The Sonya Looney Show

Steph Gaudreau's mission is to help women create bigger, bolder, fiercer lives — by building health from the inside out.  From her incredibly powerful instagram posts of 200k followers to her best selling books, she creates meaningful content to help people change for the better. Her new book, The Core 4 is coming out on July 30 and you can actually pre-order it on Amazon now!  It cover 4 pillars: Eat nourishing foods, Strengthen your body Recharge your energy, and Get your mindset right.  I personally enjoyed this book because it's very interactive with worksheets and even journal prompt. She is also the host Harder to Kill Radio. Steph is well-versed in creating changes in life.  Steph was a teacher for 12 years and created a successful food blog. She transitioned again and spend her time as a Nutritional Therapy Consultant, author, blogger, podcaster, and also is the host and founder of the Women's Strength Summit.   Topics Discussed in the Podcast  where Steph came up with the Core 4 a

This is an episode of Crush It Mondays.  Each week, I’ll bring to you an inspiring message, habit, or contemplation to get your week off to a powerful start.  In this week’s episode, I want to talk about health. Listen Now What comes to mind when you hear the word "health?"  For me, the first things that come to mind are things like absence of illness, whether someone exercises, and the food that someone eats.  When we say that someone that looks healthy, it usually means that look fit and maybe have healthy looking skin.  But health goes far beyond exercise and the plate.  It's something that we often forget.  For example, you can look healthy and still have an eating disorder or mental illness.  You can look healthy but maybe be suffering from burnout or you can even look healthy and have heart disease. After reading Dan Buettner's work with National Geographic a few years ago in Blue Zones and Blue Zones of Happiness, it reshaped what health meant to me. If you haven't heard of the

Today's guest is a fascinating best selling author: David Epstein.  He is the author of two best selling books: The Sports Gene and his more recent book: Range, Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World.  He is currently an investigative report at Pro Publica and was formerly a staff writer at Sports Illustrated.  David's new book, Range makes a strong case that it is better to be a generalist rather than a specialist in both sports and life.  I'm sure you've heard of the "cult of the head start" or Malcolm Gladwell's "10,000 hour" rule but David Epstein argues that you don't need it to be successful. We often assume that the greats in sports, music, and art started at a very young age and were singularly focused their entire lives.  But in David's book, he shows us that the opposite is true and that being a generalist gives one a better chance to succeed than early specialization.  In this thought-provoking episode, you'll learn why.  And as a

This is an episode of Crush It Mondays.  Each week, I’ll bring to you an inspiring message, habit, or contemplation to get your week off to a powerful start.  In this week’s episode, I wanted to talk about numbers and data. In the information and web-based age that we live in, numbers are used in so many ways.  Hours of training, number of miles ridden, number of followers, number of likes, heart rate, power, HRV, number of emails left unanswered in a day, a race time, etc. I'm sure you can think of some ways that numbers are a part of your daily life. It can be really easy to fall into a trap or habit of assigning something as good or bad, as a success or failure based on a number.  Numbers are useful tools to help us measure what we are doing so we can improve and are necessary, but the importance of them can be overemphasized. They can affect our happiness. I've created a couple of categories to help you (and of course, me) keep some perspective with numbers. The elements are purpose, quality, an

Today's guest is the most impressive Dr. Dave Vago. I first found Dr. Vago in the Ten Percent Happier Meditation app that I use.  In the app, there are several different meditation instructors and courses with educational videos before you get started.  I found a course called "Meditation and the Brain" in the app and I was immediately drawn to it.   I took a deeper look into Dr. Vago and I learned that he is a cognitive neuroscientist and is the research director for the Osher Center of Integrative Medicine at Vanderbuilt University Medical Center.  He also maintains an appointment as a research associate in the Functional Neuroimaging Laboratory (FNL) at Harvard.  If you're not impressed yet, he held the position of Senior Research Coordinator for the Mind & Life Institute and is currently a Mind and Life Fellow, supporting the Mind and Life mission by advising on strategy and programs.  He's worked with John Cabot Zinn and even the Dalai Lama.   Some of his work includes studyi

This is an episode of Crush It Mondays.  Each week, I’ll bring to you an inspiring message, habit, or contemplation to get your week off to a powerful start.  In this week’s episode, I wanted to share some of my favorite apps.   Noislii TrainerRoad  Happiness Planner and Five Minute Journal Ten Percent Happier Meditation App  Follow Up.CC for Gmail Toggl Airtable Snapseed Flux Listen Now--------------The Sonya Looney Show is produced by Palm Tree Pod Co.

