Setting Up

"Okay. Now the first thing you have to do is get a goal weight set up. So... what is your weight now?" Ana said, pen poised over a sheet of paper ready to be my weight-loss secretary. 

"'mmmmm....... 125." I said. I had weighed myself that morning and was relieved that it wasn't horribly high....like 145.

Ana shuddered delicately, probably thinking of all that hideous fat on her pretty little bones. "Ew. Okay now what's your goal weight?"

"110." I replied immediately.

"So high?"

"Just a starting weight. If I get there and like it, I'll maintain it. And if I get there and i wanna go a bit further, I'll go further."

Ana nodded and wrote it down. "That's a good way to think about it. Having mental health is important when doing stuff like this."

"I agree."

"Yeah."

Ana grinned "And it's hella better than what you've got going on now." She said and playfully squished a roll of fat on my waist. 

I laughed with her and she wrote something else down.

"What's that?"

"Current info and goals." Said Ana as she erased something and resumed writing.

CW: 125 lbs

SGW: 110 lbs

LTGW: 100 lbs

"I'm sorry, i don't speak text." I said jokingly and Ana replied "Current Weight, Starting Goal Weight, Long Tern Goal Weight."

"Got it. And Why such a low weight? Isn't that unhealthy?"

Ana gave me a look. 

"Okay, okay, 100 is fine."

She wrote it down.

"So...how should i start the eating plan?" I asked her.

She grinned and started to write:

• No breakfast
• No lunch
• Orange or apple for snack after school. ONLY one.
• Small dinner
• Lots of water  

"Wow. That looks so easy-" I began, but Ana cut me off.

"No, it is NOT easy.It'll be painful. You will crave everything you see and want to eat everything somebody cooks for you. You have to resist. Be strong. Every hunger pang you feel, remember that that's what it's like to be in a starving country, and that you're experiencing what millions of children are going through. embrace the emptiness you feel; it only helps you stay strong."

"Wow. You're so good at pep- talks and inspiration." I said with quiet reverence.

Ana grinned with pride. "It's why I'm here."

"And why I let you in."  

She hugged me "Of course it is."