My name is Cheryl Meyer, and I recently became a Health Coach. (Cheryl M HealthMuse) I took the HCTP program at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition® for certification. Here is a recent interview.

1.What made you research toxins?
I got autoimmune disease 5 years ago and learned that “leaky gut” was a major contributor to my disease. One of the main things that cause “leaky gut” are toxins. As part of my get well journey, I started researching so that I could eliminate as many as I possibly could from my life. I was appalled that they were everywhere.
2. What else did you learn from all of your research?
I wasn’t offered anything other than medications when I talked to my conventional MD. My parents both had unusual illnesses where the meds became more of a problem than the condition they were suffering from, so I knew that I didn’t want to go there unless there were no other options. I discovered a new paradigm of medicine through my research called Functional Medicine. These were medical doctors from reputable institutions that got sick themselves and looked for a better way. Functional medicine is “root cause” medicine. They do have meds in their tool box, but they see the body as a whole, and run tests to heal the entire body, not just the body part that is diseased. Rather than listening to a patients symptoms and prescribing a pill, they listen to the patient, and run tests to figure out the root cause of the symptoms so that they can heal it. They believe in organic eating, and that the body has an amazing ability to “heal” itself if given the right nutrients.
3. Why did you decide to go back to school at the ripe old age of 67?
As I began to heal, I knew that I wanted to help others with all of the things I was learning. I decided that I did not want to retire. I wanted to help people who were ill to find their path back to wellness. The Institute of Integrative Nutrition gave me the ability to earn certification as a health coach which would give me credibility. They also taught be a wide base of nutritional information to put it all into perspective.
4. Why did you write the book? It Feels Good to Feel Good?
Although everything that I write about in my book was available on the internet it took quite a bit of searching to find all of it. In the beginning, I didn’t even know what I was looking for. I saw a need to write the manual that I wish I had had when I started my journey 5 years ago. Taking what I learned at IIN, and adding to it all of the information that I had discovered along the way through my own research, and from working with my Functional MD to help me heal, I wrote the book to help others.
5. Let's talk about the toxins you discovered that were in your everyday life. Where were they lurking?
Literally, there were toxins everywhere.
• We are spraying our food with pesticides and herbicides, which are poison.
• With GMO foods, we are breeding the toxins right into the food.
• Our can goods have BPA in the lining which are endocrine disruptors.
• Plastics release toxins into our water and into our food and plastics are everywhere,
• We are treating our farm animals so poorly and in such abhorrent conditions, that we have to inject them with tons of chemicals and antibiotics so that they can make it to market, and we are giving them massive amounts of growth hormones so that they can get there faster. Then we are feeding them the GMO foods with the toxins bred right into them. Their toxins and their stress hormones are being passed right on to us.
• Our dairy, also has hormones, GMO’s, antibiotics, and stress hormones right in it.
• Our cooking oils are the opposite of what we have previously been told, the good oils have been the bad oils all along, the bad oils are the good oils. Olive oil is being cut and mixed with the bad oils by the mafia as a huge money making enterprise.
• Fast food and processed food are all chemicals that have no nutrients in them. They offer no food value to fuel our bodies.
• Sugar is a chemical as addictive as cocaine and heroin.
• Fake sugars are harmful chemicals.
• Our drinking water has been corrupted with many toxic substances. Flint is not the only city in America with a problem. Most water systems have chemicals in them that are harmful.
• Our cosmetics are not regulated, and many of the ingredients are toxic and harmful. Skin is our largest organ so it is a critical area to clean up.
• Our cleaning supplies are not regulated and again are toxic and harmful.
• Over-the-counter drugs are harming our body, and yet we pop those pills for every whisper of a discomfort.
• The things we use to cook in our kitchens from many of our pots and pans to our utensils, to our storage containers are emitting toxins into the air and into our bodies.
• Most of us now have a heavy toxic load of toxic metals in our bodies.
• And I have 18 food sensitivities which are foods that are my kryptonite. Eliminating all of these foods was my first step to feeling good again.
Disease begins at the tipping point of toxic load. I started step by step 20 years ago having issues, I just didn’t recognize what it was. First it was my deodorant, then my mascara, then cleaning supplies and dust, then fragrance. I woke up one morning and my lips and my tongue were swollen and finally I figured out it was fabric softener. The toxic load just kept building up until I erupted in inflammation.

