Why Kayla Itsines can finally say she’s proud of herself

This story is part of the September 17 edition of Sunday Life.See all 14 stories.

Kayla Itsines has only been on a diet once in her life. She lasted a week. At the time, she was dating her former partner (in business and life), Tobi Pearce, and he had been training for a bodybuilding competition. While he spent weeks on a restricted diet of mostly boiled chicken, broccoli and oats, as a supportive girlfriend, Itsines offered to join him for the last stage. After seven days, she was beside herself.

“I told him I needed to get petrol for the car, but I went to the service station and bought two Magnum ice-creams,” she confesses. “I was shaking. Then I was like, ‘Oh, this is the problem with dieting! You crave!’ I will never diet because I want to eat food that makes me feel good. I’ve always known that. That’s just normal to me. It’s like how having a shower will make you clean.”

Fitness trainer Itsines is chatting to Sunday Life ahead of her headlining appearance at FitHer, a health and fitness expo focused on women. The two-day event is taking place in Sydney next month and will host exhibitors in the lifestyle space, live talks and workouts each day, including Itsines’ Sweat bootcamp, which made her a superstar in this world.

While Itsines, 32, shot to fame through the sometimes artificial lens of social media (she has 16 million followers on Instagram alone), in real life she is a filter-free picture of health – clear-skinned, energetic and with a no-nonsense attitude to food which she credits to growing up surrounded by her extended Greek family.

“My family is celebratory,” she says, peppering mentions of her pappous (grandfather) and yiayia (grandmother) throughout our chat. “We eat what makes you feel good, and we grow our own vegetables. But for everyone else, they’re like, ‘No, I want to lose weight or lose fat. I’m going to eliminate foods.’ But it doesn’t make you feel good. You might look a certain way but you will feel like crap, and I didn’t ever want to do that.”

Tod’s “Botto Giuseppe” suit, POA. Bassike tank, $150. Credit: JEDD COONEY

Yet it’s the desire many women have to “look a certain way” which arguably kicked off Itsines’ career. In 2009, when she was a young personal trainer in Adelaide, she joined Instagram and soon began posting before and after photos of her clients. Such was the demand for her expertise that in 2014, with the support of Pearce, she released the Bikini Body Guide, a 12-week exercise plan e-book. The success was immediate and stratospheric. In 2016, Itsines and Pearce debuted on the AFR’s Young Rich List with a combined wealth of $46 million.

Itsines has since admitted to regrets about naming the program the Bikini Body Guide. The app that followed was called Sweat With Kayla, now simply Sweat. However, the BBG programs remained within the app until May 2021, when she renamed them “High Intensity” because she felt the “old names represented an outdated view of health and fitness”.

Before the pandemic shut down international travel, Itsines toured the world, from New York to Dubai, doing live bootcamps for thousands of women. It was at these events she discovered they were not following her program simply to achieve a “bikini body”.

After each of her signature 28-minute workout sessions, Itsines would follow up with hours of meet and greets. “There were all these women who’d come up to share their stories, and they had stories so much worse than anything I’d experienced.

I remember one lady who said she had four kids, and she had terminal cancer. She was doing the workouts to make her feel good, and said she was going to do them for as long as possible. I went back to my hotel room and I just put my face in the pillow, crying.”

Itsines says she often left the sessions feeling defeated. “I just wanted to help everyone. I remember at every single bootcamp, I used to sit in my hotel room and cry after the meet-and-greets because of all the stories.” So, why keep doing it? “Because they would also tell me, ‘You saved my life’ or ‘I never had any friends until this community’.”

Christopher Esber “Ramener” dress, $1295, and “Minette” flats, $995.Credit: JEDD COONEY

Community has always been a huge part of the success of Sweat. Members can join forums for advice and encouragement as part of the program. Itsines again credits her Greek upbringing for her desire to foster this environment. Growing up, she was always surrounded by family and it wasn’t until she began touring the world that she realised not everyone has that same level of support around them. She wanted to create a space where women could connect with each other.

To this day, Itsines keeps her family close. In 2021, Sweat was sold to US fitness-tech company iFIT for a reported $400 million. Despite having the resources to live anywhere in the world, she chooses the quiet suburbs of Adelaide. She lives there with her fiancé, Jae Woodroffe (she split with Pearce in 2020), her four-year-old daughter Arna, who she shares with Pearce, and baby Jax, who she gave birth to in January this year. Her parents, maternal grandparents and younger sister (and popular food blogger) Leah and her family all live within a few blocks and her future mother-in-law is over the back fence.

Does it ever get too much? “No, never! I love chaos. I literally have none of my doors locked – don’t rob us! It’s like a free-for-all. Everyone comes in. “Despite embracing this closeness, Itsines and Woodroffe recently considered moving to Queensland.

