Twenty year's ago, Kate Dunbar was struggling to move - riddled with joint pain and a diagnosis of psoriatic arthritis, she was on heavy medication and life seemed bleak.

But when she started investigating how diet impacted her health, she transformed her condition, becoming not only pain free, but medication free. Cutting out animal products, and then transitioning to a plant-based wholefoods diet, she now runs marathons as a Vegan Runner.

Kate's story is so inspirational that she now advises on the patient board for the Plant-Based Health Professionals, and speaks as an ambassador for Running On Plants and Vegan Runners.

An activist for veganism she takes every opportunity to run and spread awareness of animals and the planet and why plant-based is not only better for welfare, and the earth, but also, her health.

Follow Kate on Instagram at @kate.dunbar

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

Rohini Bajekal, Nutritionist and Co-Author of Living PCOS Free is a board-certified Lifestyle Medicine professional. Prior to becoming a nutritionist, she studied Theology at Oxford University. Having previously worked in India and Singapore, Rohini is based in London and provides evidence-based nutrition and lifestyle advice and group programmes to her clients around the world. She is also the Communications Lead at Plant-Based Health Professionals UK

Rohini co-authored her first book Living PCOS Free: How to Regain Your Hormonal Health with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome which was published in April 2022. She also wrote the chapter on lifestyle medicine for the book How To Go Plant-Based: A Definitive Guide For You and Your Family by Ella Mills, founder of Deliciously Ella.

Rohini regularly comments in the media with a focus on myth-busting around plant-based nutrition. She has been featured in publications such as The Guardian, Refinery 29, SheerLuxe, Cosmopolitan and Women's Health. She has been following a plant-based diet for almost 20 years.

In this episode I draw on Rohini's personal experiences with hormonal health and we discuss how eating a varied plant-based diet is important for hormonal balance. We discuss REDs and when it's right to stop and rest from training, we also talk about how runners need to take further considerations about their nutrition.

Sign up for her free newsletters at www.rohinibajekal.com and follow her on Instagram @rohinibajekal for daily tips on healthy living.

Dr Clare Day and Dr Daisy Lund are two plant-based health professionals working as NHS GP's in London. They have their own podcast, In A Nutshell, with the aim to improve nutritional education about the benefits of a whole-foods plant based diet for individual and planetary health.

Dr Day has worked as a GP in a range of settings including community and prison healthcare, having qualified as a doctor in 2011.

Prior to studying Graduate Medicine she studied Science Communication and Policy, joined the Civil Service and worked at HM Treasury as a Policy Advisor.

She has been vegan for a number of years and is convinced of the benefits for long term health of eating whole food plant based. Explanations of how dietary change can help long term conditions is something she tries to put at the very centre of consultations with curious patients. She also does plant-based teaching for trainee GPs and colleagues. Like the rest of us she is learning everyday about food and health, and most importantly the barriers to change for individuals.

Dr Lund is a practising GP with over 20 years’ experience of working in the NHS. She is a GP trainer and medical educator at Imperial College in London, UK.

Dr Lund has an interest in preventative medicine and holistic health and incorporates diet and lifestyle into her consultations. She has completed the Plant-Based Nutrition Certificate at the University of Winchester and is passionate about nutrition education for health care professionals. Together with a GP colleague, Dr Claire Day, she co-hosts ‘In a Nutshell’ the Plant Based Health Professionals UK podcast.

In this episode we debunk a whole heap of vegan myths, marvel at how swimming makes us put on weight, we talk running, and how we get B12, iron and other vital vitamins and minerals.

You can listen to all their podcast episodes here :

https://linktr.ee/inanutshellpodcast

And find out more about the work of The Plant- Based Health Professionals UK here :

https://plantbasedhealthprofessionals.com/

Ahead of her Highland Fling Ultra and looking forward to another Backyard Ultra Challenge, I chat to Kayleigh Webster, author of The Happy Diet cookbook.

We discuss her five-hour daily runs, and how she fuels with "real food", she's got a penchant for porridge and poke bowls, and makes recipes that don't use fancy ingredients like pomegranate molasses!

Running with her Labrador and having the freedom to move around in her campervan, Kayleigh is lucky to be able to explore what beautiful Scotland has in store from an ultrarunnering perspective.

A member of the Green Runners, she's conscious of her footprint, and has a wealth of information for people like me trying to make food with enough calories to get us round the trails.

Kayleigh published her first cookery book, The Happy Diet, to give people the chance to create affordable and simple meals that still taste amazing, and she puts her plant-based diet down to the reason she's now the happiest and healthiest she's ever been.

You can find more about Kayleigh's The Happy Diet cook book at https://thehappydiet.co.uk

And you can follow her on Instagram account at @the_happydiet

She's made history as the first woman to ever complete the notorious Barkley Marathons. In Frozen Lake State Park, Tennessee, Jasmin Paris completed the 100-mile course with just 99 seconds to spare, and saw supporters quite literally on the edge of their seats willing her to reach the yellow gate at the finish line.

Jasmin is the co-founder of The Green Runners, and she uses her platform to speak out on green issues and help other runners make more sustainable choices, with the races they might choose, or how they train for runs.

We talk about things that helped her complete the Barkleys, including how she trained, what she ate, what kind of support she received and how she mentally prepared.
We cover what it was that helped her complete this year's race over and above other years.

She tells me how she always believed it was possible - and she did it to prove it to herself, but also to show that it could be completed by a woman. We also talk about her biggest moment of doubt.

Although she eats a healthy diet at home, we talk about the kind of calories needed to get through the miles, and Jasmin talks me through what a typical training week might look like.

We talk about how nostalgic Jasmin is now about her training and looking forward to getting back into it ready for new things ahead.

Jasmin touches on the changes race directors could consider to encourage more female participation, including pregnancy deferral and better facilities generally.

Taking action on green issues is something that Jasmin is passionate about, and we talk about her platform and how she has to combat her anxiety about social media to promote what she believes deeply about.

Pledging to fly less, reuse kit, eat less dairy and speak out, we talk about what The Green Runners represents. Jasmin has turned down opportunities to races in Australia and Mexico due to her pledge not to fly.

We discuss how policy change at a higher level is crucial, and although individual responsibility is important, collective change is crucial.

She's ready for her next challenges and May brings more races for Jasmin.
If you're interested in fell running, Jasmin gives her advice on how to get started too.

Listen in to hear first hand from a record breaker and all-round superwoman!

Find out more about The Green Runners at www.thegreenrunners.com
Follow Jasmin on X @JasminKParis