TOPS Everyday: Nutrition and meal planning

TOPS Chapter 9319 El Dorado Springs met in The Firefly Services building, on Thursday, October 9, 2025 for their regular weigh in and meeting.

Our Leader, Warren called the meeting to order.

Carol led us in singing “Help Me Slender.”

We said our TOPS & KOPS pledges

Warren led us in roll call, sixteen members weighed in. We had a 6.8 gain and a 2.4 loss. Giving us a net gain of 4.4 pounds.

The best loser for the week was Jan with a 1-pound loss. Congratulations Jan!

Carol had the program today. She spoke on the new series of nutrition booklets coming out from TOPS. The first one will be TOPS Everyday; Nutrition and meal planning. Some of the things that will be in this booklet are: Where do calories come from? They come from carbohydrates, which we need for energy, however too many can cause weight gain as what the body does not use is stored as fat.

Calories come from added sugars: which consist of sugars and syrups that are added to foods, usually to provide sweetness. Again, extra calories from this added sugar are stored in the body as fat,

Dietary fiber: Promote health by lowering blood cholesterol levels, reducing inflammation and many other benefits. Apples, carrots, oatmeal, lentils and almonds are a few examples of dietary fiber.

Protein: this is needed for the body to maintain muscle among may other benefits. Again, it can contain many calories so chose your protein carefully,

Fat: fat fuels about 80-90% of your resting body’s energy. Saturated fats are the type of fat found in animal foods like meat and dairy foods; lower saturated fats can help reduce LDL

Carol then spoke on the empty calories you get from soft drinks, and ultra processed foods. These have little nutritional values but are sometimes high in calories.

This is just a small example of the information TOPS will be sending out on nutrition in the next few months.

Carol also reminded us, if we were able to lose just one pound a week between now and Christmas we will have lost 10 pounds. Remember Just one pound per week.

Thank you, Carol, for a great program.

Contest: Our new contest starts today. Everyone should have their “Bingo” card filled out with the words of their choice taken from the list provided.

The two words for this week were: Friendship and Achievement

Marble game: There is $6 in the pot, Linda C won the right to draw but did not get the winning one.

Linda Hall asked for permission to order some charms since they are currently on sale. She has an order of $228.92; LJ made a motion we pay this bill, Jan 2nd, motion carried.

Mark your calendars; we will meet on Tuesday Nov. 18, since Thanksgiving will be on Thursday the 20th.

Linda H had some awards: Juanita received her KOPS in Black and her 1500 miles walked certificate. Steve received his KOPS in black and his 25-pound loss certificate. Congratulations to both of you and so good to see you back with us.

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 Firefly Services building” at 700 E. Hospital Rd, 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. For more information call Linda at 417-876-7404. Come and join us.

TOPS toll-free number 1 800-932-8677 or you can find us on the web at www.tops.org.