The Sonya Looney Show

Small wins are possibly one of the most important aspects of progress, motivation, and confidence in our lives that are overlooked. The reality is that they are the building blocks, the steps, the brush strokes to building a masterpiece. No one suddenly has a big, flashy achievement. They are the many steps to get there that build resilience and character, not the achievement itself. The irony is that a lot of people feel silly when they acknowledge something small or simple. We tend to rank small or simple tasks as not impactful or not important. The reality is that small wins matter a lot more than you'd think. Key Takeaways How Small Wins Matter: Identity and Competence Small Wins Boost Confidence Small Wins are Essential For Momentum

James Lawrence, also known as the Iron Cowboy, is a mindset and fitness coach, best known for testing his mental and physical limits. In 2021, James set out to complete 100 Ironman-distance triathlons in 100 days. He ended up doing 101 triathlons in 101 days. The Conquer 100 wasn’t the first time James tested his athletic limits. It started when his wife signed him up for a marathon. But one marathon wasn’t enough, so he tried a sprint triathlon. He was hooked, and in 2011, he completed 20 half-Ironman distances in 22 weeks and then 30 full-Ironman distances in 2012. In 2015, he completed 50 Ironman triathlons in 50 states in 50 days.  In this episode, the Iron Cowboy talks with Sonya about his 101 Ironman-distance triathlons in 101 consecutive days - the planning, the pain, the wins and expectations. Key Takeaways Guiding principles and ethos Importance of celebrating small wins How they planned the 101 Dealing with the monotony of the 101 Managing internal and external expectations Importance of h

Cycling has been a lifeline for Haley Smith. Haley, a top professional cyclist, competed in the cross-country event at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, winning the bronze medal, and was named to the 2020 Canadian Olympic team and competed in the delayed summer games in 2021. She recently signed with Maxxis Factory Racing after a decade with Norco. But cycling has been more than competition to Haley; it’s been a tool to manage her mental health.  In this week’s podcast, Sonya sat down with Haley to talk about her path to cycling, battling anxiety, mindfulness, expanding views of success and more.  Key Takeaways Getting started in cycling Battling anxiety Mindfulness work to manage mental health Cycling as a meditative activity Not avoiding difficult things Finding mountain biking Staying in the moment and daily improvements with cycling Measuring improvement - expanding view of success Working on outlook and attitude Goal setting The Olympic experience

Dr. Diana Hill focuses on ACT - Acceptance and Commitment Therapy - and specializes in evidence-based and compassion-focused approaches.  Diana started as a biopsychology major and also practiced yoga and mindfulness to manage her struggles with anxiety and eating. After her undergraduate degree, she went for her PhD in clinical psychology. She became the clinical director at La Luna Center, an intensive outpatient center for eating disorders that embraces feminine, and holistic, integrative approaches to healing, designing programs centered around ACT.  After becoming a mother, Diana moved back to Santa Barbara, and started a private practice.  To stay on top of the most current psychology research, she started a podcast called Psychologists Off the Clock with her colleague Dr. Debbie Sorenson in 2016. She also wrote a book with Dr. Sorenson called ACT Daily Journal: Get Unstuck and Live Fully with Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, released in 2021. Diana also records a podcast called Your Life in Pr

Impostor Syndrome - you've heard of it. You've probably felt it. It happens when we discount our ability in a certain area or areas, despite obvious evidence to the contrary. For example, I've been World Champion. I've won major races around the world. I've been US National Champion 4 times. I have been a paid professional athlete since 2014…. and yet at times… I still do not feel like I am a “real pro.”  Boom. Impostor Syndrome. Imposter Syndrome shows up in many areas of our lives (even if we have advanced degrees, tons of experience, and heaps of success). It can be paralyzing and prevent us from getting started or going after our goals and dreams. In this episode, I talk about: The 5 Types of Impostors Other Reasons We May Feel Like Impostors  What Do We Do About Impostor Syndrome?   When Impostor Syndrome isn't a Problem

