Exploring Life & Business with Julie Jeffries of Not Your Momma’s Vegetables

Today we’d like to introduce you to Julie Jeffries. Them and their team share their story with us below:

Always having been athletic, energetic, and overall healthy, Julie Jeffries was shocked to learn in October 2013, at age 42, that she has a rare tumor wrapped around her left optic nerve. The tumor, while benign, is inoperable and Julie was told that her only option to stop its growth and the progression of the blindness that she was already experiencing was with radiation to the head. She was told by all of her doctors that her sight loss was permanent, as the optic nerve was already damaged and it is not a nerve that can be healed. Their point was that the focus of treatment should be to maintain the little sight she had left at that point and stop the progression of the tumor to other parts of the brain. Uncomfortable with this plan, Julie decided to investigate alternative solutions and began research on the effects of diet, nutrition, and lifestyle on tumor growth and recession. 

Julie’s investigations found that a plant-based diet, rich in whole grains and without processed foods and sugars, had shown to be promising in the control of tumors. Having been a vegetarian during her 20s, Julie was not intimidated by changing her eating habits to completely cut out animal products, processed foods, and sugars. Her doctors gave her 30 days to hold off on starting radiation, but they did not give her much hope for avoiding the seemingly inevitable treatment plan. 

Thirty days after a radical change in lifestyle, Julie shocked the medical world by regaining part of her vision – even though the tumor was still intact! Radiation was indefinitely postponed and Julie continued on her path of Whole Foods, Plant-based (WFPB) living. However, she admits that she would “sneak” a piece of chocolate or a glass of red wine here and there, and she had substituted soy as a source of protein and milk alternative. 

In April 2014, at just 43, Julie was diagnosed with non-hereditary breast cancer. Her doctor, impressed by her healthy diet and lifestyle, recommended that she eliminate the soy and stop “cheating” with chocolate. The doctor also warned her that alcohol consumption increases the chances of a recurrence of cancer by 40% over her already established odds. 

Julie accepted the advice and eliminated all processed sugar, soy, and alcohol from her life. Her breast cancer was treated with multiple surgeries and radiation to the breast, but she was fortunate to avoid the need for chemotherapy…in other words, her treatments were localized to the affected area and no medicines were administered that may have impacted the tumor on her optic nerve. 

Before starting a long-term drug regime to keep the breast cancer at bay, Julie had an MRI to check up on the tumor in her eye. The tumor was intact, but it had not grown! More importantly, Julie had recovered perfect sight – something she had never enjoyed prior to this moment. Her team of doctors was shocked, having never seen this happen before. Julie has reversed her blindness with food and lifestyle! 

Today, Julie’s eye tumor has not grown, she has maintained perfect vision and she is living cancer-free. After more than 20 years working in international business, Julie has decided to share her incredible story and dedicate herself to helping others change their health and futures by teaching people how to live a WFPB lifestyle focused on healthy food, lowering toxic load through conscientious choices, and how exercise, sleep, stress, and hydration can add or subtract from a person’s overall health profile. Her organization, “Not Your Momma’s Vegetables” is on a mission to break the stereotypes of a WFPB lifestyle, to help people begin their journey to health, and to work with other community organizations to improve the service offerings for those choosing to lead a clean, healthy, WFPB lifestyle. She offers health coaching, group classes, seminars, public talks and toxic-free products to help make your shift to clean living simple and seamless. 

Julie holds a degree in Political Science and Management from Marietta College (Ohio), a Master of Business Administration from University of Michigan (Ann Arbor), a Certificate in Whole Food, Plant-based Nutrition from the T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies at Cornell University (New York), a certification in Brain Health from Amen University and Clinics (California) and is pursuing a certificate in Public Health at University of Michigan. 

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Getting back to health and maintaining her health has not been without incident. Every day, Julie has to focus on her goals and stay on top of her eating plan, her exercise, and especially her stress and hydration! These last two are big challenges for a busy “momprentrenuer”. Also, the ups and downs of life after a cancer diagnosis is never simple. Especially at the beginning, every small issue brings on a flood of worry that the cancer is back, which obviously does not help to keep stress under control! 

Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Not Your Momma’s Vegetables (NYMV)?
Not Your Momma’s Vegetables is a clean-living company dedicated to helping people live their best life. We teach people how to use food and lifestyle choices to either prevent disease or to support the body in its recovery from chronic disease. We teach clients about how inputs (food, liquids, toxins) either help or hinder the body from functioning at its optimal capacity. 

NYMV offers a health coaching program that is specific to your needs and your situation. It is a unique combination of scientific discovery about how the body functions, constant analysis of a client’s choices, and discussion of how these choices impact the body’s ability to maintain health. NYMV does not offer “diets”. NYMV offers lifestyle analysis and tweaks to make healthy living a habit and not a chore. 

The primary focus of NYMV is to get people to eat more veggies! This is for health, but also for the planet. When we eat more plant foods in as natural a state as possible, we garner all of the nutrients that the body needs to create and maintain health. In addition, as a part of this process, we lower our personal carbon footprint, which helps the environment. So, NYMV helps to get clients and Earth healthy! 

In addition to health coaching, NYMV also offers beauty products that have eliminated 1800 chemicals potentially harmful to the human body, that are sustainably sourced and packaged, and that are plant-based. 

The thing that I am most proud of brand-wise is that clients always tell me that NYMV has changed their life, influenced them to make the right choices to get healthy and that they wish they had learned the things that NYMV’s program teaches long ago. NYMV changes lives for the better and is making an impact on the world, one bite at a time. 

We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?
My favorite childhood memory is when my best friend and I taught ourselves how to shuffle cards like professional dealers. Laura had cancer and often was not able to run around and play. So, we would swim in her pool and then spend hours playing cards. We decided that we needed to learn how to shuffle like pros, so we practiced and practiced, which really meant that we watched as our decks of cards flew around her family room and then we picked them up and tried again. Eventually, we learned and to this day, I think of my friend, Laura, and have a chuckle whenever I shuffle cards. Laura eventually passed from her disease, but I remember her smile and her infectious laugh from those afternoons spent learning to shuffle cards. 

Contact Info:

• Website: www.nymv.org
• Instagram: @notyourmommasvegetables
• Facebook: Not Your Momma’s Vegetables
• Other: https://linktr.ee/NYMV

Image Credits
David Parker Photography