TOPS (Take Pound Off Sensibly) morning class

TOPS Chapter 9319 El Dorado Springs met in the Church of Christ Sanctuary on Thursday morning, Aug. 19.

Leader Sheryl Walker opened the meeting and Kay S. led us in singing “Thanks For Our Friends.”

We welcomed new member Kadean M.

Marilyn led us in a series of exercises.

Sheryl led us in roll call. We had 21 weigh in and the chapter had a 1.8 net loss.

Susan and Steve tied for the week’s best loser, each lost 2.0 lbs.

Marble game: Sheryl has added a new marble. It is yellow and if you get it you get a prize. Jean won the right to draw but did not get the white, red or yellow so the pot continues to grow

Sheryl went over the members list and out lined the duties of each member. She said Linda H. is typing up an updated member list with this information on it but she wanted to go over it now as well.

Marilyn – awards chair, weight recorder and historian

Carol – awards assistant, weight recorder assistant and song leader assistant

Sheryl – leader, coffee maker, marble game, photographer assistant

Linda H – co-leader, new member assistant, flower chairman, person of many hats.

Jean – secretary, reporter, photographer, SRD chairman

Sue C – treasurer

Sharon: new member coach, treasurer assistant (if co leader unavailable)

Robbie – weight room monitor, new member Chairman

Susan S – potato luncheon chair, SRD assistant, weight room monitor assistant.

Angie – card chairman, programs chairman

Dorothy – new member coach

Jan T – song selector and encourager caller chair

Juanita – potato luncheon assistant, marble game assistant

Juda – new member coach, encourager caller assistant

Judy K – secretary and reporter assistant, card sender assistant

Kay – measurement chair, song leader

LJ – measurement assistant, Best Choice labels

Marie – new member coach, historian assistant

Sandi – flower chair assistant

Steve – contest assistant

Warren – contest assistant

Kathy, Margie, Carol, Marie, Melissa, in charge of skits

Tammy – recipe chairman

Contest report – Warren said there was no news on the current contest

Sheryl said at the last meeting she asked members to write down things they would like to see at our meetings. She read some of what she received.

Speak Up. She is working on that

Let new members know they need to have photo taken and measured. Need better song books and more exercise. Sheryl said new member coaches should help with this and we will order more song books.

More information on My Day 1 and programs on balanced meals. Jude has volunteered to do a program on this.

Skits once a month, recipe sharing, a social get together. See Margie about arranging a get together.

Sing the song “The More We Get Together.” Sheryl will be starting this.

Have the program the first 15 minutes

More skits, more explanation of rules on fines.

Information on cooking, how to cut calories. Motivational speakers.

Have a person sitting in a chair doing exercises while Marilyn demonstrates standing exercises.

Have a weight loss buddy.

These are all good ideas and with everyone’s help we can do them.

Susan reported on the upcoming baked potato luncheon.

We will be ordering potatoes soon. Be prepared to pick up potatoes to bake on Sept. 14.

She is printing up tickets and signup sheets should be here next week.

Susan said the committee would like to remove cakes and cookies for the menu.

It would be much simpler to only offer pie and brownies and the cake has not gone over well in the past.

Susan said in order to get an accurate count on pre-prepared items she needs the delivery tickers to her by Tuesday the 19th of September. She will return the delivery tickets to the person who will be delivering them after taking a count of items needed.

She said she will make up a master list of delivery locations and times that can be checked off as delivery goes out the door. This will help eliminate overlooking a delivery.

Marilyn had the program today. She talked about a recent article from the new TOPS magazine titled “Critic Crackdown, Overcoming Our Inner Bully.”

She focused on the part about Conquering the Bully Within. The little voice in your head that makes us fret about our weight, judge our choices and call ourselves names.

She talked about how to transform our inner critic to positive self talk instead of negative.

This led to a wonderful group discussion on things each member has found helps them.

Thank you Marilyn for an informative and interesting program. We will follow up next week with more results.

With no other business we closed with our motto “IF IT IS TO BE IT IS UP TO ME”

TOPS #MO 9319 meets each Thursday morning in the Church of Christ Meeting room at 302 E Hospital Road, El Dorado Springs. Weigh-in starts at 7:45 a.m. the meeting begins at 8:45 a.m. and is over by 10 a.m.

We welcome anyone who is interested in learning about a healthy lifestyle. We welcome women and men of all ages. We encourage healthy eating and offer support through our chapter and the National Chapter of TOPS. We have a lot of fun in our weight loss journey and make lifelong friendships. First visit is free with no obligation. Membership and dues are very inexpensive.

For more information, call Robbie Chase at 417-876-0233, Juda at 876-4888, TOPS toll free number 1 800-932-8677 or you can find us on the web at www.tops.org.

Come and join us.