Mom’s Choice Awards is excited to announce another post in our interview series where we chat with the inventors, designers, publishers, and others behind some of our favorite family-friendly products.
Hello, Mom’s Choice readers! Thank you for joining us for another segment in our interview series. For this interview, we had the pleasure of speaking with Cheryl Meyer, the author of the Mom’s Choice Award-winning books, It Feels Good to Feel Good, Learn to Eliminate Toxins, Reduce Inflammation and Feel Great Again and Feeling Good, Living Low Toxin. These books are so helpful to anyone who struggles to implement healthy habits and choices into their lives or feels overwhelmed by doing so. Cheryl’s books offer great insights on how to give your health a complete reset while making the steps to do so easy to understand and follow through with. Keep reading to find out more about Cheryl and her incredibly insightful books, It Feels Good to Feel Good, Learn to Eliminate Toxins, Reduce Inflammation and Feel Great Again and Feeling Good, Living Low Toxin.
MCA: Hi Cheryl, it is so nice to be speaking with you today, and congratulations on your Mom’s Choice Awards! As someone who has really struggled with health issues myself, I found your books to be truly life-changing. I know most healthy living books can sometimes be overwhelming and confusing, and leave people feeling defeated when they cannot keep up. Your books were so easy to follow and really helps guide the reader through the whole process of creating a better, healthier life for themselves with simple steps and helpful tips. With so much information packed into these books, you must have an extensive background in healthy living. Can you tell us about that background?
Cheryl Meyer, Author and Health Coach.
Cheryl: 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 an 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 is 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 do not eat the SAD, (Standard American Diet of processed foods and fast foods.) I discuss how I am a guest in other’s 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.
I will always have an autoimmune disease, but I no longer have pain and that is huge. I am now 71 and feel better than I did in my 50’s.
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 significant 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. I have also interviewed two remarkable men who have not only survived heart disease but have come into their own strength, one is a Senior Olympic Gold Medalist and the other has also made the significant changes needed to return to health. Two of my interviews were with Mothers who refused to believe that their children could not return to complete wellness. One man ran his bike into a deer and broke his back in 4 places but was so healthy he was back on his bike in a 2000-mile trek in 10 days. These interviews are to give others hope that whatever the state of their health, if they own it, and make the necessary changes, it is not where their story needs to end. After only 3 months, my podcast ranks third out of 28 podcasts on my channel and is heard in 68 countries.
I am married to a wonderful man who is my true soulmate. He edits my books and produces my podcast. I met him when I started looking for a man who wanted to go on a
get well” journey with me. A statistician by trade, he is now writing his own book on data mining and meditation.
We have one home in Los Angeles, which is my childhood home, in Arcadia, California. It is a home of beautiful memories. We have a second home in Sedona, AZ, which is our little slice of heaven. Sedona is where I love to go to write my books.
For more tips on living a healthy life, visit my website. To see all my books, including the compilations I have participated in, and all my podcasts, my publishing website.
MCA: It has been quite the journey to health for you! You say it was after you become a health coach that you wrote your first book. Can you tell us more about what your journey to writing that first book was like?
Cheryl: I became an author after I figured out how to return to wellness from autoimmune disease. While I was researching, I kept file folders on my computer, so when I graduated from Health Coaching School, the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, when they asked if I wanted to join their course to write a book, it was a book waiting to happen and it practically wrote itself. It helped that my BA was in English from UC Berkeley. I started my first book in Nov 2016 and finished writing all 450 pages of the book by January 15, 2017. I wanted to help others discover what I had learned, and I sometimes think I channeled the book. It has since won 15 awards. Book 2 has won 4 awards since May 2020.
MCA: Your first book, It Feels Good to Feel Good, Learn to Eliminate Toxins, Reduce Inflammation and Feel Great Again, was inspired by your wanting to help others discover what I had learned about returning to wellness from autoimmune disease. What was the inspiration behind your second book, Feeling Good, Living Low Toxin?
Cheryl: My first book was about purging hundreds of toxins from my life so that my toxic load lowered, and I could return to wellness. My second book in the set, Feeling Great, Living Low Toxin in Community and Everyday Life was written by request of my Functional MD. Her patients were not figuring out the sustainable lifestyle habits that I had put into place to avoid eating the Standard American Diet. Once I felt great, I was not about to give that up, so figuring out how to still have a social life, but not eat processed foods and fast foods, or other ingredients that made me sick were to be avoided at all costs. I also addressed that I now practiced gratitude every day, cooked 90 % of the food that I ate so that I could control what I fed my body and so that I could eat nutrient-rich foods. I addressed how skin was an inside job and how 2-3-minute stress exercises had become part of my daily routine. I shared why it’s so important to eat the rainbow, from a farm as close to me as possible for maximum nutrients and that each color had a gift that was released when all the colors were eaten close together. I shared 30 ways to save on healthy food. I became fascinated with forests and trees and wanted to share the miracle of forest bathing for health, and why it’s so important to return to nature for self-care. And since I was appalled that over ½ of our children have a chronic illness, I wrote an entire section for parents to raise healthy children in the 21st Century. I had also lost my 3 beloved pets when I was researching for my own health, so I knew I wanted to research how to create a low toxin environment for our fur babies. I was shocked at what I discovered and then shared that in my second book.
