Kids say the darnedest things

This morning, when I went in to wake my daughter, she looked at me, all showered and dressed at 7:20 am, and asked where I was going.  (I'm usually in my jammies, hair sticking up like a scarecrow, at that hour of the day.)  I told her I was going to Weight Watchers and she asked what Weight Watchers is.  I said they were helping me lose weight and get healthy.  She thought about it for a moment, then looked at me and said,

"Oh, so when you lose weight will you not have all that (and she pointed to my midsection) and be normal like me?", then patted her flat stomach to show me what "normal" was.


Ouch.

I know it wasn't intentional.  She's six years old, she really doesn't have any filters yet.  I asked her if she'd love me more if I was "normal".  As she was pondering this, my 8-year old son yelled from the next room, "I love you just the way you are, Mom!"

(Have I mentioned how much I love that boy???)

The good thing is that her comment sparked a dialogue between us about love and beauty and that external appearance should not be what we use to judge people.  I think it made an impression on her because later last night, she came up to me and apologized and said I was beautiful and that she loved me very much.  She was so contrite, which is unusual for her because she's normally very unapologetic when she says something only a bonehead would say.

Speaking of Weight Watchers, yesterday was weigh-in number one.  I'm down 1.6 pounds!  I was disappointed at first, because I had myself convinced I'd lost at least 4 pounds.  But I'm not going to be disappointed because a loss is a loss, and at Weight Watchers, we celebrate a loss regardless of the size.  I was re-reading my blog entries and I saw that last year when I was doing the WW thing, my first week wasn't a huge loss either.  So if I'm following a pattern, next week should be a much bigger number.  My mom and I were talking about it and she was so proud of me for losing 1.6 pounds and she scolded me for being disappointed.  It's silly to be disappointed, but years of watching shows like The Biggest Loser have set us up to expect to lose the kind of weight they do.  Of course, I'm not working out with a personal trainer 8 hours a day, but I conveniently forget that part when I step on the scale.  Though I do have to wonder if I'm the only one who thinks the way they lose so much weight so quickly cannot possibly be healthy.  My doctor recommends losing one pound a week, and some of these people are losing 100+ pounds in three months.  It's always interesting to watch the "Where Are They Now?" episodes, because so many of them regain at least a portion of the weight they lost.  (The saddest stories are the ones where they've regained everything they lost and then some.)  I'm trying to be realistic and not set huge goals (as much as I'd like to lose 100 pounds by the time we go to Disneyworld in October, I'll be happy to lose 20 by then.) and to take pride in the little victories along the way.

So hooray for me!  I lost the equivalent of 6 sticks of butter this week!!!  Can I get a fist bump?