ROCKLAND – For Judy Hopkins, losing 102 pounds was no small potato.

Keeping the weight off, likewise, will take a big lifetime commitment.

The once 303-pound Spruce Head woman has spent what seems to her an eternity of shedding pounds and mostly regaining the lost weight. But two years ago, Hopkins, 62, decided “it’s now or never” if she wanted to reach a comfortable weight and improve her health. Showing signs of diabetes and a cholesterol level on the rise, she knew it was time to get serious.

In 1993, Hopkins joined Take Off Pounds Sensibly, or TOPS, a nationwide nonprofit support group that helps members lose weight through encouragement and caring.

In April, she was crowned TOPS’ state queen for losing the most pounds in reaching her weight goal. Although she had been in TOPS a dozen years, it was during the past two years that she lost the bulk of her weight. Now her aim is to win a Century Club Award pendant for maintaining a 100-pound weight loss for one year.

She’s still getting used to her new look on the outside, she said, but inside, she’s feeling great.

“It’s like at 60 years old, I finally feel like doing something, and I have no one to do it with,” Hopkins, who is widowed, said in jest. “I was a regular couch potato. Now, I want to go dancing.”

Her TOPS friend Debbie Riley, 50, of Northport noted the group’s ability to instill a “you-can-do-it” attitude, which Hopkins has. “It gives you the boost you need to stay on track,” Riley said.

“It’s a lifestyle change,” she said, pointing to Hopkins’ success.

Especially given her sedentary lifestyle, losing weight has been “a constant battle,” Hopkins said. For 21 years, she has been secretary for Rockland Police Department. Even as a child, Hopkins wasn’t very active. The one time she tried to play basketball in high school, she nearly broke her ankle. Reading was her passion.

Growing up, Hopkins always had a weight problem, she recalled.

“I was good until I was 5 years old and had my tonsils out,” she said. After that, she packed on weight. In her middle school years, classmates teased her about her size. “Kids are vicious sometimes,” she said. “I didn’t know what I was supposed to weigh. I was just heavy.”

Hopkins grew up hearing “you eat what’s on your plate.”

“I wouldn’t say they forced it on me,” she said. “My grandmother was a great cook. She made beautiful cookies. All my problem my whole life was just overeating.”

In November 2003, Hopkins met three women at TOPS workshops who really made the difference: Riley, Juanita Richards of Belfast and Trina Gutfinski of Pittston. They formed “the team,” making a pact that when the chips were down, they would prop each other up.

The women e-mail one another almost every day, Riley said, professing herself to be “the least successful” of the team. At 5 feet 2 inches tall, she weighs 214 and is shooting for 150. Her top weight is 214, she said, noting, “I’ve been down to 166 twice.”

Riley says she has the right mind-set now. She has joined the Belfast YMCA and is working out four or five days a week. “But the support makes it so much easier,” she said. “The support and encouragement is priceless.”

Exercise added to Hopkins’ success, too. She joined Curves in October 2003 to help improve her health and muscle tone.

The combination of TOPS, Curves and Dr. Phil McGraw’s seven steps to weight loss has worked for Hopkins. “When I first went [to Curves], all I could do was walk in place,” she said. Fourteen months later, she had lost 49 pounds and 411/2 inches of girth.

Next month, Hopkins will represent Maine at TOPS International Recognition Days, July 14-16 in Rapid City, S.D.

To keep her weight in check, Hopkins never says never.

“I won’t tell myself I can’t have anything,” she said. “If I say that, I will binge. Pizza and ice cream are my downfall.”

A key ingredient of TOPS is encouragement, Riley said, not only in losing weight but in building self-esteem.

“Judy has accomplished both,” she said. “She makes us all proud.”