One thread has run firmly through each role, however: a determination to succeed, whatever the odds.
‘Sport has been a major element of my life,’ she says.
‘I taught sports nutrition and sports-related courses at Reaseheath College.
I played netball at a very high level and reached England trials before a serious ankle injury ended that pathway.
‘I loved the gym and would spend a lot of time there.
At the time, women lifting weights was not particularly common, it wasn’t a thing.
People at the gym started asking whether I competed, and I honestly had no idea what they meant.
A friend introduced me to a female bodybuilder and she invited me to a posing class; I asked “what on earth is a posing class?”.
I nearly didn’t go because bodybuilding didn’t appeal to me.
I had all the usual stereotypes in my head.
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‘But I went along and it turns out that a posing class is exactly what you think it will be, but I actually loved it and three weeks later entered my first competition, which I won.’
After that first win, in 2012, Nina qualified for a British women’s bodybuilding final and was soon hooked.
‘I think part of the attraction was that I has finally found a sport where I could see my potential through to the end.
Earlier in life, injury or circumstances had always got in the way.
I decided to push it as far as I possibly could, deciding I wanted to be the first female British athlete to get to Olympia.
I entered several federations, won multiple rounds, qualified for finals and just kept winning.
Suddenly people were asking, “Who’s this new athlete turning up and taking all the trophies?”‘
‘It was at this point I received a sponsorship offer from MyProtein, as a contracted athlete representing the brand worldwide.
I travelled internationally, did photoshoots and worked alongside some of the biggest names in fitness.
I became a brand in my own right.’
In 2016, Nina achieved her ultimate goal, qualifying for a place in the Bikini division at the Olympia Fitness and Performance Weekend, held in Las Vegas.
‘It was the proudest achievement of my bodybuilding career.
Ironically, Olympia itself was slightly disappointing.
I’d built it up to be this incredible experience, the pinnacle of the sport, but when I arrived it wasn’t what I expected.
What mattered, though, was that I’d achieved my goal.
I had reached Olympia naturally, stayed healthy, never lost sight of my wellbeing and proved to myself it could be done.
‘At that point, I felt I had nothing left to chase.
Then I discovered sourdough.’
After spending much of her adult life focused on nutrition and performance, Nina had avoided bread altogether for more than 15 years.
‘I grew up in the era when carbs were the enemy,’ she says.
‘As someone who was interested in health and nutrition, I also became very conscious of ingredients.
If I couldn’t pronounce something on a label, I didn’t particularly want to eat it.’
What initially attracted her to sourdough was the idea of good-quality, freshly baked bread but the more she learned, the more fascinated she became.
‘I was intrigued by the science behind it, how ancient it was, and how something so delicious could be made from so few ingredients.
The history alone fascinated me.
People have been making bread this way for thousands of years.’
She started buying sourdough from a local bakery and began researching the fermentation process, yeast cultures and traditional methods.
The simplicity appealed to her nutrition background, while the science appealed to her naturally curious mind.
Nina’s fascination deepened when she acquired a starter culture more than 100 years old from a friend whose baker father had passed it down from generations above.
The living culture became the foundation for her own experiments and, ultimately, the business she would go on to build.
Nina began attempting to make sourdough herself.
Early results were not encouraging.
‘I failed so many times,’ she laughs.
‘Some of the loaves were absolutely terrible.
I’d put an 850g loaf into the oven and somehow produce what felt like a five-kilo brick.
It was dense, heavy and completely inedible.
This was in 2019, before lockdown had the whole nation obsessed with home baking.’
Her husband Brad eventually suggested she should give up.
‘That probably became the catalyst,’ she says.
‘If anything, it made me even more determined.
I don’t ever give up.’
What followed was months of trial and error.
Nina studied blogs and tutorials from around the world, tested different methods and sought advice from friends.
Much of the information she found came from bakers working in vastly different climates and conditions.
‘People would be baking in 40-degree temperatures somewhere else in the world, and I’d be standing in a cold Cheshire kitchen wondering why my dough looked completely different.’
Eventually, she cracked it and, drawing on the same discipline that had carried her through elite sport, she refined a method that worked consistently in ordinary British kitchens.
Once she had mastered sourdough, Nina realised there was a gap in the market.
‘I wanted to create something simple,’ she explains.
‘A guide that anybody could follow.
Something straightforward, practical and designed for people in the UK.’
She began writing down her methods and troubleshooting advice, determined to strip away the confusion that often discouraged beginners.
Around the same time, friends started asking whether she would teach them.
What sounded like a simple request raised a problem.
A proper sourdough loaf takes at least 24 hours to make, which isn’t practical when devising a workshop that ideally runs to just half a day.
‘I kept asking myself how I could turn a 24-hour process into a three-hour class,’ she says.
The answer arrived in an unexpected way.
A keen runner, Nina uses exercise as a form of meditation and reflection.
During one particular period of frustration, she repeatedly found herself thinking about how the workshops might work.
‘I kept hearing this little voice saying, “Pen to paper”.’
On her regular runs, two geese would repeatedly fly overhead.
Whether coincidence or inspiration, she took it as a sign to stop overthinking and start writing.
‘It all came out at once,’ she says.
‘The course structure, the troubleshooting guide, the branding, everything.’
The geese even became part of the business identity.
Today, they’re reflected in the branding of her company, a reminder of the moment when everything suddenly clicked into place.
Combining her experience as a lecturer with her passion for nutrition and her new love of sourdough, she launched her first workshops.
The timing proved perfect; emerging from lockdown, people were craving connection, community and meaningful experiences.
‘I realised the workshops weren’t really about bread,’ she says.
‘They were about bringing people together.’
Today, Nina’s business, Path of Yeast Resistance, encompasses workshops, online courses, corporate wellbeing sessions and a bestselling Etsy shop selling sourdough starters, kits and guides.
Yet the focus remains unchanged; each class centres on conversation, shared experiences and the simple satisfaction of making something by hand.
‘We’re not just nourishing ourselves, we’re nurturing ourselves,’ she says.
‘People come in thinking they’re learning to bake bread.
They leave talking about the people they’ve met, the confidence they’ve gained and the experience they’ve had.’
Workshops now attract everyone from families and friendship groups to businesses looking for team-building activities.
Participants learn practical skills, enjoy homemade food and leave with dough to bake at home.
Just like in her teaching career, her bodybuilding success and now her sourdough enterprise, Nina has gone all in, no half-measures, no hesitation.
‘The discipline is exactly the same,’ she says.
‘The focus has changed, but the mindset never has.’
pathofyeastresistance.com