It's a miracle that John Joseph McGowan isn't dead or in prison.  He's escaped AR-15 gun shots from cocaine dealers, managed to just miss being arrested while AWOL, and instigated many fights himself while he was a crackhead with a violent streak. It's hard to imagine that a human could have endured so much adversity in his life and even more inspiring, come out the other side helping change peoples' lives for the better.  JJ's early days began with being sexually and physically abused in foster homes as a young child.  He ended up homeless living in burnt out buildings in the streets of New York City selling drugs and committing robberies and acts of violence in the 1970's.  After being incarcerated as a juvenile, he was given the option to spend 4 years in the Navy instead of go to prison.  His drug and alcohol addiction did not end, nor did his fighting habits.  He even was smuggling drugs from Jamaica on his naval ship.  After getting in a fight on his ship, he was arres

This is an episode of Crush It Mondays.  Each week, I’ll bring to you an inspiring message, habit, or contemplation to get your week off to a powerful start.  In this week's episode, I want to talk about a technique I discovered that helps with rumination. You know- when something is bothering you and then you can't stop thinking about it. Or when someone really pisses you off and you can't stop thinking about how angry you are, what you should have said, etc. I learned this technique in one of the mindfulness meditations I practice, but I use it all the time during my day- I think that's why you practice it in meditation! It's easiest to learn the technique using meditation before applying it to your life, but you can do it however you like.  To start, put 5 minutes on your timer.  Sit somewhere and start counting your breaths.  It's guaranteed that all sorts of thoughts will start flooding in.  When they do, label the type of thought. If "what am I having for dinner?"

I'm super excited about today's guest: Caitlin Landesberg formerly Caitlin Looney.  We aren't sure if we are related but if our interest in business, endurance sports and beer are any indication, then I'd say we are sisters!  I love today's special story because it's one of transparency, inspiration, hard work, and courage. Caitlin is a former college tennis player turned trail runner.  Caitlin was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease rendering her unable to consume gluten. That meant her favorite post-run beers were off the list.  She couldn't find a good tasting gluten free or gluten removed beer, so she took it upon herself to learn how to brew her own beer. Outfitted with a homebrew kit that was a gift from her husband and a can-do attitude, she got started.  What happened next was as she calls it "a happy accident."  Her recipes became wildly popular and in high demand. She founded her company, Sufferfest beer that was beer for athletes. Upon inspection, I fou

This is an episode of Crush It Mondays.  Each week, I’ll bring to you an inspiring message, habit, or contemplation to get your week off to a powerful start.  I originally had a different topic queued up for today's Crush It Monday, but in the middle of my race over the weekend, I realized that the way I think about pain during a race or during an interval workout might be helpful.  It's something I've had to work on. You've probably heard the quote "Get comfortable with being uncomfortable."  Of course, that quote extends far past just the discomfort of exercise. So this weekend I did a 2 day mountain bike race in Squamish, BC.  I've been trying to stay more local and go to races I can drive to in order to prevent burnout from too much time on airplanes (and save money). That means that I've been doing races that are shorter than my normal 50-100 mile mountain bike races.  The races I've been doing have been under 3 hours.  I still prefer longer races and my true

