Parkinson’s aquatics exercise class Thursdays and Tuesdays 10:30-11:30 a.m., Woodlands Retirement Community, 4320 Forest Hill Dr., Fairfax. 703-378-7221. www.parkinsonfoundation.org. $10; care partners, $5; registration required.

I spoke with three Washington area residents: Herbert Walker, 49, of Frederick has lost more than 51 pounds. Dawn Williams, 44, of Lexington Park has lost 205 pounds. And Sam Hardman, 32, of Fairfax has lost 85 pounds. Walker and Williams are in the TOPS (Take Off Pounds Sensibly) Club, a support group for those trying to lose weight. Hardman lost his weight largely with a commercial meal-replacement plan called Medifast. Here are some lessons they have learned to keep from backsliding, especially this time of year.

As she walked down the hall of the suburban Maryland federal building where she works as a medical researcher, Bacot would say, “Hi, how are you?” to everyone she passed, worried that if she didn’t she might inadvertently snub someone she knew but couldn’t see. She always sat in the front row at lectures and close to the screen in movies. At crowded scientific meetings she tried to seem unwaveringly approachable, peering and squinting at name tags when their wearers got close enough.

The attacks, which first struck when she was 3, would gradually progress from discomfort to a crescendo of sharp pains to an abdomen so swollen she could not bear the touch of clothing. Nausea and vomiting invariably followed.

Good, then 41, had given birth to a healthy baby boy shortly after Christmas 2007. Her son was delivered four weeks early because she had developed preeclampsia, a potentially life-threatening condition characterized by high blood pressure and protein in the urine. In most cases the remedy is delivery; once the baby is born the mother’s blood pressure usually returns to normal.