Cheryl Meyer suffered from autoimmune disease. By eliminating hundreds of toxins, she reversed her pain. Cheryl has a BA from UC-Berkeley and is a health coach from IIN. Cheryl is an award-winning author, international bestseller, health coach, speaker, local tv host and guest podcaster.
Name: Cheryl Meyer aka Cheryl M Health Muse: Award Winning Best Selling Author, Publisher, Health Coach, Speaker, International Podcaster, Local Community Access TV Host
Location: Los Angeles, California United States
Industry: Health
Business Name: Cheryl M Health Muse, Inc.
Favorite Quote to live by:
“At any moment you have to power to say, this is not how this story is going to end.” Anonymous
Key lessons learned from my illness:
Own your own life.
Own your own health
Learn to listen to your body. It will tell you how it feels. You just must tune in to hear it.
Be proactive. Take back your power over your own body.
It’s never too late to start healthy habits.
Please give us a bit of background on who you are and what you do?
I was a solopreneur with my own jewelry business, and I designed jewelry for major retailers. Nine years ago, I woke up in horrible pain. Every joint and every muscle in my body hurt. After multiple visits to my conventional MD and comprehensive testing, my MD suggested there was nothing wrong with me and offered me steroids. She suggested I seek mental therapy.
I was not going to live a life of pain and pills. I knew I hurt, and that something was wrong with my body. I started researching. I tripped into summits being run by the Functional Medical community and watched 19 of them. The recurring themes were that I probably had an autoimmune disease and “leaky gut” and that “toxic load” was at the core of my pain. There were 2 things I could do for myself. I could lower my stress, and I could eliminate toxins from my life.
So, I dug in. I was appalled to discover that toxins were everywhere.” Flash forward 5 years. I eliminated hundreds of toxins in my life. I found stress exercises I now do daily I found a Functional MD, who confirmed that I had autoimmune disease and approached my body from a different perspective. This combination eliminated my pain and lowered my inflammation.
I kept meeting other women who were frightened, sick, in pain, and frustrated and I wanted to help them.
At 67, I returned to school at the renowned Institute for Integrative Nutrition (IIN) to become a health coach so that I could encourage others to use the tools I had discovered.
After graduation, I wrote my first book, It Feels Good to Feel Good, Learn to Eliminate Toxins, Reduce Inflammation, and Feel Great Again. That book has now won 15 awards. I explain my entire journey, how I researched, where I researched, what I found was toxic in my life, and what I replaced it with. I discuss why it is important to lower our toxic load. It’s a layman’s guide to what is causing our chronic illness epidemic in the United States.
In the last three years, I have done over 200 podcasts as a guest, and 17 summits about toxins.
I published my second book in May 2020 at the request of my Functional MD. Feeling Good, Living Low Toxin in Community and Everyday Living explains how my new habits became sustainable without giving up my crucial social relationships. How I eat out at restaurants when I don’t eat the SAD, (Standard American Diet of processed foods and fast foods.) I discuss how I am a guest in others homes, how I travel by car, domestically, and internationally, how to cruise. I discuss the importance of eating the rainbow and the significance of controlling what we eat by cooking our own food. I give tips on how to buy healthy food on a budget and on how I convert any recipe to a healthier version using my “Use This Not That” exchange list. I share tips on controlling stress, how to get 7 hours of continuous sleep, practicing gratitude, and utilizing nature for self-care.
Finally, since over 50% of the children in the United States have a chronic illness, I included a section on raising healthy children in the 21st Century, and also a section on how to create a low toxin environment for our pets so that they too can grow old and thrive.
This book has already won 4 awards, including the prestigious Mom’s Choice Gold Award.
To reach a broader audience, I started a podcast, “It Feels Good to Feel Good, Learn to Eliminate Toxins, Reduce Inflammation, and Futureproof your Health” on RHG TV/ Voice America. It plays in 69 countries. One week I discuss an important topic on health, and the opposite week, I interview someone who also got a chronic illness, owned their own body and health, and returned to wellness by making lifestyle changes. I have interviewed someone who is bi-polar, cancer survivors, heart attack survivors, celiac disease survivors, Crohn’s’ disease survivors, a coma survivor who found her destiny, and someone who got a chronic illness who went from a wheelchair to training others as a resiliency coach.
I recently interviewed someone with Rheumatoid Arthritis who had started slipping down the slippery path to Alzheimer’s, and who has returned to wellness and cognizance. These interviews are to give others hope that whatever the state of their health, if they own it, and change, it is not where their story needs to end.
I will always have an autoimmune disease, but I no longer have pain, and that’s huge. I am now 71 and feel better than I did in my 50’s.
What has happened in your life since you got so ill and then returned to wellness yourself?
I found my mission to help others with chronic illnesses.
Since I first got sick, there is very little about my life that is the same. I ended a toxic relationship. I met my soul mate and married him. I sold my jewelry business and became a health coach. I became an award-winning author and now an international podcaster. I am as happy as I have ever been in my life.
It does “feel good to feel good.”
What are your next projects?
I am planning to publish a digital magazine about health, that will be published by the end of 2020. I would like to do a compilation book with all the stories of victory from illness to wellness that I hear on my podcast. I keep looking for new ways to get my mission heard so that I bring hope to many and inspire positive change.
What makes you different from other health coaches? Why should someone hire you?
To start, I have walked in my client’s shoes. People never truly understand something until it happens to them. I got sick, I owned my own health and I figured out how to return to wellness.
I specifically work with clients with chronic illness giving them hope and helping them find solutions. People come to me because they are hurt and frustrated and don’t think anyone understands. I carefully listen to the client about their health issues. I am a compassionate coach because I was once in their position. I believe that everyone can significantly improve their health if they are willing to change. My research has given me a vast basis of knowledge that I use to inspire others. I keep clients on the path and hold them accountable to their own goals. People who hire a coach want to win, and I can help them do that with their health. I help clients write their own stories so that they can create their own ending. They take back their power over their health.
Cheryl has written four books on health and toxins available here.
