A Newton Aycliffe primary school teacher has given up her job to pursue her passion for promoting health and fitness.
And the success of Aycliffe-based Sophie Clothier in building an international client base has led to the publication of her first cookbook.
Sophie set up her online healthy eating and exercise platform @fitfooddiary_x – to inspire people to get in shape, as well as creating a whole host of tasty recipes.
And now her success has seen the unveiling of Fit Food Diary, featuring many of Sophie’s delicious and easy-to-follow recipes.
The book is now available to order, which a very excited Sophie is delighted about.
“I can’t believe I’m going to have my own cookery book,” she said.
“It’ looks absolutely fantastic and hopefully it will help inspire other people to try out some of the recipes.”
Sophie, 31, was a teacher for seven years but decided to make the leap into a new career.
“I’ve always been very interested in fitness, and I qualified as a personal trainer,” she said.
“I’ve managed to build up a really strong client base, with some of them as far away as Dubai.
“I decided last year that this is what I wanted to do so I gave up my teaching job so I could focus on the fitness full time.”
Sophie’s book has been published through Found, an innovative system which helps influencers turn then content into cash – with absolutely no outlay from them.
Found turns the recipes into stylish books with the influencer’s only obligation to promote them via their platforms, for which they receive a percentage of each one sold.
She hopes her own journey – including her own weight loss – will help inspire others.
“You can’t deprive yourself of everything you like to eat so my recipes include all kinds of food which I hope will inspire people,” she said.
“I try to create content which is aimed at showing how you can improve your fitness and I’m glad that I’ve built a really nice community.
“The book is the next step on that journey, and I am so excited about it.”