Miss United States 2017 from Cocoa Beach

Tim Walters, FLORIDA TODAY Published 2:38 p.m. ET Oct. 5, 2017

Rachael Todd of Cocoa Beach, Miss United States, health coach and yoga instructor, brings her message of eating healthy to the people. Video by Malcolm Denemark

Rachael Todd was overjoyed at the words that had just heard spoken over the loud speakers.

“Here is your winner of Miss United States 2017, Miss Florida, Rachael Todd.”

The central Florida native and current Cocoa Beach resident had just been chosen over 43 other competitors to win the pageant held July 8 in Orlando.

“It's such a wonderful, nerve racking feeling all wrapped up into one moment and I do lose myself in the moment,” Todd said. “I start to realize that truly anything can happen, and that any one of the girls on the stage could walk away with the title. So my reaction is truly out of sheer joy.”

Miss United States, not to be confused with Miss USA or Miss America, is a pageant held each year for unmarried women between ages 20-29. It is open to competitors from all 50 states, as well as the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The first runner-up was from Texas, and the second runner-up from Georgia.

Todd, a UCF graduate, was busy before earning this year’s Miss United States title.

She is an entrepreneur, yoga instructor, integrative-nutritionist and life-health coach to young women.

“I have made a full-time career in the health and wellness industry, as well as the modeling industry,” she said. “I am the owner of RKT Consulting, which focuses on educating women with one-on-one coaching, group coaching and corporate workshops. I help women rediscover their true well-being and nurture their whole-being through self-care, mindfulness, meditation, yoga and nutrition.”

Todd also is a corporate spokesmodel for Lexus and Loreal, among other companies.

She started competing in pageants in 2009 for scholarship money. She competed in the Miss America Organization first, winning the title of Miss Florida in 2009. She went to Miss America in 2010.

After six years of post-graduate studies and building her consulting company, Todd decided to compete again for another national title, this time Miss United States.

She entered and won the Miss Florida United States pageant in April 29 to qualify for the finals in July.

“I love that competing in a pageant forces me to step out of my comfort zone, to reevaluate my goals, to assess where I've been and where I'm headed,” she said. “Pageantry is a vehicle for that. It provides a platform and a microphone.”

Todd’s Miss United States platform is ‘Hunger in America-Changing the Way America Eats.’

She said it addresses the overfed and undernourished epidemic that has now led to a health crisis in the country.

“My mission is to inform young people about the ways in which the food industry is targeting them and how to combat it with knowledge and education; to make them aware of the importance of overall good health and whole food nutrition,” she said. “Specifically, the eating habits of children, the imminent threat of childhood obesity and type 2 diabetes, and the resulting long-term health issues threatening our nation’s well-being.”

In the near future, Todd would like to make a second appearance on the CBS talk show “The Doctors” speaking about health and wellness and nutrition in the school system and for children. She was on the show for the first time last year.

In the not so distant future, she would like to have her own family and continue to build her health and wellness consulting company online. Look out for her first online coaching program to be released early next year.

In the meantime, she’ll continue to spread her message, which also is a positive for her hometown.

“I see an incredible opportunity for the Space Coast to utilize my platform, my voice, my speaking talents, and my name to promote their businesses,” she said. “There is so much innovation happening in this corner of the world and I am the perfect vehicle to share the exciting news with the world.”

http://www.floridatoday.com/story/news/2017/10/05/miss-united-states-2017-cocoa-beach/722879001/