Lean with Lesley: ‘The more you move your body, the more the mind will follow’

With September standing in as ‘the new January,’ Mary Cate Smith signs up for a Lean with Lesley training session to see if she can develop and maintain a healthier relationship with working out

Lesley Giltinan of Lean with Leslie puts journalist Mary Cate Smith through her paces at a personal training session at her home gym in Rochestown. Picture Chani Anderson

It is hard for me to hear that I’m technically overweight because for most of my teenager years, I was chronically underweight. I obsessed about every calorie I ate and purged when I overate.

It’s hard for me to follow an exercise regime without feeling like I’m betraying my recovery journey. 

When I do feel well, it gives me a sense of achievement and empowerment. But at times, I slip back into old ways of thinking. 

I spend the entire session watching everyone else and wishing I was as good as them. And I never am — at least not in my own head, anyway.

So, I was a little sceptical about trying a workout with one of Cork’s top fitness trainers and influencers Lesley Giltinan, also known as Lean with Lesley. 

An ambassador for this year’s Breast Cancer Ireland Very Pink Run, Lesley looks a bit like Ireland’s answer to Tracy Anderson; think tan, tone, and taut abs.

Hearing that Lesley wants to raise awareness for breast cancer, I immediately warm to her, in spite of hearing from friends that she is “a machine” and “a powerhouse”.

Turns out Lesley’s journey wasn’t exactly linear either. She too suffered from extremely damaging body issues as a teen and young adult.

“In school, I was the least sporty person ever,” she tells me.

“I’d often skip hockey in Scoil Mhuire to go down and meet the lads in the coffee shop.”

Lesley Giltinan of Lean with Leslie pictured in her home gym in Rochestown. Picture Chani Anderson

After leaving school, Lesley suddenly became hyper-focused on losing weight.

“I became very conscious about my weight — to an unhealthy level. My obsession was just with thinness. That’s actually why I started exercising.”

Instantly, I’m ashamed of how judgemental I was. I took one look at Lesley and thought: “She’s perfect. She has no body issues. I could never be like her.”

Women are conditioned to think like this but behind that messaging there usually lies a marketing executive trying to sell a product because we are never enough.

Even Lesley felt this at some point but assures me that once you move, the mind will move with you.

“I joined Silver Springs gym. I was tracking everything I ate but it was not for the right reasons — I wasn’t healthy to the point that I was eating nothing.”

When Lesley recalls those days, it seems so far removed from her reality now. Exercise has given her so much, she says — a strong body into her mid-50s, an ability to take on new challenges, and a positive mindset where she has grown to love the skin she’s in.

With the help of her best friend and her mum, Lesley recovered from her eating disorder — and a huge part of her recovery was fuelled by her desire to build up her physical health.

“I realised that working out made me the best version of myself. It made me feel strong and I loved that. Exercising made me feel confident. It made me look good. I started to fall in love with training.”

Another reason why Lesley is so relatable is that she came to this career later in life, at 40 to be exact.

She worked as a director of an investment company and when an opportunity came about, to head up a joint venture with her husband and friends as co-owner of the kids’ activity centre Supernova, she dove right in.

“I don’t know what I was doing,” she laughs.

“Trying to look after 500 kids in one space, it was absolutely chaotic.”

Journalist Mary Cate Smith pictured during a personal training session Lesley Giltinan of Lean with Leslie. Picture Chani Anderson

After selling their share in the business, Lesley was now left wondering what she should do and when her husband suggested going to college to qualify as a personal trainer, her gut instinct was to follow it. She’s never looked back.

In her first year of business, she ran herself to the ground, doing too many classes and taking on too much.

“I was doing 19 classes a week. I was 40 when I started. I knew I had to slow down,” she explains.

She’s much better at talking to her husband and asking for help now. Her current plan works a lot better where she does six classes a week, in person from Cork Con Rugby club in Ballintemple and live streams classes and videos from her home in Rochestown.

Hearing other women speak about Lesley’s classes is slightly intimidating.

“She’s fantastic,” says one friend who has been signed up to Lesley’s app for just under a year.

“My family think I’m in a cult,” she adds laughing. Since she’s started with Lesley, her mood is brighter, her skin is better and her body feels stronger, she tells me.