If you're an endurance athlete, you've probably thought about altitude.  I grew up in Albuquerque, NM and lived in Colorado for my 20s. I never thought about altitude training until I did the highest mountain bike race in the world in 2011.  The race was a 10 day race in Nepal called the Yak Attack that topped out at 17,769'.  I admit I still wasn't fully acquainted with the data of training at altitude.  I knew how dangerous the symptoms of acute mountain sickness or altitude sickness could be.  In fact, it was my primary fear for tackling this race and wanting to be the first woman to ever finish.  You can watch my TED Talk about it.  I started spending a lot of time in BC in 2013 and eventually moved in 2014.  That also meant I moved from living at altitude my entire life to 1,000' where I still live.  Racing in Colorado became a problem- I could only race in third gear.  It was frustrating.  I took it upon myself to learn as much as I could about potentially prepping for altitude

This is an episode of Crush It Mondays.  Each week, I’ll bring to you an inspiring message, habit, or contemplation to get your week off to a powerful start.  This week, I want to talk about intensity.  More specifically, I want to talk about a quote I heard. I can't remember exactly where I heard this quote, but I wrote it down and recently found it.  I think it might have been from a Sharon Salzberg meditation, but I am not sure. It said, "We count on intensity to feel alive instead of stillness" Wow.  How many of you can relate to that statement?  I definitely can.  I'm an excitement junkie. I love doing things at a fast pace. I like being busy and having tons of plans and projects but as I have found out on more than one occasion, it can also lead to overwhelm and burnout.  When I heard this quote, it hit home.  I do admit to feeling most alive when I'm out doing and pushing.  My biggest challenge is to slow down. To be still. To avoid filling empty minutes or seconds with somethi

What secrets are your body trying to tell you? How do you know if you should keep pushing or if you should rest?  If you listen to the podcast where our unifying theme is about high performance living, then I think you'll love today's topic.  It's about measuring strain and recovery.  There's a great deal of research uncovering biomarkers to give insight to your sleep, recovery, and HRV (heart rate variability).  Today's guest is the CEO and Founder of the wildly successful and rapidly expanding company, WHOOP.  His name is Will Ahmed and if you listen to WHOOP Podcast, you're familiar with Will and WHOOP's mission.  Their goal is to unlock human performance by monitoring heart rate 24/7, creating smart algorithms to gauge the stress on your body, prevent overtraining, provide an individualized in depth analysis of sleep, and help contribute to the broader picture of not just athletic performance, but life performance. WHOOP's software uses sleep, HRV, and real time hea

This is an episode of Crush It Mondays.  Each week, I’ll bring to you an inspiring message, habit, or contemplation to get your week off to a powerful start.  This week, I want to talk about happiness.  More specifically, I want to talk about what you are linking your happiness to.   The biggest problem is we often assign contentment to the end point of a goal. I'll be happy (or content) when I save $10,000 or I'll be happy when I lose 5 lbs, I'll be happy when I win a race, I'll be happy when I go on vacation.  I'll be happy when I buy a house.  The first problem is that our happiness is outcome based.  We'll only be happy if we achieve a certain result.  The second problem with this is that even if you do achieve the outcome, your brain will rapidly recalibrate to a new normal.  We've all progressed and met goals that we thought would make us happy, but when we get there, it's often not as amazing as we had hoped or we don't feel that contentment we were hoping f

How to find a stage race, how to train for a stage race, how to pack for a stage race and SO much more! This one has been a long time coming! I've done over 35 stage races in 15+ countries around the world in the last decade. I've had a lot of success and I wanted to share everything I know with you!  Thanks for submitting all of your questions! Get my Travel Pack list for free. Enter your email and under "comments for  me," type Travel Pack List.   Topics Discussed in the Podcast  types of stage racing: XC, XC Endurance Enduro solo vs team stage races how to build a training plan for a stage race mental strategies for stage race prep sports nutrition tips recovery tips for stage racing what to expect day to day at a stage race what I carry during a stage race Listen Now   Episodes Mentioned w/Stage Race Advice Stage racing as a duo or a team (and Brasil Ride)  w/Gordon Wadsworth All about the Cape Epic: how I trained, how I packed, how the race logistics worked Sudety Challenge in

