About "Me" Cheryl

Food has mapped my life. Food has taught me to listen, speak, and write from the heart. Food was the vehicle that unleashed my emergent voice. Food has been my passageway to self-understanding, self-love & healthy weight.

Cheryl-Sindell-About-1

I love words, almost as much as food. I’m a writer who shares journal entries, I wanted to keep a secret, even from myself... I’m a public speaker, and weight-loss mentor. Over the past 30 years, I’ve spoken on radio and television, and become identified in the media as a Nutritional Consumers’ Reporter who integrates the wisdom of Ayurveda with state-of-the-art western nutrition knowledge to acquire the self-mastery of food, health, and lifestyle. As a Global Nutritionist, I am dedicated to bringing about healthy weight for everyone worldwide.

I earned a master’s degree in education at The University of California, Los Angeles; I also studied state-of-the-art western nutrition at the University of California, Los Angeles, and eastern nutritional wisdom at The Ayurvedic Institute in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and the American University of Complementary Medicine in Los Angeles, California. I’m a lifelong student of The Science of Mind, A Course in Miracles, the Kabbalah, Zen Buddhism, and yoga. And yet, it’s my food story that continues to teach me self-love. Releasing excess weight is a practice, lived over time. To keep off the weight I lost over four decades ago, I eat seasonally, according to my constitution.

I will continue to relay the nutritional state of affairs, as accurately as I am able. Hopefully this will bring a heartfelt, loving conversation and understanding to the table about eating better, radiating good health and healthy weight, together.

Cheryl_Sindell_About-2

To share what I’ve learned over the years, I’ve made appearances on NBC, ABC, CBS, Food Network, QVC, PBS, Lifetime TV, CNN, CNBC, MSNBC, Discovery Channel, and Health Network. I’ve also been a guest on programs including The Other Half; Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus; Good Day LA; Home Matters; New Attitudes; Newsmakers; Connie Martinson Talks Books; Body by Jake: Healthy Lifetime Solutions; Smart Solutions; ABC-TV Eyewitness News; NBC News; KTLA Morning News; FOX News; AM Los Angeles; and Mid-Morning LA, to name a few. I also had my own radio program, The Cheryl Sindell Show, that focused on healthy, sustainable weight loss on KABC-TALKRADIO in Los Angeles for ten years.

When off duty, I’m a hiker, yogi, mother, cook, geek, artist, dancer, alchemist, avid reader, writer, and gardener.

Food Heroes, my newest book, is built upon antidotes from my food story, the integration of Ayurveda, western nutrition, and your food story. Food has been calling us to the table for nourishment, celebration, romance, and ritual, from birth to death. Food is memory. The foods you eat today, that you ate then, can take you back to messages you heard, and the beliefs you formed that stuck like spaghetti thrown against a wall. I’m not good enough, I’m not pretty, or worthy, or smart enough. Splattering’s of stories run though our minds, repeatedly, that suggest, “I simply don’t measure up”. Giving voice to our stories is to put ourselves back together whole. We cannot give away our authority and expect to succeed. I want pen and paper to release the external and internal weight of every life lived.

Cheryl_Sindell_About-3

Write your food story

As humans, we have always been storytellers. You have a muse, you are creative, and you are a writer (even if you think you’re not). It was through uncovering my buried feelings, yearnings and longings—writing my food story from the perspective of what happened, that I realized that a dysfunctional family does not define who we become.

In my late twenties, after dealing with family dissonance and making a fatal decision never to get angry at my husband, instead of saying what was on my mind, I stuffed down my fear, doubt, worry, by eating. Eating, after I’d already eaten, turned into a habit.

My cortisol level escalated. Soon after, I ate some undercooked chicken and contracted Guillain-Barre’ Syndrome (GBS), a neurological illness that left me paraplegic for four years, and 51 pounds overweight. Western nutrition had no cure… I had no choice other than to listen to my own authority, my body as it turned out had wisdom and a voice.

My food story unleashed my emergent voice

It taught me self-understanding, self-care, and self-love. And although we don’t share the same background, joys, challenges, or life circumstances, to accomplish anything you’ve never been able to do, before now— sustainable weight loss included—do something you’ve never done, until now. GBS taught me that our body does not define us. And that our “weight” is not who we are.

The notion of being able to see myself backwards drew me to writing Food Heroes.

My food story, my secrets and personal antidotes about fear, faith, sickness, nutrition, relationship, and healing will not create self-worth or self-love in you. But, like a steady drum, there is a consistent pulse of “Write it” prompts. (One example: Have you ever kept a secret because you were afraid of what might happen if you told someone?)

Only you get to decide if you’re good enough

What anyone else did, said, didn’t say, or didn’t do, does not characterize who you are. The challenge is to enter your food story consciously, and then go beyond it... Discontinue putting faith into what everyone else is telling you to do, and not do. Trust your body wisdom, honor what your body wants and needs…answer to the only voice that knows you.

Take back the responsibility for your own health, and weight

I listened within. Fired all of my doctors who thought I’d never heal, and hired Louis Rosner, MD—the neurologist who believed I’d be able to walk again—I got more sleep, stopped feeling sorry for myself, overcame fear, made sure I was hydrated, read and researched Ayurveda and Western nutrition–combined them. Sprinkled in my food story, and authored my own diet. My body needed to regrow my myelin sheath, and it did. Your body is your guide, it is smart, and it never lies.

Food turned into nourishment and pleasure again

My constitution returned to balance. My body ultimately healed itself, and released the fifty-one pounds I had gained. If you don’t write your own food story, someone else will!

My Professional Affiliations Include:

The Center for Science in the Public Interest; American Film, Television, and Radio Association; The Screen Actors Guild; the Culinary Guild of Southern California; the National Speakers Association; Member of The Ojai Foundation, and The Ayurvedic Institute.

Beyond Chance - A Will To Live

Take a look: Lifetime television taped a segment about my battle with Guillain-Barré Syndrome. In addition to finding, Louis Rosner, MD—the doctor who believed I’d be able to walk again—I journeyed into myself, authored my own diet and lifestyle, and brought my constitution back into balance. I enabled my body to ultimately heal itself!

Talk Radio

Video embed code not specified.

When you heal yourself, you heal the world.

Walk your talk and share what you know. The world needs you !