Well, some of you have asked me to keep track of what I'm doing at Duke at their Diet and Fitness Center, so here it goes... keep in mind, I'm wordy and I'm not a writer!
I was sort of awake early in anticipation of the day, and waited for the alarm clock to ring. I'm not used to waking up before the sun, but I did it today and was out the door before it thought about rising. It's been quite a while since I've been up this early with purpose. Although I won't always have to be up at the crack of dawn, they are asking me to arrive early enough where most people of the world would call it normal, but my schedule has been so skewed for so long due to work, that this "early to rise, early to bed" concept seems foriegn. I will adapt, its not the first time, of course, just new for now.
I got to the center early, by about twenty minutes, and waited with another newby amongst the Carolina pines in thirty two degrees welcoming the sun. As it turns out, I am one of about a eight people who are new to the program, and a few who are returning for refresher time. I did think to myself as to the need for "refreshing" the program, and I'm sure I will discover the reason in due course, but it seemed odd at first flush.
Upon checking in, we were immediately sent in for breakfast. The menu is all pre-arranged, for the first day, by the program, subsequently, this will be done by myself. You actually have to plan out your menu a week at a time following their guidelines. I spent the better part of an hour planning the rest of this weeks menu. It's not terrible, but I'm falling in the 1200 to 1500 calorie diet which seems absurdly small to me, but I'm giving them my trust as the goal is to burn off more than what I take in creating that negative gap in the difference that allows for weight loss. Sadly, in my group, I am by far the youngest (by like 20 years). There are other people in the program who are in various stages of their experiences, but no one in my group to bond with that I could find.
I've stated this twice now to others, the facility reminds me of a nursing home without the stink. It has that institutional furniture found in these places or in colleges. The colors, the materials, the lighting and decor, all suffer from a lack of homey-ness. The building was designed around what they do here, so it is perfect, but the look and feel are much more clinical than I imagined. I'll take pictures. For all those of you who find normal sized furniture, well, normal, this place has everything designed for big folks. (I'm small btw). But it is so weird to have big chairs...just saying. Something ya don't think about.
Apparently, it is a sodium restricted diet as well, which I was surprised to learn that this will afford me several more trips to pee in my day! Salt, holds on to that water weight, and this releases all of that. Lesson one for me. I knew salt wasn't good for you, but didn't know what it did to me. Go figure.
Lots of orientation material from the Medical, Fitness, and Nutritian people today. Had the all important physical...with a lady doctor for the first time! She's pretty impressed by my overall health, range of motion, and physical ability, ....I think she sees too many older folks which biased her conclusion though...hard not to impressed by all this....hehe. Got introduced to a lot of the gym machines, will learn about work out programs tomorrow.
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