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TOPS isn’t about tedious calorie counting, deprivation diets, or wearying workouts. Nor is it about 8-day fasting or lengthy colonic irrigation. Instead, it’s mostly about happily sharing new, sensible, ideas and information, fun games that challenge us, lots of encouragement, and non-judgmental, friendly support for workable, longer term goals.
What does a TOPS meeting look like?
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Some 3 to 4 million years ago, as ash fell from an erupting volcano, a group of three ancient human ancestors were walking together. The ancient footprints of these ancestors were preserved in the soft earth beneath their feet. The impressions left behind were discovered in 1976 at Laetoli, in northern Tanzania. The entire footprint trail is almost 27 m (88 ft) long and includes impressions of about 70 footprints.
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For most TOPS members, weight-loss can feel tedious, especially COVID times, which have restricted so much that we used to do for fun. It can be hard to stick with healthy habits when not having a good time. To find fresh fun we might think recall our own play as the young kids we used to be.
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Our Mayne Island TOPS group is wild, but sensible, about walking. A handful of them walk together every day, socially distanced of course. You probably hear them coming! Although not all members can walk daily, those who can, do.
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We all know about the expensive programs that we see advertised everywhere, that tell us we can look like a model quick as a wink. Then why would anyone attend hour-long TOPS meetings, week after week? What do they get out of it? I’ve attended weekly for over 2 years, and the winner buzzer on my scales still hasn’t sounded. Those jiffy programs might help us lose weight quickly, but if we haven’t effectively changed our habits, those pounds usually return.
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We all gain from a positive body image. Body positivity is not just about challenging how others view your physical size and shape. It can mean appreciating your body despite its flaws and enjoying the body you have. You need not beat yourself up over natural changes due to aging, pregnancy, or lifestyle. Problems that can emerge due to poor body image include depression, low self-esteem, and eating disorders. Regardless of how popular culture promotes the ideal shape, size, and appearance, we can still appreciate the way we look, even if it doesn’t conform to that ideal.
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You may know of an island group called “TOPS”, which stands for Take Off Pounds Sensibly. There are many people on the island who would like to take off a few pounds sensibly for good reasons. Perhaps you want to get into a smaller size, or want to be able to walk farther or dance longer, and losing a few pounds might help with that. Perhaps the doctor has told you that losing weight could really improve your health.
But you never thought to join TOPS. Perhaps you think that you won’t fit in, or don’t see joining a group as a way to work with your issues. Please reconsider! We range in ages from fascinating young people to delightful older people. We welcome all ages and genders.
Perhaps your work schedule doesn’t allow you to attend. Your employer might be happy with you taking an hour once a week to attend a meeting to improve your health.
Those personal concerns you mull over, we as a group deal with openly, with good background information.
In the coming season – which invites lavish food creativity – it’s easy to become Big Chef or Mama Pizzieri – offering goodly repeat portions to one and all, sampling everything, leaving no leftovers. Time to share those excuses, too.
We’re always supportive. We know that the road to good health is rocky and we all have our ups and downs. Our weekly meetings are encouraging, helping us stay committed to improving our health.
Our meetings are always enjoyable. We learn a lot from each other, and we laugh a lot and have fun each week.
January 1, 2021 is just a month away. If you plan to lose weight or get healthy in the new year, why wait? Start now. We’d love to see you at TOPS meetings. We meet every Wednesday morning at the Community Centre, from 9:00 to 10:00. We meet masked, social distancing, sanitizing whatever we touch. We’re a low-cost, enjoyable, international self-help program that happily welcomes everyone. Why not give us a try? If you want to Take Off Pounds Sensibly with us, please call.
Submitted by Amber Harvey
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Apples, apples, apples!
It’s late fall and you’ve picked bushels of apples; some are still falling on the ground. When not crunching them whole, we’re slicing them up to make apple pies or pressing them to make delicious apple cider. But what about those peels and cores? Well, the deer love them, and they make excellent compost for next year’s garden, but what about using them for vinegar?
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Are You NEAT Enough?
Don’t worry I’m not talking about tidiness. I’m talking bout Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis.
That’s just a fancy name for the everyday motions of our body, the kinds of things we don’t even think about. Getting out of bed is one. Most of us do that every day. Filling the kettle with water is another. Opening the door is yet another. These everyday motions add up and it’s amazing how many calories they can burn up in the course of a day.
Here are a few more:
- Putting away groceries
- Emptying the dishwasher
- Brushing your teeth
- Tying your shoelaces
- Tapping your foot
- Fidgeting
The calories you burn during “exercise” is relatively small compared to the calorie you lose by NEAT. But here’s the catch. When you’re losing weight, and taking in fewer calories, your unconscious mind plays a trick on you. It wants you to stay the same weight, so you tend to move less. This is one of the barriers to weight loss that we encounter over and over.
