Why Run?

This morning, my daughter asked if I needed to lose weight.  She said, "You still go to the gym and run that means you want to lose weight."  I bristled immediately.  Why does she think that? 

The last time she was at the doctor, he talked to me about her losing weight and me monitoring her weight.  She is active, but very tall and big for her age. I check her weight maybe 2x a month, but I just say, "Let's see how big you are." 

I think that as a child, getting bigger is something they want, equated with getting taller, older, more capable.  I don't think she looks at it as weight=fat. I don't talk about weight as fat with her.  We talk about being active and eating good food so your body can function like it should and you can play for as long as you want without getting exhausted.

My response about going to the gym was something like this. "You like riding your bike and playing with your Barbies, right?  I like to run and lift weights.  Its kind of like playing.  It makes me happy and it is fun. " And with that she ran back to playing with her Barbies.

source