Where is your big belly?

I twittered this recently but thought it was worthy of a full post on my blog. There is something so innocent and wonderful about kids and this past week I experienced that with my oldest daughter. Cara came into my bedroom the other day as I was putting on my t-shirt and she stopped right in front of me, reached both hands out and placed them on either side of my stomach. With a surprised exclamation she shouted out, "Daddy, where has your big belly gone?"

This was the cutest thing I had heard in a long time, however I had a moment where I realized that I needed to make sure my answer was something that would not frighten her, but something that she could handle. You see, about two weeks ago we had to say goodbye to our faithful family dog who, from just before Christmas, had lost a lot of weight due to liver disease. I didnt want to say anything that in Cara's little mind would somehow connect Daddy's loss of his belly, with Ollie's loss of weight. In a moment of inspiration I told her that "my big belly had been mean to me and he wasn't my friend anymore." This satisfied her and she left me in piece to continue getting dressed.

Later that morning, as we were sitting on the sofa downstairs, Cara pointed out her discovery of my loss of belly to her mom. "Look mommy, Daddy's belly is gone.." which would have been perfect had she just stopped there. But, 5 year olds have the amazing ability to say it like it is and, as she leaned down on my now reduced stomach, she realized that there seemed to be more to lose. She grabbed my remaining belly fat in between her two hands and said, "I guess you need to keep going until you lose this part too!"

Great, one moment she is my biggest encouragement, the next she is my biggest critic. I wasn't put off by this latest comment, but struck by the simple honesty and truth of her words. When I set myself this challenge, I didnt set it to get half way and feel so good about myself that I just stop and do complete the task. No, I set myself a goal, and I need to keep my eyes on that goal. I set myself the target of 210lbs. I went to the gym today and weighed in - 256lbs. That is 58 pounds in almost 5 months - a little ahead of my target of 10lbs a month.

The goal is still 210lbs, and with the simple words of my daughter in my ears I will be setting off on the second half of my journey with renewed enthusiasm and rekindled desire for success. 210 in 2010 here we come.

As I have continued to say, the weight loss is only the inspiration to encourage people to sponsor a child through Compassion - I need a lot more people to do that. If you are interested in becoming a child sponsor please follow the links on this site to Compassion and begin to change the life of a child today.