TOPS going well...

Well, our local TOPS group has been going strong for 6 months now! We have 10 ladies coming on a regular basis and most of them are doing fantastic! Our top loser has lost just over 35 pounds since February and is averaging about 7 pounds a month. She looks fantastic! I think she only has about 20 pounds to reach her goal.

I started the group in our church for both Becca and I, but unfortunately, Becca has to work every Thursday evening, so she hasn't been to a meeting in quite some time. She still continues to lose though, which is awesome! She's lost almost 20 pounds since February, so about 5 pounds a month. That's not a lot, but it sure is better than nothing!

I'm about 8 pounds away from my goal weight and I keep going up and down and up and down each week. I'm the same weight now as I was at the beginning of April.... so I've got to get my butt in gear and get serious, but not till we get back from vacation next week! lol!

If you are stuck with your weight loss, and need some encouragement, I strongly recommend seeing if there is a local TOPS group near you. It's a support group, not a weight loss plan, and it is much, much less expensive than weight watchers or other programs.

When I was looking for a TOPS group near me, the closest one was about 20 minutes from my house and to be honest, it was filled with a bunch of older women who had been going for years and were in it more for the socializing than they were for the weight loss. So I called the area coordinator and she told me that with 4 ladies, I could start my own group! So that's what I did. I found 3 other friends and we started our own group. It has now grown to 10 active ladies and we have a great time. The programs that TOPS provides for us to follow are very simple and easy.

Let me know if you're a TOPS member and how your group is doing!

Weight Loss and Dieting Tips...

Last summer, after returning from a trip to Gatlinburg with my husband for our 20th Wedding Anniversary, I had our pictures developed and was shocked at what I saw.... When had I gained so much weight? And why didn't I realize it before we went on the trip so that I could look better in the pictures?

So, I made a commitment to myself to lose 35 pounds by the following summer. I figured if I took it slow and easy, it would help me keep the weight off in the long run. Fast forward 9 months, I've lost 25 pounds and I'm now only 5 pounds away from my goal weight! Woo Hoo!

I am always on the lookout for weight loss and dieting tips. I am now the Leader of our local TOPS group and love sharing things I learn with the other women there. I came across a unique site called Hidro Tips - Tips, Tricks and Tweaks which has a Health forum with many categories that are helpful to those trying to lose weight. The Diet Tips and Weight Loss Tips forums are filled with great topics with lots of tips and ideas on losing weight.

Besides the Health forum, they have many other forum categories, such as Business, Education, Technology, Entertainment, Fashion, Travel and Sports. Since I've been doing so much writing in my blogs lately, the Writing Tips forum under the Education category caught my eye as well. Hopefully that will give me some ideas on writing in my blogs!

Anyway, if you're looking for any tips, stop on over at Hidro Tips and see what you can find.

1 Million Steps

Becca and I are members of TOPS (Take Off Pounds Sensibly), a weight loss support group, at our church. We were challenged by the Area Captain in February to make a goal of taking 1,000,000 steps from the beginning of February through the end of July.

Sounds impossible, doesn't it? But actually it's not at all. It's very doable if you break it down into daily goals!

I figured there are 181 days from the beginning of February through the end of July and then divided it into 1,000,000. That meant I needed to take 5,525 steps a day to reach my goal!

I started out February averaging about 6,000 steps a day. That would help me reach my goal of a million steps, but in reality, that is not burning enough calories to help me lose any weight. So, by the end of February, I was up to averaging about 8,000 steps a day. In March, I took it up a notch. I decided my goal was to hit 10,000 steps a day as many days in March that I could. I hit that goal every single day except for 5. So for 26 days in March, I had over 10,000 steps each day!

For April, I decided to kick it up another notch! My new goal for April is to take at least 12,000 steps a day! So far, I've been averaging about 13,000 steps a day!

If I would have set a goal of taking 12,000 steps a day from the beginning of February, I would be on track to take 2 Million steps by the end of July! Unbelievable, isn't it?

How many steps do you take a day?