Hello Everybody,

I hope you are all doing well. I have had a great time in my first week here at the DFC. Surprisingly enough, because it's no-sodium, but the food is pretty good and you are very well fed. The lack of salt is pretty noticable, as is the incredibly small portion sizes. It really just takes getting used to. I survive by scheduling myself to allow for peanut butter every now and then. I like that you get to plan your own meal.

The classes have been very good as well. The main focuses are Fitness, Nutrition, Medical and Behavioral Health. So the approach is really well rounded.

We did blood work this week and got our results back on Thursday. We had a whole class where a doctor took us through our lab results and what they meant for our health. Mine are great! A lot of the people here are older and are suffering from high blood pressure, high cholesterol and abnormal lipid panels. Apparently the lab work can be incredibly improved within the four weeks that some are here as the method of improving all of those things is diet and exercise.

My group, everyone who came the same day as me, is pretty nice. The women here are all different. I've become friends with a dental hygenist, a finnish woman, a girl who just graduated culinary school. I've slowly met some of the younger people that aren't in my group. They seem pretty nice as well. Today, I played basketball with a college student from southern westchester and then later swam in the pool with another college age guy. I also had a chance to do Boxing Aerobics and Pilates.

The days go by pretty quickly. I'm up early and in bed early.

Well...they're serving dinner soon. It's steak night! so I'm gonna go get in line.

Love you all,

Kara