Written by Tanya Terry, with featured photo provided by Sherry Crease
Featured photo: TOPS Michigan State Queen and International Queen Runner Up Sherry Crease with her daughter, who she said has always been her “reason why”
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data shows that approximately 2 in 5 adults had obesity, or 40.3% between August 2021 and August 2023. The CDC also warns that obesity is a chronic condition that increases the risk of hypertension, type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, stroke and certain cancers.
TOPS (Take Off Pounds Sensibly) Michigan State Queen and International Queen Runner Up Sherry Crease, a resident of Grand Blanc, age 56, lost over 251 pounds and was honored for her weight loss success. She recently shared her story with the Courier.
“I have been on a diet my entire life, since I was 12 years old,” shared Crease. “I’ve been overweight probably since I was 7 or 8 years old….My life has been one diet after another. You name it, I’ve probably tried it.
“As a child, I was very much so bullied – very badly, especially, obviously, in school. When I went into high school, I tried starving myself to diet, never really losing much-lose a bit, but gain it back-lose and gain. I was roughly around 200 pounds in high school…”
“Then, when I got pregnant with my daughter, I put on a lot of weight with my pregnancy. Then, I just kept gaining after that because I went to a very stressful marriage and a very stressful job. It sounds like excuses, but it definitely didn’t help anything.”
Crease’s mother and grandmother took her to TOPS meetings when she was 12 years old.
“I would join TOPS. and I would quit,” she shared. “But, in 2005, my weight had gotten up to 485 pounds, and my daughter knew I always talked about TOPS. So, she encouraged me to rejoin TOPS, and she joined with me to encourage me. So, we joined in June of 2006. I had lost 52 pounds on my own before I joined TOPS. So, I was 433 when I rejoined.
“I have not quit since then. I have stayed in TOPS, where before the longest time I would stay in TOPS was a year. But, one of the things that I always tell people interested in joining TOPS is find a chapter that works with you.”
After three years, Crease had lost her first 100 pounds with TOPS.
“Then, I kind of lost and gained and played around. Then, in January of 2020, I lost my mother. I only had my mom. So, that was devastating. Then, COVID hit. So, we were all trapped at home. TOPS was shut down along with everything else in the country. I went back over 400 pounds.
“What really got me back to it was in January of 2021, my daughter ended up in the hospital. I had overheard her weight. I knew the only way to encourage her was to lead by example. I said ‘I’ve got to get this weight off.'”
“My friend had mentioned intuitive eating and, of course, at first I rolled my eyes. I thought: ‘another diet. I’ve tried them all.’ Then, I went to my uncle and I was like: ‘You know, I’ve been on a diet my whole life, and I’m still fat.’ And it was like a light bulb just went off. ‘I was like ‘I’m going to check into this intuitive eating.’ So, that’s what I started doing at the beginning of 2021.”
Crease later added Intermittent fasting.
“Those were my two main things to push to lose the weight at the end: intuitive eating and Intermittent fasting. It was really a change of life. It was huge to get rid of diet mentality and really made me wake up to how much damage I had done to my body after years of diet mentality.
“The diet industry is actually ‘made to make us overweight.’ There is so much I have learned with the process of intuitive eating.”
Then, the most devastating thing happened in Crease’s life that could possibly happen, she shared. She lost her daughter in August of 2021. She was 31.
“She passed from a pulmonary embolism. It was rough. I had started this journey, and she was always my reason why. She was my entire world.
“I thought ‘I’m still going to do this for her. She’s still my reason why, every day of my life.
“So, I carried on and got to my goal on December 17, 2024.”
Crease herself was later given two diagnoses. She was diagnosed with secondary lymphedema, a condition of localized swelling in the soft tissues caused by a compromised lymphatic system -and lipedema, a chronic condition characterized by an abnormal accumulation of fat tissue in the lower body, typically in the legs, hips and buttocks.
I thought: ‘What’s the point? Why even go to TOPS-because my dream was always to be a TOPS Queen. When I was little I would look at the magazine that would have all the kings and queens in there with their crowns on. So, it’s kind of been a 44 year dream of being a TOPS queen.
“I almost quit, and one of our field staff talked me into sticking with it. But, I said ‘Yeah, but I’m not going to be that skinny person.”‘
Crease said doctors had no way of knowing how much lipedema she had.
“They thought I had 100 pounds of lipedema, which I don’t. I probably have maybe 50 pounds of lipedema. But, anyhow, I stuck with TOPS. TOPS has been really supportive. I often say, they’re not just fellow TOPS members. These people are like family to me.”
Crease has lost 303 pounds all together, and 251 with TOPS. She was named the 2024 TOPS Michigan Queen, meaning she lost most weight than any other female TOPS member in the entire state and reached her goal weight. She was also named the TOPS 2024 International Queen Runner-Up.
Crease realizes every individual has there own health journey and life journey. In general, Crease attributes a lot of the obesity problem in our country to U.S. healthcare, doctors who overprescribe medications that cause weight gain and the foods we eat, which are “full of chemicals.” She also encourages anyone who wants to lose weight to find what works for them.
To learn more about TOPS, visit https://www.tops.org/home
