Jenni Schaefer is an internationally known author and speaker whose work has helped change the face of recovery from eating disorders. Her appearances on shows like Dr. Phil and Entertainment Tonight, in publications ranging from Cosmopolitan to The Washington Post, and before live audiences have brought a world of hope to men and women seeking real solutions.
   "I want people who struggle with eating disorders to know it is possible to move from being 'in recovery' to being 'fully recovered,'" she says. "I want them to get into life and follow their dreams, not be stuck in or defined by an eating disorder."
   With her latest book, Goodbye Ed, Hello Me: Recover from Your Eating Disorder and Fall in Love with Life (McGraw-Hill), Jenni takes readers a giant step further on her journey and theirs, outlining the path from recovery to liberation. Building on the foundation of her breakthrough best-seller, Life Without Ed: How One Woman Declared Independence from Her Eating Disorder and How You Can Too, it is an immensely practical guide, written with Jenni's characteristic warmth and good humor as she shares her experience in light of research and a sound behavioral approach.
   Jenni's straightforward, realistic style has made her a role model, source of inspiration and confidant to people across the globe looking to overcome their eating disorders and live complete lives. As author and therapist Carolyn Costin, LMFT, M.A., M.Ed. says in her introduction to Goodbye Ed, Hello Me, "She makes recovery and full living seem possible for everyone."
   Jenni's work has popularized an approach that enables men and women to personify their illness (Jenni called hers "Ed," short for "Eating Disorder") and "divorce" themselves from it. The combination of accessibility and practicality in her speaking and writing style has helped make Jenni one of the most trusted and visible faces of recovery. Her work has been featured in the Chicago Tribune, Shape, Woman's World and many other periodicals, and she has written for publications ranging from Cosmogirl to the popular Chicken Soup series. She is a contributing editor to self-help/recovery publications nationwide including Recovery Today, The Phoenix and Steps for Recovery.
   Jenni is a popular speaker at schools, conferences, and other venues, a consultant with Center For Change, and a member of the Ambassador Council of the National Eating Disorders Association, a post she shares with Emme, Paula Abdul, Sara Evans and Jess Weiner. She is a Board Member of Eating Disorders Recovery Today, a popular Gürze Books publication, and is on the Professional Advisory Panel of F.E.A.S.T. (Families Empowered and Supporting Treatment of Eating Disorders)
   Jenni brings a wealth of knowledge, experience and compassion to each appearance, as well as her trademark sense of humor and her musical background. An active Nashville singer-songwriter, she invariably concludes her talks with at least one uplifting song.
   In both her public appearances and in Goodbye Ed, Hello Me, Jenni is a living example of both the journey to freedom from an eating disorder and the rediscovery of self.
   "I'm not just the girl who recovered from the eating disorder," she says. "The first book showed how I overcame Ed, my eating disorder. In the new one, I want people to get to know me."
   Jenni was born in Texas, and she recalls feeling she wasn't thin enough at the age of 4, when she began to study dance--to this day, she carries her dance costume to speaking engagements. As she grew up, she says, "I fought for a long time not to look like a woman," restricting food as a teenager in order to keep "a little girl's body." Her unrelenting perfectionism made college a particularly rough time, and although she graduated summa cum laude from Texas A&M University with a B.S. in Biochemistry and was accepted into medical school, she knew that because of her eating behaviors she would not be able to take on its challenges.
   Given a year off, she moved to Nashville, where the isolation enabled her illness to progress to "a new level. I hid it from everybody until one day I told my boyfriend and got help." That began a long slow recovery that changed her life.
   "I like to tell people, 'Never, never, never give up,'" she says. "When it comes to recovery from an eating disorder, we are talking a matter of years --- not months --- just to start eating right. Then the real emotional work can begin."
   After discussing the recovery process in Life Without Ed, she provides, in Goodbye Ed, Hello Me, insight into finding real joy and peace in life.
   "It's not just about food and weight," she says. "I'm here to help people to fall in love with life."
   Jenni is active in the outdoors, enjoying hiking, mountain biking and kayaking, and in the indoors, where she loves curling up with a good book, playing her guitar, and meeting friends (at her favorite coffee shop). She is, she says, "single in the city," enjoying life she considers a gift to be treasured.
   "The gifts of recovery," she says, "are amazing."

   Information on the Life Without Ed and Goodbye Ed, Hello Me sterling silver jewelry collections is available at http://www.sarah-kate.com/life-wo-ed.htm.