Operation: Phoenix

Phoenix by *Ahyicodae on deviantART

The phoenix is a mythical bird of fire that is said to consume itself in its own flames, turning back into an egg amongst the ashes and becoming reborn anew. As such, the phoenix is a symbol of rebirth.

One of my New Year's resolutions is to undergo a personal kind of "rebirth," as it were. My attempts in the past have often only meet with lukewarm successes, at best. This time, I shall stick to a more short-term but more intense schedule. Specific aspects of this include:

1. Sleep (aka, be in bed) by 12:30am every week night
2. Wake up by 8:00am every week day
3. Do the P90X (specifically the "P90X lean" program) every morning before breakfast
4. Be more cognizant of my diet

Operation: Phoenix clearly focuses on diet and exercise. With so much going on this semester, I need to focus on getting myself in order first. The theme of the semester is routine. And since I just schedule my USMLE Step 1 board exam (eep!), that's going to be the other monster I need to handle.

I've heard great things about P90X (as long as one sticks to it), so I hope it works for me as it has so many others who've stuck to the program! I'm aiming for a bare minimum of 60 of the 90 days of the program. That'll be right before Spring Break for me (not that I'm going anywhere where I can show off my hopefully "new" body anyhow, alas). Also, the link above for "before breakfast" is to an article on the benefits of exercising before breakfast. It's actually doubly nice since by working out first thing in the morning I: 1.) can't avoid it easily, and 2.) get it out of the way.

With some luck, I may get a body similar to the ones below (I don't remember where I found the following pics):

And so, let Operation: Phoenix begin!!