Lisa Brown
Lisa Brown is the director of Innervate Health & Fitness and shared her experience as a lesbian business owner in the fitness industry.

It’s interesting being back in the North East of England

Hey guys, it’s interesting being back in the North East of England (where I was born and brought up). If you are a follower of this page you will know that I was overweight as a kid and teenager and in all honesty, just didn’t feel like I fit in anywhere.

Coming back always stirs up emotions and memories of what that time was like for me. I have to say that I think it would be really challenging for anyone living here to live a healthy lifestyle and eat good, healthy nutritious food and exercise regularly.

I find it so much easier in Sydney to do this because of food options and of course the weather. It is so difficult to make healthy choices as all menus are full of the opposite.

I scan the menus searching for something I can eat. Always asking if I can change the chips for salad (and receiving a surprised look and a ‘not sure, let me check’) and then getting a bit of lettuce on the side.

Trying to grab a healthy snack from a service station or a corner shop is almost impossible.

Please don’t think that I’m slagging the North East off (for my Northern English followers), that is not my intention. I just think that it is literally so much harder to achieve health and fitness goals here.

People talk about the ‘Heathrow Injection’ (the idea that you put on lots of body fat when you arrive in the UK). I have had many enquiries because of this Heathrow injection from people returning to Oz from a prolonged period in the UK.

I can totally understand why this happens. It’s something that I observe all over the UK. I guess my mantra of being organized is even more prevalent if you live in the UK. You have got to make sure you have your food packed and ready to go.

A banana in your bag for a healthy snack etc this is the way to eat healthily. If you don’t do this, especially here, you are going to struggle to get to where you want to be and make bad junk food choices as that is the only option you have.

This area is a place of two parts, on one side you have Redcar Beach and on the other, you have the most beautiful North Yorkshire Moors. See the pic of me after completing a 21km mile trail run in the moors.