Twitter has long been my favourite social media channel. It’s played a fundamental role in my change of career. So many connections, opportunities and even the job advert for the post I took as a PHE Physical Activity Clinical Champion have all come from Twitter. Real life friendships have resulted too which is wonderful. I never really ‘got’ Instagram. I posted pictures there, browsed and liked a few things but it was more of a personal photo album for me than anything else. I just didn’t have the time for the crafted posts that filled my feed and seemed to get the most attention, I always felt I might as well have written a blog. Over time however I’ve grown to love Instagram, I’ve found an increasing amount of support, pleasure and diversity. I understand it better and so I’m taking the plunge and embarking on a new challenge. I’ve launched an Instagram TV Channel.
I’ve called the channel Active Health because that just really seems to sum up what my work is about. I have lots of ideas but the plan is to run it alongside this blog and to provide information in another format; sometimes you just want to watch something instead of reading it, don’t you?! It also means I can have more of an ongoing dialogue with you to find out what you’d like to know. My aim, as always is to provide good health information in an easy to understand format and talking to you directly is a perfect way to do that. No jargon, no fads, no false facts, just plain, simple, evidence-based (wherever possible) advice that you’d ask your ‘doctor friend’, probably pre-fixed by, ‘I hope you don’t mind me asking but …’
I’ll be starting off with three series:
- Quick Questions– This will be a continuation of the Quick Question series here on the blog. It’s my most heavily viewed written series and I get lots of comments about how useful people have found the answers so it makes sense to take it to IGTV.
- Beginner Running Tips – I’m excited about hosting this in association with 261 Fearless Club UK the Community Interest Company of which I am the Co-founder and current Director. Covering the basic questions about running and how to do it and enjoy it!
- Body Know-How – I’m fascinated by the human body and the way it works. It continues to blow my mind every day. I’ll be going through different body systems and talking about how they function and what we can do to look after them.
I will definitely be adding more series to this list so this is just for starters.
I’m obviously excited about this (can you tell?!) but I’m nervous too. Even though I’ve done lots of public speaking, numerous TV and radio appearances and hosted podcasts and live streamed YouTube events, I still feel hesitant. Like most people I know, I hate seeing myself on the screen and doesn’t the sound of your own voice make you cringe when you hear it online? Anyway, I’ll get over it, this is all about pushing myself, being fearless and stepping up to bring you health information and help everyone lead healthy, active and happy lives.
I really hope you will come and join me and tune into the channel from time to time. Fingers crossed … Oh and if you want more light hearted, ‘what I get up to’ kind of stuff, then have a look at my Insta stories!
