Know Your Endo: a conversation with endometriosis author Jessica Murnane
I’m not sure how I exactly I got talking with author Jessica Murnane, but I think it was through talking about books. Not only is Jess a fellow book nerd, but she also writes books and she also has endo - can you say #sistersfromanothermister? And still, even though her book has sold a lot more copies than mine, and Jess is obvy a lot more stylish than me (still working on that one 35 years later, did I mention I’m a book nerd?), we’re both authors, book aficionados, health lovers, foodies, and endo survivors. So it makes sense that we should be pen pals, right? Right.
That’s why I was so excited when Jess sent me an advance copy of her brand spanking new book to read! You probably know Jess’s first book One Part Plant since it’s basically a household name, but now she’s written a new book (out soon) all about endometriosis + diet + lifestyle. Here it is below, isn’t she pretty?
After reading it I decided you should read it too, and here’s why: there’s so many nuggets in it. Nuggets about what endo is, why you should get diagnosed, how integrative care (meaning a combination of holistic, western, eastern, or anything in between) is essential when treating it, and HOW TO GET THERE. Because yes, sometimes it seems daunting looking at the list of “healthy” lifestyle tweaks to consider when dealing with a chronic inflammatory disease like endo. But instead of throwing you to the wolves with a list of “to-do’s”, Jess’s book give you an action plan. One month, broken down into week long focuses, with tangible successes.
Sound cool? Good, because it is.
Of course there’s no one better to talk about Know Your Endo than the author herself! Read up, and if you like what you see you can preorder the book on Amazon here, or learn more about Jess and Know Your Endo here.
Congratulations on your book! What inspired you to step away from the program you were doing (working with endo sufferers in a group support setting) to write a book?
I loved leading the Know Your Endo course and community that took it truly helped shape the book. But there were a few things that didn't sit right with me after a couple of sessions...
For starters, it wasn't something that was accessible to all, in terms of the cost and/or someone having a home computer/smartphone to take it. Second, because I'm not a doctor, I could only help people with lifestyle tools and not the medical side of endo (which is obviously a huge part of it). And third, it would have been too damn long if I wanted to address all the aspects of living with endo!
Turning the course into a book meant it could be accessible to more people and I could bring in the top doctors and experts in the field to address the medical side of having endo and we could go way more in depth on everything endo...a whole 70K words in-depth!
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If your book had an elevator pitch, what would it be? Why should women suffering from endo, who have heard so much conflicting information about it, care?
Can I cheat a little and use what Mozhan Marnò said about the book (she read an advanced copy and gave an endorsement for it):
Jessica approaches this subject as she does everything: with curiosity and compassion, extensive research, and a belief in the integration of modern allopathic medicine and healthy lifestyle habits. - Mozhan Marnò, actress and writer
I was also exhausted with all the information out there! But like Mozhan says...I did a lot of research for this book and interviewed over 40 doctors, experts, and different people living with endo to really give a full picture of living with a chronic condition. I wanted it to go deeper than a lot of the information we get as patients and share how it can impact relationships, career, self-worth, and mental health.
And to answer the question of why someone should care...because I care. My mission with this book is to help us all have more good days than bad and never feel alone in our condition again.
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In a world where a lot of us hear surgery is the only way to address endo, or perhaps that holistic healing is the only way, your book brings together experts on both. Indeed, you yourself had a professionally done excision surgery and still use a positive diet and lifestyle framework to keep your remaining symptoms in check. Can you help us understand why this helps you feel empowered rather than exhausted?
What a great question! First off, I didn't change everything in my life at once. It was progressive and I took it slow. It can feel exhausting to feel like you have to do it all at once.
I've seen people's daily morning routines on social, and can't comprehend how they pack that all in...especially with a family and a career! Good for them, but those extensive routines don't work for my life right now. When I wake up each day I try to choose a couple of things that I know will support me throughout the day. That could be foam rolling next to my son while he eats breakfast, rescheduling a meeting for an hour later to make sure I eat a good lunch, and/or popping an edible the second my son goes to bed and watching Housewives. It's all sorts of ways to care for myself and those vary each day.
