It’s only the fifth day of November and I’m already struggling to keep my webpage updated every day. Sorry about the wordless post yesterday, by the way. I didn’t really have much to say about the election since I mailed in my ballot a couple of weeks ago. That was amazingly convenient. It was nice to not have to scramble to get to my polling place either before or after work yesterday. And the mail-in ballot even came with its own “I Voted” sticker so I could advertise that I’d done my civic duty. Perfect! But getting back to the subject at hand, I’ve had trouble keeping up with all of my regular activities and obligations lately. I don’t know if it’s the change in the weather or what, but I’ve been feeling really sluggish lately. That’s the best way I can think to describe it. First of all, I haven’t been following my training plan very faithfully and now I’m not sure how ready I’ll be for the Avengers Half Marathon on the 16th. Barring injury, I don’t think I’ll have too much trouble finishing the race, but I was kind of hoping to beat my Disneyland Half Marathon time. The weather should be much nicer that it was in August, thank goodness, so I think I have a good chance to improve on my half marathon time. Only time will tell, I guess. Besides running, I haven’t been keeping up with my cooking or my diet too well either. I’ve been eating more grains than I’d like (McDonald’s Egg McMuffins are my weakness, I guess) and there has been an abundance of leftover Halloween candy at work this week. So many of my co-workers brought in their kids’ trick-or-treat hauls and I think I ate my weight in fun-sized Snickers bars and peanut M&M’s since Monday. That has got to stop if I don’t want the number on the scale to keep going up. Yikes! Since giving up grains (for the most part) I’ve actually seen a downward trend in my weight, but that turned around in the last few weeks. Bad news. If I’d had my usual stash of homemade meals to eat that might not have happened, but I haven’t cooked really anything recently. Last week I made do with a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store and some frozen broccoli. Tasty, but not exactly what I would have preferred to eat. However, when I got home from work this afternoon I cooked enough meat and vegetables to make four lunches, which should at least last me through the weekend. And I’m already making plans to cook more on Friday and Saturday so that I’m not tempted to eat out and ruin my diet again. Hopefully getting back on track with my healthy routine will snap me out of this malaise that I’ve been feeling lately. There’s so much I want to do in November and December to enjoy the holidays. There’s no time to waste!