Love Your Body...

I've always been on the 'chubby' side, I never really thought about it. I've been comfortable with how I looked for the longest time and I never thought that I was 'that ugly', though I wanted to loose weight for some time now for health reasons. Till one time when my daughter asked me, "mommy ba't mataba ka?" (mommy, why are you fat?) I found I couldn't answer her honestly, so I just told her there's nothing I can do, I'm just fat. I took a note on that and I realized that until now I am bothered by that one thought my daughter had of me, although she told me that even if I was fat that I was still pretty. Hah.... I know she was just being nice.. hehehehe.. But still, it bore on me that at her age, my daughter will turn six on saturday, she already has this sense of vanity, if I'll be allowed to use that word, that she found me fat, in my mind, when I was her age, my mom was bigger than I am now, and that I didn't really think about it, that all in my mind during that time was play, play, play and I didn't think about being fat or being thin, or being pretty or ugly. But nowadays children at a very young age become conscious of their bodies, of their looks, often times she will ask me if I think she is pretty. And of course, modesty aside, I have a very beautiful daughter but it frightens me that at her age, she already thinks about that, and I'm thinking if I'm also guilty of letting her feel that physical beauty is so important in life that she has to assure herself that she is indeed beautiful.
Sometimes I guess that we as people tend to look at the outer beauty of someone instead of looking for the goodness and purity of their hearts. It saddens me that my daughter might become a victim and in my desire to give her confidence and a healthy self image I might have dug a pit for her to fall into. I hope not .