Grow the Good

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Fitness & Nutrition
**Grow the Good**

Grow the Good, formerly *The Sonya Looney Show,* is your guide to continual personal growth, meaningful connections, and positive impact in the world. Challenge the idea that you are broken or need fixing. Instead, discover how to cultivate the good that already exists within you and amplify the strengths and potential you may not yet realize you have. Grounded in the science of positive psychology and guided by the pillars of purpose, vitality, resilience, hope, and connection, each episode is packed with tools, stories, and evidence-backed insights to help you create a more authentic and flourishing life.

Latest Episodes:

**My Athlete Motherhood Series Episode 4** Aug 06, 2020
Show notes

Once per month, I'm checking in with you to talk about my journey as a new athlete mom. I'll talk about time management, how getting back to and maintaining a training schedule is going post-partum, the mental and emotional pieces too. I'll tell you what it's really like and hopefully give you some nuggets you can apply to your own lives as well. This podcast is supported by Wahoo Fitness who has been a great partner during my journey as a pregnant athlete and new mom! I wanted to bring my husband, Matt Ewonus in on this episode as I will on some of the future Athlete Motherhood series because Parenthood is really what it's about! In this episode, we talked about how to stay motivated when your race or event got canceled (or just how stay in it if your training has gotten stale).

**Topics Discussed in the Podcast**

Staying motivated when your event has been canceled or you're just in a rut

Live Strava Segments on the Wahoo ELEMNT

Power Numbers and TrainerRoad workouts

Using Strava Routes or just GPS Routes

Improve your technical riding

Ride with Friends

Listener Questions: Plant-Based cookie recipe, chamois, riding zones when pregnant, advice for someone who says they don't have time for sports, training routine for flexibility, guilt for going riding with baby at home, breastfeeding/supply when riding

Listen Now

Resources

Simon Sinek Youtube inspiration vs. motivation

Last month's podcast with Matt and I

Kyle Warner's YouTube Channel

Recipe for my ride cookies

Great resource from Laura King on ProKit about pregnancy and exercise

2 Ways to Give Back to the Show

Thank You!

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Don’t
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The Grow the Good Podcast is produced by Palm Tree Pod Co.

**Your Comfort Zone Actually Isn't That Comfortable with Rob Scott** Jul 30, 2020
Show notes

One of my favorite sayings is that limits live in our minds. Today's guest is all about helping people confront and overcome their own limiting beliefs by helping them understand what lens they are choosing to see the world. Rob Scott has had a very interesting life from being homeless with substance-abuse problems, to getting back on track and having a great career, to riding the roller coaster of a cancer diagnosis. What's Rob up to now? He is a personal development coach, hosts his own Mastermind and Fundamental Shift Coaching Community. He is passionate about helping people shift their identity to achieve big goals and personal fulfillment.

**Topics Discussed in the Podcast**

Why your comfort zone isn't comfortable

Lenses to overcome self-limited beliefs

Challenging your bias

questions to ask yourself about identity

why affirmations don't work

cause/effect of self-fulfilling prophecies work

lense for imposter syndrome, self-worth, and procrastination

Resources

Follow Rob Scott on Instagram

Identity Shifting Mastermind

Fundamental Shift Coaching Community

Byron Katie's 4 Questions

2 Ways to Give Back to the Show

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Don’t Miss an Episode: Subscribe!

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The Grow the Good Podcast is produced by Palm Tree Pod Co.

Take Charge of Your Hormones with Alison Tierney, RD Jul 23, 2020

Show notes

Alison Tierney is a registered dietitian and board-certified in oncology nutrition and started her business, Wholesome LLC in 2015. After developing an oncology nutrition program at a local academic cancer center, Alison pursued Wholesome exclusively as her business and client base continued to grow and increase in demand. Her passion for nutrition and healthy lifestyle is obvious in her work, her care for her clients, and her desire to always keep learning. Although Alison is board-certified in oncology nutrition, she is multi-passionate in nutrition and her expertise goes beyond cancer and involves helping others with the management of chronic diseases such as: heart diseases, diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and autoimmune diseases.

I love the story of today's guest. Many of us tend to weave through different experiences in life before we find our path. Alison is no different. In school, she initially studied business and was a college athlete. As an athlete, she was aware that nutrition was important for fueling long practices and game days for optimal physical performance, but she wasn't thinking about nutrition in terms of disease prevention and longevity. By the time she finished her business degree, her interests had started to change.

Her husband encouraged her to switch to nutrition, but she felt like it was too late to switch. I can attest to that feeling! But take it from both of us, it's never too late. She took one nutrition course and that was it her last year of college and realized she had found her path. She went back to school to pursue a second bachelors' degree in dietetics. Her interests also changed from dietetics to oncology nutrition as cancer started claiming the lives of her family members.

