Barbara J. Hamby

Attitude

Our T.O.P.S. (Take Off Pounds Sensibly) Club members are given an assignment every week to follow through and report at the next meeting. Last week we were asked to keep track of our successes in connection with weight loss and report one of them back to the group at this morning’s meeting. It may have been just a coincidence, but most of us lost weight over the week and our losses made a better showing than usual. However, it could be that the concentration on successes and optimistic attitude had an effect. Who knows?

The success that I reported was my two trips to Safeway where I managed to walk through the chips aisle without purchasing my favorite Tostitos trace of lime chips or any other chips, for that matter.

There were other reports of items not taken home from a grocery store so that the decision only had to be made once—not every day after the food was in the pantry or refrigerator. Also reported were decisions about various types of exercise initiated or increased.

Our particular club seems to have a lot of fun together while struggling with our weight demons. Our membership has more than doubled in the last three years. We have a few transfers from other clubs. Some transfer members have joined us because our meeting place is closer to where they live; others because they’ve heard we are such a fun group. We also have people join who are new to T.O.P.S. They probably choose our chapter for various reasons.

Because our meeting place is in a senior community, most of us are middle-aged or older. Maybe we have so much fun because we’ve mellowed with time—or not. Many of us are retired, but that doesn’t necessarily mean our stress levels are lower. The causes are just different. Personal health or health of family members is a major problem for a lot of us. But we manage to have a good time together and support each other as much as possible.

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