I cancelled my 30th Birthday to Hula Hoop in India!

My mum is about to fly all the way from Perth to London for my 30^th birthday and I find out that there is an event in India, which needs hula hoopers, on my birthday weekend! I have always wanted to go to India and it’s with Marawa’s Majorettes so I know this is going to be the trip of a life time. I call my lovely, understanding mother and tell her the news. She says I should go; she can go visit her friend in Saffron Walden while I am away.

Then begins the mad rush helping Marawa The Amazing sorting out visas for all the girls, all 10 of us!! I cancel my party and move it forward to my local pub in Maida Vale. My mum arrives and we have to sort out how she is getting to Saffron Walden, which has worked out perfectly because it happens to be her friend’s 80th birthday that weekend, WIN!

Thursday night it’s my 30^th Birthday and I have a lovely meal with my friends at The Elgin. It’s not the big party that I had planned but I have my favorite people there, balloons and the most amazing rainbow cake.

I pack that night and get up super early the next morning and fly to New Delhi. We get some time to sleep when we arrive and then it’s off to the event. I’m immediately in love with India, the craziness of it all, the contrast of beautiful rich colours against the absolute filth. Women dressed in hot pink saris doing hard labour, carrying bowls of stones on their heads. Every tuk-tuk is decorated so beautifully with bright paint and glitter tassels but all this is covered with an inch of dirt. The imperfections are what makes it so beautiful!

The event is on a whole other scale to what I have ever seen. The entire venue was built the week before and we have to be taken up to our stage in cherry pickers. There is no safety what so ever, someone stops by our change room, holding an object in her hand and says ‘These are flares, they are very dangerous and they seem to be everywhere. Do not touch them.’ The event is super fun and over before we know it.

Back to the hotel, I sleep for an hour and then up to go to the Taj Mahal! It’s a long drive and a hairy one too but I think all the years of being a passenger with my Dad and brother (both race cars) has made me more comfortable than most. We have a great driver and AMAZING COMPANY! The whole day was perfect but I’ll let the photos speak for themselves. We go home, sleep again for just an hour before we get up to go back to London. It was a whirlwind trip but one of the best experiences of my life and its only made me want to see more of India!!

Why are we say such hateful things about our bodies?

After a recent hoop class I was in the change room with a student. Who asked me if hooping would give her good abs? I said yes but then she went on to tell me how terrible hers were and even lifted her top to show me......the tiniest tummy I have ever seen! Really it was toned and everything nothing wrong with those abs. Why do women always criticise their own bodies? We should be embarrassed that we would be so cruel to ourselves. If you talked to a friend like that you wouldn’t have many! So why do we do it to ourselves.

When I was a teenager I read an article in Cleo that said ‘if you don’t point out your flaws chances are men won’t notice them’. For some reason this one article stuck with me for life and I rarely speak badly of myself in front of men. I do remember slipping up one time and showing my cellulite to a long term boyfriend (clearly I was getting to comfortable). He took one look at me and said ‘don’t ever do that again’ and I never will. The thing is he didn’t know it was there till I told him!

I wish I had this same attitude when I am surrounded by women but for some reason I struggle. I talk about how I’d like thicker hair, browner skin.... I’ll even point out my spots to another woman.

Men and women still have such different attitudes to their bodies. I know men are now facing enormous pressure to look good but it’s still far more frequent to hear women beating themselves up.

I have to say that we are part of the problem! The other night watching TV some glam celebrity came on TV and said ‘I’ve always had a good body, I guess I just have good genes’. My friend said ‘does she have to be so arrogant’, the thing is it’s not feminine to be cocky. We don’t actually like to hear other women talk about how great their bodies are but they are great and we should talk about it!

I love my legs. I think they have just the right amount of shape. Also I’m a bit fascinated (yes I said fascinated) by my arms... I never had muscle there and ever since I started hooping they are so toned... I’ll show you them if you ask, yes the gun show! Get a ticket!

What is your favourite body part?

Buying Your First Hula Hoop

Buying a hula hoop can be a daunting task. There is so much information out there, some of it good and some of it bad! How could you possibly know who to listen to? I remember looking at so many sites and wishing someone would just tell me what to do. Well I am going to simplify it for you! My standard advice is to get a 39inch diameter, 20mm thickness hoop. It’s what I started with and it’s what I still use in my classes. For most adults this size works. If you are really tall or curvy you can try a 41inch or really short you can go down to 36inch. To be honest though everyone is different (thus all the varying advice out there) and you won’t know what the perfect hoop is till you try it so take a stab at it.

In class I sell 39inch fitness hoops for £15. I don’t sell them online but you can get them from The Hoopermarket. They are fitness hoops with a slight sparkle in them and they are solid so impossible to break...just done leave them next to the heater, I learnt that the hard way.