Outside of the cancer center, she focuses on Wholesome LLC to provide individual counseling, classes and seminars to promote a wholesome diet.

While Alison is an expert in using nutrition to treat chronic diseases, we went in a different direction - hormones. She was featured in Neal Barnard's book, Your Body in Balance. Things like fertility issues, PCOS, menopause, and having your kids eat plant-based has come up in a lot of questions from my listeners and friends. Alison has a lot of experience here too. She was unable to get pregnant...that is, until she changed her diet to a whole-foods, plant-based diet.

Topics Discussed in the Podcast

Alison's Fertility Journey (6:00)
Whole Foods Plan-Based Diets and Hormone Regulation (9:00)
What about eating low fat organic dairy?
Eating beans and how to get your gut used to them (20:00)
phytoestrogens in soy
top cancer-fighting foods (28:00)
her role as an oncology dietitian
how to change your diet: add before you subtract
foods to ease menopause symptoms
how to help kids change their diet

Listen Now

Resources

Books Mentioned

Your Body in Balance by Neal Barnard, MD
How Not to Diet by Michael Greger, MD
Fiber Fueled by Will Bulsiewicz, MD

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The Grow the Good Podcast is produced by Palm Tree Pod Co.

**From X-Games Gold to Mom and Entrepreneur with Jen Hudak** Jul 16, 2020
Show notes

Jen Hudak is an American freeski athlete specializing in halfpipe skiing. She is a 2-time world champion, 5-time X-Games medalist and 4-time national champion. In 2010, she won nearly every competition there was: X-Games, US Open, World Ski Invitational, Dew Tour, and US Nationals, to name a few. But one contest eluded her: The Olympics. She had a vision that halfpipe skiing would be an Olympic sport and served as a proud advocate for the sport over her 13-year professional ski career. With the help of Jen's efforts, halfpipe skiing made its Olympic debut during the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia. But as she pursued her quest to add "Olympian" to her highly successful list of career achievements, the unthinkable happened. Horrific injuries and in addition, one of her competitors dying. She had to rethink her goals. To make matters even harder and more devastating, her father passed away, losing in a 5 year battle with a rare form of leukemia.

The world had turned upside down on Jen. Losing her father whom she had a close relationship with, dealing with the harsh reality of being a retired professional athlete, and feeling like she had lost her purpose was incredibly hard.

What happened next? She dusted herself off and started making new choices, one after another. Here's a quote I like from her website: "My life is a constant work in progress. I still struggle with balancing masculine and feminine energy, overcommitment & burnout, fully accepting myself & all my shortcomings, learning to love my body as it is (not based on physical performance or aesthetic), saying "no" with love & grace, and engaging with conflict from a place of deep compassion & curiosity."

Jen hasn't stopped there. She is a new mom to baby Hudson, is the co-host of the podcast, Balanced Pursuits and Co-Founder of the teardrop trailer company, Escapod Trailers.

**Topics Discussed in the Podcast**

Jen's husband changing his last name to Hudak

Her first dream

why skiing?

insecurity & self-worth

Olympic dream

how goal setting has changed for Jen

getting confidence back despite injuries

how to use visualization

being a mom and entrepreneur- new identities

Listen Now

Resources

Follow Jen Hudak on Instagram

Visit Jen at JenHudak.com

2 Ways to Give Back to the Show

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The Grow the Good Podcast is produced by Palm Tree Pod Co.

**How Not to Diet with Dr. Michael Greger** Jul 09, 2020
Show notes

Dr. Michael Greger is on a mission to give people information on how to live their healthiest lives. The obesity pandemic in North America and globally is quickly escalating and Dr. Greger hs the most comprehensive book on evidence-based weight loss, the psychology behind our interpretation of how many calories are in food, and the danger of quick fixes like weight loss surgeries and diet pills. He also has the healthiest and easiest foods to add to your diet to help burn more fat.

"It turns out a calorie is not just a calorie. 100 calories of chickpeas is a different impact on the body than chicken or chicklets, based in part on different effects on their impact of absorption, appetite or microbiomes. Different foods can rev up your appetite for example. It's not just what you eat, it's what you absorb. Fiber, for example, in whole intact plant foods can trap calories, flush them out the other end. And even if you do eat and absorb the same number of calories. A calorie still may not be a calorie. The same number calories eaten at a different time of day, in a different meal distribution, or after different amounts of sleep can translate into different amounts of body fat." -Dr. Micheal Greger

"Obesity is one of today’s most blatantly visible – yet most neglected – public health problems. Paradoxically coexisting with undernutrition, an escalating global epidemic of overweight and obesity – “globesity” – is taking over many parts of the world. If immediate action is not taken, millions will suffer from an array of serious health disorders." -WHO

But here's the thing, weight loss is really hard for most people. The food industry makes sure that their high calorie, low nutrient foods are highly addictive. Many Americans are nutritionally bankrupt. And weight loss? People will do anything, including surgery and reaching for diet pills that actually are not effective or safe. Enter the book How Not to Diet by Dr. Michael Greger.

