The Sonya Looney Show

A lot of people are surprised when they find out I have Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering.  Sometimes I even forget because I finished my Master's 11 years ago.  Time flies!  I'm excited to share this story and speech with you.  It's so hard to know what we want to do in university or even when we get out of university.  I was fortunate enough to find mountain biking halfway through my undergrad.  I was in the engineering program at UNM and even rode for UNM Collegiate Cycling Team!  This was a speech I gave a couple weeks ago at the Western Michigan University to their engineering school.  It's about my path through my Master's Degree and how mountain biking began to shift my perception of what I was capable of. It's about feeling dissatisfied with a traditional path I was following because I really wasn't passionate about it.   This talk is about how I created my own path.  The thing that was interesting about this talk is that I go into detail about the life lessons that being an engineer taught me

Steph Gaudreau's mission in life is to help build unbreakable humans.  Her calling is to help women build stronger bodies and minds is what drives all of her work.  From her incredibly powerful instagram posts of over 200k followers to her best selling books, she creates meaningful content to help people change for the better. Steph is well-versed in creating changes in life.  She walked away from a secure 12 year teaching career to pursue food blogging in the Paleo world.  The diet helped her get off sugar and processed foods and she started eating healthier. She also transitioned from an 8 year span as an endurance athlete to squatting and lifting heavy weight in the gym.  After building an impressive empire, thousands of recipes, and an identity in the Paleo world, she shifted once again. What is Steph up to now?  She recently decided that diet doesn't need to be limited to a label, and is finding a new definition of nutrition as a holistic nutrition coach.  She has a book coming out next year that covers

Is your mind on overdrive? Are you exhausted?  Is it hard to leave your email alone on nights and weekend?  Don't worry, you're not alone.  Office workers report a burnout rate of 40 percent  in the United States and Canada.  Physicians are closer to 50%.  Burnout is not only attributed to the workplace; "keeping up with the joneses" and trying to be a "balanced" human who works more than full time, exercises regularly, eats healthy, sleeps 8 hours a night, has a family, and makes time for friends can seem overwhelming.  In a society that champions the hustle and reveres people who seem to be doing it all, it's hard to feel a sense of ease when we aren't doing something productive.  I was excited to dig into this conversation with burnout expert, previous podcast guest, and author Brad Stulberg because burnout is a regular part of the conversation amongst my peers and family.  We wanted to get to the bottom of why we feel pressure to push ourselves so hard, how to actually define rest, why obsessive passion c

Meagan Duhamel is the perfect blend of power, poise, flexibility, and grace on the ice.  As a figure skater since the age of 3, her entire life has been dedicated to being a hard working and multi-faceted athlete.  With parter Eric Radford, she is a 2x Olympian.  She won a gold medal this year in the team event and a bronze in the pairs event.  In 2014, they won a silver medal in the team event.  She and Eric are also 2x World Champions amd Meagan has been the Canadian National Champion 7x.  And that's just the tip of the iceberg of her impressive accolades.  I first met Meagan just 2 weeks ago on an athlete panel at the Toronto VegFest.  I loved her inspiring attitude and stories about how changing her diet 10 years ago changed the trajectory of her career.  This is a fascinating podcast episode going into the mental and emotional aspect of figure skating, discussion about how Meagan's best performances coincided in the highest pressure environments, and also about her plant-based diet and the food they feed

I was stoked when the Toronto VegFest invited me to speak at their even this year.  It's the biggest VegFest with over 40,000 people over 3 days, tons of inspiring people, and great vendors. I made some new friends!  In addition to my keynote, I sat on an athlete panel with some very cool people like John Lewis, Meagan Duhamel (on the show next week), and Ann-Marie Campbell.   My talk is about my story making changes in my career, moving to Canada, making changes to my diet and how you can make positive changes in your life too. I also have a section on plant-based performance as an athlete, followed by how to be inclusive. I hope you enjoy it!    Want to join our free facebook group - Plant Powered Tribe? Also, I have a Plant Powered Tribe Instagram where I post funny memes and daily photos. 