According to “set point theory” our bodies try to maintain a certain constant weight. We know that our natural weight range is determined by genes, diet, exercise, hormones, and a few other factors. If we can change the factors under our control, like our food intake and exercise, we can change that “set point” through lifestyle changes. As most of us have experienced though, it’s not an easy thing to break through this plateau. So remember to take those extra steps, take the long way around instead of taking a shortcut, mix your cake by hand instead of with the mixer, chop the carrots by hand instead of using the food processer, carry firewood in your arms instead of in the wheelbarrow, just as long as you can do these things without hurting yourself, and if possible, work them into your daily routines so they become habits. And fidget a lot.
We’d love to see you at TOPS meetings. We meet every Wednesday morning at the Community Centre, from 9:00 to 10:00. We meet indoors, social distancing, sanitizing whatever we touch, and most of us wear masks throughout the meeting. We’re a low-cost, enjoyable, international self-help program that happily welcomes everyone. (Your first visit is free.) If you want to Take Off Pounds Sensibly with us, please call .
Submitted by Amber Harvey
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“If you are happy being overweight, don’t read this article. You have every right to be any shape or size you choose. The operative word here is ‘choose.’”
The TOPS agenda is to “take off pounds sensibly.” We set goals and decide when they are reached. Some will stop when they feel it’s good enough and some will keep going until they have reached their idea of perfection. Some are driven by other people’s ideas of their looks or weight. Others lose weight because it’s something they value. You are the only person who knows when it’s time to say, “I’m good enough” or, “I want to keep going.”
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You might be wondering how members of TOPS have been meeting their goal of “taking off pounds sensibly” since March, 2020.
Like most of the world, our lives have changed. In our little group, most, not all, gained back some of the pounds we had lost. A few stayed the same or continued losing.
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"All mushrooms are edible, but some are only edible once," Terry Pratchett wrote (1). Maybe you don’t think that’s funny. Nor are the latest warnings that being overweight may be another COVID-19 risk factor (2). But humour might … sweeten the deal.
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To be perfectly honest, I hate “exercise.” Do I enjoy taking a walk or working in the garden? Of course! Do I like to dance and playing fetch with my granddog? You bet!
But say “exercise” and I’m out the door in a flash! I don’t know why; maybe some memory of being shamed in gym class. But whatever it is I have to deal with it because exercise is important.
Jodi Stolove in the May/June issue of TOPS NEWS writes, “For the sake of your health, as well as your weight, exercise should become as routine a part of your life as brushing your teeth.” She lists ways exercise can improve our health and why we need to do it.
Exercise can suppress your appetite.
Exercise triggers the release of endorphins in our brains that relieve depression. We know these conditions sometimes drive us to overeat.
Exercise builds muscles, and muscles burn calories faster than fat does.
This is a good one. Muscles take up less space than the same weight of fat. So we look trimmer if we weigh the same but we’ve replaced fat with muscle.
We keep burning calories for up to 14 hours after exercising.
And this is the tough one. The only way to lose fat is if your muscles burn it as fuel. So we have to exercise!
Exercise can reduce high blood pressure and lower blood sugar levels.
It is possible to enjoy exercise if we choose a “fitness program” that is practical and convenient for us.
Several members of TOPS attend fitness classes on Mayne Island and even now, during isolation, they continue on apps like Zoom. Like them, I’m going to work on designing a fitness program that I enjoy. How about you?
Our TOPS Chapter is a friendly, low-cost, supportive, non-judgmental group that welcomes new members. You’re welcome to join TOPS every Wednesday morning at the Community Centre, from 9:00 to 10:00. (Your first visit is free.) If you want to Take Off Pounds Sensibly with us, please call Maeva Lightheart at 778-888-9401.
Submitted by Amber Harvey
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TOPS isn’t just about taking off pounds, though that’s important. During this pandemic our chapter has found a way to go on meeting and supporting each other, hearing our friends’ voices, seeing their faces and listening to each other. By using an app called Zoom we still meet weekly.
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Does Smoking Cannabis lead to Weight-Loss?
We know you were wondering about it. Discussion at TOPS last week around prescription drugs with unwanted side effects and their effect on healthy weight drifted into the area of marijuana use.
- March 2020 - Portion Control
- Feb 2020 - In Love?
- Jan 2020 - TOPS TIPS
- December 2019 - Hydration and You
- October 2019 - Comfort Food
- September 2019 - Harvest Moon
- August 2019, Exercise...
- July 2019, Tofu or Not Tofu
- June 2019 - Like the French
- May 2019 - Snack Attacks
- April 2019 - Not about Dieting
- March 2019 - Exercise?