I am recovered from anorexia and bulimia. "Recovered," as in, I no longer have an eating disorder. (Period.) Instead, I have a life filled with joy and peace.
Today, I write and speak about eating disorders to give hope to those still struggling. My first book, Life Without Ed: How One Woman Declared Independence from Her Eating Disorder and How You Can Too ("Ed" is an insider nickname for "eating disorder"), explores the nuts and bolts of recovery. My new book, Goodbye Ed, Hello Me: Recover from Your Eating Disorder and Fall in Love with Life (to be released by McGraw-Hill in September 2009) goes far beyond recovery and dives into what it means to be fully recovered. Goodbye Ed, Hello Me is more about life, less about Ed. And that is what I envision for this blog: a focus on life after an eating disorder rather than the basics of recovery.
In this blog, I might sometimes post things that have nothing at all to do with having an eating disorder. The fact is that we recover from our eating disorders and recover ourselves. In life after my eating disorder, I have so much more to write about than just Ed. I finally have a life -- that I love -- to talk about. So, here, I might write about music, mountain biking, a guy I'm dating, or adventures related to home buying. (I am looking into buying my first house!)
This blog is for those who have been touched by an eating disorder and for everyone else, too. We all have "issues" whether they center around food or not. And we all need to learn how to let go, get healthy, and find our true selves. A self that has always been there but we never knew. Or possibly a self that we lost as a child or at some other time.
My new book is called Goodbye Ed, Hello Me, and this blog is more about the "Hello Me" part. If you are battling an eating disorder and still trying to say "goodbye Ed," this blog will help you, too, by providing inspiration to move forward in recovery and to jump into life. For more specifics about the "Goodbye Ed" part of my work, you might also want to visit my website at www.JenniSchaefer.com or check out my Recovery Support blog at www.EatingDisordersBlogs.com.
This blog is about the next phase of eating disorder recovery. I hope you will come along for the ride!