{"id":272,"date":"2016-04-08T09:32:39","date_gmt":"2016-04-08T09:32:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.sibo.co.za\/?p=272"},"modified":"2020-06-29T15:57:36","modified_gmt":"2020-06-29T15:57:36","slug":"happy-hula-hooping","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.sibo.co.za\/index.php\/2016\/04\/08\/happy-hula-hooping\/","title":{"rendered":"Happy Hula Hooping"},"content":{"rendered":"

Says Ginny…<\/p>\n

A year or so\u00a0ago my daughter, Emma, came to visit.\u00a0 She\u2019d only been here for a day when she started whinging that she was missing her hula hoop.<\/p>\n

I rolled my eyes and said we could go trawl the shops and find her a hoop (thinking to myself what kind of nonsense is this \u2013 being addicted to hula hooping).<\/p>\n

She sighed, then remarked that we would not be buying a hoop \u2013 we would be making one.<\/p>\n

So off we went to the hardware store and bought all the necessary paraphernalia to make a couple of different hoops.\u00a0 I looked at the roll of five metres of irrigation pipe\u2026 how many hoops can you make out of that then \u2013 two or three?<\/p>\n

Just one \u2013 she replied.<\/p>\n

Opened my mouth to argue but the look in her beady blue eye told me to shut the hell up as I had no idea what I was talking about.<\/p>\n

I was flat out busy organising a conference at the time so took myself off to my office and left the business of hula hoop making to Emma.<\/p>\n

When I emerged a few hours later I was amazed to see a circus creature dancing on our lawn.<\/p>\n

The general misconception is that hula hooping is for kids. You see those little hoops for sale in the stores and don\u2019t even give them a second glance. Yet there was my child (okay, she\u2019s 25 but she\u2019s a tiny skinny little thing) rocking this enormous hoop \u2013 taller than she was.<\/p>\n

Doing tricks nogal!<\/p>\n

I watched in amazement. She was so good at it. Flipping that huge hoop around and about. So graceful.<\/p>\n

Here, she said. Have a go.<\/p>\n

It looked so easy.<\/p>\n

I grabbed the hoop and waggled madly. It plummeted to the earth. I tried again. And again\u2026 and again.<\/p>\n

Hmmm\u2026 handed the hoop back to Emma \u2013 hula hooping is not for me.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t be a wuz Mom, the nasty little weasel scoffed. She took the hoop and demonstrated where my feet should be and how I should stand up straight, shoulders down, tummy tucked in tight.<\/p>\n

I had another go. Then stomped back up to my office in disgust. Next morning I noticed there were bruises on my ribs. I was horrified but according to Emma, this was perfectly normal.<\/p>\n

It took me two weeks to get that wretched hoop to stay around my middle.\u00a0 And there was none of that graceful hand thing either \u2013 rigid dinosaur paws more like it.<\/p>\n

Gradually I relaxed and let it flow. \u00a0Fudgie (the dog) and Ralph (the cat) could stand under the hoop without getting clonked on the head every few seconds. (They consider this a new form of play.)<\/p>\n

One day I hauled out a skirt that had gone from being loose and comfy to a tad on the tight side. Zipped it up and immediately noticed that the squidgy bits of body that used to hang over the sides of the skirt had considerably diminished.\u00a0 In fact, it looked halfway decent again.<\/p>\n

Realised that I must have sneakily lost a centimetre or two.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not a gym person \u2013 have never set foot in one and don\u2019t plan to either. Can\u2019t do yoga because Fudge thinks I\u2019m playing with her and running would surely make my heart attack me. I like walking \u2013 but not uphill. The best exercise I\u2019ve come across to date is rebounding \u2013 or jumping on my mini-trampoline. That\u2019s great for building leg muscle and toning your butt!<\/p>\n

I was totally delighted. Just when I\u2019d resigned myself to being 52 years old and taking up more space in the world than I\u2019d ever done before \u2013 here was a magical way of doing something about it.<\/p>\n

In my own yard and in my own time!<\/p>\n

And let\u2019s be honest \u2013 it\u2019s not like I\u2019d been doing it all day every day either \u2013 maybe 10 minutes a day in several small sessions.<\/p>\n

Emma smirked. See \u2013 hula hooping is not just for kids. It\u2019s a great exercise.<\/p>\n

Gave her the evil eye \u2013 right \u2013 now show me how to make these flabby arms not-so-flabby in time for the conference.<\/p>\n

She gulped \u2013 the conference was less than two weeks away. She demonstrated some arm crunches and stretches. Three sets of those \u2013 three times a day. Get going, Mom!<\/p>\n

My eyes lit up \u2013 I envisaged going to the conference with nice firm, brown arms – you can\u2019t help but get tanned whilst hooping outside. (Of course, it rained almost the whole conference and my half-toned, tanned arms never even saw the light of day.)<\/p>\n

Emma was here for two months. In that time I shaped up – lost a couple of kilos plus a good couple of centimetres around my middle and upper body. My arms look better than they have done in years my back has those nice muscly bits. \u00a0I have improved my posture no end.<\/p>\n

Last year our dog was sick and I had to lug all 29kg’s of Fattie Fudges up the stairs to my office – I could do it – thanks to hula hooping and strengthening my core muscles.<\/p>\n

I now hula around the grass each day. It\u2019s a great way to relax, have fun and keep in shape at the same time.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s not just for ladies either \u2013 Chris, my husband, is also busy mastering the art.<\/p>\n

The big hoops are great for toning up and losing centimetres \u2013 but if you want to lose more weight the smaller hoops are better \u2013 because you expend more energy keeping it up.\u00a0 However, the kid’s hoops that you buy in the shops are good for doing tricks, but are too light for weight loss \u2013 you need a heavier larger hoop.<\/p>\n

It’s really easy to make your own hoop too! Not expensive either.<\/p>\n

I even managed to sneak into the South African Book Fair by promising to read Sibo in Space while hula hooping in my giant space ship.<\/p>\n

\"20150731_134815\"<\/a>
Ginny hula hooping at the Jozi Book Fair in Aug 2015<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If you want the hoop making recipe… read here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Says Ginny… A year or so\u00a0ago my daughter, Emma, came to visit.\u00a0 She\u2019d only been here for a day when she started whinging that she was missing her hula hoop. I rolled my eyes and said we could go trawl the shops and find her a hoop (thinking to myself what kind of nonsense is … Continue reading “Happy Hula Hooping”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[25,34,31],"tags":[29,26],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.sibo.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.sibo.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.sibo.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.sibo.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.sibo.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/blog.sibo.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1104,"href":"http:\/\/blog.sibo.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272\/revisions\/1104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.sibo.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.sibo.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.sibo.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}