Imagine having a career with massive success.  In just 4 years of racing, you become a 4x USA National champion sporting the stars and bars cycling kit everywhere you go. You are a force on a bike and even perform at the highest level across multiple disciplines of cycling.  Meet Rose Grant.  In 2012, she start racing in the Pro field.  After a pregnancy test, she had to put racing on a short pause to have her daughter, Layla.  But pregnancy or having an infant didn't stop Rose from chasing her goals.  Balancing a family and pushing her limits on the bike, Rose Grant's remarkable ascent in the sport had just begun.  Winning her first Marathon Nationals in 2014 was the beginning of a rein of power in the endurance scene.  She won Nationals each year consecutively, and signed on with a team that offered her great support. But as it happens, the trip on Cloud Nine came crashing down as she had a crash that snapped her ACL and tore her MCL.  Rose was relegated to her couch and slowly trained back to form on an in

Dr. Joel Kahn is a mover and shaker. He is known as “America’s Healthy Heart Doc”, a title given to him by Reader’s Digest Magazine  He is a holistic cardiologist with his own clinic based in Detroit (Kahn Center for Cardiac Longevity) which he founded because hospitals do not have a high enough standard for taking care of patients.   A lot of hospitals have notably unhealthy food, and food is one of the most powerful medicines we put in our bodies. He has treated thousands of heart attack patients with diet and lifestyle.  He has also written 5 books and over 100 research papers. He also opened 2 restaurants "Green Space Cafe"  and 1 food truck that all serve healthy, whole foods plant-based meals. I actually ate at the food truck he owns in Austin on my last trip there and only after eating there did I discover he was the founder!  He regularly speaks on shows like The Doctors and Dr. Oz and is often pitted against Keto and Paleo experts. Dr. Kahn is inspiring with his how he applies his energy to help peop

What does your closet look like?  Is it meticulously organized or is there stuff everywhere?  Greg McKeown loves using this analogy to describe how we organize our priorities and tasks in our mind.  Most of us go through life stretched too thin. With all of the inputs between work, email, social media, and our social lives, there never seems to be enough time in the day.  We are bombarded with notifications, images of things we feel like we should be doing, and we take on way too much. Sound familiar?  It strikes a chord with me!  Greg is the author of the NYT BestSeller, Essentialism.  He writes, teaches, and lectures around the world to help people choose what they should be prioritizing in life and how to develop the mindset of an Essentialist. He has appeared on the Steve Harvey Show and has spoken at Apple, Google, Salesforce, Facebook and more. What is an Essentialist? Essentialists have the mindset of "less but better" over trying to be everything of everyone.  Essentialists focus on only doing tasks t

John Salley is a true champion: with a 15-year career in the NBA and 4 Championship titles on 3 different teams, he has accomplished a great deal in his athletic career. What makes John Salley tick? What does he stand for now?  He started down a path of wellness at the age of 27.  Over time, he transitioned to a plant-based diet and found a huge advantage with his fitness, health and performance. Not only that, he attributes his diet to better mental clarity both in the game and in his businesses.  John retired from basketball at the age 36, but that was only the beginning of a new chapter.  He is a father to vegan children, and is an actor, entrepreneur, talk show host, philanthropist, wellness advocate.  He thinks that striving to always be better, to grow, and to have high standards for yourself and your family is what makes you a champion in life.  In this episode, we talk about what he learned about teamwork and how that can be applied in business, his journey to wellness and being a vegan, his views on

Kathy Freston has been on a path of wellness and helping people make positive changes to their lives for decades.  She is 4x New York Times Best-Seller and Wellness Activist writing books like Clean Protein, The Lean, and Quantum Wellness. In fact, she is the author of 8 books from relationships, to ditching perfectionism, to the future of protein.  Kathy's impact has gone far and wide, appearing twice on he Oprah Winfrey Show, as well as other national shows like Ellen, The Dr. Oz Show, The View, Good Morning America, and Charlie Rose.  She even inspired Oprah and her entire staff of 378 people to go vegan for 21 days!  What I love about Kathy is her approach to making positive change.  She's all about progress over perfection and helping people lean in to new habits.  In today's show, you'll learn how to crowd out bad habits, how to be more gentle with yourself (especially if you make a mistake), what a healthy lifestyle looks like, and about the future of protein. Topics Discussed in the Podcast  The begi

