If you are interested in a cheap, fun weight loss support group, then TOPS is for you. It is a national, non-profit weight loss support group. TOPS stands for Take Off Pounds Sensibly. There are chapters on a local level. These chapters meet once a week, for a private weigh-in and meeting. In the meetings, you might have a program, discussion night, excerise, contests or do fun things to learn about and lose weight. Your national dues are $24.00 a year. This covers the mailing of the TOPS News magaezine you get mailed to your house 9 times through out the year and information that the National TOPS headquarters passes on to the clubs at the local level. Then you have your monthly club dues, which covers charms, awards, program costs, mailings etc. My club charges $2.50 a month. That might vary from club to club though. My club also charges 25 cents to weigh-in weekly. Then the person who has lost the most weight for the week gets everyone's 25 cents. Plus we charge 10 cents for each pound gained and that money goes to the club's treasury. Then each club holds contests to encourage their members. These are just fun things to help and keep people motivated. It is just a fun club to belong to and get the support of people who are going through the same journey in life as you are. So I hope you will check out and see where your area TOPS meeting place is. If you have any questions, feel free to post them here and I will either answer them for you or look up the information for you. TOPS even has a website, you can check out. It is www.TOPS.org Hope you find this information helpful and useful in your journey to change your lifestyle.
TOPS Hugs,
Kerry

I love TOPS too. Our chapter charges $3 per month. There's no change for weigh-in, but we do charge a fine of 10 cent per pound for gains (no one really sees how much you put into the little basket, so unless you reveal it yourself, no one knows how much you gained). We charge double fines after a holiday (to provide a little extra motivation to stay on track over the holidays) and also after a week in which the club as a group gained more weight than it lost. The "biggest loser" for the week takes the fines home.

I'm co-leader of our group, and I have to say, I never thought I would be such a "cheerleader" for ANYTHING! Mostly because I have a talent for making things I'm interested in, seem less interesting by gushing about it.

I sincerely hope that isn't the case with TOPS, because I really want people to know how very amazing it can be.

I'm coleader of my local group, and the new leader and I really want to inspire our group to really do some fun, cool things. I'm looking for ideas from TOPS members or even people who have never even been to TOPS, but have some good ideas, on things we can do in our group to increase motivation in a fun way.

Maybe we can even play a weight loss game or two here (or issue challenges, or whatever) to create our own mini-group. I think it would be fun!

I forgot to mention that after you have attended the TOPS meetings for 6 weeks you get a charm bracelet. Then for each ten pounds you lose, you get a different charm to put on your charm bracelet. So it a visual reminder of how well you are doing. You get rewarded along your weight loss journey.

To all TOPS members who have weigh in's this week, good luck! Hope you see the scale moving down on all your hardwork. Have a great week! Hope you stay OP on your eating and excerising!

Well I went to my weigh in last night and stayed the same. I guess I should be happy that I didn't gain any weight since it was that TOM for me last week. But I will just work harder this coming week to have a loss next week!
Hope everyone else has a great weigh-in!

I gained a half pound. But I deny it. I was so excited, because by my scale I had lost two pounds. Now this was in the morning, and I did have lunch after I weighed myself at home (not a huge lunch, just a regular lunch), so the weight of lunch could have been responsible.

However, I HATE my club's scale. It hasn't been calibrated in years, and it is not reliable at least at the higher weight end. There have been times when they couldn't get it to balance for me at all (and I was well under the maximum weight). It isn't officially "ours" because it belongs to the church that lets us have meetings there, but I hardly think they would object to us paying to have the scale calibrated.

Good luck this week with your weigh-in! I hope that you have a loss to report this week. I am keeping my fingers crossed. Why won't they calibrate the scales? I think the church should know that they need it. Heck if your club offered to pay for I don't see where they would have a problem with it. I will let you know how I did tomorrow evening. Have a great week!

I think the church doesn't use it, so they don't care, and a lot of our members are VERY frugal, and don't want to spend the money, so whenever we've voted to buy a new scale, calibrate this one, or buy an attachment for our scale so we can weigh members over 350 lbs (right now, only my husband), it always gets voted down.

