I'm very happy with a personal goal I set out for myself this year: to lose weight, despite the crushing workload of med school!

Although I definitely don't have, like, big muscles, I've noticed I fit comfortably in medium-sized shirts. My clothes have gotten considerably baggier. I'm also surprised I've been able to commit at least 30 minutes of exercise each day. Before 2009, I wouldn't have lifted a weight to save my life.

My body fat has been decreasing, too. I've been using different methods of estimating the body fat with different formulas, so my chart below (the screenshot of My Personal Diet on my phone) zig-zags quite a bit. But I definitely feel thinner: my clothes have gotten baggier and my belts are all too long.

Here's my strategy:

• Do exercises at home. I've noticed I don't like heading to the gym because of the transport time (and unfortunately, UC Irvine's student gym is way, way too far away from any frequent transit lines and convenient bicycle paths. It's more than a mile away from the School of Medicine).
• Do short, modular exercises. I'm using 10-Minute Trainer so I can customize each 10-minute workout block (Thanks hun!).
• Use a combination of Subway sandwiches, Slim-Fast shakes, rice cakes, and just plain healthy foods.
• Use my Treo (see below) to log all the foods I eat and all of my exercises. It performs some calculations to figure out how many calories I need to lose each day, throughout the day. It's fun and empowering for me to see a concrete number, a "score." Without this information, I would haphazardly guess and estimate my food intake.

Going from 175 pounds to 155 pounds isn't bad! I think I'll try the P90X program this June while I'm preparing for my OB/GYN rotation. P90X is a lot more intense and requires 60 to 90 minutes per day of exercise.