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Get "In The Loop" Do you remember the plastic hula hoop you played with as a kid? I do. I was so creative and such a costume drama freak, in fact, that it doubled as a hoop skirt frame thanks to a belt and some string. I have not tried that with my adult hoop. Now that I'm old enough to don corsets for self-torture purposes on Halloween, I have a normal hoop skirt that goes along with it. Now why would a grown woman have a hula hoop? No, it's not because I am reliving my childhood, and no, it doesn't sit gathering dust in a corner of the room. I actually have five hoops in three different sizes. One of them is for practice, two of them are for show, one is for tricks, and the last can be taken apart and taken with me wherever I go for easy, fast, fun. There are many reasons a sane young adult female might want a hoop, but basically it all comes down to two things: fun and exercise. Why do crunches or lunges when you can dance around to music, whittling inches off your problem areas and looking hot while doing it? Being a hooper is about more than just looking seriously hot in that new pair of jeans you just bought. It's about more than jammin' to slammin' tunes. Being a hooper means that you have taken a conscious step toward taking care of, learning about, and valuing your body. As a Christian, your body is a temple of God. We are commanded to care for it, to pamper it, to learn about it, to keep it healthy. Why? To honor God. To feel good. To be in the best mental and physical shape we can be in. You should be beautiful on the inside and out. It's tempting to want to be beautiful for the world. That is somewhat important (we should not "stand out" from the world due to our appearance so much as our forgiving hearts) but is not what "it's all about." I know what being a young woman is like. I know that our desire is to have perfect, clear skin, tiny waists, and wear a size four. I know that shopping for modest clothes is a nightmare, and that above all, we don't want to look like nuns. But beauty comes from within. The more beautiful you are inside, the more beautiful you are outside. What does any of this have to do with hooping? Quite a lot, actually. You see, I don't want you to become a hooper just because it can help shed pounds and give you rock-hard abs that all your friends will be envious about. The purpose of hooping is not to tone your body so you can walk around in skimpy clothes. The purpose of hooping should not be for vain reasons, although I admit freely that is one of the things that is so attractive about it. Yes, hooping has taken inches off my waist, but it's the other things that I love even more. The freedom within the hoop, how it taught me how to use different muscles and move gracefully, how peaceful it is, and how expressive you can be without words. I want to teach you not only how to hoop, but how to know yourself, experience all God has planned for you, and become beautiful inside and out. I want you to be healthy and fit. And it's not as hard as it sounds. It's even fun!  The Benefits of Hoop Dance: Weight Loss: you can burn as many as 1,000 calories in a single hour! If you are looking to lose a few pounds, this is a great way to do it -- and if you're slender already, you will be toning the muscles in your midsection. Serious hoop dancers have amazing bodies, because they are athletes. Only instead of vaulting or running, you are dancing your way into shape. Muscle Toning: regular hooping gets your hips, butt, and whittles your waist. Accomplished routines build arm muscles due to overhead twirling and shoulder hooping. Once you get good at one thing, you move on to the next, and tone muscles all over your body as you go. Shoulders, upper chest, torso, legs. It all gets a workout. Natural Grace: hoop dancing is almost like ballet in that it encourages graceful movements. I have noticed an improvement in regular hoop dancers -- they are more naturally graceful outside the hoop as well as in it. If you are uncoordinated, you will learn to be coordinated. Anyone can do it. Outreach: everyone loves to try hoop dancing, from older women to younger ones. I have met some talented male hoop dancers as well, who have graduated to fire hooping. It's a fun, safe outreach and a way for you to make friends. Most of all, it builds confidence -- in yourself, in your body, and your attitude. A hoop dancer feels graceful and beautiful. It's fun learning new tricks and honing old ones. Now Let's Talk Good Health: Hoop dance and health food go hand in hand. Unfortunately, there are a lot of hoop dance instructors out there who want to teach you mysticism along with it, and encourage you to adopt a Vegan lifestyle heavy on tofu and other "processed foods" that are NOT REALLY FOOD. Mike Huckabee put it best when he said that if you want the best health, do not eat anything that was not a food 100 years ago. What does this include? Tofu. Soy. Spaghetti-O's. Anything that comes freeze-dried in a box that you add water to. If it is not fresh food, it is not food at all -- and sometimes, fresh food has been genetically modified. If you look at the back of a can of food and don't automatically recognize all of the ingredients, it's not food. Those are additives put in to make the food last longer on the shelf, and some of them are even meant to stimulate your taste buds in order to manipulate you into a food addiction. Did you know almost everything has MSG in it? From Ranch Dressing to Campbell's soup, unless you are eating grass-fed beef and organic veggies, you are getting a steady diet of chemicals that combined together have lead to mass obesity, caffeine addictions, and an increase in cancer and other health problems that were extremely rare 100 years ago. I realize I sound paranoid, but I'm not. I have witnessed the massive change that a good diet can make in a person first hand. Doctors had a family member doped up on medication to try and counter the effects of a form of autism. After becoming a self-learned nutritionist, he started eating organic, avoided additives, weaned himself off six different medications and mood stabilizers and 75% of his problems went way. If that's not convincing, nothing is. If he had that many problems cured by a good diet, how many of my smaller health problems might be caused by similar products? Some of you might call me a yuppie or a greenie, but if that means I am healthy all my life and never deal with severe problems, as well as maintain a good weight almost without effort, I'll be a yuppie. How can a person accomplish this? Is it even worth it? Is it scriptural? Absolutely. If you want to know more, check out my Crunchy Con blog. And stop drinking soda. If you do nothing else, DO NOT DRINK SODA. The Diet Soda is even worse than the regular kind, because of the additives. If had to choose one main cause of obesity in this nation and nothing else, it would be soda pop. I'm not paranoid. Look it up. Thank You! ... to everyone who used my code at Hoopnotica -- you earned me a number of goodies! I'm afraid my discount code does not work anymore, but still encourage you to browse through their products. They have some gorgeous hoops! Coming Summer 09: Hooping/Health classes in the Colorado area. |
