Running on Real Food

About

Hi! I’m Deryn. I live in Vancouver, BC and I do all the writing, recipe development and photography here at Running on Real Food.

I started this blog in January of 2013 so I could share my experiences in healthy eating and fitness, and to motivate and inspire a healthy lifestyle in others. Since then, Running on Real Food has grown. It is now my full-time job and I love what I do.

A woman in a red dress behind a kitchen island with a plate of peanut butter and jam toast in front of her on the counter.

What does Running on Real Food mean?

Running on Real Food means fuelling your “engine” with real food. It’s all about using whole foods to fuel a healthy, balanced lifestyle.

My hope for this website is for it to be a complete resource with everything you need to eat a healthy diet and feel great while doing it, without restriction.

I make room for plenty of treats too and am all about balance so you’ll find a wide variety of plant-based recipes to suit your needs, from healthy bowls to decadent desserts for every occasion.

About the Blog

Running on Real Food is a vegan food blog that focuses on simple, healthy plant-based recipes anyone will love. You’ll also find a wealth of free workouts and articles on health, wellness and nutrition.

A woman in a floral shirt cutting fruit on a kitchen island.

Running on Real Food Recipes

All the recipes you find on Running on Real Food are plant-based and I try to keep my recipes as simple as I can by using easy to find ingredients.

It’s important to me that healthy eating be realistic and doable for everyone and that anyone who wants to improve their health can find resources at Running on Real Food to support them.

Woman standing behind a kitchen counter with vegetables on a cutting board in front of her.

How I Eat

I eat all foods but I do enjoy eating mostly plant-based. I am not vegan. You can read more about my food philosophy here.

To get started with some of my most popular recipes, resources and healthy living posts, check out my Start Here page.

Although I enjoy eating more towards a plant-based diet and love eating whole foods, I also love enjoying life, traveling and just having as much fun as I can while I’m here, so along with all that healthy food, there are plenty of treats. I do not restrict my diet in any way.

Food to me is can be both functional and pleasurable and while I mostly eat for function and to support my active lifestyle, I always make room for pleasure.

Woman looking out window holding a coffee cup.

Fitness

I’ve always had a passion for health and fitness. I grew up with competitive swimming and over the years have competed in triathlon, running and CrossFit.

Over the past 20+ years I’ve done just about every kind of strength and conditioning. CrossFit, powerlifting, Olympic lifting, functional bodybuilding, bodybuilding and loved it all.

When CrossFit classes were shut down during Covid, I never really went back to CrossFit. I’d been doing it 8-9 years with recreational competing. After CrossFit, I shifted to a more functional bodybuilding approach with some CrossFit-style conditioning workouts thrown and I was running occasionally.

A fit woman in athletic clothing performing a skater jump.

In 2021, I did a 100 km a month running challenge into running 5 km a day in January of 2022. I was still lifting 5 days a week through this but after the 5km a day challenge, my running came to a halt and I didn’t run much in 2022 after January.

Towards the end of 2022, I felt like I needed new purpose to my training, so signed up for my first half marathon, marathon, sprint triathlon and Olympic distance triathlon.

Endurance sports were new territory for me as I’d mostly been lifting with a bit of running for more than a decade.

I’m proud to say I completed all these events in 2023, in addition to my first two trail races. I achieved my goal of sub-4 hours in my first marathon with a time of 3:59:30, and ran my first half-marathon in 1:46:34, just missing my goal of sub-1:45.

I had a lot of fun completing the two triathlons, even trying something completely new to me – open water ocean swimming. I purchased a new bike and wetsuit to train for the Olympic distance, so I’m all set if I decide to a half Ironman at some point.

Throughout marathon and triathlon training, I cut back the gym to 3 days a week since the volume of running and then swimming, bike and running was quite high. I focused on the basics with 1 lower body, 1 upper body and 1 full body day per week and including squat, bench, deadlift and overhead press once a week.

2024 Fitness Goals

What’s next? I’ll be running another half marathon in February 2024 so I can get that goal of 1:45, though with another year of training under my belt, that may no longer be enough of a challenge. It’s probably going to be a goal of sub 1:43.

I don’t plan on running another marathon at this time.

A woman in athletic clothing leaning against a concrete wall looking to the side with her arms crossed.

Right now I’m training for a 10k PR after PR’ing my 10km in the Olympic distance triathlon with a time of 46:27.

I’ve always had a goal of a 45-minute 10k and I think I might finally be able to do it. Training for this has been tough. Tougher than marathon and triathlon training but I’m going for it.

Since I loved having new purpose to my training, I decided on a fresh set of challenges for 2024. I’ll be taking on more trail running with a goal of running at least 4 21-30km trail races around the Pacific Northwest in 2024, starting with a half marathon distance with 858m elevation gain in Washington in March.

Alongside training for more endurance goals, I’ve shifting my strength training to a focus on calisthenics. I’ve always though it would amazing to do the cool skills like strict bar muscle up, planche, front lever, press to handstand, dragon squats and other bodyweight skills.

I’ve started calisthenic training many times before and always went back to weight lifting after a couple weeks. It’s hard but I started September 2023 and am starting to see solid progress and improvement in pull ups, handstands, core strength and single leg strength and mobility.

I never thought I’d be able to do these skills but I’m starting to see things come along and although I’m months, and maybe years away from achieving them, I know I’ll be able to if I stick to it.

In addition to training, I also love walking my dogs, hiking, swimming, yoga and generally just staying active and moving my body.

You can follow me on Instagram if you’re interested in my workouts or check out my collection of workouts on the blog.

Education

I’m a Precision Nutrition Level 1 Coach, CrossFit Level 1 Trainer, I have a Bachelor of Science degree and I’ve taken many courses on nutrition, personal training, sports nutrition and wellness.

Woman in athletic gear sitting against a wall holding a water bottle.

eBooks

I’m the author of 5 ebooks and guides:

You can view all my ebooks here and check out my bundle to get all 4 and save.

Get in Touch

Please give me a shout anytime, you can always find me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter or feel free to shoot me an email at the address below. I love connecting with you guys more than anything.

Contact me by email at deryn {at} runningonrealfood {dot} com, or visit my Contact page for more information.

A woman with her hair up wearing a floral shirt washing an apple under a tap.