviors anymore. Fitness forced her to clean up her act. In 1975 Kathy ran the Honolulu Marathon. This was back when few women participated in marathons and other such athletic events. She continued to run and was listed in Runner’s World as one of the top 100 women marathon runners in the country.

Says Kathy: "When I had tests in college or wanted to get something accomplished, the running would set me in motion. To this day, when I have to work on a book or prepare for a big photo or video shoot, I don’t think ‘Oh, I need a cup of coffee.’ I think, ‘I need a workout.’ It gets my energy flowing. It helps me focus. It holds a very powerful attraction for me because it produces such dramatic results."

Kathy has ridden her passion for fitness to breathtaking heights since that first marathon run a quarter of a century ago. Today, she is a living trademark – a name that has become synonymous with fitness, nutrition, and health. According to Sports Illustrated, "Kathy Smith is fitness in America!"

Her 27 exercise and fitness video and DVD titles – ranging from aerobic workouts to her recent kickboxing workout – have sold more than 11 million copies. Her offering of books, audio tapes, weight management systems, nutritional supplements, fitness equipment, and workout clothing continues to grow. Her weekly fitness column has been syndicated in newspapers throughout the nation. She has graced the covers of more than 50 magazines, and has been inducted into the Video Hall of Fame, an honor she shares with Steven Speilberg and Jane Fonda. She is a dynamic motivational speaker, sought after by Fortune 500 companies.

Giving service is an important part of Kathy’s life. She was the 1999 Celebrity Spokesperson for the March of Dimes Ambassador Program, is a member of the Board of Governors of the Women’s Sports Foundation, and has endowed a fund in the name of her daughters to benefit girls and young women athletes.

Although Kathy is passionate about what she does, it has taken more than passion to rise to the top of a competitive industry and stay there. Her razor-sharp ability to take an accurate reading of the pulse of the marketplace has been a key to her success.

"When you’re passionate about something, you want to know every thing that is happening – all the newest developments," she explains. "Fitness intrigues me. When anything new surfaces, I’m out there taking classes, buying books, and talking to the experts about it."

Being on the leading edge is old hat for Kathy. She remembers being a guest on the Merv Griffin Show when he referred to aerobic exercise as a new phenomenon that was taking the country by storm.

Kathy also listens carefully. "I’m always listening to my consumer and reading between the lines," she says. "It started back when I was doing high impact aerobic tapes. I’d ask people for feedback and they would say how much they loved the tape. But every fifth person would say, ‘The tape was great, but the workout was just too hard on my knees.’ So I responded by creating a low-impact workout tape. I never just sign autographs. I always ask them which of my workout videos they have, how they like them, what their problem areas are, and what improvements they could suggest."

Kathy also listens to herself. "I’m lucky to be right in the middle of the baby-boomers," she states. "That means I’m going through the same things that everybody else in this generation is going through. I would feel stressed out, so I’d go to a yoga class. And all of a sudden it hit me that everybody needs yoga because everybody is stressed out. It’s a matter of staying in tune with what’s happening out there."

What does the Queen of Fitness do to keep herself in shape? Surprisingly, her workout routine is not … well, routine.

"It’s not an absolute for me," she admits. "I’m very spontaneous. For me, fitness is like eating or some other part of my life that is completely integrated with it. What I do on any particular day depends on which season it is, which week it is, whether it’s a holiday, whether I’m traveling, how energetic I’m feeling, and so on. I believe that you should listen to your body. It goes through natural cycles. When you adjust your fitness routine to what your body is telling you, you’ll enjoy exercising more. For example, I do a lot of hiking and mountain biking. When it’s winter I feel like cocooning and want to be indoors a bit more, so I’m on my treadmill a lot. When I’m in a high-energy phase I focus more on cardio activities. When I’m in a low-energy state I gravitate to the more rejuvenating things like yoga.

"People tell me, ‘I’m working out hard but I just don’t enjoy doing it anymore.’ I say ‘Well, don’t do it anymore! Switch. Do more yoga. Do something gentler for awhile.’ Then they say, ‘Can I really get a workout doing that?’ I think that our society, because of all the magazines and infomercials, believes that exercise has to look a certain way ... that it has to be hard and long and tough, and anything short of that isn’t exercise. That’s simply not true."

Kathy’s personal "routine" consists of an eclectic assortment of exercises and activities that fall into three main categories: (1) cardio exercises such as running, aerobics, and brisk walking; (2) strength-training exercises using weights or the body’s own weight; and (3) flexibility and stretching exercises including yoga. She typically has a cardio workout three times a week, a strength-training workout twice a week, and does yoga at least twice a week.

Daily meditation is also a part of Kathy’s fitness program. For her, true fitness is holistic – the integration of the health and wellbeing of the body, mind, and spirit.

Ask Kathy what is most important to her and what gives her the most joy. You’ll get an immediate and unequivocal answer: her family – daughters Katie and Perrie, and husband Steve.

She admits that her prolific career (she was a multimillionaire by 35) made it difficult to achieve the proper balance. "Through the years it has been tough," she confesses. "I was fooling myself a little bit in the beginning because my body would be there in the room with my children, but I wouldn’t be there emotionally. My mind would be working on the next deal. I think I’ve gotten much better at it, and it feels so good. It’s all about setting boundaries and focusing on what’s really important – about learning to say no, even if someone is asking you to do something that sounds fun, creative, or challenging, or something that will make a lot of money.

"Simplify life! I think that’s my message for the year 2000. If everybody would just simplify their lives a little bit, they would have more time to do the things that are really important. When people tell me they don’t have time to work out, I ask them to describe their days to me and we discuss what they can throw overboard, like watching television. When they literally do not have one spare minute in the day, I ask them to take a hard look at their lives and analyze how and why they have allowed their schedules to get that crazy."

Simplification can be tougher than a Kathy Smith kickboxing workout, however. She has had to renegotiate contracts and pass up lucrative offers in order to spend more time with her children. The fact that she is a coach and Girl Scout troop leader for Perrie, Katie, and friends is an indication of her success in this important area of her life.

"Some people think that I live a fairy tale sort of existence – that I exercise and have money and everything is perfect," says Kathy. "What an illusion!. I have my challenges just like everyone else. There was my parents’ deaths when I was so young, and then my sister’s problem with alcohol and drugs, which I’m happy to say she has conquered. In just the past few years I’ve had a very difficult challenge with my husband who is going through a serious depression. It’s been frightening and difficult, but we’re working our way through it and we’re making progress.

"Nobody gets through this life without having challenges. Some people might have a challenge in getting their physical bodies into shape. My challenge might be something entirely different. But I apply all the same principles to my challenges that I tell other people to apply when it comes to fitness. That’s why I understand those principles and can teach them. I have lived them. I’ve learned to focus on what I have, rather than on what I’ve lost. I’ve learned to set a game plan, forgive myself when I fall short, and keep pushing ahead.

"If in some way I can be an inspiration to people who are working through problems and trying to change themselves for the better, I feel blessed for that opportunity."

(Copyright 2000 OsborneWriter.com. All Rights Reserved)

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