When Megan Faragasso transformed her life's toughest battles into a mission to heal others, she redefined what it means to be resilient. Our latest episode features this remarkable founder of The Autoimmune Healer, where an intimate discussion unfolds on how Megan's own health struggles fueled her passion to create life-changing nutrition plans. Her story is not just one of overcoming anorexia, but a testament to the power of dietary intervention in managing autoimmune disorders. Listeners will be engrossed by Megan's journey, from her early entrepreneurial spirit to the vows she made amidst personal health crises, committing her life to helping clients navigate the often-turbulent waters of autoimmune symptoms through carefully curated diets.
Empowerment radiates through our conversation with Megan as we unpack the significance of self-advocacy in health. Her approach isn't about restriction, but about embracing food as medicine, introducing healing alternatives that have helped clients reclaim their vitality and ease the often-debilitating effects of autoimmune diseases. The stories shared are a beacon of hope for anyone seeking to regain control of their health, highlighting the remarkable transformations that become possible when persistence meets personalized guidance. To connect with Megan and become part of her inspiring community, find her at The Autoimmune Healer online and follow her journey of nutrition-driven healing on social media platforms. Join us for an episode that promises to uplift and potentially chart a new course for your own health and wellbeing.
When Megan Faragasso transformed her life's toughest battles into a mission to heal others, she redefined what it means to be resilient. Our latest episode features this remarkable founder of The Autoimmune Healer, where an intimate discussion unfolds on how Megan's own health struggles fueled her passion to create life-changing nutrition plans. Her story is not just one of overcoming anorexia, but a testament to the power of dietary intervention in managing autoimmune disorders. Listeners will be engrossed by Megan's journey, from her early entrepreneurial spirit to the vows she made amidst personal health crises, committing her life to helping clients navigate the often-turbulent waters of autoimmune symptoms through carefully curated diets.
Empowerment radiates through our conversation with Megan as we unpack the significance of self-advocacy in health. Her approach isn't about restriction, but about embracing food as medicine, introducing healing alternatives that have helped clients reclaim their vitality and ease the often-debilitating effects of autoimmune diseases. The stories shared are a beacon of hope for anyone seeking to regain control of their health, highlighting the remarkable transformations that become possible when persistence meets personalized guidance. To connect with Megan and become part of her inspiring community, find her at The Autoimmune Healer online and follow her journey of nutrition-driven healing on social media platforms. Join us for an episode that promises to uplift and potentially chart a new course for your own health and wellbeing.
Speaker 1:
My name is Megan Faragasso, my business is the autoimmune healer and I offer customized nutrition plans to eliminate autoimmune symptoms and for weight loss.
Speaker 2:
Okay, can you tell me your story about how you got started in this industry, like, who are you as a kid and all that good stuff?
Speaker 1:
Yeah Well, I've been an entrepreneur my whole life. Started my first business when I was two. I was in my house, I set up a little store in my house and, you know, parents wanted their wallet Five cents, you know so and then I started my first profitable business at seven and I was on the front cover of the local Gazette because I donated the profits to charities, because seven my needs were met, you know, by my parents so. But I didn't really understand profit and loss then. And but so since then, in my whole life, I've been a serial entrepreneur.
Speaker 1:
I have dedicated myself to helping women to love and heal their bodies at first, and I've been doing this for over 27 years. First started when I was hospitalized for anorexia and it didn't look like I was going to make it and I just got down on my knees and I prayed and I said, God, if you save me from this and get me out of here, I promise to dedicate the rest of my life to helping other women take care of their bodies and love and heal them. And from there it kind of morphed. I worked in kind of the health and wellness and space for about 20 years and then a couple years ago I was suffering from some autoimmune issues and I knew that I could heal myself with nutrition, and I kept asking doctors for help and seeking other trained nutritionists for help, and no one could really guide me. And doctors were saying, well, there's not really any help for you, not much we can do. This is just going to be the way it is, and we don't even have a diagnosis. But you just have to live with these symptoms, and I wasn't willing to accept that. So I was able to come up with a protocol to heal myself of all of the symptoms and I started realizing that a lot of my clients that were coming to me with weight loss actually had a lot of inflammation and metabolic damage from autoimmune issues. And I started recognizing these common denominators over and over again and I started saying, well, you know, this worked for me, you want to try it? And I said yeah and we started. I started after working with thousands and thousands of people and helping them eliminate all of the symptoms of their autoimmune diseases. I was able to figure out very custom protocols and I'm able to now customize plans and nutrition plans based on what gives each individual person, causes, their flare ups, and it's really rewarding.
Speaker 1:
I mostly work with other entrepreneurs and CEOs and people who are high functioning and have really busy lives, parents and people who can't afford to be sick. They're too busy so nothing matters when you're sick. They say that you have a man that's healthy as a thousand wishes and a man that's sick has one. So it is more rewarding that what I do. It does help people gain confidence too, but it's just the fact that they get their lives back People from having insomnia, brain fog, joint pain. Sometimes people can't move anymore, they can't walk. They're just kind of losing the chronic fatigue, losing the quality of life, and so to be able to reinvigorate their life is just. I want to do it forever. It's something I don't want everyone to retire from. Yep.
Speaker 2:
They say when you love what you do, it's not a job, right, yeah, that is such a powerful story. I'm just giggling inside a little bit because you said when you were two and then when you were seven, you always had that little entrepreneurial spirit in you. Huh yeah.
Speaker 1:
I think it's the desire for impact over comfort or stability. I need impact more than anything else.
