January 26 9th Anniversary

I missed posting this on Jan. 26, 2026, my 9th Anniversary of giving up Sugar and have had none for 9 years.

photos above are from January 26, 2017- March 2018

Current Me 2025, well there is none. Below is last photo  taken Feb 20, 2025

 and this was one of only 2 taken since 2023, and both were early 2025. Our world turned upside down March 28th, 2025, when Bob stopped Walking.

I gave up processed sugar. and I lost 60 pounds the first year, and another 20 for a total of 80 lbs weight loss after I realized the only way to stop the yo you weight loss/gain was to

 give up the thing I was addicted to. Sugar! I had/still have a life long addiction to processed sugar. 

I am 9 years sober from that addiction

 

There are certain foods I cannot have in the house. Oreo's, soft chewy chocolate chip cookies, Doritos, chips, Frito's, Cheetos and ice cream. cakes, pies anything else with sugar is OK, and I will ignore them. The listed foods I avoid like the plague. Fat and Sugar and Salt.. No sugar and closely monitor the fat and salt.

I found a way to have Chocolate on rare occasions. 

Melt a Bar of Bakers Dark Chocolate, in a 2 cup glass measuring cup in the microwave,

 stir in 1 package of sweetener. 

pour small circles of it on to a sheet of aluminum foil, freeze while flat, remove when frozen and place in a zip-lock bag. 

Note: pure dark chocolate is OK for IBS, as is pure chocolate powder.  Before IBS I added nuts, now I just make the chocolate. 

I can eat pizza, about, once a month.. a burger once a month with chips or fries. 

Proof of how crazy I have been, I ordered pizza at 10 am to be delivered at Noon that day, and my standing instructions are no contact delivery, leave on white bench on Porch.

I got the TEXT that said Your Driver Is Here and thought

OH NO....I forgot to prepare the bench. There was no where to sit it, I opened the door in my flannel gown, see the arm out the door? I opened the door and stuck my arm out and said through the crack, I forgot to clean off the bench, and he said no problem, but I have to take a photo to close out the app.

My Five Minutes of Fame, photo and a copy of the text proving he delivered it.

This will have to do as my current photo for 2026.

 

Because of this fat face cartoon on yesterdays post, it reminded me that I totally missed the anniversary post on Jan. 26, 2025. Each year I have done a reminder post of my weight lost that started on January 26, 2017 I gave up sugar, and have had none since then. My first post about weight loss, was Feb 2017. 

Each post has a version on my first 60 lbs down

 that took 2 years of TOPS 

TOPS (take off Pounds sensibly) I joined Feb of 2017 and by end of 2018 had lost 70 lbs, and as have held my goal weight until now, and due to stress of the past year, am down another 12 that I did not need to lose. 

this is last years, Feb 2024 Anniversary

I have no idea what happened to 2021,2022,2024, I could not find them on the blog

Now you can't read me, now you can! Using my hands to take photos in my kitchen

June 30, 2025. 

I had to change clothes because its so hot here I have to shop in a sleeveless blouse. I was shocked, I say shocked, to see the  wrinkles and may or may not show them to you. I was 72 when I gave up sugar, and now in 64 days will be 81, I lost 70 lbs in 2 years and now in 3 months of stress and since I never stop moving lost 12 more.

Don't believe anyone who says you can't lose weight when you are old.

less food, more move

but get ready, the thinner you get the older you look because of Wrinkles

The doctor will not be happy. For the first time in my entire life, I have tried to gain a few pounds. Not yet. the thing about OLD skin losing weight, there is nothing but wrinkled skin draped on bones but my apple middle is still there, but its all skin.

Happy Canada Day to our Northern Neighbors... Love you all!

Join Meezers Mews, Benji and Dalton, for Canada Day, they are super cute today.

Thank you for the badge Meezers pecretary

TOPS Pledge and Nature Friday

 

TOPS PLEDGE (TOPS, take off pounds sensibly)

I am and intelligent person,

I will control my emotions,

not let my emotions control me.

Every time I am tempted to use food

to satisfy my frustrated desires,

build up my injured ego or dull my senses,

I will remember -

I WILL TAKE OFF POUNDS SENSIBLY.

Sword Fern and Asparagus Ferns and

Begonias for Rosy on

Covid Cooties?

 

This black leather TOTE is Saks Fifth Ave and is perfect at 19 inches wide and 12 deep. The colorful bag, is Kirna Zabete. I purchased them in April 2018 and paid 4 for the leather 2 for the colorful one. I used them to carry my TOPS stuff, when I became Leader of the TOPS group.