This is an episode of Crush It Mondays.  Each week, I’ll bring to you an inspiring message, habit, or contemplation to get your week off to a powerful start. Today, I want to talk about doubt. There are so many times and in different areas of our lives where we have self-doubt.  The thought - "What if I'm not good enough?'  Sport is the easiest example, but it can happen any time.  It can be doubt in your own capability accepting a role at work, it can be doubting a decision you made, or doubt that you're doing the right thing. Doubt and self-confidence are linked.  Nobody is perfectly confident all the time and every single person experiences doubt, no matter what their level of accomplishment may be.  In my experience, focusing on negative thoughts are what lead to doubt.  Overthinking leads to doubt. And sometimes, self-doubt leads to giving up. I'll use a simple example.  I did a race called the Nimby Fifty in Pemberton over the weekend. I was afraid before the start because condi

I'm really excited about today's topic. It's something I have spent a lot of time researching and putting into practice.  A few years ago, I read a book called Mindset by Carol Dweck.  It was about the concept that things like talent or intellect are not fixed.  You've probably heard the term "growth mindset" if you've been listening to this podcast.  Someone with a growth mindset ultimately believes that they are capable at improving at anything if they work at it.  In fact, research in neuroplasticity or the ability to rewire your brain proves that we can not only improve at anything, but actually change how your brain works. Growth mindset is something I often talk about in my keynote speeches.  Some examples.  People with a fixed mindset tend to give up when they are frustrated, don't like taking on bigger challenges because they are afraid of failure, and tend to not take criticism very well.  People with a growth mindset say things like, "I didn't get th

This is an episode of Crush It Mondays.  Each week, I’ll bring to you an inspiring message, habit, or contemplation in 5 minutes or less to get your week off to a powerful start.  This week, I want to talk about how to be brave enough to rest.  If you've been listening to this show for awhile, you've probably heard some conversations I've had around identity, burnout, mental fatigue, and how to define rest.  The fact is that for driven people like us, it's really hard to take down time.  I would hazard to guess that the majority of us need more downtime in our busy lives.  Everything we see tells us to hustle, train hard, work harder, crush it, do epic shit! But in order to crush it, we need to look at rest as a more weighted contributor to the equation.  As you heard in episode 14 from the book Peak Performance, Stress + Rest = Growth. And going WAY back to episode 1, we heard from Dr. Kristin Keim that it's not just about time management, it's about energy management.  There&

Mark Manson is a NYT best-selling author, blogger, and entrepreneur.  You may have seen his bright orange first book, The Subtle Art of Giving a F*ck.  It has sold nearly 8 million copies and has been #1 in 13 countries- pretty much one of the most successful books in our recent history.  Mark is about effective self-help and his demeanor is humble and funny.  Mark has written articles for CNN, BBC News, Business Insider, and more. We talked about how he started his blog in 2007, and how it has blown up to helping literally millions of people.  This episode is all about his new book that just launched this week: Everything is F*cked. The book goes into why, despite living in one of the greatest time periods in history, we still feel like we aren't enough, that things are really hard, and why we feel isolated.  At this moment in history, when we have access to technology, education and communication our ancestors couldn’t even dream of, so many of us still feel hopeless. Diving into interesting research a

This is an episode of Crush It Mondays. Each week, I’ll bring to you an inspiring message, habit, or contemplation in 5 minutes or less to get your week off to a powerful start.  This week, I want to talk about comparison.  It's normal to compare yourself to other people, but with the rise of social media over the last decade, we compare ourselves on a much larger scale.  We can get the play by play of other people's highlight reels. There are filters that can make us look more attractive.  The things we read, see, post all can affect our happiness, our feelings of being "enough" - fast enough, hot enough, smart enough, successful enough, busy enough and it can be really overwhelming.  As athletes, event and race results are based on comparison to others. Comparison to others can be good if it inspires you to be better, but if it leaves you feeling like you're not enough, you might want to change what you are comparing yourself to. We can't control what other people are doing, wh