Gretchen Rubin has a knack for taking a huge amount of information and making it clear and relatable for the masses. Her focus is happiness and human nature and has several bestselling books, including The Happiness Project and The Four Tendencies. Her work draws from cutting-edge science, the wisdom of the ages, lessons from popular culture, and her own experiences to explore how we can make our lives happier, healthier, more productive, and more creative. Her podcast, Happier with Gretchen Rubin, discusses happiness and good habits and won a 2020 Webby Award for “best of the internet.” She has been interviewed by Oprah, is a regular columnist for O, The Oprah Magazine and makes regular appearances on CBS This Morning. She’s crossed paths with the Dalai Lama, and had her work written up in a medical journal. Gretchen started her career in law and clerked for Justice Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, before realizing she wanted to pivot to being a writer. In this week’s episode, Sonya and Gr

Brian Asbill, MD, board certified in Cardiovascular Diseases and Clinical Lipidology, had a career defining moment back in 2013 (he’ll talk about this during the podcast). One of his patients, who had already survived two open heart surgeries and was still experiencing chest pain, came in to see him after a recommendation for a third surgery by a different doctor. Brian had a book in his office by Caldwell Esselstyn called Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease, which he decided to share with the patient. This book, which recommended switching to a plant-based diet, changed this patient’s life. Three months later and 27 pounds lighter, he no longer needed many of his medications and his chest pain was gone.  This began Brian’s path to Lifestyle Medicine, becoming the first board certified physician in Lifestyle Medicine in 2017. Brian co-founded Ruckus Health, dedicated to supporting people holistically in uncovering their innate ability to live in physical, mental, emotional and spiritual balance. Dr. Asbi

Today, you'll learn the difference between fierce self-compassion and tender self-compassion. In 2017, I had the opportunity to sit down with Dr. Kristin Neff to talk about her book “Self-Compassion: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself,” and the basics of self-compassion. This week, I had the opportunity to reconnect with Kristin, doing a deeper dive into self-compassion and learning more about her latest book “Fierce Self Compassion: How Women Can Harness Kindness to Speak Up, Claim Their Power, and Thrive.”  ​​Kristin is a leader in the field of self-compassion research, creating a scale to measure the construct almost 20 years ago. With her colleague, Dr. Chris Germer, she has developed an empirically supported training program called Mindful Self-Compassion, and she co-authored The Mindful Self-Compassion Workbook as well as Teaching the Mindful Self-Compassion Program: A Guide for Professionals. She is also co-founder of the nonprofit Center for Mindful Self-Compassion. She is currently an Associa

Our family made a lot of changes in the last year to our lives. We moved to an entirely new town, bought a house, changed our work environment, got pregnant with our second child, and we are raising a sweet toddler! Each month, I like bringing a solo episode to you. Usually, it's about a well-researched topic as it relates to topics covered on the show (and you can get weekly doses in my newsletter), but today, we talked about courage, parenting, marital satisfaction, and more! Key Takeaways   Why we moved to Squamish What it means to have courage to make changes Marital Satisfaction with a Toddler Matt's Running Journey Taking 3 years off racing Feelings about our new baby coming soon  

Emily Oster tells it like it is. The Professor of Economics at Brown University is known for her books that take a data-driven approach to pregnancy and parenting. Wondering what’s behind the sushi rule during pregnancy or how much coffee you’re allowed to drink? Curious about co-sleeping? Potty Training? Emily provides the data and analysis that drive these well-known rules.  Emily’s first book, Expecting Better, provides information to help women make their own well-informed decisions throughout pregnancy. She then wrote Cribsheet, a similarly data-driven book to help new parents navigate all of the conflicting information about how to breastfeed, sleep-train, and potty training.  Her most recent book, The Family Firm, provides a framework for data-driven parents to think about the key issues of the elementary years: school, health, extracurricular activities, and more.  In this week’s episode, Sonya and Emily talked about many topics of interest in early childhood development. Key Takeaways Hie

