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Well, we did it. My wife and I got up early and visited our closet TOPS meeting this morning.

For those of you who do not know what TOPS is, it stand for Taking Off Pounds Sensibly. There is also a group of people who’ve met their weight goals who are called KOPS. Keeping Pounds Off Sensibly.

Here is their website: http://www.tops.org/

I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised. Everyone there was very friendly and made us feel welcomed.

There was one little snag though. When I went to weight in, their scales only went up to 350lbs. They have the beam type scales that you see used in doctors offices. The funny part was, one of the ladies had this problem before and remembered a “trick” or quick fix. She hung a 3 oz fishing weight off the end of the beam. After some calculations, my weight came in at 353 1/2 lbs.

Well, I was pleasantly surprised. I knew I had put back on some weight but I didn’t know how much. I really thought I had put back on nearly all of it. I was glad to see that I “only” put on 11 lbs since March. I have managed to keep the other 22lbs off.

I contribute this to many of the nutrition habits I picked up when I was regularly trying to lose weight back in Jan-Feb. I still drink lots of water and leave the soda’s alone. I’ve found a whole wheat bread I really like and use it for my sandwiches. Generally, my portions are smaller and I seldom eat until I hurt like I used to.

A little about TOPS

The TOPS website says it’s the oldest, non-profit, non-commercial organization of its kind. I really liked the meeting today because they have a wealth of information for new members. I also like the fact they don’t bombard you with a bunch of stuff to buy. If I remember right, it cost us something like $24 for my wife (since she was the “Main” person) and $12 for me to sign up. Then it’s something like 3 or 5 bucks a month after that. (I could be wrong, so don’t quote me on that, this is what I remember my wife saying the other day, she’s not here right now to confirm my memory!)

They have quite a few incentive programs, little “fun” contest and such. There was the 50/50 where you put a dollar in a bucket and receive a ticket. After the weigh in, one ticket is drawn and whoever’s name is on the ticket, wins half of the amount in the bucket. The other half goes into the clubs coffers. Then there were two other incentive programs which included money (my favorite motivational incentive!)  It seems like one was for the weekly winner (who one a few bucks this week) and I can not remember what the other bucket was for. Hey, it was early, what can I say.

There was two “teams” that were having a contest also. I’m not sure how it worked, my head was spinning with all they stuff they had going on. This team challenge appeared to work like this: each team had a jar. For each pound the team lost, they would add a bean to their jar. The team who filled up the jar the fastest, were the winners. Don’t even ask me what they received if they won. I have no idea but it sounded like fun!

Another thing that I do like about TOPS, especially in our area, is that there were meeting places all over our area. We just chose the closet one that had a meeting in the morning. I think that will be easy to make on my way to work every week. There were others in our area who had meetings in the afternoon and evenings. Something for everyone!

This group was way more than I expected. I’m really looking forward to next weeks weigh in. I feel sorry for the current members. Now that I know I can pick up 2 or 3 bucks for losing the most weight in our group, I’ll take no prisoners!

All joking aside, I can see this as being a fun and beneficial group and I’m glad my wife turned me on to it.

Oh, there was one more bit of fun that was had. My wife didn’t know immediately about the 3 oz. fishing weight, so I told her. Before she went up to pay our dues, I told her that they were going to charge us for that weight. Well, we left and my wife says to me “You know, they forgot to charge me for that fishing weight.” When I busted out laughing she knew she’d been had. I have a feeling I’ll be paying for that one!

Don