I am in the process of changing from store plastic bags when shopping, to taking my own reusable totes/bag to Wal-Mart. While searching for bags in the closets, I am ashamed to say in public, I found the black tote sitting in the exact place I sat it on March 15th, 2020 when we shut down TOPS because of Covid-19.

 

Above pile of STUFF  was inside the black tote, inside of 4 zip bags, with several File folders, full of TOPS Materials and zippered bag #3 along with the clear plastic zip bag,

Zippered bag #3 (see below), contained bells, pencils, pens, and zippered bag # 2 contained 4 glue sticks and a lot of pens and pencils, my name tag and the #1 bag.

BAG !, the small one was my Jack Pot Winnings.

Two five dollar bills, and 98 cents in change.

I had totally forgotten, I used it to collect my winnings for weight loss, and paid my dues out of my winnings. Dues were 4 dollars per month. I never had to pay dues, my winnings covered all of it.

the tissues, box of raisins, that expired in 2018, the mirror, glasses lens wipes, name tag on silver chain, cough drops and more were in plastic bag, which is what our pillow cases came in. 

 (AHA, that is where my silver chain went to) 

I gathered the tote, 4 zippered bags and 8 of these blue bags just from browsing my closet.

It all fits nicely in the leather Tote. 

I am ready to Shop Wal-Mart.. I will not spend the cash, it will be in my wrist wallet as emergency cash. $10.98 should cover a couple loves of bread. Or maybe a tip.

Just Maybe I will wear that nametag to WM so my WM friends will know my name.

the name tag has the TOPS Pledge.. to be continued

Do Covid Cooties Survive 4 years on a shelf?

Get Thee Behind me Satan

Jan 26, 2017, I decided I had to change my life, or die an early death, possibly from diabetes since it is rampant in our family. This meant giving up sugar, and I went cold turkey, no sugar and I I lost 10 pounds the first two weeks and a friend at the YMCA pool, told me about her and her husbands almost 100 pound loss after Joining TOPS. Take Off Pounds Sensibly.

I went to the local chapter mid Feb of 2017 and by the end of 2018 I had lost 70 pounds.

 

Yesterday marked 7 years since the day I gave up sugar. No Cookies, no candy, no donuts, no pies, no cakes. 

Hello, my name is Sandra and I am a sugarholic! Each year I post about this to remind myself, just one bite of a donut or ice cream and I will be lost once again.

The good news is the above shows the 2 year it took me to lose 70 pound, to see more  PHOTOS.. I go through the label TOPS to remember the struggle and to consider I might be dead by now if I had not gone sugar free. I have stayed within 5 pounds of that goal .

The problem is, my size stays the same in the last few years, but the wrinkles keep coming and I have watched myself grow older and older. Taking Selfies of myself helps keep me going, because 5 pounds can be felt and seen. Sometimes the devil sits on my shoulder and says, go ahead, eat that ice cream, you can get fat again and the wrinkles will disappear. 

I know this lie, I listened to the devil once. I lost 100 pounds in 1980 and 8 year later ATE ONE ICE CREAM Cone and gain all 100 back in 14 months. 

Get Thee Behind me Satan! this is day 1 of my 8th year! Hope to see you January 26, 2025 still sober.

If you think you might have a food addiction, you are not alone. Here is a QUIZ of 20 questions. I answered yes to 11 of the 20. These 2 were my worst enemies.

Do you eat differently in private than you do in front of other people? YES Do you eat in secret? YES

If you answer yes to one or more, you may have a food addiction. Seek Help.

CUP story Trivia

My Coffee Cup of choice since 2011, is the Gopher It Cup in these photos, story in prior post HERE

Important update. 

Did you know if the coffee pot is OFF and you want to heat a cup in the microwave, 

If you add cream and sweeteners before heating it tastes awful.

If you heat it black and then add it is delish.

Today, I added the sweeteners and creamer in the Gopher Cup! and thought Drat! 

Then I thought, put the black coffee in the one with the brown top, heat it and pour it in the Gopher cup  on top of the  sweeteners/creamer!

I did!

The POINT of this Cup Story is, I like the bottom one better, but do not use it because the gopher cup has a BIGGER handle.

Guess what? Now that I am down 67 pounds, my fingers fit really well in the brown cup.

