4, 3, 2, 1

FOUR …
grandchildren.

THREE …
of them soon-to-be five-year-old boys.

TWO …
restaurants.

ONE …
great day!

But a long day, indeed.

This set of young'ns lives three-and-a-half hours away, which is on the cusp of an overnight trip. We've always made it a day trip, and as the children get older it becomes more and more difficult to leave. We arrived mid-morning, in time to go to the boys' first t-ball practice (what a HOOT!), and didn't leave until 4:30 p.m.

I don't write much about my family, especially my grandchildren, but I'm sure you know how much I'd love to. I just don't think it's my place. It was fun spending time with them and I'm so happy they're all healthy and active and sociable and they love having us visit.

Birthday presents might have had something to do with that. Heh.

My husband and I took everyone out for lunch after practice, to Pike's Old-Fashioned Soda Shop, which was paleo-perfect – they offered a burger in a bowl, no bread, with a fresh fruit cup on the side. Fun fact: Shallow Hal was filmed there.

The irony did NOT escape me.

We had dinner on the way home at one of the many Cracker Barrel restaurants dotting I-77 between NC and WV. Grilled pork chop, baked sweet potato and turnip greens. I didn't know Cracker Barrel  sweet potatoes came topped with a brown sugar/cinnamon mixture, but the server was most accommodating in replacing it with a plain one.

I did not feel deprived, not once all day. I was appropriately hungry when I sat down for a meal and satisfied when I finished. My husband strayed from the plan (he's been very supportive), and said he honestly wished he hadn't, after all.

Disc.i.pline. It's definitely working. The only DietBet weigh-ins that count are the first and last, but we are encouraged to check in frequently. I've decided once a week is frequently enough, and this morning I'm down 3.5 pounds from last Sunday's weigh-in.

That sounds like a lot to lose in one week, but I'm not quibbling. There's money on the line!

I'm walking this morning, aiming for six miles. But I'm walking on my very hilly road instead of the nice, flat road that runs along Indian Creek. So it might end up being five. Either way, I'll beat my lowest week of the year, and that's really the goal du jour.

Hope your jour is a good one.

Disc.i.pline

I'm quite astonished at how little discipline I've had to employ in order to forego dairy, grains, legumes and sugar the past four weeks. Once I made the decision and got on board, I haven't had any trouble sticking with The Plan.

Where I'm having trouble is with my walking mileage, and with fitness activities in general. It's far too easy to cut myself some slack on Wednesdays and Thursdays (work days), and it was especially easy this week, since I mowed the yard both days as well.

(For those of you who may not know, our house is in the middle of a three-acre field. Sometimes I do the whole yard on one day, but usually I split it up. It takes three hours to finish the job.)

In order to make my 1000-miles-in-2013 goal, I need to walk an additional 649 miles in the next 245 days. Most of those days will be nice weather. Southern West Virginia winters don't really settle in until January. That's about 2.5 miles/day, or 18.5 miles per week. I'd really hoped to do consistent 20-mile weeks, to give myself a mileage cushion. Seventeen weeks into the year, though, and only 10 of my weeks have exceeded 20 miles.

I have a walking date this morning. Travel tomorrow will preclude any opportunity. Sunday is the last day of my week, which is wrapping up to be pretty light on miles – only four so far, and in spite of plans to work in the garden then I'm going to start the day on my feet AND on the road.

I thought about wearing a pedometer at work, because I surely do get a couple miles in there, but I want my walking to be walking – either outdoors or on the elliptical. Arms swinging and full strides rather than baby steps and dragging a watering hose around behind me.

And that's the other part of the fitness equation. Working at a garden center makes use of plenty o'muscle, but not in the controlled, disciplined way that lifting dumbbells or doing lunges and squats does.

THEREFORE, BE IT ORDAINED that beginning next week and continuing throughout my term of employment this year, I will walk three miles from 7 to 8 a.m. on Wednesdays and Thursdays. I did two miles one morning before work and it was fine, but it's far too easy to let the blog writing/reading and Facebook cruising and Pinterest browsing take over. (It's 7:24 as I type, and I got up at 6.) Clearly I have the time. As for the strength training? Well, y'all know that's not my favorite fitness factor.

One thing at a time.

I will build on my two recent successes – not coming in last at the 5K (how was that for a goal?) and sticking with the paleo method for FOUR STRAIGHT WEEKS – to muster up the discipline to Make. This. Happen.

Film Wrap-up at eleven. Or probably next Sunday. Heh.

Friday Quote Day

Discipline is making the choice

between what you want now

and what you want most.

~ Author Unknown

I'm not so sure I like the word "discipline," but I like – and am comfortable with – the concept of choice. I'd rather think not think of myself as an unruly delinquent. Discipline belongs in middle-school classrooms, not grown-ups' kitchen pantries.

Last night we did indeed have pizza, and it was my favorite variety: pesto sauce with mozzarella, fresh sliced tomatoes, kalamata olives, onions and grilled chicken, sprinkled with feta. I had just one slice.

By 8 p.m. I was a little hungry. I'd been alternately knitting and playing BlackBerry solitaire while watching television multitasking. I wished for ice cream, but none appeared, so I had a half cup of applesauce with a little cinnamon mixed in. By 9 p.m. I was ready to read for a while and go to sleep, still a little hungry but not uncomfortably so.

It's okay to be hungry. Meals are so much more satisfying when I am ready to eat, rather than when I eat by the clock. But I'd rather not go to bed hungry. I think maybe I need to eat dinner later in the day (we usually eat around 5:30). I'll have to convince my husband that scheduling dinner for my needs is more important than watching The Ed Show.

Or Colbert Report reruns.