I also think it can feel exhausting if you don't actually like doing your care routines. For instance, if you hate steamed broccoli...don't eat it. If you hate yoga...try a chill YouTube dance class instead. Finding things you actually enjoy eating/doing, makes it way less annoying and exhausting. Which sounds obvious...but I think we can shame ourselves for not liking yoga or broccoli or whatever the lastest "healthy" thing is. Do what YOU like best.
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In your book you lay it out that:
“Good Foods are: Foods that nourish and energize you + Foods that don’t hurt you and/or make your endo symptoms feel worse.
Good foods are not: A restrictive diet, steamed broccoli and rice for every meal, a static plan that can never change, the magic solution to getting skinny, a cure for endo, or a universal standard. “
At a basic level this is exactly what folk with endo need to hear when confronted with sooo much dietary restriction info (confusion from influencers to specialists to sufferers)! What’s your best advice on how to heal one’s relationship with food if it’s super duper broken?
Getting help from a therapist or coach that specializes in disordered eating can be incredibly helpful and get you started on a path to healing. If you don't have insurance or this type of help is out of your budget, there are some online services that offer free counseling and sliding scales. Sometimes it's just too difficult to undo these patterns of thinking on our own.
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One big place your dietary management strategy differs from the Heal Endo approach is in our understanding of which certain foods are inflammatory. For example, the Heal Endo approach believes properly-sourced red meat and snout to tail eating of such animals (which includes bone broth, glycine-rich cuts, and organ meats) are an essential part of the healing diet, while your book lists red meat products as an inflammatory food. How can we still be friends and why aren’t we ragging on each other?
Is the interview over? Should I take my quinoa and leave?
No, I know you're joking...but I also know there is real beef (pun intended) out there between people battling it out which diet is "best" for endo. Which actually takes away from the bigger issue at hand: wanting to help people feel better.
For some, I do think red meat can be inflammatory. It was for me and it made me feel like crap. Was I buying properly-sourced, organic, know-the-farmer-who-sold-it-to-me red meat...not always. But I also don't think this is a reality for most of America to buy meat this way. So, I wanted to include it.
This book's "diet" approach is focusing on foods that make you feel good. I'm not trying to convince people to become vegan. However, I am trying to convince people to become more conscious about how their food makes them feel. If properly-sourced red meat makes you feel good and is in the budget...keep eating it. If doesn't, let's explore other foods you can eat that make you feel better.
Still friends?
[Yes! See how Jess and I can be different and not insta-hate on each other?? Isn’t that cool? Another wonderful reminder to everyone in the endo community on how we can all be different and still be friends]
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Your book goes way beyond food to talk about the basic foundations most everyone with endo should be meeting: decreasing toxin exposure, reducing stress, and increasing movement. You lay it out in a cool plan that helps introduce these topics every week. What is some of the most positive feedback you’ve heard from sufferers who’ve followed this plan?
Oh man, I cry everytime I talk about this. I interviewed some of the most incredible people for the book. I am so excited for readers to meet them!
For example...
Louise, a mom of five who works part-time who in the past really struggled with her endo. She shared that after she made changes to her diet and movement practices that a powerful thing happened to her family. She explained to me, "My children have now seen that even when you’re diagnosed with a condition, you can turn it into a positive. You can take action and take back control, and I think that’s a very valuable life lesson for them and it’s also impacted family life positively. The change in my health has been so drastically different, and they often refer to it as an example of how you can turn a negative into a positive.”
I use this example because so much of what I want for people is to be able to participate in their life more – being with family and friends, traveling, and not feeling like their endo dictates the world they live in. Louise gave me so much hope this can happen for others...in whatever way is meaningful to them.
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Thanks Jess!
If you want to reach out to her you can find her at www.knowyourendo.com or cruising on insta @knowyourendo. And, seriously, look how cute she is.