You may have heard my previous episode with Dr. Greger about his book How Not to Die and of his incredible organization, NutritionFacts.org. If you aren't familiar with Dr. Greger, the man has more energy than anyone I've ever seen. Between the hundreds of the latest nutrition research videos on NutritionFacts.org, writing a book every 2-3 years, and spending most of his time on the road speaking about nutrition, he is a busy guy. He is a medical doctor, a New York Times Best-Selling Author, and internationally acclaimed speaker. NutritionFacts.org is a public service to give people the information they need to lead the healthiest, disease-free lives possible through evidence-based nutrition.

He also recently released the book How Survive a Pandemic and has been releasing videos about COVID-19 that have been helpful and interesting on NutritionFacts.org.

**Topics Discussed in the Podcast**

why everything in moderation doesn't work

the psychology and marketing in our food choices

our interpretation of how many calories are in food

a calorie is not a calorie

chronobiology

do fat genes actually exist

fasting for athletes? when to eat

how to have permanent weight loss

best weight loss tweaks:

vinegar

negative calorie preloading

timing of when to eat

black cumin seeds, cumin, other spices

Listen Now

Resources

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The Grow the Good Podcast is produced by Palm Tree Pod Co.

**My Athlete Motherhood Series Episode 3** Jul 02, 2020
Show notes

Once per month, I'm checking in with you to talk about my journey as a new athlete mom. I'll talk about time management, how getting back to and maintaining a training schedule is going post-partum, the mental and emotional pieces too. I'll tell you what it's really like and hopefully give you some nuggets you can apply to your own lives as well.

This podcast is supported by Wahoo Fitness who have been a great partner during my journey as a pregnant athlete and new mom!

I wanted to bring my husband, Matt Ewonus in on this episode as I will on some of the future Athlete Motherhood series because Parenthood is really what it's about! Truthfully, we were trying to record this episode for weeks, but every time after Bradley went to bed, we wanted to just chill out! So I'm excited that we got this episode in the queue. It was fun to sit down and recap what we've been up to as parents the last 3 months.

Here's my MorningBrew Newsletter Referral Link (you don't get money, but you get swag!)

**Topics Discussed in the Podcast**

how we have approached sleep, schedule, and rhythm for our baby

a bit about my breastfeeding approach

My birth story

a day in the life- what our weekday schedule looks like

loss of flexibility with time management

changing priorities

what it's been like to have less time to train and work

how I plan my day with a baby

Happiness Vs. Contentment CrushitMonday

Focusing on the joy instead of the challenges

Dad Bod can mean a fit bod!

Listen Now

Resources

Check out my blog posts on riding while pregnant

Here is my Vegan Athlete Pregnancy Guide

Books: The Baby Whisperer by Tracy Hogg and Bringing up Bebe by Pamela Druckerman

Sleep course: TakingCaraBabies

Book: Disease-Proof Your Child by Joel Furhman, M.D. (and check out our podcast episode too)

2 Ways to Give Back to the Show

Thank You!

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The Grow the Good Podcast is produced by Palm Tree Pod Co.

Alison Desir and Amir Figueroa: Running for Social Change Jun 25, 2020

Show notes

Alison Desir and Amir Figueroa are on a mission for social change. The two individually found their love of running – Amir’s father died of HIV when Amir was 4 and Alison was struggling with depression and some very hard life challenges with a bad break-up and a very sick father. And from there, they found running through seeing others lead by example. Amir saw a friend with HIV walk a marathon and raise money for Harlem United. Alison saw a friend on social media who was a black man training for a marathon and felt empowered to do it too. And now? Leading by their own examples is changing the world. Before they met, Amir and Alison started their own running groups to build community in Harlem and met because of similar hashtag they were using. They decided to join forces. Not only did they join forces, but they got married and had a beautiful baby boy named Kouri about a year ago. For Alison and Amir, it’s not just about running, it’s not just about having a club. It’s about running for social change to create diversity and leadership in communities. Walkers, joggers, and runners of all ages and abilities show up for Harlem Run evenings.

