Life Without Ed - A Review
By Laura M. Turner

It's not a pretty topic. It's not a comfortable topic. It's not a topic that makes a book "easy" to read.  Yet, walking with author Jenni Schaefer through her eating disorder on the road to healing, somehow helped me feel absolutely liberated. Be warned - Life With (or Without) Ed is not comfortable.  That said, this is exactly why it's a book every person, especially every parent, should read.

Jenni gives us a powerful and candid account of what Life "With" Ed (Ed is an acronym for her eating disorder) is like. You will want to know the signs.  You don't need to know "Ed" personally to see the signs of someone struggling with an eating disorder. Yet, you will want to know the ways he "talks" to you and those you love.  Ed works by tempting you to destroy yourself and your body through the quest for body-image perfection. I'd be willing to bet Ed is closer than you think.  Even as close as your own friends, family, or in your own mind and body. 

As Jenni tells us, it is not a simple task to recognize someone with an eating disorder.  They come in all shapes and sizes and you'd be surprised where "Ed" lurks.  For me, I was amazed how this "voice" Jenni describes can tempt us simply through body issues. But, it does. And I'm left to wonder if any of us are really free or safe from the quest for perfection.

Jenni offers hope.  She encourages all of us to seek help when we know it's too big to go it alone. She advises us to build a support system. Too, trouble with food, happens to the best of us.  Trust me.  For me, even as a health professional, I have historically had a horrible time navigating food.  It has always seemed an impossible task since the days of my own "real, live Ed" - a personal trainer gone bad. 

It took me years to recover.  In my mind, I never could get it right after "he" promised me I'd have a perfect body if only I'd listen to him.  This meant training "heavy" i.e. using as much weight as my body could withstand.  This meant there would be an "off season" (Winter) whereby I would "bulk up." To do so included eating anything and everything I could.  This (supposedly) built muscle. Not to worry about the fat, I was told.  When Spring rolls around, you will eat "clean."

What then, is eating clean? My mind begged to know. The answer included all sorts of weird eating. An example? Separating food groups at meals: protein at one meal, carbohydrates the next.  All with no less than three hours between. Then, gradually depleting carbohydrates from the diet entirely.

The problem (other than the potential kidney damage)? I wasn't doing it "right." I was having trouble separating food groups by three hours and depleting carbohydrates to remove the extra body fat that one who "bulks up " experiences.  I was heavier than ever, and I still couldn't get it "right."  I just couldn't attain this superhuman body "he" promised. In fact, when I looked in the mirror - I didn't look like I was in shape at all - the mirror told me I looked "fat." And I'm quite sure I wasn't healthy.

Intellectually, I recognized there was no "health" in this program. Yet, I can tell you in gyms everywhere, it is an accepted one.  For me, even after I began listening to my body and treating it well, the voices of the "trainer in my head," haunted me for years...  separate food groups, deplete carbohydrates, have perfect body.

I'm here to tell you, danger lurks everywhere in the quest for perfection. Jenni and her book will undoubtedly back me up. Eating disorders happen to great people as much as darkness lurks in the supposed safe havens of "health-touting" gyms across the country.  These "voices" become our friends, our enemies, our obsession.  We want to look good, therefore, we listen. The problem, as Jenni points out in her book is, we listen to others... when we should be listening to, educating and taking care of ourselves. 

Jenni's book liberated me from my own past dysfunctions with eating, dating back to my early twenties.  It finally seemed to all come together for me after reading her story.  As she puts it, when she put herself and her healing first, then she could keep her dreams alive. But, she first had to divorce the voice.  And I am following suit.  Finally, after all these years I am hereby telling "him" off - I am telling the trainer in my head he can go to hell. 

Moreover, Jenni helps us all get it right - it's not about binging, purging and starving or eating weird diets in the quest for body perfection - it's about everything in moderation, listening to your body and deciding what it wants. Yes, it will tell you if you listen.  It is about educating yourself. It is about finding a healthy lifestyle.  And with food, everything is fair game as long as you listen to yourself.  It is a tuning in that is balanced every day, every season, every year. It is about taking care of "you" first, so you are healthy, can be there for others and can pursue your dreams. Jenni's given me permission to love myself as I am, exactly as I am right now. And if you take this journey with her, she will most likely find her way into your heart and help you do the same.

To learn more about Jenni and to order your book visit www.jennischaefer.com

To listen to an interview with Jenni - Click Here.

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Laura M. Turner is a natural health practitioner. She hosts
http://www.body-and-beauty.com a website dedicated
to inspiring and educating others about the benefits of
creativity, natural health and fitness.  Check out Laura's
latest book Spiritual Fitness: The 7-Steps to Living Well  
or subscribe FREE to her online magazine The New Body
News and Wellness Letter: http://www.new-body-news.com