Meet The Wag- February 2019

Leah – Fitness at the Farm:

For our February issue of Meet the Wag, I am very pleased to introduce Leah Maclean of Fitness at the Farm fame.. Read on to find out what motivated this hard-working young woman to build her own fitness business… 

Welcome Leah, we are all intrigued to know what inspired you to start your own fitness business?

It sort of happened accidentally! In 2015, I decided I wanted a change of career and had always been passionate about food and fitness. So, I applied to do an MSc at the University of Bristol in Nutrition, Physical Activity & Public Health. I did this part-time whilst still working in marketing and then finally quit my job in order to complete my dissertation and graduate. After that I started looking for roles in Public Health but didn’t like the idea of commuting from Oxfordshire to London where most of the best roles were based. Instead I started working one-to-one with a few private clients, teaching them how to cook from scratch and developing their nutritional understanding.

A few friends had mentioned that I’d make a good Personal Trainer, so I thought that I should at least get my qualification as it would go hand-in-hand with the nutrition and health side of things.

I completed that in mid-December 2017 and took a break over Christmas to work out a plan. I took on a few PT clients and would go to their homes for sessions. But, as I had been using the farm that I live on as my own personal training ground for years, I thought it might be nice to start bringing clients here and working out in the fields.

By the end of January I had hosted my first Saturday morning group fitness class. About 7 people came along and had a really great workout, using the bits and pieces of equipment, logs, rocks and tyres that I had scavenged from the farm. I carried on hosting Saturday classes until the evenings got lighter and then grew the timetable alongside demand.

You've been up and running (excuse the pun) for a while now so how does Fitness at the Farm work?

Since starting with just one class a week last January, I have grown to 5 group classes per week, 1 private group session for a business nearby and do all of my personal training here.

I like to keep things really flexible for my clients, so I don’t run like a normal gym. Clients can book all the classes online and pay as they go. There are no contracts or joining fees etc. You can just come as and when you want to. To make it a bit more economical for my regulars you also have the option to buy 10 class credits at once for a reduced cost, or to pay a monthly direct debit which makes you a member and gives you unlimited classes as well as a few other benefits.  

Do you have any plans to expand at all?

Yes! Lots of plans! :D

I got planning permission to erect a beautiful Tipi in November 2018 in order to provide some shelter for those days where training outside becomes too miserable. Once the Tipi was up I realised it’s potential for so much more than just shelter. So, I have built my Tipi Kitchen (made up of a wood fire oven, a gas hob and that’s about it) where I will begin cookery classes this April.

As well as monthly cookery classes, I will be hosting corporate away days for groups of up to 20 people. The groups will take part in activities such as farm scavenger hunts, team obstacle challenges, nutrition talks, cookery demos, fitness classes, running classes, yoga and meditation…basically a day out of the office that you will actually enjoy and learn from rather than those awful team building days I remember having to go on :D

I will also host a few day retreats this year, with current plans to have one dedicated to Yoga, another to Running and another which will be for “Tough Mudder” type training. Once I have dates organised I will start promoting them and anyone can book on and spend the whole day At The Farm.

We hear you have just returned from a glamorous and I'm sure well deserved holiday to Sri Lanka, do you have any plans to go-global and turn Fitness at the Farm to Fitness on the Beach?

Haha, it was a gorgeous holiday…but probably not so glamorous. I went with my husband and 2 friends and we spent two weeks travelling around the country with our backpacks. It was a brilliant break! I think Fitness on the Beach would be a great idea, with some sea side cooking thrown in too! I’m keeping things local for now …but give it a few years to see how my business model fairs out and we may be seeing some expansion :D.

Tell us a little about your farm and of course how you met your husband?

The farm is perfection. It is a small tree farm in South Oxfordshire owned by my father-in-law. He grows trees for hedging as well as some crops like sweetcorn and asparagus. His business is winding down though so he is keen for the farm to be put to good use. We have lots of gorgeous open fields with the only farm traffic being my father-in-law pottering around on his vintage tractor.

I actually met my husband Andy right here on the farm in 2008. He was living in the house we live in now, with his best mate who, at the time, was the boyfriend of one of my best friends. She threw her 21^st birthday here and I came for that. Andy didn’t take after his father and become a farmer. He is a tree surgeon and had just started his own business when I met him. He strolled in to his own kitchen, late for the party, wearing dirty overalls from where he’d been fixing a vehicle and saw me chugging wine in the kitchen. We both got on really well and had a bit of a snog in some dingy club in Oxford later that night.

After that, he started coming down to Exeter (where I was at university) to see me and I would come up and see him here. When I graduated the following year I moved straight in! We got married in 2015, just before I started my MSc.

Do you have any words of wisdom or inspiration for us.. hum hum not so fit ladies!  
I like to think that I approach fitness and nutrition a little bit differently to other set ups. I don’t talk to my clients about weight loss…ever! I think it is so damaging how we have all been conditioned to think that our weight reflects our health. When really, our health is determined by the amount we move, the stress in our lives, the relationships we have, the nutritional value of our food, the amount of sleep we get, whether we smoke or drink, as well as a load of socio-economic factors. Yet, everyone is convinced that “fat” is the enemy and being thin is the key to health. I know that when I’ve been at my thinnest in life, I’ve also been at my most unhealthy.

So, I try to educate my clients more about what determines their health. I try to get them to really enjoy food and not see it as the enemy. Food is not good or bad, you don’t ever need to cut out food groups (unless you have allergies or it is for an ethical or religious reason) and you don’t need to track calories in vs calories out. The kind of restrictive diets you see everywhere from Keto to Whole30 are so bad for your mental health. They aren’t sustainable and will often lead to bouts of binge eating, feelings of guilt and shame and cause your weight to cycle which is very detrimental to health.

I try to help my clients develop a healthy relationship with food and exercise. Exercise should be fun! It shouldn’t be a punishment or a way to earn your food. It definitely shouldn’t be used as a tool to transform your body, because… where is the end point with that? That thought process will inevitably lead to feelings of body dissatisfaction. We just to make sure that we do a bit of exercise every day, whether that is gardening, walking the dog, a gentle swim…or an intense spin class or HIIT session. And, if we enjoy that exercise we are more likely to sustain it.

Well thank you Leah, it has been fantastic to hear all about your inspiring business and approach to health and fitness... you may have just given me the kick-up-the bum I need to finally get my lazy bottom back to the gym.. or maybe I’ll just go grab a tractor tyre and see what happens!!

You can find out more about Leah and Fitness at the Farm on the website Fitness at the Farm on Facebook and on Instagram.

Until next time…

Clare x 

AgriWags Founder