It was 75 years ago that Esther Manz held an official meeting at her kitchen table with three friends to discuss healthy, sustainable weight loss. She called the group Take Off Pounds Sensibly, or TOPS, and those meetings have been going on ever since, and not just in Manz’s hometown of Milwaukee.
To commemorate the diamond jubilee of TOPS, the three Quesnel chapters are holding an open house to invite the public into their figurative kitchen to celebrate the milestone and discuss the ways weight loss can be achieved with the help of this not-for-profit organization.
“So many people showed up that we could hardly get through the crowd to our meeting room,” Manz told the Milwaukee Journal, back when Manz and the three friends called on others to join them.
In Quesnel, local TOPS leader Linda LeComte is game for a similar response on Sept. 19 when the group holds an open house at the Quesnel Seniors’ Centre at 10 a.m.
“What is perhaps most special about TOPS is the fact that, in spite of its success and tremendous growth, the same principles hold true today that Esther Manz recognized in 1948: Obesity is a disease that requires lifelong vigilance,” LeComte said. “A warm hand of friendship, a caring group of friends, a little recognition, and some fun add up to successful behavior changes. Esther Manz’s unwavering commitment to providing affordable, effective, accessible support has touched hundreds of thousands of loyal and grateful TOPS members around North America.”
The open house will show off some of that special TOPS history, briefly demonstrate what a typical TOPS meeting looks like, discuss the weight loss principles TOPS uses, and highlight the events around Quesnel, the region, and beyond that connect TOPS participants together.
“If you are looking for support to live a healthier life, please come join us,” LeComte said, but also added that the group could even use the help of someone to expand the TOPS choices to even more peer groups. The three chapters provide meeting times that work for their core members, but many others could be helped if other peoples’ backgrounds were directly accommodated.
“If you are interested in forming a new TOPS chapter for men, or for men and women who work during the day and a daytime meeting doesn’t work, let’s see what we can do together to make this happen,” LeComte said, encouraging people to think outside the box by thinking about their own circumstances. If a certain time or setting would work for you, there’s a good chance it would work for others as well.
For more information, or to talk about the possibilities, contact Linda LeComte at 778-414-0711.
READ MORE: Quesnel’s Schroeder is on another weight-loss scale
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