Jen Scotney, author of Running Through the Dark, is host of the Resilience Rising podcast, former Human Rights Lawyer and podiuming ultra runner, writer, coach, speaker, yoga teacher and Mountain Leader.

She lives in the Scottish Highlands with husband Marcus and beagle Sherlock. Jen's book is a deeply personal account of her journey through grief and pain while dreaming about setting a record running the Pennine Way. It's a story about resilience, about never giving up, and battling through the night and always believing that there will be a new dawn.

In the first episode of series 4 we explore the themes which underpin her first book; loss, challenges with being diagnosed with chronic fatigue and later arthritis, relationships, becoming vegan, but above all what the Pennine Way means to Jen and how it is intertwined with her life.

Jen's account of learning to live without running is an honest and raw account of coming to terms with losing something you love, and is glorious and uplifting in the way that it's messy and meandering, just like life.

Chatting to Jen her positivity is joyful and it's hard to assimilate the experiences she's lived to the bubbly character I'm speaking to - testament to her own resilience.

Find out more about Jen at www.jenscotney.com

Listen to her podcast Resilience Rising wherever you get your podcasts, and find her husband Marcus's coaching here

Follow Jen on Instagram at @jenscotney

Buy her book Running Through the Dark: The Rise and Fall of An Ultrarunner

Vanessa Sturman helps people eat their way to great performance, reduced fatigue and a healthy weight by implementing non-restrictive healthy eating, and incorporating the most delicious, anti-inflammatory plant based foods, no matter what your nutritional preference. No dieting, no fads and you still get to eat your favourite foods.

She is a regular on BBC Radio and Sky News, and also featured across Talk TV, LBC, Times Radio, Holland & Barrett magazine and many more.

She works 1:1, in groups and delivers incredible talks and workshops for corporates and universities. She is regularly invited to speak at conferences and events, such as at the University of Cambridge and events with high-profile personalities, such as Henry Dimbleby.

Vanessa has been passionate about food, the environment and healthy eating since she was a teenager, and learned that restrictive dieting brought unhappiness and poor physical health. She is known for her energetic, fun and practical approach; helping people build healthy eating around them and their busy lifestyle, while getting great results. Vanessa is Cambridge University educated in Social and Biological Anthropology to Masters level, ran a plant based recipe website for five years, and freelanced across corporates implementing behaviour change.

Find out more about Vanessa

Join her free community

LinkedIn: Vanessa Sturman

Instagram: Energise and Thrive Plant Based

Lauren Chiren is an authority on the menopause and having struggled with her own menopause - believing at first that she had dementia, she now works hard to ensure that other people can better understand this stage of life, and thrive through menopause.
She educates both men and women on the topic, travelling the world speaking on the topic as the CEO and founder of Women of A Certain Stage. Lauren trains others to be menopause coaches, and explains how important it is to take time for ourselves.

We talk about running and how menopause affects performance and we cover nutrition and what you should eat, how important rest is, and Lauren even invites me to try giving up caffeine for a week!

Lauren talks about finding what made you happy when you were a child and how to tap back into that joy and simplicity. It might be journalling or mindfulness, but giving yourself time to rest is so important Lauren even advocates locking yourself in the bathroom and sitting there for two minutes and breathing!

A big advocate for supplements, Lauren talks about how she believes they can help and although it's a personal choice would spend money on the supplements over a meal out.

Lauren believes that women can thrive through menopause, and she advocates talking candidly about the topic in the workplace, and to both men and women, educating them more on the subject.

Find out more about Lauren at:

https://www.facebook.com/WomenOfACertainStage
https://www.instagram.com/themenopausecoach/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurenchiren/
https://twitter.com/LaurenChiren