Vegans aren’t as proficient in endurance sports, right? 

[NOT.]

Meet Sonya Looney.  She’s a world champion pro mountain biker, certified health and performance coach, podcast host, and TEDx speaker. She was featured in the New York Times bestseller The Plant-Based Athlete by Matt Frazier and Robert Cheeke (check out episode 94 of #TheNoBSVegan with Robert, by the way). 

Sonya has raced her mountain bike across the world in over 25 countries at the hardest endurance races, in places like the Sahara Desert, Himalayas of Nepal, tropical jungles in Asia, steppes of Mongolia, and mountain ranges in Poland. She became a World Champion in 2015.

She tells us how, and much [much] more in this episode!

“Superfood” is a marketing term. It was invented in order to sell products. It’s not a legitimate concept in nutritional science, and has no standard definition.

(Topics were kept a surprise during the month of December. Listeners had to tune in to each daily advent calendar episode to find out what it was about!)

A few hard-hitting quotes from The Hungry Brain: Outsmarting the Instincts That Make us Overeat, by Stephan J. Guyenet (PhD in neuroscience, and an obesity researcher).

(Topics were kept a surprise during the month of December. Listeners had to tune in to each daily advent calendar episode to find out what it was about!)

These terms are often used interchangeably, and sometimes just for marketing purposes, but they mean slightly different things.

(Topics were kept a surprise during the month of December. Listeners had to tune in to each daily advent calendar episode to find out what it was about!)

Veganism is often touted as a weight loss diet. I don't think it should be, and here's why.

(Topics were kept a surprise during the month of December. Listeners had to tune in to each daily advent calendar episode to find out what it was about!)

Before working with us, one of our clients was used to getting fast results from extreme programs, but then losing those results after the programs ended. Hear how my colleague Coach Zoe approached this challenge.

We're all about sustainable changes that you can maintain for the rest of your life, without worrying that you'll lose the habits you've built or the results you've achieved!

(Topics were kept a surprise during the month of December. Listeners had to tune in to each daily advent calendar episode to find out what it was about!)

By popular request, I finally perform accordion on the podcast, just for fun! I'm joined (also on accordion) by Walter Martella: jazz musician, conductor, instructor, and Director of the Powell River Academy of Music.

Recently, one of our clients told me, “I have such an all-or-nothing approach to nutrition. I’m either “on” 100%, or completely off. And when I’m “on” at 100%, completely on point, it doesn’t last very long”. Here's my response.

(Topics were kept a surprise during the month of December. Listeners had to tune in to each daily advent calendar episode to find out what it was about!)

You do not need to weigh your food, track your macros, drink lemon juice and cayenne pepper in your water every morning, avoid carbs, or add sustainably-sourced Scandinavian lingonberries to all your smoothies. What most health and fitness companies are trying to sell you are details. You need to focus on the basics to get results.

Here are my 4 health and fitness priorities, and I ignore everything else.

(Topics were kept a surprise during the month of December. Listeners had to tune in to each daily advent calendar episode to find out what it was about!)

To make your training more effective, focus more on compound lifts, and less on isolation movements. Get the details in this mini episode.

(Topics were kept a surprise during the month of December. Listeners had to tune in to each daily advent calendar episode to find out what it was about!)