6. Are there any other toxins that concern you?
Yes, there is toxic stress, toxic anxious thoughts, toxic lack of sleep, toxic lack of movement and toxic relationships to clean up in order to find wellness. All of these things cause disease.
7. What is the net result of living in all these toxins?
The United States is now 37th in the world in wellness. We are the richest country in the world, and because of our government's lack of regulation and control over the above areas, we are slowly being poisoned. Many of the toxins that we are dealing with have been banned in other countries around the world.
I understand that for the first time in many generations, our children will not live as long as we will. This has impacted our longevity.
We have a health care crisis in America. I propose we have a toxin crisis in America, and if we don’t start voting with our dollars, and stop this madness, we will lose the next several generations to come to more and more disease. I do a call of action in the back of my book that we all need to become an Army of One. Each of us needs to vote with our dollars if we are going to eliminate the toxins in every phase of our lives.
8. How are you feeling now?
I am 75% better. It ends up that my body does not easily detox, so the toxins get trapped in my body. I feel like an onion that is being peeled. Every layer uncovers things that need to be corrected if I am going to reach optimal wellness. However, conventional medicine does not believe that autoimmune disease can be cured, they only believe that it will progressively get worse, and that they must prescribe pills to ease the pain. I am here to tell you that is not true . Food can cure, and eliminating toxins has a huge impact on the body. I am well on my way to being well.
9. Why do you think you are a great health coach?
As a fellow student said to me one day, “Not only have you researched a lot seeking your own health, but you have lived through it all” I have walked in the shoes of many of my clients. I am a compassionate health coach because I have been there and found solutions, in a large array of subjects, seeking my own health.
10. What are you doing in addition to the book to get your message out to the public?
I have started doing a variety of speaking engagements. Interestingly enough, my first talks were to cancer survivors at my local hospital. Although I wrote the book to help others with their inflammation and autoimmune conditions, cancer survivors bodies have already been attacked first by the disease and then by the treatment. They can’t afford to have all of these toxins that I uncovered in their lives. The reality is that this book is for everyone. It’s for healthy people that want to stay healthy, its for Moms who want to raise healthy families, its for people with someone in the family with severe allergies, its for people who want to lose weight. Toxins are incideous, and as they have invaded our lives, they have done a tremendous amount of damage in a variety of ways. Inflammation begins 6-20 years before it rears its ugly little head. Its important to start to purge the toxins now in order to live a long and healthy life.
Cheryl M Health Muse is also open now for business, so I am accepting new clients in my office in Monrovia, California or via SKYPE. I can inspire you to find your way back to wellness.
11. Whats up next for you?
I have started writing my companion guide to “It Feels Good to Feel Good, learn to eliminate toxins, reverse inflammation and feel great again.” I am going to call it “Good Feels Good, tips I have learned to live my life toxin free.” It will answer the questions and objections that I am hearing now on a daily basis.
• How to eat organic as much as possible.
• Tips for eating organic on a budget. (For people who say they can’t afford it)
• How to cook like a quick order chef (for people who say they don’t have time to cook)
• How to identify your sensitivities and then I will share how I live around them
• What I do to have clean toxin free water with me all the time
• How I go out to dinner at a restaurant
• How I am a guest at a dinner party
• How I plan so that I never have a need for fast food when I am out and about
• How I travel to SF from LA by car
• How I travel to Europe and am still prepared

At the back of the companion guide, I will have a reference library for all of the products that I think are exemplary and clean. I am giving these products my “Golden Broccoli Award for excellence in health”. I have also started a weekly blog to highlight these products. These will be processed foods that are clean, and therefore acceptable, cosmetics, cleaning supplies, cooking utensils and pots and pans, food storage items, and also restaurants that go the extra mile and serve clean food. Right now I am making a list of places I can eat in Los Angeles, but I am hoping that people will also want to share where they can eat that is clean so that I can add these establishments to my list. I know there is a small directory of vegan restaurants called Happy Cow, but I eat Paleo, and I want people to also know where they can eat out and have clean meat and organic food without soy and without chemicals.

I am targeting May 2018 as my publish date.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to share my message. This has been a pleasure.