The Sonya Looney Show

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

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 doi

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 th

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. 

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

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, a

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 sh

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.

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 o

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 gr

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 t

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 C

"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 mak

The decisions that we make can alter the trajectory of our lives... and even our survival.  Dan and Sheanne Moskaluk had a first hand account of the life altering changes that occur when you eat a plant-based diet.  Sheanne was 300 pounds and only discovered elmiinating all animal products by accident.  Her son wanted to get into body building and the clerk at the health foods store encouraged Sheanne to do more research into the Whey Protein she was about to give to her teenage son.  With an inquisitive mine and voracious appetite for reading and information, Sheanne learned about the negative health, environment, and animal cruelty consequences of eating dairy that stemmed to all animal products.  After losing 130 pounds, her relationship with Dan changed as well as how she viewed herself and what was possible.  Their family ate more plant-based meals and everyone felt and looked healthier. Life was better and cruising along a positive trajectory when the unthinkable happened. One morning in 203, Dan woke u

Today's show is a solo round with yours truly!  The month of May was a whirlwind with travel and races, but I wanted to slow down for a few minutes and tell you all about my experience traveling and racing my mountain bike in Japan!  I traveled in Tokyo and Nagano and also won the biggest endurance race in Japan - the Otaki 100km!   I have two other blog posts I'm working on about my experience with tons of photos, but I wanted to share my adventure travel experience in Japan via audio! Topics Discussed in the Podcast  how/why I decided to race in Japan Yuki Ikeda the cultural aspects about Japan that stood out to me a short story about racing the Otaki 100 my favorite things about Japan the plant-based Japanese food   Listen Now   Links Podcast episode about last year's Transsylvania Epic Friend of the Podcast: Küat Racks     Join! Plant-Powered Tribe Facebook Group Shop My Store – Moxy & Grit The Best Mountain Bike Vacation EVER! Join me in Bend, Oregon Oct 4-

What if you could do something about your diabetes or even reverse it?  There have been some many, many real life stories of people switching to a low fat plant-based diet and seeing incredible results with not only Type 2 Diabetes, but also Type 1 and Type 1.5.  Weight loss is one strategy for managing diabetes and plant-based diets are nutrient dense without packing on excess unhealthy calories.  That means you don't have to eat small portion sizes if you are eating whole foods, plant-based meals.  Also, the studies show that a diet high in carbohydrates (as long as they are whole foods, NOT from refined sources) helps with diabetes as well.  Interestingly enough, cardiovascular disease is what kills most diabetics (just like everyone else) and plant-based diets are highly effective and preventing and reversing heart disease as well. Today's guests are awesome- Cyrus Khambatta, PhD and Robby Barbaro are the founders of MasteringDiabetes.org.  They offer a successful coaching program for people wit

Isn't it fascinating how riding a bike can teach us so much about ourselves and about life?  Blogger, Pro Enduro Racer, and YouTuber Syd Schulz has learned a lot of valuable lessons.  Her blog is one of my favorites to read.  From posts about mindfulness on the trail, to living in a van with her husband Macky, to her adventures around the world, Syd always has insightful and useful posts.  You also may have seen her work published for CTS, REI, Bicycling, Runner's World and so much more!  I wanted to invite Syd on the show because she and I think about a lot of similar topics.  In this podcast episode, you'll learn why you should stop apologizing on rides, how to turn a bad ride into a good ride, hear about why we care so much about what other people think, and what it's really like to be a professional racer.  We also talk about how it's sometimes hard to be happy with where you are right now and about what progression means in our sport.  Syd and I also talked about how she and Mack

Allegra Stein is all about moving the needle so that people take action on their ideas.  She understands that it's scary and exciting to get started, so much so that she coined her own term "terrexcitifying!"  Allegra loves the blank whiteboard- a place you can talk and write out your ideas to create continuity and clarity.  She specializes in supporting women to get out of their own way to take action on their big idea, or even help them figure out what their next direction should be.  Don't worry, if you're a guy, there's a lot of value in this show as her knowledge extends past gender !  Allegra herself has had an interesting life from traveling in Nepal to serving in the Peace Corps in Bulgaria to teaching science in New York.  The path has lead her to coaching.  We talk about the three tools she uses in her job (a mirror, a flashlight, and pom poms), how microactions lead to bigger actions, how to make a decision, and how to deal with overwhelm.  Allegra has some brilliant m

What would it be like to lose $100 million +?  How would you pick up the pieces and move on?  Noah Kagan aka Rabbi Can't Lose aka the Taco Meister knows all about the ups and downs of start-ups, building solid businesses, the art of comedy (seriously, the dude is hilarious), and even a little bit about mountain biking.  Noah is the Chief Sumo of Sumo.com (a domain he paid 1.5 million for), one of the most entertaining and motivating people I've ever spoken to, and is incredibly down to earth.  I have a lot of respect and admiration for Noah, but after listening to many hours of him on both his podcast called Noah Kagan Presents as well as listening to him as a guest on other shows, I was even more inspired by his attitude, his down to earth vibe, and his commitment to always wanting to be better and challenging himself. We had so much to talk about that I barely scratched the surface with questions I wanted to ask him. From working in a cubicle at Intel, to being one of the first employees at Facebo