Have you heard of Lifestyle Medicine before? Lifestyle Medicine focuses on chronic disease prevention and possibly chronic disease reversal - things like high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes. Lifestyle medicine uses six pillars in order to help patients and individuals optimize their health. The six pillars include: nutrition, movement, sleep, avoidance of risky behaviors, managing stress, and role of social connection.

We dive into these topics and more with Dr. Melissa Sundermann, double board certified physician in both Internal Medicine and Lifestyle Medicine. 

Dr. Sundermann currently practices medicine with IHA in Ann Arbor, Michigan and is helping to launch the IHA Lifestyle Medicine Institute. She has been featured in several Lifestyle Medicine articles and podcasts. 

Dr. Sundermann is plant-based and an endurance athlete. She is a 9x Boston Marathon finisher and a 3x Full Ironman Triathlon finisher. 

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

Picture this- you just gave a presentation on a topic you're proud of... the hours of preparation and practice that went into creating the presentation, the nerves you had to overcome to stand up and actually give the presentation, and the relief of having it done.  In some cases, maybe you felt that generally it well overall.  If you tend to be more self-critical, maybe you're focused on the one thing that didn't go well instead of the hundreds of things that did go well.  Let's take it a step further- let's say you are receiving feedback on the presentation.  You heard a lot of positive feedback, but that one negative piece stands out in your mind and you can't stop focusing on it.

Why is it so easy to focus on the ONE negative thing you thought about yourself or the one negative thing that was said to you?  Why does that seem to overpower hundreds of positive inputs and why do we sometimes even believe the negative things someone said or that we thought even if they aren't true?

It's called the negativity bias.  It's a built-in mechanism that is pre-programmed to focus on what didn't go well, focus on the thing that we lost, focus on negative headlines, and all the things going wrong instead of all the things going right.

Some of us are wired to be more positive and happy than others.  According to research by Dr. Sonya Lyubomirksy, 50 percent of our happiness is determined by our genes, 40 percent by our activities, and 10 percent by our life circumstances.

You may have heard the phrase, "neurons that wire together, fire together."  Neurons are brain cells that build circuits for just about everything we do.  Neuroplasticity refers to being able to mold those pathways.  And when it comes to thinking positive? Turns out you can rewire your brain to trend towards the positive and work towards overcoming the negativity bias.

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

Neal Henderson doesn’t believe FTP-based workouts are enough to train effectively. So what should you do instead? Coach Neal relies on 4-D Power. Want to learn more about what this looks like? Take a listen to this podcast!

Neal Henderson began coaching endurance sport athletes in the early 1990’s and founded APEX Coaching in 1999. He has coached several national champions, multiple world champions, and several Olympians. Neal raced triathlon professionally from 2000-2003. He is an Elite USA Triathlon and USA Cycling certified coach and was the 2007 USA Cycling Developmental Coach of the Year. He was also named the 2009 USA National Cycling Coach of the Year and in 2011 was awarded the Doc Councilman Coach of the Year award by the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) for the use of science in his coaching. Neal has been a staff member at the 2012 and 2016 Olympic Games as a cycling coach, and has served on multiple coaching committees for USA Cycling and USA Triathlon.

In this week’s podcast, Sonya and Neal talk all things training, intensity, 4-D Power training, how to be an athlete and more.

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

We’re big fans of NoMeatAthlete on this show. Sonya recently had the chance to interview No Meat Athlete Founder Matt Frazier (you can listen here) and this week, she sat down with CEO Matt Tullman.

Not only is Matt the CEO of NoMeatAthlete, he’s also the co-founder and CEO of 80/20 Plants, Complement, and Plant Bites. His career focus is nutrition-first health companies and driving the movement for plant-based lifestyles.

Prior to his nutrition-based companies, Matt founded The Digital Education Company (digest), helping K-12 schools transition from textbooks to technology. He was also the Managing Director of 7wire Ventures, a firm that started, incubated, and invested capital in businesses focused on health, education, and energy.

In this week’s episode, Sonya and Matt discuss plant-based diets, business, 80/20 and more.