I'm seriously considering talking with the other TOPS chapter in a neighboring town to grouply sponsor an open house at our church to bring in new members, and maybe even start a new chapter. Part of our group doesn't really want to get bigger (and that's fine), but I think there's probably room for another TOPS group in our area. The church my husband and I attend is willing to host a TOPS group and the church school nurse even offered to help, offered the use of her scale (kept well-callibrated because it's used for the school) and sponsor and coordinate a walking club before or after the TOPS meeting (she's been wanting to get the walking club started for some time. But our TOPS chapter meets at another church, and the members who are members of that church don't want to move to a different location, even though it would be more accessible to a larger group, is more handicapped accessible, and more accessible during the winter (we've had to cancel nearly 20% of our winter meetings because the steep hill to the church is too dangerous to drive during icy weather).

I don't want anyone to think that I have anything wrong with our current group, I think that there's just a bit of a split between how people want to see the group run. There are many who want to stick with what the club has "always" been and keep things very minimal, and then there are others who want to bring in some new ideas and activities and maybe even sponsor more active ways to keep people engaged and motivated (you can guess where my preferences lie).

I'm not sure if I'm going to the group tonigh. Hubby and I had to go to court today and I was really upset by it. I don't even know why, as I didn't end up having to testify. I had to call the police a about a month or two ago when a neighbor broke down the door to get at his ex-girlfriend (he's in jail and she moved out of the apartment this weekend). Well the ex-girlfriend is now MAD at my husband and I for "making" her testify and for testifying against the guy. It was all just an emotional rollercoaster, and I'm spent. Because I was a former probation officer, the defense attorney didn't want me to testify because he felt I would be biased in favor of the court. Just a mess, mess, mess.

At least it's over.

Sorry to hear about your rough day today. Sending hugs your way. Hope your evening gets better! I know the feeling about some people only wanting to do the miminal amount of work to lose the weight and then there are others who want to lose the weight and look for new ways to keep motivated and to moviate the others.

Went to TOPS last night and lost 2.25 pounds. Was the weekly winner for my weight loss. That makes it two times in the last three weeks. So I must have finally got it figured out how to start breaking through my plateau to lose again.
Kaplods, are you having a better day today! Hope your week has improved since Monday. Been thinking about you. Sending hugs your way!!
TOPS Hugs,
Kerry

I'm doing better. I was stressed out. We got news that my sister scheduled the christening of her new baby boy a bit earlier than we expected, so we're leaving Thursday for Illinois. I'm taking my scale. I did that for the first time last visit and instead of gaining weight during the visit (like I usually do), I lost a couple.

I'm excited about going, I miss everyone.

Have a safe trip Kaplods! That is a great idea about your scale. That way you stay op. Have a nice visit.

Well it is a new week! Hope you had a nice weekend! I don't know if you will get to weigh-in or not. But just wanted to say good luck! I am hoping that I to have a good weigh in tomorrow evening.

I am sad this evening. I gained 5.25 pounds last week. So I don't know what I did wrong. I guess I am going to have to step it up again with my workouts. Hopefully next week's weigh in goes better.
Hope you are having a great trip visiting your family!

Hi, you guys! I just stumbled onto your thread. The TOPS title caught my eye because I've been interested in joining. Hope you don't mind if I stick my nose in here.

I've been an on-and-off Weight Watchers member for years now. My biggest problem with them is the cost! It's 30 bucks to join and then 14 more each week. And, if you want to buy their products, well the prices are really high. I went back a couple months ago but, frankly, I'm starting to resent all the money I'm shelling out. Yes, it's a good program but seriously...!!

Anyway, I haven't been to a meeting in a couple weeks. Actually, I lost my dad last week after he spent a month in ICU. Now, the stress levels are finally starting to back down and I'm thinking about once again taking the steps I need to lose the weight.

I looked into TOPS a couple years ago but never got my rear in gear and joined. (OK, truth is I chickened out. ) But now I think I'm going to go check out their website and see what I can learn about a local meeting. Can you tell me if I can go to a meeting to observe before I actually sign up?

Thanks in advance for any info. you can give me. I hope you don't mind if I pop in here again.

Jo.