We spent the weekend in Plymouth, MA, watching our son and daughter-in-law run a half marathon. It was a hard, hilly course, but that didn’t stop our son, Tim, from placing 26^th, and his wife, and our lovely daughter-in-law, Kim, to finish the race – her first half marathon, and one she has been training for months to run.

It’s inspiring to watch runners. They run in all kinds of weather, train hard, and whether they feel like running or not, their dedication to a goal – in this case running and finishing 13.1 miles – is admirable. Injuries forgotten, they forge ahead, always keeping the next race in their minds.

As I watched hundreds of runners cross the finish line yesterday, I had an “aha” moment: I have to approach dieting as runners train for a race. Set a goal, and then do what it takes to make it become reality. My heroes du jour are Kim and Tim, and I have decided that from now on, when I want to stray from my diet, I am going to force myself to think of Kim’s face as she crossed the finish line, a mix of pain and pure joy, two emotions that I feel constantly when I am trying to lose weight. Pain when I make bad choices, pure joy when I wake up in the morning knowing the pervious day I ate nutritious foods.

My greatest hope is that the pure joy outweighs the pain this week.