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

How do you prepare for an Olympics thats already been postponed and still surrounded with so much uncertainty? Sonya and Leah tackle that, as well as Leah's path to cycling, confidence, motivation, nutrition and more, in this week's podcast.

Leah Kirchmann is a professional cyclist from Winnipeg, who races for Team DSM and the Canadian National Cycling team. She represented Team Canada at the 2016 Olympic Games and is training for the upcoming 2021 Olympic Games in Tokyo.

In addition to Leah’s successes as a professional cyclist, she graduated with a Bachelor’s of Arts and Sciences with a focus on nutrition and public health. She is passionate about how diet and exercise can be catalyst for a happier and healthier society.

Leah brings her passions for sport and giving back as a R.E.A.L (Relatable, Empowering, Active Leader) role model for Fast and Female - a Canadian charity on a mission to keep self-identified girls aged 8-14 healthy and active in sports. She is also head of the Global Relay Bridge the Gap mentorship program, a non-profit organization that provides support for riders transitioning from junior to the professional level of the sport.

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

On this episode of the Sonya Looney Show, Ethan Kross, one of the world’s leading experts on controlling the conscious mind, best-selling author and a professor in the University of Michigan’s Psychology Department and Ross School of Business, talks self-talk and his book, Chatter.

Kross studies how the conversations people have with themselves impact their health, performance, decisions and relationships. In 2008, he founded the Emotion & Self Control Laboratory at the University of Michigan.

As a leading expert in this field, Kross has been published in many peer-reviewed journals and has been interviewed on several major news shows, including CBS Evening News, Good Morning America, Anderson Cooper Full Circle, and NPR’s Morning Edition. His work has also been featured in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, and more.

In this episode, you’ll hear more about his lab, emotion, mindfulness, and problem solving. You’ll also learn more about his book Chatter: The Voice in Our Head, Why it Matters and How to Harness It, which interweaves groundbreaking behavioral and brain research with real-world examples to explain how conversations we have with ourselves shape our lives, and gives us the power to shape them.

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

No one picked me to become a professional mountain biker or to start a podcast. No one picked me to become a speaker where I've been on stages for entrepreneurs, tech gurus, and other athletes. No one picked me to write for dozens of publications over the years.

Seth Godin, an author, marketer, speaker, and businessman said, "No one is going to pick you. Pick yourself."

I recently was listening to the NoMeatAthlete Radio where founder, author, and ultrarunner Matt Frazier was talking about making the NYT Bestsellers list with his co-authored new book: The Plant-Based Athlete. He talked about wanting the outcome of making the list, but already feeling successful before making the list because of the strong impact the book had on the world and to help serve his purpose. You can still want the desired outcome, but at the same time, you can also find joy and fulfillment without "making a list" or getting the validation from someone else that you are good or impactful. He also talked about starting his blog and the "pick yourself" mentality he learned from Seth Godin who mentored him.

I've been trying to describe those exact words for years, but could never find an eloquent way to say it.

Pick yourself.

If Matt didn't decide to start writing, the thousands (and maybe even hundreds of thousands) of lives would never have been positively affected.

To do the thing- the thing you are dreaming of, you often just have to start. Imposter syndrome makes us think things like, "who am I to write an article, who am I to try to finish a marathon, who am I to become a World Champion?" It takes courage to believe in yourself and believe in your dreams because if you're focused on outcomes, you could come up short.  Let's go down that path. What if you DO come up short? What if you never make the NYT list? What if you never stand on a podium? Does that mean that all the work you've done was worthless? Most people would say no.  It's the person and identity you become on the way there. The challenges and big dreams are the most important, regardless if someone else or society "picks you" to say you are great.  The challenges and big dreams are a big part of what gives life substance and meaning. That's why we like to push ourselves and we feel proud of what we did.