Dani Taylor and Giacomo are vegan bodybuilders. Sounds a little bit like an oxymoron, right? But these two married athletes are amazing examples for how you can be plant-based, strong, and champions. In this podcast, Dani, Taylor and Sonya sat down to talk about how to be a vegan bodybuilder, what steps to take to incorporate more plant-based foods into your diet, and their work coaching through VeganProtein.com.  Dani is a vegan figure competitor and champion. She co-founded VeganProteins.com and PlantBuilt.com, a nonprofit organization of strength-based vegan athletes who compete together to raise awareness for veganism and money for rescued animals at farm sanctuaries, with Giacomo.  As VeganProteins head coach, Dani helps women build confidence to lift weights for the first time and find their strength. She also specializes in vegan figure competition prep to help people prepare for competition. Giacomo is an assistant coach through VeganProteins and works with clients on a daily basis to help them

In this week’s podcast, Sonya sat down with Katy Milkman, a professor at The Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, as well as Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine, to discuss behavior sciences, behavior change, setting goals, and much more. Katy conducts research that looks at insights from economics and psychology and how they can be harnessed to change consequential behaviors for good. She co-founded, and co-directs, the Behavior Change for Good Initiative at the University of Pennsylvania.  Last year, Katy published How to Change: The Science of Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be, which the New York Times named one of the eight best books for healthy living in 2021. She was also named one of the world’s top 50 management thinkers and the world’s top strategy thinker by Thinkers50. Katy’s extensive resume includes work with many organizations on behavior change, including The White House, Google, the U.S. Department of Defense, the American Red Cross, and more. She

Excuses can show up in several forms, especially when it comes to following through with goals and commitments. The biggest excuse often comes in the form of procrastination. We say we will do something later and then we never do it. Other forms of excuses show up as a reason to let yourself off the hook. Maybe you feel like you're too tired, too lazy, too unmotivated, or you just hate doing something. First, I am going to talk about big picture excuses- excuses that we make to avoid bigger life changes. Next, I'll talk about how to decide if the commitment we made is true commitment or just an interest, and how to make stronger commitments. FIGURE OUT WHAT’S REALLY HOLDING YOU BACK Here are some common excuses I hear or that I’ve caught myself saying. Try to notice your own narrative around excuses and the broader meaning behind those excuses. Here are a few examples. I’m too old to start (I hear this a lot with mountain biking… NOT true! My dad started in his 60s. My father-in-law is in his 70s

We all have ideas of what we want our life to look like. It could be something like weight loss, improving speed on the bike or running, or even cooking more at home.  When you set those goals, how do you go about doing it? Have you set goals and ultimately lost motivation or simply got out of the habit? With the impending New Year, many of us like to think about what we want to accomplish. In fact, fresh starts are a great time for habit change. (link). I'm here to help you set goals for the new year or any time that will actually keep you on track. In this guide, you'll learn: The mistakes people make with setting goals how to set a process or behavior focused goals (instead of outcome goals) how big of a goal is too big strategies to avoid the self-sabotage of all-or-none thinking SMART Goals: the actual elements of setting an achievable goal some ways to track your goals how to stay motivated with your goals ove rtime define what success looks like The Mistakes People Make with Setting Goals

Imagine rocketing head and face-first down a frozen track around 80 miles per hour with the rapidly moving ground just inches from your face. Well, that sport is called Skeleton and Duff Gibson won a gold medal in the 2006 Winter Olympics for being the best. Not only that, but he is the oldest gold medalist in history in the Winter Olympics, winning gold at age 39 after decades finding his niche in sport. Duff didn't start in Skeleton and spent a lot of time finding high degrees of success in winter sports, but it wasn't enough to help him realize his Olympic dream he had since childhood. Duff knew when to walk away and try new sports to help him achieve his ultimate goal- Olympic Gold. As an athlete, Duff was a provincial champion speed skater, a national champion and national team member in bobsleigh, and then a world and Olympic gold medallist in the sport of skeleton. As a coach, he led six different athletes to podium finishes at a world level. Competing against, working with, and learning from numero

