About "A Healthy Jo"

It was the summertime, back in 2007, and I had just landed in St. Louis, Missouri, while traveling for work. I checked into my hotel, fit in a light workout, and although I felt a little tired, I figured it was just from the day of travel, and went to bed. .

The next morning, I woke up with a sore and severely swollen neck. I didn't want to let anyone down, and while it was odd, it didn't seem urgent (I figured, maybe I just slept wrong?), so I blew it off and went to work.  

A few hours into that day, I landed in the hospital, where I remained for a week. I was very sick, with multiple things going on. That was where my journey began.

More than two years of non-stop medical appointments with twelve different specialist physicians, and no answers. I continued to get sicker. Chronic pleurisy. Recurring pneumonia, sinus infections urinary tract infections and strep throat - sometimes simultaneously. Random fevers and chills. Kidney Infections. Unexplained weight gain. Severe skin lesions. Hair loss. The list was endless. In and out of the hospital. I was miserable. Why couldn't I get any answers???

By 2010, I was done. I had been poked, prodded, and exposed to more medical professionals than a dog at a heavily-populated dog park (if you don't have a dog, you're just going to have to trust me). I needed answers. 

I decided to stop relying on "the medical professionals", and instead, educate myself. Don't get me wrong, I think medical professionals are amazing and well-intended. They simply are not trained in prevention or how to heal people. Instead, they are trained in how to treat people with medicine. That's it. And in most cases, the medicine has not-so-good side effects. I wasn't willing to trade one disease for another! I was only interested in one thing. The one thing they all told me was impossible to achieve. I wanted to heal. 

With a lot of research, training and the guidance of two incredible Naturopathic Doctors (ND), I have been able to heal. Not entirely (yet), because these things take time, but I'm living life again! Feeling good, having energy, thinking with clarity, and I'm just so grateful that I chose the path less traveled! 

Since that decision, I was no longer just your average Jo, I became "A Healthy Jo"!

That painful life experience, paired with an empathic heart, drove me to create "A Healthy Jo". Here, my hope is to help others improve and prevent health disease through teaching them how to cook healthy and delicious, kid-approved, meals!