MCA: What are some of the key lessons found in your books, It Feels Good to Feel Good, Learn to Eliminate Toxins, Reduce Inflammation and Feel Great Again and Feeling Good, Living Low Toxin?
Cheryl: We all need to take our power back and own our own health. I had an MD who told me there was nothing wrong with me, but I knew that I hurt, so I refused to take the steroids she threw at me and dug in to research instead. She wanted me to seek mental therapy, I wanted to grow old pain-free without medications. What I discovered from watching 19 symposiums put on by the Functional Medical Community, was that there was something called Toxic Load, and Leaky Gut. Not even knowing if I had an autoimmune disease, it made sense to me to start there. I found my own Functional MD years later and she verified that I had an autoimmune disease. But I was already well on my way of eliminating hundreds of toxins from my life.
By lowering my toxic load and lowering my stress (my cortisol was almost to Addison’s Disease when I got sick) I had started to ditch my pain. Today I am completely pain-free, but I will always have an autoimmune disease.
When I started to research for my own health, I did not even know what I was looking for. I was running into other women around town with the same frustration and pain, who were feeling lost and abandoned, and did not know where to go for help. I decided to write the manual I wish I had had when I first got sick so that others could benefit from my journey.
MCA: Well I think I can speak for many people when I say I am so glad you shared so much of your research and findings with the world. You have without a doubt changed many lives with these books! Speaking of the impact your book has had on its readers, what has some of the responses you have received been like?
“It Feels Good to Feel Good, Learn to Eliminate Toxins, Reduce Inflammation and Feel Great Again” and “Feeling Good, Living Low Toxin.”
Cheryl: Both books have won awards. The first book has won 15 awards because the book is written in layman language to others just like me. It is really a book about my journey to wellness and all the things I discovered along the way. People with chronic pain are incredibly grateful for the information. This was an unsolicited email that I received from a reader-
“Amazing! Amazing! Amazing! I first want to say thank you and (big hugs). Your book may have saved my life. I am 45 years old and have been struggling with unanswered symptoms for at least 5 years and all conventional doctors want to do is wash me away with medication. You have saved some of the best years of my life with your information. Thank you so much.” Lisa
Autoimmune disease is often a hidden disease. We do not look sick and conventional medicine does not run the right tests to discover what was causing the illness. My information is valuable for anyone with a chronic illness (cancer, heart disease, ADHD, diabetes, etc.) because I believe toxins are the root cause of inflammation and inflammation is the root cause of chronic disease. People are grateful for the information.
MCA: I am definitely one of those people! Why was it important to you to have Mom’s Choice Awards recognize your books?
Cheryl: Ever since I learned that over 50% of our children have a chronic illness I wanted to research and add to what I had learned so that I could help mothers raise healthier children. I sought recognition from Mom’s Choice so that moms everywhere would have access to the information that I feel is imperative for them to raise a healthy family, starting with Food Quality and Cooking- Food Quality Matters. My books explain why this is true and give tips for sustainable habits to avoid the SAD (Standard American Diet).
MCA: Access to this information is definitely imperative, especially in this day and age. One last question for you, if you could ensure readers of your book walk away with one main lesson, what would it be?
Cheryl: Take back your power. You control what goes into your body and what goes into your children’s bodies. Cook. Eat organic (None of you need a heavy dose of poison with your food.) Eat all the colors of the rainbow. (I explain in detail why this is important. It’s always easier for me to do something when I understand first the why and then the how). I give lots of suggestions on how Moms can eat healthier for their own body and then tons of great ideas for how to enroll your child to be a Jr. Veggie Ranger who wants to be the superhero that leads the pack eating healthy food.
MCA: That is a deeply impactful message to leave us with. Thank you so much for such a great interview, Cheryl. We hope you continue to share more of your tips for living a healthy lifestyle with us and our readers!
You can learn more about Cheryl Meyer and her award-winning books, It Feels Good to Feel Good, Learn to Eliminate Toxins, Reduce Inflammation and Feel Great Again and Feeling Good, Living Low Toxin, by visiting her MCA Shop pages.
