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.

Cold Shower in Review

Okay—so maybe I’m not so good at sticking to my own challenges. There were a few days where I just totally skipped on the cold shower.

That being said, there is something I like about the frigid water after I’ve gone for a run. I think it helps cool me off. If you’ve ever seen me after running, my face is bright red and hot. It will stay that way and you can even sometimes see the red drain from my face over the next hour. The cold shower helps speed that process up.

Every day that I took a cold shower I liked the way it felt on my face. I recommend hitting your face with cold water near the end of your shower. I still don’t like the way it feels on the front of my body. It makes me think of everything I’ve learned about the body—how the front line is the protector—we […]

Cold Shower in ReviewMaggie Downie2017-09-12T19:31:32-04:00

Icing Sore Joints

Recently my massage therapist gave me a great tip for icing a sore joint. I’ve been doing it, and I love it. Here’s what you do:

Take a small Dixie cup (the kind you often find in bathrooms)

Fill it ¾ with water

Freeze

Once the water is frozen, use the Dixie cup on your sore/inflamed joint. Ice directly on skin, slowly peeling back the paper of the Dixie cup as the ice melts. Apply gentle pressure so it is like you are getting the benefits of ice and a gentle massage. Keep going until the ice is melted. A towel to catch the melting ice is helpful.

Icing Sore JointsMaggie Downie2017-09-12T19:31:32-04:00

Cold Shower: Day Seven

I conveniently forget my challenge until I am out of the shower and completely dried off. Shucks. On the one hand I see this as a positive. I like myself enough to forget to torture myself. On the other hand I’m disappointed that technically my challenge isn’t going very well. Still there is always tomorrow.

Personal Euphoria

Cold Shower: Day SevenMaggie Downie2014-08-04T18:02:32-04:00

Cold Shower: Days Three, Four, Five & Six

I cheat. I take a fully hot shower just the way I like it but turn the water to cold for 30 seconds in the middle. I try to stay under for 15-second each side. But most of my body is hanging out of the cold water. I screech the entire time. Matt laughs and tells me my noises are too inappropriate to do this when we have house guests over the weekend.

After 30-seconds I turn the water back to hot and warm up. I find that my face feels really good after the splash of cold and so I don’t hit my face with hot water again. Still, I know I’m cheating. I’m nowhere near the three minutes Dr. Oz’s guest recommended. Half my body is always hanging out of the […]

Cold Shower: Days Three, Four, Five & SixMaggie Downie2014-08-04T18:02:32-04:00

Cold Shower: Day Two

I am a morning person. I am perky and chatty and happy in the morning. But when my alarm went of this morning, I whined, “I don’t wanna.” There was a chill in the air. I was warm in bed and I didn’t want to get up and get into a cold shower. It seemed like torture. Why was I doing this to myself?

I still couldn’t set the dial all the way to cold (or even as far as I’d gotten it the day before), so I started in the middle again and worked back to colder and colder water, not even getting as far as the day before. I didn’t wash my hair. I was in and out in three minutes […]

Cold Shower: Day TwoMaggie Downie2017-09-12T19:31:33-04:00

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