Getting in Shape

Welcome World

So whilst not necessarily a skill I can learn or something new I am experiencing my current 'accomplishment' goal is to try and get in shape. In a way this is a whole new experience because I've not really been the sporty type since I was about 13.

I want to try to get back into my favourite pair of jeans which are feeling a little too snug these days and since I've been a little under the weather I've done even less exercise than usual, an almost impressive feat since I list hibernation as one of my pass times. So, in order to to accomplish this the first stop was of course the internet (yay internet!).

After some careful research, also known as procrastination from everything else I'm meant to be doing, I heard about a few new fangled exercise classes and methods which sound kinda fun and as such I'm gonna give them ago. First on the list was Hula Hooping, apparently Beyonce is a fan and if its good enough for Bey its good enough for me, which meant I had to find a Hula Hoop. So turns out there is a big difference between those really light plastic things we used as kids and the solid weighted things they advise for exercise. So having tried and failed with a plastic hoop from Toys R Us ( the home of all things lego) I had a look online and found this bad boy and a hop, skip and a click later I was popping it together and assembling my housemates so we could all give it a go.

So it turns out that Hula Hooping is a bit like riding a bike and after a few semi-disastrous I was very much back in the swing of things. My housemates however were not so quick to pick it back up again. One of them told me that Hula Hooping was like skipping, something little girls do while boys play football, but only after several failed attempts. The other had a good go at it but is built like a stick and blames his lack of womanly curves for his inability to Hula.

Anywho what I read said that all you needed to do was hoop for 10 minutes a day, everyday, and it would whittle you waist and tone your tush. So a week in my waist isn't feeling all that whittled but my back of all places is feeling noticeably firmer, not gonna complain. I think my favourite thing about it though is that it doesn't feel all that much like exercising and it can be done whilst your doing other things, my favourite thing to do is to stick on a Disney movie and get my hoop on during all of the songs, it adds up to more than 10 minutes and because it broken up in to small chunks its very doable. 

So the article I was reading about Hooping (the link is up there) says that it took 6 weeks to lose 5 pounds and nearly 2 inches off your stomach/waist. This sounds like a pretty good pay off for 10 minutes a day to me and since the hoop break up into 6 segments for transporting which means I can take it home with me over the holiday to try and fight off the inevitable Christmas weight gain.

I'll let you know how it works out when i check back in on the hooping in a couple of weeks.
Until next time
Ellie x