Katherine's story - how food saved her

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Katherine Lawrence grew up in Louisiana and joined the Air Force after graduating from college as an Aerospace Engineer. She served in the USAF for 4 years at locations including Florida, Kansas, Saudi Arabia and Iraq. She later moved to Ft. Worth, Texas to work as an engineer at Bell Helicopter.

 In 2006, Katherine began to have severe abdominal pain. After several misdiagnoses over 5 months, her doctor determined she had severe endometriosis. It had spread beyond her ovaries and fallopian tubes, and formed adhesions around her intestine. Typically, endometriosis can leave scar tissue on the reproductive organs, usually leading to infertility. Her doctor told her there was no cure for her severe condition, food had nothing to do with it, and she must have surgery to remove it. Furthermore, she would have to take medicine to put her into early menopause in order to keep it from coming back. He also advised that she would eventually need a full hysterectomy because she was so high risk for endometrial cancer.  ​ Instead of opting for the hysterectomy, she went to see a nutritionist who talked to her about nutrition. He taught Katherine which foods can damage the reproductive system and which foods can help heal it. On his recommendation, she removed most of the excess fat, salt and sugar from her diet and began eating more whole, plant foods. It was a difficult transition, but she felt it was her only hope of avoiding surgery. 

After 5 weeks on the new diet, she went in for the laparoscopy. The doctor saw evidence of the scarring and the adhesion around her colon, but 95% of the endometriosis was gone. He was amazed! Katherine stayed on the diet and started to notice wonderful changes taking place in her body. First, the abdominal pain was no longer there. Then, she started to get new hair growth on her head and her skin became clearer. Her cholesterol dropped from 178 to 128, too! After several months, the seven fibroid cysts she'd had in her breasts since puberty had dissolved. Over the course of several months, she even lost 55 pounds! Now, there was no going back.

Katherine felt compelled to educate and empower other women with their health. She began studying nutrition and became certified in Plant Based Nutrition from Cornell University. She also studied at the world-renowned Kushi Institute in Massachusetts. In 2008, she become an instructor for PCRM, a national, non-profit in Washington, DC which offers nutrition and cooking classes to the community. In 2010, she broadened her outreach work as the Dallas site lead for the nationwide GEICO study to introduce healthy eating to its employees. She also served as an instructor and manager of the eCornell online nutrition program for 3 years, teaching over 800 physicians and medical personnel how to apply important nutrition information to their patients and practices.

Her passion is empowering people to improve their health, their perspective and their lives through healthy eating. Since 2008, Katherine has taught over 8,000 students healthy eating in DFW.  All of Katherine’s classes are free, as this is how she “pays it back” to her community. You can also find available Online Nutrition & Cooking Classes where students from around the globe can learn how foods can lower risk of Cancer, Heart Disease, Alzheimer’s and more while also seeing delicious recipe demonstrations. These recipes are all whole food, plant based which is the diet she followed to heal herself. So while we don't have a specific Endometriosis class, you will benefit from any of the above topics when learning the proper foods to eat. Katherine eventually became pregnant naturally and has 3 healthy boys, ages 3, 7 & 9 Through breastfeeding and good nutrition, they have thrived! They have renewed her passion for this lifestyle and sharing information with others.

 Katherine specializes in disease prevention and empowering students to make changes at home that are healthy and easy. She provides a level of encouragement and hope that is unmatched in her field. In 2015, she opened a 5,000 sq ft demo kitchen in Southlake, Texas to further her mission of providing free nutrition and cooking classes to empower people to change their lives for the better.