But let me tell you a secret. I've always wanted to be picked.  It's part of being human to want to belong and want people to like you.  Growing up, I was never one of the cool kids. I desperately wanted the popular kids to like me and invite me to hang out with them. I wasn't even one of the "cool kids" in the band.  Instead of picking me to be a cool kid, the cool kids picked ON me constantly.  No matter what my level of success (I graduated 3rd in my large graduating class, was one of the top tennis players in my school, and was the top flute player in the band from grade 10 on), I still didn't feel confident. I still wanted nothing more than someone to pick me.

It wasn't until I decided to train for a marathon when I was 17 that I finally started to care less about fitting in with others.  This was a different goal that I set- one that wasn't what someone else expected of me. I didn't know anyone who had ever run a marathon.  Running taught me to become my own best friend.  Going to the gym every day and getting a job also got me out of the limited bubble of the kids at school. I started to like myself and as a result, others started to like me more too. When I chose myself- to do things for me and not because someone else in my family did it or I thought it's what I needed to do to "be cool," things started changing. The

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

Eliot Jackson is a former Motocross rider and World Cup Downhill bike racer and is now a presenter for Red Bull TV and an entrepreneur. He is a published author in multiple national and international magazines. He is also the Chairman of the Grow Cycling Foundation, created shortly after the 2020 George Floyd protests. With the knowledge that the cycling world is not immune from a culture of exclusivity and racism, the foundation was created to deliver new avenues for inclusive community building and career development in the cycling industry and work to tear down barriers to entry in cycling for marginalized communities.

The Grow Cycling Foundation promotes education, access and opportunities to increase diversity and inclusion in cycling. The foundation believes cycling has a unique ability to address intersecting areas where specific communities have been underserved. They invest in programs that build belongingness in cycling by creating inclusive cycling spaces.

One of their first initiatives is building a Vesosolutions Pumptrack in Los Angeles to bring a cycling ecosystem to an area that has never had this sort of opportunity.

In this week’s episode, Sonya sits down with Eliot to talk about his racing career, work ethic and being a Black athlete in a white dominated sport. You’ll also learn more about the Grow Cycling Foundation and its mission.

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

Can you be plant-based and an elite athlete? Matt Frazier says absolutely yes. 

Matt, a vegan ultra marathoner, author, and entrepreneur is a plant-based diet advocate, but he also knows it’s not for everyone. Founder of No Meat Athlete, Matt is all about providing the tools for thriving on a plant-based diet and how athletes can be at their very best with this type of nutrition. 

Matt is known for his No Meat Athlete Radio podcast and his books, which have sold over 125,000 copies in five languages. His work has also been featured in books by Rich Roll’s Finding Ultra, Brendan Brazier’s Thrive Foods, and Seth Godin’s What to Do When It’s Your Turn. In addition, Sports Illustrated called The No Meat Athlete Cookbook one of the best Health & Wellness books. 

Now he’s back with a new book The Plant Based Athlete, written in collaboration with Robert Cheeke. This book guides those interested in making the important shift to a plant-based diet in how to do so with the best, most transformative results.

In this week’s episode, I catch up with Matt on the creation of the No Meat Athlete, a deep dive into what you need to know about protein and carbs and how not to worry about what people think.

And check out my conversation about The Plant-Based Athlete with Robert Cheeke. 

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

Are you trying to create a good habit or break a bad one? That’s Dr. Jud Brewer’s speciality. 

Dr. Jud (MD, PhD) has over 20 years of experience with mindfulness training and a career in scientific research. His interest in how the brain works has led him to work with people to make deep, permanent change in their lives. He has developed mindfulness programs for habit change, including in-person and app-based treatments for smoking, emotional eating, and anxiety.

Earlier this year, Dr. Jud released a new book, “Unwinding Anxiety - New Science Shows How to Break the Cycles of Worry and Fear to Heal Your Mind.” His book is a clinically proven step-by-step plan to break the cycle of worry and fear that drives anxiety and addictive habits. Dr. Jud explains how to uproot anxiety at its source using brain-based techniques.

Check out Sonya’s previous interview with Dr. Jud in early 2020 about how to overcome bad habits and cravings using the power of the mind.

In this episode, Dr. Jud talks about looking at anxiety as a habit and not relying on willpower to change that habit. He also speaks about curiosity and mindfulness. 

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