I got to speak with Amir and Alison individually. Amir is a Boston Marathon x, ultra runner, and senior researcher at Colombia University. Amir and I chatted about his new foray into fatherhood and what that means to him since he lost his father at a young age. We talked about running with purpose, the power of vulnerability and good communication, and how the grit and life lessons from ultra running can empower us in daily life, especially with all the challenges in 2020. We also talked about COVID and his research at Colombia University.

Alison Desir was named by Women's Running as one of twenty women who are changing the sport of running. Her father nicknamed her Powdered Feet to describe her as someone so active that you never see them. She is doing so many impactful projects and is a strong voice for women’s rights and people of color. She also has not one, but two master’s degrees. We talked about the importance of being a voice for others, how Harlem Run continues to be an inclusive group that attracts all different types of walkers, runners, jogger, and people from differing backgrounds, a few of her incredible advocacy projects, the topic of gender constructs with raising children, running as a vehicle for social change and so much more.

Topics Discussed in the Podcast

New Parenthood
Running with purpose
Harlem Run and creating an inclusive environment
Vulnerability in communication
Being a voice for others to create opportunity
When to quit
Run 4 All Women - (an initiative that has raised over $150,000 for Planned Parenthood)
Alison’s advice for fundraising
Gender constructs related to raising children

Listen Now

Resources

Follow Alison Desir and Amir Figueroa on Instagram
Sign up for free: Meaning Thru Movement
Alison Desir’s website
Amir Figueroa’s website
Harlem Run
Book about quitting mentioned: Seth Godin- The Dip
https://globalwomxnruncollective.com/
"The truth is, when I go for a run as a black woman, that in and of itself is a political act and one that puts me at risk—fearing for my life. As long a

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The Grow the Good Podcast is produced by Palm Tree Pod Co.

**The Evolution and Success of Katerina Nash** Jun 18, 2020
Show notes

Katerina Nash is a timeless force in the sport of cycling. Not only is she a 2x Olympian in Mountain Biking, but she also has been to the Olympics twice for cross-country ski racing in 1998 and 2002. Her first Olympics was a the age of 17 and again in London 2012 and Rio 2016. Originally from the Czech Republic, Katerina moved to the U.S. in 2000 on a college scholarship for cross-country ski racing. Katerina has proven to be among the world’s most versatile and enduring athletes, showing the world that women can remain competitive at the highest levels into their forties.

She dominated every where she goes- CX, mtb, stage racing, Downieville... She has been on multiple World Championship and World Cup podiums in both CX and MTB and she also has won BC Bike race numerous times and competed in her first EWS in 2019.

**Topics Discussed in the Podcast**

growing up in Czechoslovakia

from Nordic Skiing to her first Olympics (mtb) in 1996

Moving to the USA and choosing mountain biking

Clif Bar and her long term sponsorship

how sponsorship expectations and her racing evolved over the years

types of training for success across disciplines

Katerina's relationship with success and goal setting

dealing with failures of disappointments

how she maintains balance

being a more mature athlete, how training has changed

President of UCI Athlete's Commission & women's racing

listener Qs

dog breed

pre race dinner

lost her temper before?

type of laundry detergent & clean-up after a CX race

how long will she keep racing

Folsom rodeo

Listen Now

Resources

Follow Katerina Nash on Instagram

Follow Katerina Nash on Twitter

Team Clif Bar

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2 Ways to Give Back to the Show

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The Grow the Good Podcast is produced by Palm Tree Pod Co.

My Athlete Motherhood Series Episode 2 Jun 01, 2020

Show notes

Once per month, I'm checking in with you to talk about my journey as a new athlete mom. I'll talk about time management, how getting back to and maintaining a training schedule is going post-partum, the mental and emotional pieces too. I'll tell you what it's really like and hopefully give you some nuggets you can apply to your own lives as well.

This podcast is supported by Wahoo Fitness who have been a great partner during my journey as a pregnant athlete and new mom!

If aren't an audio fan and you want to read the transcription, scroll down a bit.

Key Takeaways

"Your starting point isn't your endpoint and a growth mindset means that knowing that whatever that number is, you can improve on it. But if you don't ever look at that number. If you don't get up the courage to say where am I starting from, if you never look at that you'll never get better and you'll never be able to measure that improvement."

"The only thing to be ashamed of is not looking and not trying to make changes to a situation that maybe you want to change."

Topics Discussed in the Podcast

my riding post-partum
introducing structured training at 2 months
the challenge of getting started again
dealing with anxiety related to assessments (like a test, a race, fitness)
talking about my TrainerRoad Ramp Test
your starting point is not your endpoint
look for improvement
attention follows intention.

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The Grow the Good Podcast is produced by Palm Tree Pod Co.

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