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.

Exercise All Around The House

If in our busy worlds you are going to make time to fit exercise in, one thing to do is to put reminders around and make it easy. Of course scheduling time for workouts (and then doing them) is important, but in addition sneaking in fitness throughout the day is beneficial. I live in a house where I have a full studio downstairs, but sometimes, quite pathetically, that is just too far away. If I’m really going to do a stretch that I know my body needs every day I need it to be even easier. So I have items to remind me at my desk, in the bedroom and in the living room.

I keep foam rollers and yoga blocks in my bedroom so I can stretch easily or foam before or after I hop in the shower. And I keep a ball at my desk so that I can stand up and do some occasional exercises when the mood hits me. I also have a smaller ball for self massage. I have a yoga mat, flexband, and stability ball in my living room. I will admit, I use these the least. When I go to the […]

Exercise All Around The HouseMaggie Downie2017-09-12T19:31:30-04:00

Vilifying Food

My boyfriend, Matt, often laughs at me when I tell him what I’m eating is unhealthy. He thinks I’m a healthy eater. I think he is wrong. His perspective is skewed. He would happily eat pizza for every meal, every day. Granted, I almost never go for fast food and I don’t really like fried food, but carbs like pasta with sauce and cheese, pizza and chocolate are some of my favorite foods.

I’ll admit I’m pretty critical of what is healthy. If I make roast vegetables and put some shredded cheese on them I don’t think they are that healthy anymore. I tend to think only vegetables and grilled white meat is good for us. And even then there is a scale in my mind of which vegetables are the healthiest. For […]

Vilifying FoodMaggie Downie2017-09-12T19:31:30-04:00

Shankara West Hartford Yoga

Every quarter we try to get everyone that we can from the Personal Euphoria staff together and try a type of movement other than Pilates. This time we did yoga with Shankara from West Hartford Yoga. It was a beautiful (although cool night) so we dragged our mats outside in the back yard. We opted for relaxation yoga. The night was lovely.

Shankara started by talking us through some breathing. It is really helpful to have guidance in this, at least for me. If I try doing this all alone while meditating, I can never stay with it. He had a calming tone and demeaner. The class was just nice, and I think we all felt great afterward. And, of course, it was so nice to get our staff together and see everyone.

Personal Euphoria

Shankara West Hartford YogaMaggie Downie2017-09-12T19:31:31-04:00

Is Exercise Killing Me?

Last week I was frustrated by an article headline I saw somewhere on the Internet. It read “Is Exercise Killing You?” The topic of this new study on exercise was also discussed (thankfully very responsibly) on The View.

So, is exercise killing you? The article I actually found on the topic published in the New York Times was called: “For Some, Exercise May Increase Heart Risk.” A much less fear mongering header which always makes me happy.

The answer is a resounding NO. Exercise is not killing people. The study currently getting a lot of attention found that for 90% of the population exercise has benefits for the heart, lungs and body. But it turns out that for 10% of the population exercise may increase blood pressure and cholesterol. There was no shown increased risk of heart attack of this small group of the population.

I hope the article doesn’t give people an excuse not to exercise. “What if I’m one of the ten percent?” The best thing to do is to get a baseline from your doctor before starting an exercise program. And check in a few months later to compare. Exercise […]

Is Exercise Killing Me?Maggie Downie2017-10-25T15:49:54-04:00

Sea Turtles Help Me Meditate

Meditate and Maggie should not be used in the same sentence. I’m just no good at it. And I’m not that interested either (which I think is a big part of the problem). Still, I think the world and my body are both trying to tell me that I just might need some. So I’ve been keeping my ears and eyes open for ways that might work for me. And I found one in a rather unexpected place.

Earlier this month when I was in St. John, we snorkeled. And it was almost impossible not to see sea turtles. They are my new favorite animal. Watching them swim is so calming. They don’t look like they should be able to get off the sea floor with their heavy shell, but when they do they are so graceful and they […]

Sea Turtles Help Me MeditateMaggie Downie2017-09-12T19:31:31-04:00

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