“I think it’s good for opportunities when it comes to fitness because of the lifestyle up there. And it’s just so beautiful and sunny.” Her mother was also supportive of the potential move. “My mum was raised in a very traditional Greek family. To her, the family was: ‘You must stay where we are, and you must help us, like until literally we die.’ And she’s like, ‘I’m not doing that to you guys.’ ”

“With Jae, I want to go and do the things. I feel comfortable and complete with my own family because I’m so happy in my relationship.”

KAYLA ITSINES

However, not everyone in Itsines’ family was as encouraging. “My grandparents were like: ‘No Queensland.’ I said to my pappous, ‘Why not?’ And he goes, ‘Mosquitoes! Disgusting mosquitoes everywhere!’ ”

When asked why she hadn’t considered leaving Adelaide earlier, Itsines is careful with her words. She has spoken about her relationship with Pearce in the past and is wary about being misquoted. “I didn’t have the right person to travel with,” she hints. “But with Jae, I want to go and do the things. I feel comfortable and complete with my own family because I’m so happy in my relationship.”

While Pearce stepped away from Sweat within months of it being sold, Itsines remains connected to the business. Her official role is “head trainer”, which she describes as “doing bootcamps, media, social content, providing how-to videos, whatever the community wants.”

As the headliner for the FitHer expo, Itsines is looking forward to getting back to her bootcamp roots. “I’m really excited. It’s going to be an OG, the original high intensity bootcamp, and I just want everyone to literally sweat. Everyone who turns up, get ready to go. Be ready to sweat!”

Wynn Hamlyn “Nancy” top, $NZ495. Eres slip, $305. Christopher Esber “Retraction” leggings, $995, and “Minette” flats, $995.Credit: JEDD COONEY

Itsines oozes positivity – she’s the ultimate hype girl. But she admits that she has often struggled to give herself a pat on the back, even when achieving enormous success. “It was always just go, go, go. There was no one there to stop me and say, ‘Hey, let’s celebrate.’ ”

She says that’s changed since starting her relationship with Woodroffe. “He’s like a labrador – he’s always happy,” she says, smiling. She tells a story about recently feeling inspired to send him a message saying for the first time: “I’m really proud of myself.” Woodroffe didn’t know the context, but responded, “You should be.”

What was the moment that triggered her to send that message? “It’s not going to be what you think it is,” she says, hesitating before continuing, “I have various properties, and they obviously bring in rental income. I was looking at my phone and a dollar amount was coming from the rental income and I was like ‘Wow’. I’ve set up a life for myself and my kids.”

Since Itsines and Woodroffe launched their relationship publicly in January 2022, they have been the subject of sometimes intrusive media interest. How does she cope with tabloid gossip? “I know myself and know my morals and my values, so I like to read the articles out loud at family dinners. I try not to laugh, but I’m so ridiculous because I stand up and read the articles in a newsreader voice,” she says, laughing.

Rather than trying to avoid the spotlight, the couple tackle it head on, even launching a joint Instagram account. In the spirit of Brangelina, they’ve combined their first names for Jayla (@itsjaylahere_), an inside look at the couple doing, well, regular couple things – playing with their dogs (a dobermann, a German shepherd and a husky), photos of Jax, and, of course, going to the gym.

“I actually don’t do anything else. What you see is literally what you get. I don’t go out. I don’t drink. I don’t smoke. I’m very boring. The only other thing I do is clean my house. I can put that as an addition to my social media, if you like!

Aje bustier, $395, and skirt, $455. Bottega Veneta sunglasses, $600. Credit: JEDD COONEY

“I don’t have nice shoes. I don’t have handbags,” she adds. “Jae says, ‘The most frustrating thing about you is that you sold your business and went and bought a Dyson vacuum cleaner!’ ”

Again, she credits her Greek family for this frugal approach to life. She tells a story about her grandfather’s industriousness when she renovated her house. “He cut the old vinyl flooring that was being thrown out and made himself orthotics for the inside of his shoes!” With her fortune, surely she could have offered to buy him real ones? “I said, ‘Pappous, I can literally buy you comfortable shoes.’ But you actually can’t tell him anything!”

Spending time with Itsines, it seems true that “what you see is literally what you get”. It perplexes her that people would think otherwise. She tells of an encounter that took place in a New York restaurant: “This lady came up to me and she put her hands on my shoulder and she said, ‘Hi, I love you so much.’ Then she was like, ‘Oh my god, are you eating pasta?!’ I was like, ‘Do people think I don’t eat pasta? Have I portrayed this?’ ”

This is not what Kayla Itsines wants people to think of Kayla Itsines. “My mission is just to make women feel good through working out,” she says. “I’m not here to push a diet on them. I’m not going to push anything other than let’s just do a good workout in a small amount of time. If I can make you feel better, then my job is done.”

FitHer will be held at the International Convention Centre, Sydney, October 7-8.

Styling by Nadene Duncan; Photography by Jedd Cooney; Hair by Darren Summors; Make-up by Claire Thomson; Fashion assistant Jessica Rolfe.

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