Purely from an aesthetic point of view people love customising their hoops. The first hoop I got was from Live Love Hoop it was pink and blue with some white grip tape and I loved it!! I’ve still got it tucked behind my bed but I’ve absolutely trashed it. Jo has a great eye for design and her hoops are good quality. The Hoopermarket also does really beautiful glitter hoops in various colours.

There are lots of different travel hoops out there. In my experience they either break or they don’t feel solid spinning around your waist. I know when I was looking for my first hoop I didn’t want to have to carry around a big hoop, not just because it seemed cumbersome but do I really want everyone staring at me?! The thing is you just pop it over your shoulder so carrying one hoop really not that bad. The other thing is people smile at you when you’re carrying a hoop.  It’s actually quite a remarkable thing, something I still enjoy so you shouldn’t miss out on that. When you actually need (it will happen) to take your hoop on holiday get a travel hoop then.

Hand Hoops - when I started I didn’t buy any but I now recommend everyone does. They are cheap, super fun and they’ll stop you from bruising your hands. They are simply kids hoops ,you can get them from pound stores, they should be light at about 30inches just check that they aren’t filled with water or sand they should be hollow and light. If you can’t be bothered going to the pound store then you can get them from Valentine Sport . They do break easily so take care of them.

When you get more advances you may want to try a smaller hoop or polypro but we’ll leave that for another day.

If you are in Australia (I know lots of you are) then try Soul Hula in Perth or Hooplovers in Melbourne. I’ve tried their hoops and they are great! They are also both lovely people who can give you more advice if you need it.

Happy Hooping x

My Mum is a Hula Hooper

When I first started hooping I couldn’t shut up about it! Actually not much has changed but it was worse back then. I would talk your ear off, I knew I was doing it but I just couldn’t stop. So of course when I visited home (Perth Australia) I took hoops with me to show my family. My mum and my sister both loved it (everyone does).

When I went back to the UK I was learning to be a hoop teach. I used my Mum and sister as guinea pigs. I would pick a hoop move then create a tutorial for them, it was great practice for me but it was also really useful for them as there weren’t any classes in Perth or at least that is what they thought.

My Mum was looking for classes in Perth but couldn’t find any. She did however find a hooper who was willing to teach her in her backyard. This is the text I got afterwards!

She obviously loved it but my Mum is a social butterfly and she wanted to share the experience with other people so she kept looking for classes and eventually found Soul Hula.

Then I get an email saying ‘I can do aback roll!!! I’m running away to join the circus! Xx mummy xx’ I could completely relate to this... I had just quit my Accounting Job to work full time on Happy Healthy Hoops.

When she came to London for my 30^th last year, she kept telling the other students in my class ‘I go to classes in Perth and it’s my favourite hour of the week’.  I actually found this sweet but a bit embarrassing. A lot of my students tell me this but I thought my mum was doing the hard sell on my them and I cringed every time she said it.

A few weeks later I met my Mums hoop teacher Shannie and she told me that my mum had said her that her classes were the best park of her week! And it dawned on me that my Mums hooping had nothing to do with me. She is an addict!

Who have you shared your hoop with that surprised you?

New Years Resolutions

In March this year I sat on a flight from Perth to London and I wrote two headings: My ideas for what I want my life to be.

What do I need to do to achieve it?

I didn't read it again until yesterday when I was on a flight from Perth to London again. It made me so happy that I was able to look at what I had written and know that I had done everything in my power to achieve my goals.

If you are writing new years resolutions today I suggest you start with those two headings. Often people write long lists and achieve one or two of them. What people don’t realise is that will power is a finite recourse. So if you’re being super strict with your diet you’re more likely to buy those shoes. Luckily for us the emotion of love is an infinite resource so base your resolutions around self love.

So don’t write a list that starts with ‘cut out carbs, excercise 7 days a week, drink less’ just write ‘be healthy’ and you’ll treat your body like a temple. Or instead of ‘reduce stress at work, travel to new places, spend time with family’ just put ‘be happy’. And don't make so many that you forget what they were, make it 3 max! Throughout the year the specifics with change but if you make your new years resolution a concept rather than a specific goal you’ll achieve it more easily. Remember small every day changes can really add up.

My resolution last year was to ‘change my life’. To give it meaning I wanted to create something, to be proud of what I was doing with my life and inspire people. With Happy Healthy Hoops I have done this, I’m so proud to tell people I’m a professional hula hooper (even if I still want to giggle every time I say it) and every class I teach gives me so much motivation to go on and inspire more people to pick up the hoop!!

This year my resolution is to ‘bite off way more than I can chew, then chew away’. I read this in my star signs yesterday during my flight. I don’t normally read my horoscopes but this one just fit so perfectly, so for me this year is not just about dreaming big but doing it. Taking big monstrous steps towards my goals and being fearless!

What are your new year’s resolutions??