leggings by tiffhoops | hoop by aroundjoy | shoes…duh

Since this is a place to document my hooping “journey,” (does that sound weird and new age-y? oh well.) I thought I would take a minute to catch you up to how I started and where I am currently.

I knew a lovely, lovely lady, who incidentally was my boss. I had taken to describing her to my stepdaughter like this: “You remember Heather…she hula hoops with FIRE??” Cuz she did.

She made me my first hula hoop. At the time, it was just a curiosity, this hula hooping thing. I soon filed it into my “ain’t nobody got time for that” list of things I wanted to try but didn’t deem important enough.

Eventually, maybe a year or 2 later, I started poking around on the internets for some hula hooping fitness classes. Enter Geri from Around Joy. I took a lesson on a Saturday with a stranger (where did you go, hula hoop stranger? where are you in your own hoop journey??) and learned some stretches and some basic skills. I brought the hoop my boss made me months earlier. I was pretty crappy at hula hooping then. But Geri was friendly, enthusiastic, and a great teacher. I left that day encouraged, but ended up practicing…not that much. More at first, and then less and less. That happens.

Then, last year, I switched jobs to something much less stressful, and it opened up my mind (and my schedule, frankly) to getting more fit. A friend and I started doing Zumba towards the end of the year, and we found the MOST AMAZING ZUMBA CLASS the world will ever know. I love to dance, so I knew that Zumba might be a good fit for me, but in this case I really do think the teacher is my main motivation for continuing on. (I’ll talk about that another time in more detail.) And, of course it helps to have a friend to keep you motivated.

Now, I am looking to bring even more activity into my routine. Oh, hello there, lonely hoop. Let’s take you out for a SPIN again (I like puns. Deal with it.) I got a hold of Geri again, and here we are. You are up to date.

I cannot say enough what a great teacher Geri is. If you are in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, she is so much fun and so motivating and encouraging! Looking forward to our next session!

Next time, I will talk about my first lesson and give an update on the skills I am working on. For now, keep practicing!