Turia Pitt is known for doing extraordinary things.
After surviving burns to 65 per cent of her body while running the 2011 Kimberley ultramarathon, she underwent more than 200 operations and defied all odds and doctors’ expectations by not only running again but competing in multiple Ironman triathlons, a goal she’d set herself in recovery.
Her story is one of resilience, grit and perseverance. But these days, Turia is no longer interested in proving how much she can push through. She’s more focused on finding what actually works for the life she has now.
Based in the NSW Northern Rivers, she juggles life as a mum of two young boys with her career as a bestselling author, speaker and mindset coach.
“If I get a run in, that’s a win,” she tells The Weekly. “If I get to go to the gym once or twice, I feel like I’m winning.”
The pressure to prove she still had it
Motherhood changed Turia’s relationship with health and fitness.
Before having her sons Hakavai, eight, and Rahiti, six, with husband Michael Hoskin, training was much easier to prioritise. She had time for long runs, big bike rides and hitting personal bests. Exercise wasn’t something she had to squeeze into her life, it was a huge part of it.
“When you become a mum, you don’t really have that time or even that bandwidth anymore,” she says.
“My husband’s a helicopter pilot. He works away, so like most parents, it’s a juggling act between work, the kids, school pickups, lunches… If you get time to yourself at the gym or going for a walk or going for a surf, it’s a bit of a win.”
But Turia admits it took time to adjust to that change. After the birth of her first son, she set herself a daunting goal: completing a 30-kilometre mountain run.
“I know. It’s crazy,” she laughs. “I did that and I was like, ‘Yes, I can… I’ve done it. That’s amazing.’ But then I had my second child, and since having him I haven’t done any long run at all.”
Looking back, she wonders whether that race was about something else entirely.
“Maybe I had something to prove,” she ponders, “to kind of show that I still had it.”
Why pushing harder stopped working
At 38, Turia’s definition of health looks very different to the one she had in her twenties.
Back then, it was about pushing harder and going further. Now, it’s about “consistency and just showing up”.
“If I smash myself at the gym, honestly I probably injure myself,” she shrugs matter-of-factly. “I think you become better at finding that line between pushing yourself but not going too overboard.”
It means caring about the things younger Turia would have rolled her eyes at – resistance band exercises, keeping her hips healthy, all those “boring” exercises that help prevent injuries.
“Younger me would be like, ‘I’m not doing that. That’s a waste of time. I’m just gonna go smash it.’”
With age has come a better understanding of what her body needs.
“You become better at listening to it,” she notes. “There’s not a lot of good things about getting older, but I think that’s one of them.”
The warning signs she no longer ignores
In 2025, Turia released Selfish, the hardest book she’s ever written. Beneath what looked, from the outside, like a full and successful life, she was struggling with burnout and depression.
Writing the book became part of learning how to look after her mental health – and to stop treating her own needs as something that always had to come last.
Almost a year later, Turia says the biggest difference is the way she responds.
“I’m more across the warning signs,” she reflects. “Whereas early last year I was probably in a little bit of denial about them.”
Nowadays, when she feels overwhelmed, her instinct isn’t to push through. She’ll reschedule work, order school lunches rather than making them or let the kids skip an after-school activity.
“I don’t choose then to make things harder for myself,” she says. “I probably have less pressure on myself to do things perfectly, which is really hard to get your head around when you’re a high achiever.”
But she’s stopped seeing that as failure. “I’ve realised that’s what my mental health needs.”
Moving for the right reasons
Like many women, Turia has had to work at separating exercise from appearance.
It isn’t easy. Social media hasn’t helped. Neither did growing up in the ’90s, when thinness was everywhere and diet culture shaped so much of the way women were taught to think about their bodies.
“For women, to disentangle dieting and exercise from body image is very, very hard,” she says.
When self-criticism creeps in, she tries to appreciate everything her body has given her.
“I focus on what it’s done for me,” she says. “It allows me to swim and surf and run and pick up my kids and hold my son’s hand as I cross the road.
“My body, my vehicle for life, deserves TLC.”
She’s also realised how much movement helps her mental health. “Exercise is a good way to process the emotions and the stress that we hold in our body.”
Turia noticed it recently when her husband was away for six weeks and she was managing work, parenting, school runs and everything else on her own.
“My mental health is the best when I’m setting aside some periods in the week to do a bit of fitness.”
Small really is enough
It’s why becoming an ambassador for Fred’s Big Run felt like such a natural fit.
The virtual challenge raises money for the Fred Hollows Foundation – a cause Turia is deeply passionate about – while encouraging Australians to move in whatever way works for them. Unlike many fitness challenges, this run isn’t about speed or performance. You can walk, run and break up the distance across the month.
“It feels very much in line with how I approach health and fitness today,” Turia says.
“I like it because you do it at your own pace, in your own time, on your own schedule with what works for you.”
Her advice is simple. “Don’t overcomplicate it. You don’t have to start a whole new regime… It can just be doing one little thing every day.”
“The smaller the better, because when things are small and easy, we’re more likely to do them.”
Fred’s Big Run takes place throughout August. To register or find out more, visit Fred’s Big Run.