Lesley Giltinan of Lean with Leslie makes it look easy as she coaches journalist Mary Cate Smith during a personal training session at her gym in Rochestown. Picture Chani Anderson

I’m a bit worried though. Is what I’ve worn okay? Will I end up with an eye injury or is this sports bra good enough? Will she take one look at me and decide I’m a no-hoper?

She assures me that everyone can do it and that we all have to start somewhere. 

I’m very glad we’re starting in Lesley’s bright, spacious house with her adorable fluffy dog Gigi milling around and not my poky rental house in Mayfield where the moths and insects are named on the lease as housemates.

“You go at your own pace,” she tells me, handing me 3kg dumbbells.

“You lift the weights you’re comfortable with and you will build up — and if it feels too strained, we will just use body weight.”

We start our session with what I now know was the warmup. I want to pick up her Stanley cup and fling it across the room at her but instead I suck it up and do another round of jumping jacks.

“You’re doing great,” she tells me and I start to wonder; ‘What if I am?’

I mumble a few comments apologising for subjecting her to my flabby body. Just like many other women, I want to shrink myself to take up less space.

“There is nothing wrong with your body,” she says, and I almost believe her which is huge for me.

When I go to get a glass of water, something very strange happens. The thoughts start coming into my head and I realise I wasn’t thinking or analysing for that last bout of exercises. Could it be that exercise is actually good for me? I vow not to admit it to Lesley.

“There’s lots of things that play on our mind,” she says.

“Our mind plays games with us all the time, telling us not to exercise but believe me, the more you bring your body, the more the mind will follow. People always walk out of my classes feeling better.”

Journalist Mary Cate Smith pictured during a personal training session Lesley Giltinan of Lean with Leslie. Picture Chani Anderson

Although she has about five men who attend her classes, empowering women is very close to her heart.

“Women are so hard on themselves. Women will look in the mirror and say, ‘I wish I wasn’t so fat’. A man with a big beer belly will look and say; ‘God, aren’t I handsome? That’s where exercise helps your brain to handle these things.”

Lesley got up early this morning, collected me (as I’m currently without a car), took me for coffee, brought me into her beautiful home, introduced me to her dog and husband and worked out with me.

Honestly, I feel so grateful today. She has lifted my spirits to no end.

The fact that she is working with the Breast Cancer Ireland’s Very Pink Run just makes me like her so much more. “I’ve worked with so many women with breast cancer,” she says.

Almost seven years ago, someone very close to Lesley was diagnosed with cancer, she says: “My sister-in-law Jacqui who turned 60 last year is seven years on the medication for breast cancer. She went to her consultant last month and he said: ‘I hope I never see you again.”

Thousands of people are expected to turn up for the Very Pink run, starting at Munster Technological University in Bishopstown, September 8.

“You can run, walk, or skate,” says Lesley.

Journalist Mary Cate Smith pictured during a personal training session Lesley Giltinan of Lean with Leslie. Picture Chani Anderson

In the meantime, Lesley has just secured a very famous new client, Pippa O’Connor Ormond.

“I couldn’t believe it. Pippa was in Cork doing a launch for her own brand,” Lesley says.

Jessica O’Mahony, one of Lesley’s clients, reported back that Pippa was asking about her. Next thing, Lesley got a DM on Instagram: “Pippa said she was interested in getting fit. She was a total beginner. She said she wouldn’t do online, she’d have to have somebody in front of her. Up I went and I go up every Tuesday now.”

I don’t believe Pippa was a beginner — I think maybe Lesley is exaggerating but no.

“Pippa never picked up a dumbbell in her life,” Lesley says. “She has great genes, she looks unbelievable. That goes back to — we have to stop comparing ourselves.”

“She said she’d gone to a class and nearly passed out and she’d never, ever, ever do anything like that again.”

Lesley advises me that women of all ages and stages of life can exercise and reap the rewards: “Whether you’re going through perimenopause, menopause, having babies, or have cancer, training will help you to be the best version of yourself. I’ve gone through it all. Movement, exercise, lifting weights are the best medicine you can have.”

This perimenopausal Barbie is feeling the burn. I lay in bed the next day, sore after my workout but feeling proud. I conquered my own fears. And I have Lesley to thank for getting started.

• Sign up to take part in Breast Cancer Ireland’s Very Pink Run in Dublin, Kilkenny or Cork at verypinkrun.ie.
• If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, support is available from BodyWhys, The Eating Disorders Association of Ireland, at 01 210 7906.