Lose fat without losing muscle

[aubree_0123]

I'm 15, about 130 lbs (I have a more muscular build with bigger bones but would still be considered slim/in shape), and 5'3.
I know that this is probably a very challenging question to answer and you'll probably just want to skip it and move on, but please please please help me.
I swim and play water polo for my high school team but haven't in about 2 months because that's when the season ended..
In those couple of months I have definitely gained a little weight/fat
I'm trying to get toned (not too toned) and lose fat but I don't want to get bigger because of an increase in muscle mass.
I am very health conscience and do eat very healthy, I'm very interested in eating healthy and am always cooking healthy recipes. It's actually become sort of a passion for me (I have recently fallen in love with healthy blogs). I cook very lightly and although I stay away from counting calories, I am fairly confident that I am eating a good amount of food with necessary amounts of carbs/proteins/fats. I do know about what's healthy and will only eat brown rice, whole wheat bread/pasta, I cook without oil and cornstarch, I eat a lot of vegetables (currently obsessed with avocados!) and yeah, I do know about eating healthy despite my age; you can trust me on that.
My problem is cardio. Although I'm in pretty good shape and I swim/play water polo during the school year, I'm usually the last one in laps and the first out of breath.
I honestly don't know why I'm like this, but I just can't stand cardio. I seriously can't run for more than a half a mile without feeling like I'm dying (although I can usually rough it through the mile). I never used to be like this, but in the last 2 or 3 years it's just slowly taken a toll on me.
I know that I can build up to longer distances without getting tired but I swam for a whole season, 2 hours a day, and I still cringe when I think of swimming laps (again I can rough it but it's seriously killer and I'm very slow).
This summer (I have 2 months left), I want to lose fat. I'm pretty skinny but I just feel big sometimes (I do have pretty large bones). I want to slim down because I'm sick of looking at all of those super fit models and feeling jealous (and of course I want to be at my optimal health and fitness ).
Again, I do not want to gain very much muscle. I do not want to get bigger, I want to slim down.
I love other exercises such as crunches and other forms of ab exercises (push-ups aren't really my forte ) and I was wondering how to reach my goal of slimming down by just doing things like crunches and leg-lifts or different eating habits.
Please do not tell me to run or swim or go on an elliptical because trust me, I know these things will help. I want to know ways to slim down with minimal or without any (preferably without any) cardio.
Also, they need to be things I can do at home because I don't have access to a gym.
I know that this is probably a very challenging question to answer and you'll probably just want to skip it and move on, but please please please help me! I will be so grateful!

 

[Goldfish]

Okay, there's a few issues in here.

Athletically speaking, additional muscle is likely to be advantageous, although some fat is also useful for bouyancy. Fitness-wise, you probably need more anaerobic fitness than aerobic fitness, so doing long-distance steady state cardio wouldn't be high on the agenda for actually playing water polo. You mention being slow and the first one out of breath -- this is actually a sign that you need to build up strength/power/speed and your lactic threshold, more so than a sign of needing more aerobic fitness. So the good news is you probably don't need to do a whole lot of running/elliptical/etc, the bad news is you're not getting out of push ups that easily. Variations of push ups, dips, handstand push ups (this video contains some variations that are more manageable for beginners...the variations get easier as the video progresses, so start with the stuff at the end: ), chin ups, pull ups, inverted rows, squats, lunges/step ups, glute bridges and box jumps are all exercises to be looking into, and they'll all help you out a lot more than crunches will.

As far as image goes, what models are you referring to? Most models are not an image of fitness, and the ones that are have usually spent a long time actually developing their musculature. A woman who isn't taking steroids will seldom gain more than 5-10lb muscle in a year if she's trying to. On top of the slow rate at which females build muscle (relative to males, who build it about 10x slower than we'd like to think), you might be surprised how much muscle it takes to look "too muscular" (wherever you draw that line) (which is something you seem to be trying to avoid). A lot of people will tell you that it's impossible and that it'll never happen; I won't feed you that story because it isn't true, but to put things into perspective, here's a couple videos of a girl who is clearly strong, who's clearly spent a lot of time accumulating that strength, who weighs about the same as you:



Same weight, a year later:


Sorry for the overload and for the push in a certain direction, but it is relevant to performance for sport that you make a focus on strength and anaerobic fitness.

Food-wise, keep eating healthy and assess portion sizes. If you do need to lose some weight, decrease intake by about 10%. Pretty simple, really.