Feeling good about a comment, even though it’s offensive in a way

As everyone in my department knows (from my refusal to keep candy in the writing center, and my constant light and fit yogurt eating), I've been on nutrisystem for two weeks. I love it. It makes the lackadaisical side of me very happy. My horrid plus-size jeans are delightfully too big on me and my shirts already hang ackwardly off my shoulders. The true test of new weight loss project was the dreaded comment. The "you look so much healthier or thinner, just plain better" comment. Before I decided call nutrisystem, I dreaded the thought of people telling me I looked better. I thought that if they told me I looked better then that meant I really looked like,well, shit. I'd rather fight the plus-size girls are hot fight than hear that I look better. However, I have this friend, C. She is smart, loud, and brutally honest. We ran into eachother in the hallway. She looked at me and said," Wow, your looking better already." Then she brushed her hand across her neck and said, "especially there."
Ugh. Especially there. My big fat neck. I've tried to ignore it since I had a child. I told myself that my neck only looked fat in pictures. But, it actually looked fat all the time. I really needed to do something about it. Not for societies expectations, but for me. So, when C told me I looked better there instead of cringing, I smiled and said thank you.