Lemon Twist/Skip-It/Jelly Hop toy
 

I have no kids, so if I want a toy (say a hula hoop), I have to buy it for myself and defend my decision to friends and family. When I saw someone on TV playing with what looked like my old Lemon Twist from elementary school days, I went on a quest. It's hard to find them online, but they are easily found in stores. There were two kinds for around $7 at Target. I got one called a Jelly Hop or something. I did 10 fairly grueling minutes earlier, keeping my heart rate in the range it stays while I jog, making for just shy of 100 calories burned. Not easy especially as you get more tired, you'll get less coordinated.

If your kids have one of these, pull it out and tack on a few minutes' worth on your cardio days!

Note: my el cheapo version doesn't have a counter. Plus it has a flexible cord, like I wanted, unlike this stiff one which Target also carries:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITmBUIB5x1k

Ah, the black-and-blue shins of my youth. It's a wonder I can walk today.

Skip-Its, hula-hoops and a pogo stick were a large part of my youth :)

I just bought one for my DD for her 5th birthday last week! I saw it at a toy store and just HAD to get it. :D I did get quite a workout trying to show my kids how to use it, LOL! She hasn't gotten the hang of it yet, but I'm sure she will. Anything to burn off her excess energy is a good thing in my book!

Lucy

Oh, I remember those! They were lots of fun! My sister and I (we are in our mid 40's) bought Hula Hoops for ourselves at a rummage sale. We both can still hoop! We both have boys, no girls. Sad to say they all tried, but none of them did too well. Their girlfriends had a good time doing it, though. Now I have to get one of those toys. I think the one I had was called, skip it.

They were called Footsies back in my day! Do they make them big enough to fit an adult? (My feet eventually got so big, the ring wouldn't fit.)

Wow, what a flashback! I had one of those, the lemon one. I was also a big pogo stick fan....we would have competitions of who could pogo the longest....kind of like the Brady Bunch episode where Cindy and Bobby stayed on the seesaw all night....we pogo'd for hours. Amazon has the cadillac of pogos...http://www.amazon.com/Flybar-1200/dp...246697&sr=8-33. I've secretly wanted a new snazzy pogo stick but have restrained myself :D

Ooh, I checked out that pogo stick! That's a much better model than I had when I was a kid.

How scary that I remember that commercial from my childhood. My neighbor had the pink one. My sister and I had to settle for the generic kind. We had ones that were green, with strawberries on the end (they were like little shakers that made sounds). I'm pretty sure the same company also made hula hoops with counters on them, but again we got the low-tech version. And no pogo sticks for us, but I should probably thank my parents for that as I was never very graceful. They did, however, buy us crash mats and a spring board from a gymnastics school that was going out of business, but took them away after the neighbor hurt herself doing an absolutely flawless backflip (except for landing on her head). Ah, the memories.

Wow. I had a Lemon Twist. I loved that thing.

... sigh ...