I have lost about two inches off my waist, and at least four pounds, by hula hooping in two weeks. It has changed my life!
This is going to sound obnoxious, but it is quite true. I have always had great metabolism, have never fluctuated with my weight, just never really concerned myself with dieting and all of that.
I never needed to, I guess.
Then I had two little boys. Still, my body wasn't too shabby, but it was absolutely altered. Especially after my second was born, the pooch just never quite left. I was asked by strangers four times in the second year of his life if I was pregnant—one of whom, when I flatly denied it, asked, “Are you sure?” Oh yes, I am sure.
I didn’t try very valiantly to lose the faux pregnant belly, I’ll admit. I didn’t try a thousand diets and exercise plans, but I did try Jillian Michael’s “30 Day Shred” (of “Biggest Loser” fame). It was a tough and seemingly effective workout, but very high impact. Frankly, even an empty bladder could not withstand the force of twenty minutes of jumping jacks and air jump roping. I was peeing my pants constantly. The laundry alone became a factor in my lessening motivation.
The laundry, but also the sense that I was being punished, worked against my desire to continue. Even watching “The Biggest Loser,” I thought, “Geez, I know these people have issues, becoming this obese somehow, but do they really need to be screamed at? Do they deserve boot camp treatment?” One week, several people actually gained weight because of stress—even working out several hours a day and eating hardly anything! It did not feel like a winning solution for me, and seeing as how I could not even complete thirty days of the “30 Day Shred,” my theory was proved. Punishment is not motivating in the realm of caring for your body.
The philosophy I have recently adopted is that I do not deserve to be physically punished for having a pudgy belly. I am not going to beat myself into submission. I don’t need to hurry or meet a goal by a certain time. My life is not in danger due to my 5 to 10 pounds of flab I “need” to lose. I understand there are plenty of people whose lives are in danger due to their weight problems, and that is a real problem that merits real help I don't pretend to offer. But I do feel like there is an enormous community of otherwise healthy-but-flabby mama types who are beating themselves up for that extra bagel they shared with their kids this morning, and that’s just not ok. Food is a gift, not an enemy. It is supposed to give us life, not become our life in such a negative way.
That’s why I started hula hooping. I started because I like it! I decided to only do things that my body wanted to do at the moment. Sometimes that’s hooping for 20 minutes, then running on an elliptical for 30. Other days it's just hula hooping. Or just the elliptical. Or adding some weight stuff to either. Whatever feels good and whatever I have the time to squeeze in. I have gotten such better results doing this than counting calories or doing random bouts of anguish on the elliptical, and so far, I’ve been sticking to it longer because, previously, I had been feeling agitated.
For the past year or two, I have ached to move around somehow, hating sitting on my arse all day, or moving in spurts managing the schedule of two small children with whom constant interruption is a constant companion. But I’d sit there and think that if I wanted “results” or to get “in shape”, I’d have to do an aerobics video or bother with the gym and do hard, awful things with my body, then showering and all that. So I just stayed inert on the couch.
