What did you used to do that made you happy?

So it is midnight on Wednesday night and I can’t sleep. I know why I can’t sleep, it’s because I decided to watch my favourite hoop video before bed and now I can't stop thinking about all the things I want to perfect, new tricks, movements… my brain is full to the brim with ideas. It’s annoying I should be sleeping right now. 

Ever since I started hooping this has happened. I lie awake at night with ideas running through my mind. Imagining hoop routines, tricks, planning classes. I am so passionate about it sometimes I forget that there was a huge chunk of my life where I didn't have passion like this. Not that there was no passion at all but nothing on this scale.

But I do remember being passionate like this before. As a teenager I always wanted to own a cafe, I had this idea in my head that it would be a combined thing a cafe/shop/florist. I also loved drawing, I can literally remember getting out of my bed in the middle of the night to go draw.

Not long before I discovered hula hooping I was stoping around the office in a bad mood (I used to be an accountant if you didn't know). One of my work colleagues, the lovely Louise, saw my foul mood and gave me a set of coloured pencils and this picture and told me 'colouring in makes everything better!'

And it did! Colouring in below by Bree age 28. It was very therapeutic for me.

Maybe we should revisit the things that make us happy every now and then?! The beauty of hula hooping is that it helps us revisit our child hood and play but what else made you happy?

Intermediate Hoop Classes

I can't tell me how happy this class at Warwick Avenue made me last night. It was meant to be a normal HoopFit class but then these three turned up. Heather, Nicole and Sammi have all been hoping with me for... Um I'm not sure how long but they rock and we had so much fun that the class ran over an extra 20 mins mainly because I kept saying 'one more time, lets just do it one more time.'

Intermediate Hula Hoop Class London from Bree Kirk-Burnnand on Vimeo.

We came up with new really random tricks and as Nicole said 'it was everything I love about hooping'  Playful, fun but also seriously challenging! Expect to see some of our random tricks in your next class. 

I am NOT a Fitness Junkie

I have been writing this post in my head for months because I feel like people have got me all wrong. My job means that I meet a lot of fitness fanatics… they think I am one of them but I am not. Maybe I should keep this a secret but honestly if exercise isn't fun and interesting I am NOT doing it. 

Before I discovered hooping I’d water skied, tried pole dancing, power plates and the odd dance class here and there. I generally exercised for three months of the year and did nothing for the other nine months. I do not run and I do not do sit ups. 

I remember going for induction sessions at gyms and telling them my aim was to ‘feel good’ which fell on deaf ears every time. Some how it always translated in their minds to ‘loose weight’ or ‘tone up’ but I really just wanted to feel good and have fun. And this to me is one of the major problems with the fitness industry, most people just want to feel amazing and fell alive! 

I know, so shedding a few kilos is great too but when did we decide that it had to be all work and no play. What do kids do to keep fit? They play right? We don't stick them on a tread mill or make them lift weights. Please stop making exercise so awful, lets just go outside and play… please. 

That is what I love about hula hooping. Whether you're working on keeping the hoop spinning for more than a minute at a time or splitting hoops you are always learning and playing. I’m not a fitness junkie, I am a fun junkie!

5 Things That Have Inspired Me This Week

Taking our company name Happy Healthy Hoops literally, I've decided to write about five things that have inspired me this week. 

1. Yesterday my friend won the Peoples Book Prize!!! His book You're Gone to Far This Time Sir won best non-fiction.

Years ago when waiting in the lobby to be interviewed for an accounting job at a property firm, Danny Bent, a stranger at the time, wandered past warmly welcoming me to the office and wishing me luck. It instantly made me want the job more. The staff were so friendly, I got the job and loved working there. 

Since then I've enjoyed seeing Danny's adventures on FB. He always seems to be up to something but I seemed to have missed the fact that he wrote a book!!! Watching his acceptance speck yesterday I learnt that Danny had dyslexia and his journey to becoming a writer had been just as windy as my journey from Accountant to Hula Hooper. 

I can't wait to read it! 

2. Gemma Smailes one of our Kentish Town HoopFit Students is going to jump out of a plane this weekend to raise money for Canine Partners  for Independence. Best of luck Gemma! 

3. This Photo from Morning Gloryville London just makes me happy. 

4. I spoke to my Dad yesterday, he is in hospital for a few days having some check ups. His health is complicated having suffered from Parkinson's Disease for 17 years and breaking his knee in every way possible. But the first thing he says to me is 'Bree, being in this hospital makes me realise how lucky I am'.  

5. Anna Lisa one of my students from Bannatynes has been hooping for a couple of months. It's been a slow process for Anna Lisa but this week something clicked and we managed 3 hoops yesterday! Perseverance, patience and practice.