Tammy Morrison accepts the TOPS 2024 West Virginia Queen title with a bouquet, crown, and sash. (Photo Provided)

PENNSBORO — A Ritchie County woman who spent decades on her weight loss journey received a statewide award that she says made all her hard work pay off.

TOPS (Take Off Pounds Sensibly) is a non-commercial weight loss and education organization with thousands of chapters across the United States. The group incorporates log books, weigh-ins, and community support to incentivise members to develop diet and exercise routines to achieve personal weight loss goals.

TOPS member Tammy Morrison, of Pennsboro, achieved her goal weight and lost 87.4 pounds last year. She was excited to learn that she lost the most weight out of all female TOPS members in the state of West Virginia, and at the West Virginia TOPS State Recognition Day, she was crowned the 2024 TOPS West Virginia Queen.

“It was such an honor,” said Morrison. “I was literally crying because I couldn’t imagine. I was just so excited about an accomplishment that I have been trying to reach my entire life.”

Morrison has been a member of TOPS since 1986. She joined the organization in high school. However, she has joined TOPS three times over the course of 40 years, the most recent being 2018 with the Harrisville chapter. Medical issues such as diabetes and a broken femur made her goals much harder to meet.

TOPS 2024 West Virginia Queen Tammy Morrison before the TOPS 2024 competition. (Photo Provided)

“Everyone has a different journey, and we all have different things that go through our minds,” said Morrison. “They were always my go-to support team.”

After trying to incorporate fad diets and not being satisfied, she said changing the way she views her relationship with weight loss and food helped her achieve her goal weight. She said eating mostly vegetables and protein can help people maintain a balanced diet, but it’s also important to eat everything else that you want in moderation.

“There is no good or bad food. There is maintaining,” said Morrison. “Don’t deny yourself food because you’ll just go over the edge.”

She also counts her calories, exercises with water aerobics, and weighs herself every morning instead of every week to make sure her logs are accurate.

“Most people tell you you should weigh once a week, but I do it every morning when I get up. Like yesterday, I weighed five more pounds than I did today, and I know that is water gain,” said Morrison. “And if you waited a whole week to weigh yourself and you weighed five more pounds, you would think ‘oh gosh, what did I eat?'”

Morrison said starting slow and adding a rewards system can be the easiest way to keep yourself on track towards your goals. This is a method often used by TOPS members.

“Give yourself small goals, like lose five pounds, then lose 10 pounds. Then reward yourself,” said Morrison. “But, try not to use food as a reward. Maybe use going to the movies or buying that shirt you’ve wanted for a long time.”

Developing your own plan can also be beneficial to helping yourself stay on your weight loss journey, according to her.

“Try to develop a plan for yourself, something that will be good for you personally,” said Morrison. “Don’t listen to everyone else telling you ‘oh, you’ve got to cut carbs’ or ‘you can’t eat anything with a lot of fat in it.’ You gotta do that, and the other. You do you.”

Morrison encourages people who are interested in joining TOPS to register online or attend an in-person meeting. To find a meeting near you, you can visit the TOPS website at https://www.tops.org/find-a-meeting.

“Remember that however much you ate today, you can always get back on track tomorrow,” said Morrison. “It’s not a diet, it’s a lifestyle change.”

Matty Lamp can be reached at intern@newsandsentinel.com.