Warrior Wednesday Feature: Jennifer T.

Meet Jennifer!

Jennifer was diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease back in February 2012. She had been experiencing severe symptoms for about a year and a half prior to her diagnosis. Some of her symptoms included 8-12 bowel movements per day, gas, bloating, weight loss, and fistulas. She lost 20lbs drastically, and felt like she was wasting away. Her doctor found pre-cancerous cells in her colon, and she was at high risk of having to get her colon removed if her situation didn’t improve.

Jennifer was put on medications like Imuran and Remicade. She was getting a colonoscopy test day once every three months to monitor the state of her colon. Both drugs slowly began to give her relief from her nasty symptoms, but unfortunately not to the full extent Jennifer and her doctor were hoping for.

Jennifer knew the next step was to take a look at her lifestyle as a whole. During the time of her diagnosis, she was dealing with a lot of stress, was eating poorly, and was not physically active.

This all began to change, and she slowly started to make lifestyle changes, one habit at a time. She began eating a healthy, whole food diet, started working out at the gym. She also worked through tough emotions and stress that were contributing to her symptoms (this is often overlooked when looking to improve IBD symptoms).

Eventually because of these holistic changes, Jennifer’s colonoscopy tests began to show no signs of inflammation, and zero signs of precancerous cells in her colon. She has now been in remission for the past 2.5 years in counting, and her fistulas have closed up completely.

Since this experience with IBD, Jennifer has found passion in sharing what she’s learned on her journey. She is now a yoga teacher, as well as an online wellness and nutrition coach. She helps her clients improve their physical, emotional, and mental health as a whole. It is now her mission to help others live a happy and healthy life.

Despite IBD we can all remain STRONG