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.

Client Corner: Movement Helps Parkinson’s

Janice teaching barre in Glastonbury.

“Do what your body can do today,” Janice Flanigan calls out as my leg lifts for what feels like the millionth time and every muscle holding me up starts to burn. I’m at a Total Barre class in Glastonbury which Janice loves to teach because of its focus on the core, hips and legs. By the time 45 minutes have gone by I’ve gotten a full body workout, and I happily relax into our cool down.

Janice has been teaching many different types of classes for over 20 years. You can find her teaching Total Barre, Pilates Plus Strength, Interval Training Cardio, Low Impact Cardio-Strength and Kickboxing this fall with Personal Euphoria. Each class offers a different challenge for her clients. Janice says:

I love Pilates because of its precision. I love Yogalates because we get the best of both worlds with the spirituality and strengthening and stretching of Yoga and the critical core strength of Pilates.

A class that is particularly special is her weekly boxing class held at the Enfield Senior Center. The class is a combination of boxing and functional interval training, […]

Client Corner: Movement Helps Parkinson’sMaggie Downie2017-12-29T20:45:56-05:00

Perspective

I was flying home and we hit mild turbulence. Mild turbulence. It may not scare most people, but it terrified me because even the slightest thing that seems unusual on a plane makes me grab the arm rests as if they can protect me from disaster. So there I was death gripping the shoulder rest, breathing steadily and a little girl, I’m guessing around six, on the other side of the aisle looked out the window and exclaimed excitedly, “Look, we’re going through a cloud!” She was thrilled. And I thought, clearly this is all about perspective. I could be excited that we are going through a cloud right now or I could be scared. That thought process has helped keep me calm on a couple of plane rides now. Perspective seems to be the lesson of the year, at least for me.

The isn’t the first time a child has motivated me to make a change. Years ago I resisted getting an Iphone because it seemed too complicated. Then I saw a two-year-old using one with ease and I figured if she could I could. I was right, although I’m not sure my life is better for it. […]

PerspectiveMaggie Downie2018-01-13T16:05:44-05:00

Plank Story: TSA Rules No Joking

I like my little brother even though he almost got me arrested.

I was flying home from Dallas after visiting my brother who had been in Israel. He’s brought home some bath salts from the Dead Sea and given me some to bring back to Connecticut. I don’t check a bag and as I came through security at TSA, my suitcase was pulled off the conveyor belt for inspection.

The TSA worker rifled through my bag while I watched. There were two of them. Both friendly. Making small talk. When one found the bath salts the two agreed that was what the machine had red flagged. He asked what they were and I told him that they had made the trip from Israel. He said they would need to test them. I asked what he thought they were. Apparently, you can use flakes that look similar or have a similar density to make a bomb. Not knowing me at all, the TSA worker was unaware that I’m terrified of everything that has even the most remote chance of causing […]

Plank Story: TSA Rules No JokingMaggie Downie2017-12-29T20:49:07-05:00

Be Positive & Beat Body Shaming

Warning! Rant to follow.

As I work on a blog about women, beauty and being comfortable with our body, a friend sent me a link to a relevant story making news internationally. Apparently, mean girls can take naked photographs of you at the gym and post them publically on the internet for the world to see.

Playboy Playmate, Dani Mathers, who I’d never heard of before, was at the gym and posted a nude picture with a snide comment about a woman she thought was overweight. (Note: the link above will take you to a news clip, not the photograph.) I was torn about writing this post because I thought it might be a reason people stop going to the gym. I’m more irate about the invasion of privacy than the body shaming. The fact that one human being would do this to another is egregiously disturbing.

I’d like to think Mathers somehow lost sight of what she was doing. I worry that with the internet a mistake, albeit an awful one, can be an error someone can never recover from. I know Mathers is not the victim or the person I should be worried about, but it makes me want to […]

Be Positive & Beat Body ShamingMaggie Downie2018-01-13T16:11:50-05:00

Plank Story: Afternoon Tea

When Matt and I were in Alabama earlier this year we stayed at this cute, intimate bed and breakfast. One morning during breakfast we chatted with a couple from Scotland about Trump, a recent wedding they had been too and about the Microbiome Diet I was doing. The B&B owner had been very accommodating, always making sure I had hard boiled eggs and gluten-free, dairy-free, sugar-free options. When the woman from Scotland heard about my diet, it reminded her that traditional afternoon tea was making a comeback in the UK.

“Oh,” she said, “if you can’t have dairy, you wouldn’t want to come to afternoon tea. It’s so dairy laden.” (Note: If you haven’t started reading this in your best Scottish brogue, start now. It makes the story better. Think Mrs. Doubtfire and you’ll pretty much have it down.) “First, they bring out these little finger sandwiches and they are all lathered in butter. And then you get scones smothered with crème fraiche. And now, after that, they offer cream cakes the size of your first. There is so much food you don’t even need an evening meal. And it’s not even really about the tea anymore. Now they bring […]

Plank Story: Afternoon TeaMaggie Downie2018-01-13T16:09:28-05:00

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