Jessica Murnane: A Health Transformation + A GIVEAWAY!

Jessica Murnane of jessicamurnane.com is one cool chick. She creates delicious + healthy recipes, takes incredible photos, promotes wellness like it’s her job (wait…it is!), brings plant-based eating to the menus of restaurants around Chicago, runs her own podcasts, just released her own downloadable cookbook titled A Year of Breakfast and she’s just become mom to little baby Sid. And that’s just some of the many, many amazing things Jessica is doing to spread happiness + wellness throughout this world.

I mean, how delicious do her creamy grits with avocado + hot sauce look? And how about that french toast sandwich + coconut cream + berries? The recipes for those dishes are part of A Year of Breakfast, which YOU have a chance to win for free today. Details at the end of this post!

But, in addition to creating amazing recipes and all the other great things Jessica is doing, she has an inspiring story about her health transformation from a very sick individual to a healthy, strong and happy one. And I feel very lucky to be able to share her story with you guys here. Her story starts out as a very bleak one but eventually, through whole food, plant-based eating, turns into a very bright one.

In her twenties Jessica was really sick. She had suffered from endometriosis for years and it was taking a toll on her physically and mentally. Endometriosis is a disorder that causes tissue from the uterus to grow in other parts of the body. This tissue growth causes chronic pain, blood clotting, pain during urination and bowel movements, excessive bleeding, fatigue, nausea, vomiting, and infertility, among other symptoms. You can read Jessica’s full explanation of endometriosis on her page Endometriosis + Diet.

The symptoms caused by her endometriosis became so intense and debilitating that most days she couldn’t even manage to get out of bed. She saw multiple doctors, received multiple [mis]diagnoses, yet didn’t find any relief from the horrible symptoms and chronic pain. She tried surgeries, medications and yoga. But they didn’t work. She even tried therapy to deal with the emotional toll this illness had taken on her. But she was still sick and she was still suffering.

And, when none of those treatments helped she was faced with one last, very drastic option: a hysterectomy. And even though a hysterectomy is a big, serious surgery, especially for someone so young, Jessica was desperate to feel better so she decided to go forward with it. She had put up with this pain long enough, and if, as her doctors said, a hysterectomy was her only option, then she was going to do it.

But then, a chance email from a friend regarding diet as a successful treatment for endometriosis changed the course of Jessica’s life forever. She read about the benefits of a whole food, plant-based diet and how it could so positively transform her health. She learned how meat and dairy, along with other foods like refined sugars, processed foods, fried foods, etc., cause inflammation in our bodies and that inflammation is a major cause of ill-health. She learned if she cut those foods out of her diet, her inflammation would significantly diminish and then her endometriosis symptoms should follow suit.

Not one of the many doctors she had seen had ever mentioned this as a treatment option for her. Not one. Which sadly, is not surprising. So, what was Jessica to do? On one end of the spectrum she was reading she could treat her endometriosis with something as simple as a change to her diet and on the other end of the spectrum her doctors were telling her that her only option for relief was a hysterectomy.

She decided to take her health into her own hands and follow her gut. Literally. She gave plant-based eating a try, even though it seemed daunting and so different from what she knew. And, the results were absolutely transformative. After just a few weeks her chronic pain that she had lived with for years started to lessen. Her diet change allowed her to manage and eliminate many of her symptoms. Her chronic pain, fatigue, urinary problems, painful bowel issues and nausea all went away with a change as simple as the food she put on her plate.

She never had the surgery and she never looked back. She’s been eating a whole food, plant-based diet ever since. And, now Jessica’s life isn’t defined by her sickness, in fact, it’s defined by her wellness.

Jessica’s story struck a chord with me when I first read it a couple years ago because it illustrates the amazing thing about plant-based eating. It can often seem drastic or extreme compared to the typical Western diet we have grown up with…but its power to prevent, treat and even reverse illness is profound. And, when faced with serious illness, the alternatives to diet change as a treatment option, like a hysterectomy for endometriosis or coronary bypass surgery for heart disease, seem a whole lot more drastic than changing what you put on your plate. Jessica shares that, “whether you have endometriosis or not, simply reducing inflammatory foods and adding more plants to your diet can help your overall health and wellness.”

Amen to that.

So are you ready for some healthy eating inspiration straight from Jessica?! She has so graciously decided to offer TWO free copies of her cookbook, A Year of Breakfast, for my readers to download. To enter for your chance to win A Year of Breakfast comment below and tell me one plant food you really love to eat! I’ll pick TWO random winners at the end of the week.

[This giveaway is now closed. Congratulations to Mariam A. + Jennifer Hughes! Thank you everyone for entering.]

**All photo cred in this post goes to Jessica Murnane**