I just realized I am having a love affair with Google. If you search well enough you  can find the answers to your questions. My recent quest has been how to make hula hoops as the ones I bought at Caye Supply were too small and light do do a decent job. Often you have to work with what you can find when you live on a tropical island.

While surfing the net I found a lot of info:  instructions for hula hoop making, adult hula hoops, hula hoops for exercise and weighted hula hoops. Unfortunately the more I searched and read forum threads from hula hoopers  sharing tips tricks on how to make them and where to get supplies I was feeling doubtful that finding the right materials in San Pedro was not going to happen. [Still glad there is no Lowe’s Home Improvement here]. Luckily patience is one thing I am good at and definitely something you will need if you are planning to move to Belize, I decided to sit on it a couple of days and wait for my answer to come.

After taking out my dilemma to Zac he mentioned that Rick and Leona’s daughter Emily is a hula hoop pro and I should email them to help find a solution. I got a fast reply with some ideas to solve the weight issue, a phone number to call if I needed further help and an offer for Emily to come do a hula demonstration – jackpot.

Emily suggested using sand to help balance out the hoops. I had already played with weight using water for a simple test solution and from doing that I knew it was size I needed to face first and foremost. You know what they say go big or go home. I decided to give Google another try and bingo I hit the answer I needed,  do a MacGyver with small hula hoops and make them big.  I joined a couple of my hoops together to make  a bigger one, that turned out to be big enough for the Jolly Green Giant. In the process I worked that I needed to add 33 inches for belly button height. So I went back to Caye Supplies for more hula hoops and put them on the chopping block.

After jmaking my first one and testing it I was quite pleased – nothing like the sweet smell of success. Now all I need to do is work out 2 joining pieces. Conch Y Toro cork and my trusty silver exacto knife will hopefully save the day there. From 8 small Hula Hoops + 2 handmade joining pieces I made 5 adult sized hula hoops. With the smaller hoop I was able to do about 5 revolutions before it dropped, with the proper size hoop I made it up to 55 revolutions.  That is a big difference, and just like Google predicted if I got the size right weight would not be an issue.

In my research on making hoops I came across an interesting piece about Hula-Hooping get rid of love handles. Since hula hooping engages the muscles of your abs, lower back, hips, thighs and butt, I can see it be decent addition to any work out  if you did it long enough. Exercise by moving body parts in ways you do not normally is always good for variation and muscle tone.

Using a Hula-Hoop burns about 250 calories an hour on a medium sized person. Compare that with a more physical activity like high-impact aerobics where you would burn about  500 calories in same amount of time. A  more laid back activity like a casual bike ride will burn 400 calories in an hour. I was never one to count calories anyways but if an exercise helps get me 6 pack abs I am all for it.

We are on or way to  Grand Caribe now,  you will have to wait till tomorrow for hula hoop competition and pool party pictures. I pulled a few hula pics I liked from Google Images including Pro golfer Sam Snead and Star Trek / Heroes starZachary Quinto. I even found a stormtrooper hula hoop girl image but could not post as all rights are reserved.

Tech tip for bloggers on picture Etiquette. When borrowing other peoples pictures off the internet use the name of the source in file name when saving the picture that way you do not forget who to credit when doing your post. [Front page picture from The Animation of Bobby Pontillas blog.]