This reminded me to tell you

A. Weight loss makes your eye glasses to big on your face (easier to fall off face)

B. Weight loss makes your sandals slip and slide on your feet

C. Weight loss makes your fingers fit in smaller holes.

WRITE THIS DOWN! You may need to know it in the future. You know for TRIVIA fun.

BUT Wait There's MORE to this story, coming Soon

TOPS, Sunshine and Joy

I love sunshine, I love reflections

I love this sight, and have for 30 years.

I have grabbed my camera MANY times since 2002, after digital came to live here.

Above photo taken 2 days before below photos.

The Table was Clear for a few moments.

Sunshine makes me feel JOY.

So does my weight loss, 63 pounds down.

 Since I became the Leader of our TOPS chapter, my table almost always has TOPS related STUFF. 

I received this name tag on Feb 9, 2017. I changed it from a red ribbon to old necklace 

The Diamond 😁 TOPS pin, I won in 2018 for being the biggest loser in our chapter for 2017. I lost 44 pounds in 10 months of that year.

If you are interested in finding a TOPS Take Off Pounds Sensibly support group, got to TOPS.org and click on find a meeting and put your zip code in..

My records at TOPS show I have lost 51.8 pounds since I joined in 2017. My loss is more because I had already started to lose before I found the TOPS meeting.

The most important thing of all, is I am five pounds from my goal and have been within 2 pounds of my current weight since August 30, 2018. 

What..Why..

Those of you who follow me, know I gave up Sugar in January of 2017. What does that have to do with my new Tea Kettle? The cup you see above, was given to me as a prize for weight loss. 

The Why factor came when I discovered Swiss Miss Hot Chocolate with no added sugar. That was about 4 months ago. I drink it in the glass cup as my last food of each day. It satisfies the sugar and chocolate desires and does no harm.

I have been heating water in a small pan and pouring it in. 

I decided it was dangerous using the pan, for me the Senior and our Senior Dog. 

I give you my new whistling hot chocolate kettle. 

Why so many photos? because I pipped my  kettle with my Samsung tablet, Just Because I could...

I AM HERE but NOT

What happens at meetings, How it works, Weight loss tips, What can I eat. If you click on this link to
TOPS  you will find a lot of free info. If you don't like meetings, you can attend online meetings and get access to the web site, by joining. It is 32 a year to be a member.

Most of you know I have lost 64 pounds in the 2 years I have been a member at TOPS and going to weekly meetings. It is the perfect support group.

I have been missing because I accepted the position as leader of our chapter. Our Leader retired to travel. Lots of work involved in the change over. My kitchen table is buried under paperwork and I have no where to store it.
This means Clean out the cabinet and closet in the dining room  that has been on my TO DO list for a year now.  You all know what that involves. Throw out stuff to store more stuff.. to be continued...

Can you find me?

Tops Chapter minus 3 others... can you find me? back row, second from left... I am at TOPS this morning, see you all later.

Can you find my sons'  Cat In The Urn????

Door Prize

At our TOPS meeting this past Thursday, everyone attending was handed a ticket with a number on it. At the end of the meeting they drew numbers for door prizes. I won the above cup. Appropriate for this week because it is my 2 year anniversary of My Taking off pounds sensibly...
At first I thought, I will not use this, who drinks coffee out of glass? Aha! I rememberd Bob has a glass he uses for his MILK.... we only have one. Now I have a MILK CUP.  for the story of his glass Prior Post HERE  I AM OFF TO TOPS TODAY, SEE YOU LATER

TOPS Take Off Pounds Sensibly

Jan 26, 2017, I decided I had to change my life, or die an early death, possibly from diabetes since it is rampant in our family.

The photos today show the 2 year progression, very slow loss of 60 pounds, the first year 55, and another 10 the second year.

For some reason I am stuck doing the up/down with 3 to 4 pounds. I should be down another 10 by now, but am struggling with the last 10 pounds I need to lose.

It is best to lose no more than 1 pound a week or less.

 The above are photos of my face changing at about 10 pound down each time I took a photo. I have no idea whey the last 10 is so hard.

It is not about the looks of it but the health of it. I am not even trying to get to the weight THE chart says I should be, doctor said 10 pounds above the chart is fine for my age... I have printed these collages to keep in my bag that goes to TOPS meetings, for my inspiration and motivation and hopefully for others.

 This post is for ME, a reminder I can do it. And also away of accountability to myself that I can and will... One of the hardest things I have ever done...

 My sweet angel Jake appears to be laughing at me.. I miss that dog.