Speaker 2:
Remember, more than stability or reliability in my life and I can see that when you talk about it too, like the little passion in your eyes and your smile like, yeah, Can you tell me a little bit about how some clients come in and they have maybe like some autoimmune flare ups coming up. How does that connect with what you're putting into your body? That's amazing.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, so it's complicated, to say the least, but it is Our body a lot of times create we have an allergy, right. Sometimes you have a food allergy, say, for example, and it's pretty clear. Like you eat a food and you have a reaction right away. So you may have a rash breaks out or anaphylactic shock or something, but an allergy for a food, you eat the food and you see the reaction right away.
Speaker 1:
With an autoimmune issue, it's more of an intolerance to a food that causes a chronic issue, and so it takes two and a half to three weeks to get that food out of your system, out of your whole bloodstream, before the body can start healing and then the body can start sending it into you I mean food. It's pretty common in the body and that that chronic issue goes away. So the problem is people may say what they only eat something Once a week, maybe once every two weeks, and they so there's no correlation to them eating the food and then seeing their reaction, but it's still constantly in their bloodstream. So they think they just have these chronic issues. Well, I just have back pain, I just have brain fog, I just am always tired, I'm just always bloated and have, you know all kinds of digestive issues IBS, crohn's, and so it's.
Speaker 1:
They don't see the correlation as easily and my job is to come in and just figure out what it is that their body is Causing a new tolerance to what the body is reacting to, that's slowing down the metabolism and causing these symptoms, so that we can pull that out. And then the next step is always to start introducing new foods, so that we're not just pulling foods away and saying, well, you can't eat this and you can't eat this, and now you can't eat this, and people just end up binging, you know like. So we have to start. If I'm gonna take foods out of your diet, even if for small, for three or six months, just while your body heals, we still gonna start introducing new foods that you maybe didn't have, it didn't know you like, or things, so that you don't just feel deprived.
Speaker 2:
That is very shocking, like you. Like you said, it stays in your system for a little bit, so you think like oh it's definitely not that. Yeah, anyway, and then can you tell me a little bit about Marketing, like how are you putting yourself out there, how are you sharing this knowledge so people know about you and come to you?
Speaker 1:
Yeah, that's a great question. Mostly it's word of mouth. You know, people see their co-workers and their neighbors and their friends lives drastically change. They ask about it, right, and hundreds of thousands of people are being diagnosed every year with autoimmune diseases and it's increasing at a drastic rate because of the toxins that we're being exposed to that are increasing and we have less of an ability to detox our body. You know kind of we need to help it detox a little bit. Our body naturally does that, but we're bombarding it too much and so you know we're having so more and more people are having this issue, and I'm one of the few people in the in the world that marry both nutrition and Weight management and I do it without in withhold foods and that I'm I kind of focus in the autoimmune space and then so it's just. You know I do some Some marketing on social media, but at this point I don't do any paid Advertising, okay, currently.
Speaker 2:
So I think you definitely should dip into that space online, because you have such Informational things that I think people would benefit from listening to her. Maybe they don't even know. They're like wait, what, what I'm eating, you know? Yeah, I think that would be really great and I feel like you have like the style and the personality to put yourself out there. People like, wow, I like this girl, I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go talk to her. I like her sneakers you can't see them, but they're really cool for people who don't know.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, and for your industry. Is there like a common misconception or anything that you would like people to know? I think that.
Speaker 1:
Intuitively. Often people know that, that there is Help, even if a doctor says, well, this is just the way it's gonna be for the rest of your life. That if if there is something that you want help with, to seek answers and to keep asking and keep seeking someone that can help you, because there are answers and just because that doctor it doesn't have any nutritional knowledge, they're not trying to lie to you or deceive you or not help you. It's just that they don't know right, and so that's a big problem. A lot of times people go to their doctors and doctors will tell them well, there's some biologics you can be on for the rest of your life, or there's some things that can maybe mitigate it, but there's nothing else you can really do. It's not that they're lying to them, it's just that they don't know. There is plenty more you can do, but you've got to keep seeking. Don't give up, keep looking, keep asking, keep finding someone that can help you.
Speaker 2:
Absolutely Especially. I feel like, yeah, of course the doctors aren't lying to you, but I think it's just the way that maybe the medical industry is a little bit, and how they're trained and brought up with coming up with solutions as opposed to a more holistic way. So we just got to also educate ourselves and see what other options are there. But there's also some doctors that I've actually had the pleasure to talk to as well who try to do things a little bit more in a holistic way as well. So, yeah, just getting that knowledge and being aware that medicine is not the only option, there are other options.
Speaker 1:
So I think that is yeah amazing.
Speaker 2:
We've got to be our own advocate Absolutely, because if not girl, who else will?
Speaker 1:
be Exactly.
Speaker 2:
And then is there any other topic or any other passion that's in your heart that you would like to get out there and let people know about, whether it's in regards to your business or just the nutritional world.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I think just a resiliency and the ability to pivot, it's been really paramount in both my life and my business that the reason I've been able to be an entrepreneur for so long is because I'm constantly pivoting. I'm constantly changing and open to seeing what people need and what the need is and how I need to change and to help people with their needs. And I think that's true with everything in our lives. If we can become more flexible, to be more receptive to change and be a little bit more flexible with that, that things can be a little easier for us. Life can be a little more of a fun adventure, just like our businesses. They don't have to be stressful, they can be a fun adventure, exactly.
Speaker 2:
I love that. Where can people find you? What's your Instagram, your website?
Speaker 1:
My website is theautomunehealercom and my Instagram is also the Automune Healer, facebook the Automune Healer Perfect.
Speaker 2:
Yes, and then last question here if you could leave one message with our listeners. What would that message be? Could be anything in your heart.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I think that message is just to not give up and to be your own advocate, and that someone's not coming to save you and that you have to be your own advocate and there is a way. If you're resilient, you will find a way.
Speaker 2:
Absolutely Well. Thank you so much for being here and sharing your wisdom and your awesome story my pleasure. Thank you for having me.