I created this site when I was 12 years old.  I am now turning 17 next month.

A lot has happened since I first created this site. I have been hospitalized twice, I have gone in and out of school, and I have lost almost all of my friends.

My eating disorder rules over my life, it's what I think about when I wake up and when I'm up at night from Insomnia. I have fasted, I have purged, I have exercised to the point of collapsing, I have fainted at work, I have tried to kill myself, and I can't eat anything unless I know the calorie content and it fits into whatever my limit is for the day.

When I created this site, and I am ASHAMED to admit this, I was "Pro-Ana". I referred to anorexia as "Ana" and Bulimia as "Mia". I went on other sites, I looked for tips and tricks, quotes, songs, thinspo, and anything of those other stupid things that are on "Pro-Ana" sites.

Needless to say that was short lived.

I won't go into how I found about these sites in the first place, but the point is that I am sick of them. They turn the thing that is destroying my life into something desirable. I am done with Pro-Ana and Pro-Mia and all of that Pro-Ed bullshit.

Words can't say how sorry I am for having made this website, who knows how many people I have encouraged? This site is the second result when you search "Pro Ana Tips" and sadly that is pretty impressive. I usually get around 3 e-mails a week asking for tips, and it disgusts me that I caused that.

I am sorry for me, for real eating disordered girls, and wannarexics who have visited my site.

This is not a game. This is not a diet. This is not fun, glamorous, easy, or anything like that.

If you are visiting a site like this for the first time, please stop your pursuit of the "Anorexia Diet" as it does not exist.

If you are coming back to my site and you frequently visit Pro-Ana sites, just stop before you hurt yourself.

I don't know what else to say. The sad thing is that all the wannarexics who visit this site will probably read part of this, close the page, and go on to the next site. My site will probably no longer show up on Google, and no one will read or care about this message.

If you are though, below are some links to some useful websites for healthy weight loss, healthy exercise, and eating disorder recovery.

Healthy Weight Loss;
http://www.sparkpeople.com/ <-Great Weight Loss community with forums and tools. Everything you could ever need is on this site.

http://caloriecount.about.com/ <- Calorie contents of food as well as forums, and general articles about weight loss.

http://caloriecount.about.com/ <- The only website for calorie counting you will ever need.

Healthy Exercise;
http://exercise.about.com/ <- Great site full of articles about exercise, general weight loss advice, and tons of different routines for strength training, cardio, and more.

Eating Disorder Recovery;
http://www.something-fishy.org/ <- Resources on local Eating Disorder centers including a local treatment finder, helpful self diagnostic tools, general eating disorder information.

http://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/ <- Another great resource along with the latest research in eating disorders, and the latest news concerning eating disorders.

http://kidshealth.org/parent/emotions/feelings/eating_disorders.html <- For parents who have stumbled on this site.

http://kidshealth.org/teen/food_fitness/problems/eat_disorder.html <- A simple website aimed at younger teens that discusses the dangers of eating disorders.

And if you are too lazy to read those websites I am going to go ahead and sum up a healthy eating and exercise plan that would be helpful to those who are overweight;

1.) The first thing you should do is figure out your BMI, or 'Body Mass Index'. This will give you a general idea of whether you are Underweight, Healthy, Overweight, or Obese. Here is a useful calculator: http://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/ . Though sometimes this all you can really do to figure out where you stand with your weight, if you can you should discuss it with your doctor. He can give you an exact representation of your health because he will take your body frame, body fat %, and many other things into account.

2.) If you are overweight or in te healthy category, but maybe would like to still lose a little bit then the next step is to calculate your BMR, this stands for 'Basic Metabolic Rate'. This basically means the amount of calories you burn throughout the day if you literally just sat in bed. If you are not obese you can assume it is around 2000 calories, give or take a bit. http://health.discovery.com/centers/heart/basal/basal.html <- Here is a calculator if you want to be more exact. Add 250 to the number if you have a sedentary lifestyle, 350, if you are moderately active, 500 if you are pretty active. That is very general though. Your best best would be to use this index, http://www.caloriesperhour.com/index_burn.php , calculate all the calories you burn through activities besides sitting, and add the number to your BMR.

3.) There are 3500 calories in a pound. It is considered safe to lose 1-2lbs a week, or more if you are very obese. In order to lose 1 pound a week subtract 500 calories from the BMR you calculated earlier(including the activity calories you added). If you want to lose 2 pounds then you subtract 1000 calories. In order to achieve this you will need to use a combination of eating less, doing cardiovascular exercises(cardio), and a strength training routine.

(From now on I am going to use as an example somebody whose daily calories burned is 2000 calories, and who wants to lose 2lbs a week.)

4.) So the first thing to determine is how much to eat. Since they want to lose 2lbs they would subtract 500 calories from their daily calories burned to equate to 1lb a week. That means that they will be eating 1500 calories a day. In order to assure you are getting all the nutrition you need, use the food pyramid as a general guide to what to eat during the day, and take a daily multivitamin supplement. For a multivitamin I recommend any product that fits your lifestyle from the "One A Day" brand.

5.) For the other pound they are going to burn off 500 calories with exercise. You should do a cardio exercise to burn off most of these, such as jogging or swimming. It will usually take 30-60 minutes of jogging to burn 500 calories, but I suggest investing in a calorie counting pedometer so that you can be sure. In addition to cardio, you are going to want to do a strength training routine around 3 times a week. The exercise website I have linked above will no doubt have a perfect routine for just about anybody. Strength training is important because it helps build muscles, which will help you stay at a lower weight by burning more calories throughout the day and raising your BMR. Women, you will not gt bulky with a 3 day a week simple strength training routine. But you might get flabby without one.

So that's about it. Please know that I am not a medical professional and this is all information that I learned throughout my life. It is best to talk to your doctor for a more accurate plan. If you don't have that option though, this is a good alternative.

Please. PLEASE, stop your pursuit of Anorexia. It is not worth it.

Yours Truly,
Megan