Is there good mountain biking in Poland?  Turns out the answer is YES! The Sudety Challenge is one of the longest standing stage races in Europe. The 6 day stage race takes place along the Poland and Czech Republic border.  Each day boasts over 6,000' of climbing on forest roads and technical singletrack. There was even some soul-crushing hike a bikes!  I was able to dominate the race with 6 wins/6 days.  I even won a timed descent ahead of ALL the men, including the pro men.  It was a nice surprise because my training going into the event was sub-par from burnout, taking on too many projects, and being sick. I didn't know what to expect with this race. I was told that it had great trails, but I have had mixed opinions about stage races in Europe due to insane course traffic or very little singletrack.  Most stages outside North America are heavy on the dirt road riding and light on the fun trails. Poland was A BLAST!  The right balance of people on trails and people were courteous on singletrack.  The climbs

Heather Laptalo has four rods in her back that currently fuse 85% of her spine and is classified as 20% disabled.  She is missing 40% of her lung capacity.  Despite doctors telling her that her athlete days are over, she has hiked Everest Base Camp, ran multiple marathons including Boston, and went to university on a full ride cross-country running scholarship.  Can't is not in her vocabulary. By the time Heather was 10 years old, she was forced to sleep in a heavy metal brace.  It was a cage she couldn't escape without the help of her parents.  During the day, she ran free as a "normal" little girl.  By by the age of 13, the surgeries started because her spine was growing crooked.  Alienated from her friends for being different, she trudged on through high school with the dream of becoming a professional soccer player.  By her senior year, she had another series of surgeries.  This time became too much to bear.  The doctors told her she could never run or play soccer again. Drowning in a sea of depression an

Dr. Goldhamer is a pioneer in treating lifestyle diseases.  He is the co-author of the book, The Pleasure Trap, founder of the ground-breaking medical facility, True North Health Center and has been the instigator and investigator of some incredible studies showing water fasting's effectiveness in treating hypertension.  He has treated thousands of patients with type 2 diabetes, heart disease, hypertension and more. I was really interested to learn more about the True North Health Center in California because of the success stories.  It's probably one of the most important resources on this podcast because anyone can go there to get healthier and see results. Whether you already eat a plant-based diet and want to optimize what you're already doing to stage 3 hypertension or perhaps you need to lose over 100lbs, True North is ready to accommodate everyone. The staff at TrueNorth Health Center includes medical doctors, osteopaths, chiropractors, naturopaths, psychologists, research scientists, and other health

In order to transform, we have to figure out who we really are and what we want.  It's not always easy to figure that out.  Sometimes we have to know what questions to ask ourselves and understand the reason behind our intentions.  For Bryan Falchuk, the fog lifted when his wife nearly died.  Battling with obesity and anxiety for the first part of his life, Bryan struggled to show up every day as the person he wanted to be.  After his wife's brush with death, he was reunited with his purpose.  From that moment, a metamorphosis took place with finally losing weight and keeping it off and also taking a new direction in his life.  One of his life goals is to teach people how to overcome challenges and achieve their goals. Bryan is an executive coach, public speaker, C-level executive and best-selling author of Do a Day, in which he outlines his approach to create change. Using Do A Day, Bryan was able to break from this pattern to live a life of consistent, unending health and wellness, and works to share what h

I'm really excited about today's guest, Dr. Water Staiano.  After reading Alex Hutchinson's book Endure and doing a little bit of my own research about mental fatigue and performance, I needed to know more.  Personally, this year I have been struggling with fatigue despite one of my lowest training loads.  I learned it was due to the mental fatigue of all the other inputs and projects I take on.  Rest also means resting your brain.  But what actually constitutes resting your body AND your mind?  How do you know if your fatigue is from the body or from the mind?  Dr. Staiano and I got to the bottom of a lot of my questions.  The most exciting part is that the research in mental fatigue is still pretty young and in the next several years, there will be a lot of great tools we can use! Dr. Staiano has spent nearly 20 years in sport science and performance. Working in many research labs around the globe, he has worked closely and created long-lasting collaborations with several sport institutions. Dr. Walter has

