TOPS hears about Mindless Eating and Hidden Persuaders

TOPS Chapter 319 El Dorado Springs (Take Off Pounds Sensibly) met in the Church Of Christ meetin room on Thursday, Aug, 11.

Our leader, Robbie, opened the meeting. Kay led us in singing “TOPS Success.”

Robbie had the program today. She took it from TOPS Real Life Guide titled “Mindless Eating and Hidden Persuaders.”

The best diet is one you don’t know you are on.

Robbie asked why do we overeat food that does not even taste good? The reason, there are signals and cues all around us.

Other reasons we overeat, because we are hungry and because it tastes good. We need to listen to our body and stop when we are full or even a little before we feel full.

There are so many cues around us telling us to eat. In one experiment people going into a movie theater were given big buckets of stale popcorn. These people had been served a filling meal shortly before going into the theater. Most people ate the popcorn even though they were not hungry and it did not taste very good? Why, all the cues around them, the smell of the popcorn, the mindless eating while doing something else, others around them eating, and the expectation of being at the movies you have to eat popcorn.

Your metabolism is so efficient, the more food you eat, the more it turns up the furnace if food suddenly stops coming into the body, it turns the furnace down to conserve fuel (fat). So one should strive to lose weight slowly about 1⁄2 pound a week. This will not alarm your metabolism. If we make small changes to our routine we will not notice if we cut a 100 calories here and a 100 calories at the next meal and maybe do some extra walking to burn a 100 calories. This can result in a slow but steady loss.

Some things that sabotage us are big plates, and big servings.

Remember eat what you want and want what you eat.

Marilyn led us in an exercise session.

Robbie led us in roll call. Twenty-eight weighed in today and the chapter had a 1.2 lb gain.

Sandi was the week’s best loser with a loss of 4.2 lbs. Marilyn caught up on one of the awards. Nikki received a back in black with perfect attendance certificate.

We sang “Happy Birthday” to Sandi.

Warren reported on the contest. Next week is the last week of the contest. He said the KOPS have $9 in the “kitty” and the TOPS have $24.50.

Marilyn won the right to draw a marble. Nellie drew for her but drew a green one.

Robbie said she would check on the t-shirt order and report back next week.

Robbie reminded us we meet in the sanctuary next week.

We welcome anyone who is interested in losing weight. That includes men, women, teenagers, and even children above the age of seven. We do not shame you if you gain but help you explore what you might do to have a loss the next week. We have a lot of fun in the process. Today is the first day of the rest of your life as the saying goes so it is a good day to make a life changing decision. We often remind ourselves that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. We are here to help you break the cycle and have fun doing it. Please consider joining us.

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