Some tips
- Walk everywhere. Unless it’s too far (like if it’s an hour if you’re taking the bus for example), or you don’t have that much time and it’s important you’re punctual, or if it’s too late at night and you’re scared of walking so late or anything like that, walk everywhere. You’ll save money and lose weight, what can be better? (:
- Drink a lot of water, at least three liters (people said it’s two, but you know, that’s for “healthy” people, we anorexics drink at least three). Anyway, some tips on this too: 1) Don’t drink it too fast, do it during the day, if you drink too much water too fast it can’t do more damage than good (for example if you only drank one liter and want to drink the other two as soon as you can for whatever reason, don’t do it. Seriously. Unless you’re about to be weighed and want to weigh some more for appearances (ex: don’t being discovered) sake, but only if. And 2) Try to stop with the water at least two hours before you go to bed, that way you can pee all you drank and avoid retaining liquids. Oh, and also: always carry a water bottle with you! If you won’t be able to recharge it somewhere, take more than one bottle just in case, better safe than sorry. I take an 1,5 lt. bottle everywhere since my bag is big and it fits. If you can do that, do it.
- Green tea is awesome; drink 3-4 cups a day. Also, it’s much better if they’re loose leaves, because teabags aren’t that… “organic”, I don’t know if that’s the word, but loose leaves keep more of the benefits. Like when you eat veggies: organic is best because it doesn’t have any chemicals or anything of the like. Same with tea. And anyway, you can make your own teabags with coffee filters! So you can carry some in your bag like I do (: And even if they’re not your homemade teabags, be sure to always carry some in case you won’t be home all day.
- Always stretch. Every day, at least two times: morning and nighttime. Stretching will make you more flexible and you’ll burn fat without building muscles, which is what we don’t want. Muscles are for fit girls, we skinny ones don’t want to have thigh thighs or a ravioli pack on our bellies right? We want thigh gaps and a flat stomach, no fat, and no “visible” muscles, so stretching is one of our best friends! Find a routine that suits you, if you’re not accustomed to some of the exercises, just do the easy ones and with time you’ll notice they’re becoming way too easy for you; when that happens, add some of the harder ones to your routine.
- You can still workout though, cardio is good, aerobics are way more good in my opinion, especially because cardio makes me so tired in so little time that I end up doing almost nothing and just exhausting myself. I rather do some nice aerobic routine; you can find a lot of them on YouTube. And also: dancing. You burn a lot of fat, and in the process practice your moves, which you’ll want to show when you’re skinny and go out to dance right? Charm some lucky person with those skinny legs and tiny waits right? I know I want to. Besides, you can have a really good time, no one’s watching you (unless you choose to do it in front of someone?) and you can move however you want, or learn some choreography or whatever. So if you’re bored and with a lot of free time, plus an empty house for yourself, even if it’s for an hour, instead of going to Netflix turn up the music and dance!
- Always plan your meals when you’re not fasting. You can do it every week or every day. I recommend the former, so you can go and buy what you’ll need and stay organized. If you don’t plan your meals you may end up eating anything that is in the house (if you’re too hungry). If you live with your parents, you can always tell your mom/dad/responsible adult what you would like to eat or have in the fridge. If you can’t, or they won’t listen to you, buy your own food. It’s what I do, or I plan my meals with stuff that’s already in the kitchen (the safe foods obviously).
- Get a job, start a workshop, take some dancing/singing/acting/whatever classes. Do activities and have a very busy life, but not that busy because you may want a day off for when you’re fasting. The thing is that you have to do things so you can be distracted and avoid eating. And besides you’ll meet new people and you’ll have more stories and stuff to talk about to your parents and friends, show them how social and healthy you are. This is also pretty cool because you’ll be able to escape dinner (or lunch) easier than if you were at home all day doing nothing. You can say you’ll eat/ate out, that you are in a hurry or too tired, etc.
- Self-massages! They’re the best, they help you reduce sizes and get rid of some of your fat (obviously not all the fat will go away with some massages, but it helps a lot). On YouTube you can find lots of videos, however I’ll link you to the ones I do and that I know they work: Belly - Arms - Legs You can do them every day (or at least that’s how often I do them, except weekends because honestly I don’t have the time), the massages shouldn’t last more than twenty minutes though. It’s nice because it doesn’t really take that much time and the results are guaranteed!
- Cold baths are not something I recommend. You’ll have a really bad time and won’t burn that much calories, it’s easier to do some cardio and you’ll burn more in less time. What works better are hot showers ending with cold water. Like, shower normally with hot water and then stay for another 3-5 minutes under cold water. I don’t really know the science behind it, but it’s better, it leaves me feeling better too. And regarding baths, you can do hot baths (and sweat out some toxins) with Epson salts and whatever else you may want to add to it, depending on what you want. For example, I love having some milk baths because they are awesome for my skin, also honey… You can put almost anything in the water, just do some research. And after you’re done with your bath, remember to take a cold shower to close your pores (:
- Being in an Ana group chat or having an Ana buddy is actually quite helpful. Imagine everyone showing off their progress and there you are, binging and getting fatter than you already are… Disgusting. Don’t you want to show them how much you lost? How much thinner are your legs since the last time? These group chats/buddies help you stay in track. I find them to be quite encouraging as I want to “win” and be the one who lost more weight and got thinner. I want to show them what I accomplished by being disciplined and not giving up, working for it, being in control… I want to be asked for tips, not be the one asking for them because I’m such a failure. So I would recommend having someone to report to. It can even be a blog/tumblr/facebook/whatever social media you prefer where you update your stats every week and do body checks and show them that you can and you did and you will get to your goal because you’re awesome and fat won’t stop you.
- Listen to your body. Despite everything. I know it’s hard, so fucking hard because this sickness is horrible and nothing is that easy anyway. But if you’re too tired, or your head hurts too much, or you feel like you’re about to pass out or whatever, be safe. If you’re home, you can take a nap, you can just lie down and watch some movies, you can eat if you want. I’m not telling you to binge, but to have something in your stomach, even if it’s a protein bar, that’s ok, I actually recommend having some in hand just in case, but if you really need to eat (and it’s not just out of boredom or your emotions taking control), do it. Don’t live to eat, but eat to live. You may hate yourself later, I know I do, but I also know that I still haven’t reached my goal and I can’t do it if I’m dead and at least I want to be a skinny ghost (haha, sad attempt at humor).
- Don’t weigh yourself every day. Unless you’re on a specific diet or doing a less-than-a-week fast, don’t. Being too focused on your weight can actually affect it negatively. You may weigh yourself one day and go on a fast that same day and next day you weigh the same. It happens, so do it weekly. Weigh yourself and take your measures every Sunday for example, first thing in the morning after you pee (and poop if you have to). And remember: every little gram counts, even if you just lost 100 grams, you still lost weight! Better than gaining, so count it more as a victory than a failure; be grateful that you got a little bit skinnier and closer to your goal than the other way around.
