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Despite my attempts to get on track last challenge and successfully cutting soda from my diet, I'm having a lot of trouble right now. I weigh the most that I've weighed pretty much ever (only by a few pounds, but that's a few pounds too many), have been working far too much, even for me, haven't been sleeping well on the few rare nights that I've had the chance, and am generally dealing with super low self esteem. To that end, I've made a huge leap and registered for the National Harbor Ugly Sweater 5k on December 21st. I have a bunch of friends from different parts of my life coming to town to run it with me and am focusing my goals around it since it times out so well for the challenge. MAIN CHALLENGE: SUCCESSFUL COMPLETE A 5K WITHOUT WALKING I did my first 5k last June and ran about 2.5 miles of it (it was actually 3.6 miles, not 3.1), so, if I work at it, I should be able to run this one without stopping. There are two things I'm going to do to help me achieve it. Goal 1: Do a morning mile EVERY DAY. If I have time, this can obviously be expanding to a longer run to prepare for the race. However, getting outside every morning for 10 minutes will be both helpful in training to run a 5k in the cold, make sure I stay active even when I get busy, and give me a measurable thing to track and see improvement. Goal 2: Track my food and beverage intake EVERY DAY. I know what I'm supposed to be eating. I know what I can afford to eat. And I know that I drink more alcohol than I should because a drink or two a night when I'm working late is standard. Tracking what I'm putting into my body will help me keep an eye on my nutrition levels and will hopefully help me lose some excess weight, making it easier to run and improve my times. I'll be using sparkpeople to help me track both of these things and my stats. I haven't used it since spring 2012, but was having good results when I did. SIDE QUEST: BUILD SOME CONFIDENCE AND SELF ESTEEM I've been struggling a lot lately due to a lack of confidence and self esteem, particularly when it comes to my body and looks. If anyone has any ideas how to deal with this, please let me know! For now, I'm just going to try to focus on the good, focus on getting more sleep, and appreciating it when I get compliments.