Hula Hooping for a trim waist

I have mentioned before that as I am getting older I seem to be loosing my waist and becoming more rectangular in shape. I always need to adjust patterns now by adding extra to the waist before I cut them out and I suppose that I had resigned myself to this thinking it was inevitable that our bodies will change over time. I have read posts from other bloggers about taking up running or going to the gym but this wasn't for me. But, I have worried about the amount of time I spend at work all day sitting completely still in front of my computer. I try to go for a brisk walk at lunch time but I was looking for an exercise regime that I could do at home and wouldn't take up too much time. 

Exercise came up in conversation with my friend Sharon. She told me that she had begun exercising in the lead up to her daughter's wedding so that she would look her best in her Mother-of-the-Bride dress and she recommended exercising with a weighted hula hoop. This seemed like a great idea. I had never been able to hula hoop at school but I reasoned that if Sharon could master the skill, with practice, so could I.  

The very next Saturday I purchased my hoop. It is adult sized and weighted. When everyone was out of the house at school and work on Monday I put it together and had a go. I found lots of videos on You Tube to give me advice about my technique and by the time my family came home I was able to keep my hoop spinning round my waist, at least for a while.

I set myself a realistic target of 5 minutes practice every morning and evening.

After the first day I had a large, painful bruise on one hip but I was enthusiastic to carry on and since that first day I haven't had any more bruises. I quickly started to feel my muscles beginning to respond to the regular exercise and I began to feel better, but I wasn't expecting instant results.  I had read lots of claims on the internet about the benefits of hula hooping but I work on the premise that if something sounds too good to be true it probably is and these claims seemed to fall into that category. 

Now, I am a home dressmaker and I measure myself fairly regularly. I know what my measurements are and they don't really change much. My measurements are 97-87-97. 

On the Friday after I started to practice with my hoop I was sewing the Thai wrap trousers. I cut the waist to my usual measurements and attached the waist ties and then I tried them on. The trousers were rather loose at the waist and slipped down to rest on my hips. I thought I must have stretched the seam out as I was sewing so I took the trousers off and measured them, but they measured 87 cm. I tried them on again and tied them up as tight as they would go... They were still a bit loose... so I measured myself to check... 84 cm round my waist!!

My waist measurement had come down by 3 cm in 5 days!

I kept on practising, 5 minutes in the morning and 5 minutes in the evening, and after 10 days my waist measured 81 cm - 6 cm thinner than I was before I started hula hooping. I can feel and see the difference. I haven't lost any weight, just begun to change shape, but then I am not on a diet.  I have to admit that I am genuinely amazed and really pleased. I wore a dress the other day that has always been a bit tight around the waist and it fits better than it ever did before. I plan to carry on hula hooping. It takes me about 5 minutes to do 250 turns in both directions and sometimes the hoop drops several times but the more I practice the better I will get.

Does anyone else have a favourite type of exercise that they would recommend for keeping fit and staying slim. Please let me know.