State Recognition Days in Eugene

The TOPS organization is a non-profit weight loss support group. You go to a chapter for your weekly meetings & weigh in. The chapter is part of an "Area" with a coordinator who manages all the chapters in that area. All the areas together make up the state. We had at least a thousand people attend this SRD in Eugene. The theme this year was Mardi Gras (don't ask me why - they just wanted us to be able to dress up & trade beads, I guess).

The location this year was great. It wasn't as crowded as the last few years at the convention location, there seemed to be enough bathroom facilities and that all went fine. The only hang up was whenever we left a session, all 1000+ people would head to the elevators - of which there were 3. I'm not a big fan of elevators normally anyway, and when they are stuffed with heavy people and going up 8 floors, I just decided I preferred to get the exercise of climbing the stairs! A friend went with me and we were fine.

On Friday we had motivational speakers and "roll call" of chapters and stuff like that. In the evening there was a sock hop - well, it was more like the kind of music you get from a DJ doing someone's wedding. Still, lots of fun to dance to, and I worked up a good sweat :) I also reacquainted myself with the Electric Slide line dance, and I think I might teach some other gals from our club how to do that. It was moving too quickly for them to pick up there at the dance.

Today we got to see all the division winners for the different categories from all of Oregon. They have separate divisions because the teens have different requirements than the people who have had gastric bypasses, than the people who have lost all their weight thru diet & exercise. There are also the Century club winners, who have lost 100 lbs or more, and to get this award, they must keep that weight off for a year. There were about 8 this year :)

Then they crown the King and Queen. These folks are the people who have lost the most weight in the state and achieved their goal weight. It's from whenever they started TOPS to their goal, whether it takes a year or 20. This year's King for Oregon lost over 100 lbs. This year's Queen was a Century club winner THIS year for her loss of 118 pounds last year - she then lost an additional 98 lbs THIS year for a total of 216 pounds lost to goal! We are thinking she may be the International Queen for 2007 (all of the US and Canada). She's wearing a size 10 now - the same as me. Incredible!

Then of course, today we also acknowledged the KOPS, those of us who have reached goal and kept it off. This was my fourth consecutive year. I will get a special award next year for the consecutive part - people gain and lose their KOPS status, but the special awards are for if you never lose it (go out of your leeway of 10 lbs - 7 below & 3 above your goal weight). I'm going to work hard to be able to get that special award next year!