Maggie Downie, Author at Personal Euphoria: Pilates & Fitness Classes in CT

About Maggie Downie

Thank you for giving your time to stop and read my blog. I hope it encourages you to keep moving. Move and the body will be happier. And when you're moving you can hike, run, swim in Jell-O, race over non-Newtonian fluids, travel the world or build igloos--if that's your thing. If not, you can watch me do it. This is just a spot to try and feel good about life.

Plank Story: Milk a cow

It was suggested to me that this is the best angle to photograph milking a cow.

Finally!!! I milked a cow. For years I’ve wanted to milk a cow, which is a challenging task to complete in Connecticut. If a farm sells their milk, they are not allowed to let uncertified hands touch their cow’s udders. Unless you have a friend with a cow, it’s unlikely you’ll be milking a cow in this state.

That is until Matt discovered Local Farm in Cornwall, Connecticut. Debra Tyler, the owner for Local Farm sets up a great day for groups. You milk a cow and within an hour you have made butter, cheese and have prepared yogurt and sour cream that will be ready the next day. Within two hours, you have made ice cream. You enjoy all the food with the others at the workshop pot luck style. It’s a wonderful way to spend three hours.

In Awe

I was amazed all day. I had no idea how much food a single milking produced. It’s truly unbelievable how much food one cow creates. Using only our small sample of people as a gauge, I […]

Plank Story: Milk a cowMaggie Downie2018-11-27T07:39:02-05:00

Gratitude

Every year I like to pause for a moment and reflect on what I’m thankful for. This year I have so much to smile about and appreciate. I’m filled with gratitude.

Family

My family is always there for me and we have fun together. Family always make this list, but this year we gained two new nephews. They are already adored! When I’m stressed, I ask my sister and sister-in-law to text me a picture of one of those treasures, and it brings a smile to my face. Matt is a wonderful travel partner who is always up for an adventure. He always makes the grateful list, too. The team at Personal Euphoria provides great classes to our all our clients. We have a wonderful group of instructors, but we have a few behind the scenes people that do billing, organize all our mailings, and help me understand social media. Each person plays a role in us bringing the best to our classes.

Clients

Our clients show up week after week. They pick us to trust with their bodies. I’m ever grateful for that, because I know how important a healthy, functional body is to […]

GratitudeMaggie Downie2018-11-06T12:23:35-05:00

What to do for a sprained foot?

No injury or person is identical. So anytime we have an injury, we need to treat it uniquely. That being said, there are some general tools that can help. This post will offer some tools to get started if you ever sprain your foot. A sprain is a stretching or tearing of a ligament. A strain is a stretching or tearing of a muscle or a tendon. But it is always recommended that you talk to your doctor. You want to make sure you are dealing with a sprain and not something else.

Tools for Healing

• Experiment with ice or heat. Ice will help reduce inflammation, but heat will help bring blood to the area, which will promote healing. If one seems to cause aggravation, try the other. I’m a lover of ice—the sooner the better and multiple times throughout the day.

• Massage the area. Immediately upon spraining something, a specific area may be tender to the touch. Do not feel like you have to rub that area, but try to massage as close the area in pain as possible without causing pain. You can rub the sole of the foot or the ankle. Never create pain, but rub what you […]

What to do for a sprained foot?Maggie Downie2018-11-07T10:32:45-05:00

Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner

My Grandma at 88 on a Stability Ball.

Life and age can alter our perspective. Years ago when my grandma was in her eighties, she hired a man to paint her house. When talking to my mom, she would say that the “kid” kept taking breaks while he painted. My mom pictured a kid slacking off, but then one day she was at my grandma’s house when the painter was there and the “kid” was in his sixties. He may have thought or felt old, but my grandma, twenty years his elder, didn’t see it that way.

Recently, I was asking my grandma questions about her life. One question was, “Who would you most like to have for dinner?” Her response was, “Right who I have now. My family.” What is so spectacularly wonderful about that comment is that she actually has exactly what she wants.

When I responded to the same question, I wanted Mark Twain, Ben Franklin, or one of my dead ancestors that I never got to meet. The people I would like to host will never come to dinner at my house. My instinct was to reach for impossibility, […]

Guess Who’s Coming to DinnerMaggie Downie2018-05-04T16:30:03-04:00

Plank Story: Electric Scooters

I prefer activities like Pilates, hiking, walking, and running—moves that keep both my feet on the ground. Still, when we were recently in Indianapolis, I was intrigued by the electric scooters escorting people all over the city.

Matt downloaded the scooter app, and we tried to get our first scooter. It beeped and lit up like it was on, but we couldn’t get it to go so we tried another one. It said the battery was dead. A third attempt failed just like the first and we found another with a dead battery. Frustrated, we realized perhaps part of the problem was us and not the scooters. We googled how to operate the scooter. For those that were working, you can’t just get on and press “Go.” You have to get them started under your own power and then press, “Go.”

Our next challenge would be trying to use one app to ride. Matt had downloaded the app. I had not. So he’d start a scooter up for me. I’d get going and then he’d start one for himself and mine would stop. It appears you can’t use one app to ride two […]

Plank Story: Electric ScootersMaggie Downie2018-10-08T18:22:32-04:00

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