At the beginning of this month, I was looking forward to being less busy I’d been in June and thinking that would mean better progress on my goals. That so did not turn out to be the case. I was less busy, yes; I didn’t leave the state or have any overnight visitors, for instance. As far as progress toward my goals, no, or at best, only sort of a little bit depending on how you look at things. Let us review the pitifulness:

Weigh less and move more: Not so much. This morning I weighed a pound and half more than at the end of June. This is not especially surprising given that I didn’t record anything I ate and ran fewer miles than last month (or the two months before that). I didn’t run at all for the first week of July thanks to that nasty cold I had, and when I got back to it I was still stuffed up and slower than I had been pre-cold. The one bright spot for exercise was getting back to weight work; the soreness afterward wasn’t fun but at least it showed I’d made an effort. This morning, in a perhaps fitting end to this miserable running month, I tripped and took a hard fall, skidding across the sidewalk and scraping up my left knee and right hand and jamming my left shoulder (which I didn’t even notice until after I got to work). I was able to get back home with no problem—I even ran some more after I fell and ended up with my fastest average pace all week. I did learn that if this ever happens again, I should put the tissue I use to blot up the blood in my pocket rather than carrying it in my hand, because I absentmindedly blotted my sweaty face with it and looked a bit like a deranged clown from a bad slasher film when I got home. Fortunately, not many people are out and about that early in the morning.

Keep less and organize more: Hah. I did put a few things in the donate box made no noticeable dent in the overall picture. I really just need to block out some time to weed stuff out and organize what’s left, but I’d so much rather do other things, like sleep.

So let me now draw a veil over July and hope for better results in August. I joined the YMCA today, which is the first time I’ve belonged to anything resembling a gym, so perhaps that will be just the ticket.