Muay Thai is a martial art and combat sport that uses stand-up striking along with various clinching techniques, and being plant-based has been a gamechanger for Cass Warbeck. Cass Warbeck started training martial arts at the age of 11 and is a black belt in Goju Ryu karate and black level in Kurama Yama kickboxing. After reading The China Study by T. Colin Campbell in 2013, she went plant-based and never looked back. A plant-based diet fueled her throughout her amateur Muay Thai fighting career and in March 2019 she fought for and won the World Kickboxing Association (WKA) North American Bantamweight Muay Thai Title. Cass has always loved inspiring and educating others to achieve better personal health through physical movement and nutrition. She completed a Bachelor of Science in Health and Fitness Physiology from the University of Calgary and worked as a Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology (CSEP) certified personal trainer before applying to medical school. Currently Cass is a 3rd year medical

"It's too late for me. I'm too old to start." Have you ever used these excuses are barriers? Meet Ian Morgan, an ultrarunner who is crushing it in his 50s. And guess what? He didn't even start on this journey until he was in his mid-40s. Ian was primarily focused on his engineering career and property investment company in his 20s and 30s. Realizing that a primary focus on money, materialistic possessions, and career achievements wasn't making him happy, he took a 180 turn in his life. Ian said, " I was overweight, stressed, and unhappy with myself, so I started to run. This is where I discovered a passion for ultra running. Eventually, I sold everything I owned (Houses, cars, bikes, and all my furniture) and started living a more nomadic minimalist lifestyle, traveling the world and running 50 to 250 km plus ultra races in some of the world's wildest places." How did this happen? Starting as a proverbial couch potato to present day super-fit ultra runner (seriously, he ran a 2:50 marathon and as you j

Have you ever noticed that when you get close to the end of something hard, you wish you were at the finish line? I notice this feeling the most in a mountain bike race. It doesn't matter how long the event is, but when I'm 70% done (or sometimes even before), I start dreaming of the finish line. It also happens during a workout or a project.  We start anticipating being done and then wish to be at the finish line.  I admit I've even done this looking at how long it'll be before my son's nap, wishing the time away so I can have a break.  Why do we try to speed up time? Most of the time, we worked hard to even get to the start line, and then we catch ourselves wishing the time away.   I don't have all the answers, but there are my thoughts.  I think that sometimes we wish time away because we are bored, uncomfortable, or thought things would be different.  The thing I've learned through racing that applies everywhere else in my life is that the uncomfortable moments never last. The patience of wading thro

Sarah Sturm is a cyclist who can't be grouped into a specific category of cycling. Although you might know her bright smile and speedy results from gravel, she is a 2x Singlespeed Cyclocross National Champion, a podium finisher at the Leadville 100 Mountain Bike Race this year, has multiple high-profile gravel accolades (aka Belgian Waffle Ride, Steamboat Gravel (SBT GRVL), Oregon Trail Gravel Grinder, The Rift in Iceland, and more), and done a sizeable amount of racing road and cross-country mountain bike races... to bikepacking adventures for fun. Oh, and let's not forget to mention we met at the Trans BC Enduro stage race. When there are two wheels involved, Sarah's spirit for adventure, connection, and fun has taken her down many trails, roads, and paths. In addition to all the time Sarah Sturm spends cycling (in the saddle) and professional commitments, she also coaches young riders in the Devo Program in Durango, CO, and has a successful graphic design business called Oso Creative. Sarah isn't only i

Most of us try to balance the act of doing and the feeling of being in our lives. We ask ourselves questions like, "How can I work hard and have success without burning out? What do I need to do to feel fulfilled while striving for improvement?" Brad Stulberg, author of the bestselling author of the new book, The Practice of Groundedness, and also Peak Performance regularly researches, writes, and coaches on the many elements of health, well-being, and sustainable performance. And today, he returns to the podcast for his third conversation all about how to feel more grounded. His research suggests 6 principles of groundedness: acceptance, presence, patience, vulnerability, community, and movement. More specifically, The Practice of Groundedness focuses on: Accept where you are to get to where you want to go Be Present to Own Your Energy and Attention Be Patient to Get There Faster Embrace Vulnerability to Build Genuine Strength and Confidence Build Deep Community Move Your Body to Ground Your Mind