Larissa Connors might be the most stoked and energetic person you've ever seen.  Every photo I see of Larissa has her rocking her infectious grin. Seriously, google her and look at the images!  What puts that cheshire cat grin on her face?  Mountain biking. Larissa is an ultra endurance mountain bike racer for Sho-Air cycling group and Felt bicycles. Larissa is rad- she has won every 100 miler she has ever raced including the Leadville 100.  On top off her stellar fitness, she is a full time high school Algebra teacher who gets an insane amount of riding in each month from an awesome bike commute and coaches the Laguna Beach Interscholastic mtb team.  She is addicted to pushing herself to ride further, higher and harder every minute of every day (much to her CTS coach's dismay). She is racing 5 100 mile mountain bike races in a row (yeah, ever week!)  In addition to winning, Larissa's main goals in cycling are to make every day the best day possible, to inspire stoke, and to spread the gospel of mountain biki

How much sleep do we actually need?  What is the best way to fall asleep?  How do you deal with jet lag?  Today's jam-packed episode is about everything sleep related.  I had the luxury of talking to a sleep expert, Dr. Amy Bender. Dr. Bender is currently the Clinical Program Director of Athlete Services at Centre for Sleep and Human Performance and is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Kinesiology at University of Calgary. She received her PhD and Master of Science degrees in Experimental Psychology from Washington State University specializing in sleep EEG. Her current research focuses on the relationship of sleep and recovery on athletic performance. She has developed sleep intervention protocols for numerous Canadian National Teams. Her research interests stem from being an athlete herself; she is a Hall of Fame basketball player, has summited a handful of volcanoes, completed an Ironman in 2009, and currently runs around chasing her 3 children who are all 5 and under. I hope you enjoy all the great i

Staying healthy while traveling can be a challenge.  It requires a lot of advanced planning but is doable.  I spend about 60-70% of my time traveling and have my routine and my go-tos. As a plant-based athlete, travel can be one of the biggest hurdles to overcome but if you have a plan, it's easy! In this show, I talk about my favorite go-to restaurants for plant-based, the extra things I pack to set me up for success eating plant-based while I travel, tips and tricks for the plane to stay healthy and feel grounded, and more!  I'd love to hear your comments and feedback on YOUR travel tips too! Topics Discussed in the Podcast  how to prep for travel how to travel on the airplane with your bike how to deal with travel and anxiety with flying what to bring in your suitcase and carry-on if you want to eat healthy or plant-based airport restaurants great for plant-based eaters ordering food at restaurants apps for healthy eating some of my favorite travel products  Listen Now     Links HappyCow My travel pack

Margaux Khoury is the founder and CEO of one of the most popular organic, natural, cruelty-free deodorants, “The Best Deodorant In The World”, a company she started out of her kitchen.  After getting to know Margaux and her company, I learned that its mission isn't just to keep you from being stinky!  There's so much more to her business. First, making an environmental impact through using responsible ingredients (they don't even use plastic with their packaging) is important. Second, they donate to water.org. For each jar of deodorant sold, it provides 1 year of clean drinking water for a child. I learned that 4,000 kids die every DAY from lack of water. And third, on the first day of every month they donate 100% of sales to their Animal Advocacy Partners. We talked about a number of topics including how and why she started focusing on her health and the environment, places she has lived around the world, what "unschooling" her children means, how she balances the hustle of being a CEO and having 3 kids, and

"When she shifted from competition to collaboration, all the women around her became radiant stars in a dark blue sky, each one striking and rising, without trying to outshine."  "The She Book" - Tanya Markul We have all felt it - that heavy feeling of jealousy and envy; that feeling that you aren't enough compared to someone else.  Comparison is something that we can't help feel as human beings, but it also can make us feel like we are not enough.  What if instead of feeling threatened by someone else's looks or success, you could actually help each other be better? There's actually a book I've been reading called "Big Potential" by one of my favorite authors, Shawn Achor. It's about how our success is amplified by the success of those around us making it imperative to be aware of who we are spending our time with. Collaboration over competition is something I think about a lot.  Even in my races as a competitive athlete, my competitors actually make me better.  It's all how you choose to look at it. I stumb