My journey with TOPS began back in the 1980’s when I learned of TOPS from my mother who had joined with some work friends.  In December of 1998 I decided to join TOPS because I was out of shape and over weight. When I started at my TOPS club my weight was 228lbs and knew this would help me keep my weight from really ballooning.   During my first couple of years it was a struggle and my weight fluctuated.  In 2003 I finally started really changing the way I ate.  My first round of weight loss happened because I exercised and drank lots of water.  Over the course of a year and a half I lost 53 pounds and noticed how much better I felt at 175 pounds.   For about a year I kept the weight off, however I didn't take time to learn to maintain and gradually resumed my old way of eating and eventually gained back 45 of the 53 pounds I had lost.  Quite frankly this made me feel lousy.
In the years to come I had no luck keeping the weight off. My weight was like a roller costar as it went up and down. Eating junk food and drinking lots of soda was a big downfall.  On top of that I was back to having no ambition to do anything.  When my nephews asked me to go out and play with them I would quickly get out of breath and have to sit down. 

Again in 2005 I tried to lose weight which resulted in 20 pounds to get to a weight of 199 only to put it back on and go up to 221.  During the next two years I tried to lose weight, but it was only one pound here or two pounds there and I would gain it right back. I managed to get down to 215 in 2007 but stalled at that weight. In retrospect, my friends at TOPS maintained a support to me on my quest to lose weight, however, I needed to really put my mind to loose that weight for good.

Finally at the end of 2007 I said to myself “hey you're fat, feel terrible and you need to lose weight now.”  I knew 2008 was going to be the year I reached my goal and became a KOPS.  Immediately I started eating healthy, drinking water and exercising and I was well on my way to being skinny.  For the first seven months of 2008 I consistently lost because I was back to walking, riding the exercise bike and doing sit ups.  My eating in between ceased.  In December 2008 I finally reached my goal weight of 165 pounds at the beginning of December 2008 and became a KOPS. I went from a size 40 waist in Jan of 2008 to a size 32 in December.  My shirts were XL and now I can wear a medium.

Why was I successful this time?  There are several reasons including being ready to commit to myself, learning how to maintain.  Now if I feel I want to eat in between meals I just take out a bottle of cold water.  Another successful habit involves keeping a food journal. If I have bad days I can go back in the journal and see what I did wrong and correct it.

I would like to thank family, friends and fellow TOPS members for all the support they gave me while I was trying to lose my weight.