Sunday, July 1

Today was orientation at the Duke Diet and Fitness Center (DFC). This old renovated YMCA building is now host to people from around the world who come to learn about making lifestyle changes to obtain a healthy weight. Sunday is orientation for the new group coming in. People come to stay typically 2-4 weeks (up to 3 months) to change their behaviors to lose weight and keep it off for good. Cassie and I sat in to observe, and somewhat go through the process. We only get to be here until Tuesday which barely seems like enough time to scratch the surface of how it works. What I understand so far about the center is that people come and live in a building across the street. They are fed three meals a day along with three snacks all prepared at the center (by Bon Appetit). There are many activities and services available including, doctors, nutrition counseling, psychology counseling, weight room, exercise classes, pool, cooking demonstrations, and massages. Several non-health related activites are accesible like water coloring, movies, baseball games, museum visits, etc. We ate dinner there with everyone else and to my surprise the food had no taste at all. The sodium restriction is 1500mg a day, approximately 1/4th the sodium the average american consumes daily. I thought they would have food with more flavor for people to understand that food can taste good without a lot of sodium.