challenge

My Mom Rocks

My mom rocks for a lot of reasons, but most recently when we were in Italy she had a great accomplishment. After walking down the stairs through the cliffs from Ravello to Minori and lounging on the beach for a couple hours she walked back up with us–that is 1,333 stairs she walked up, people. It was about one mile away–a mile of stairs away.

This was a great accomplishment for all of us, but the rest of us who climbed the stairs are hikers and we do Mt. Washington or a similar mountain nearly every year. We are a little more used to it. Not to mention my mom is twice our age (that’s a compliment, Mom!). In addition to the stairs, it was roughly 95 degrees and humid. Parts of the staircase were shaded, […]

My Mom RocksMaggie Downie2017-09-12T19:32:11-04:00

Week of Pictures Review

So I took pictures of my food for a whole week and what did I learn:

1) My food is very repetitive
2) I really like foods that are brown and beige
3) You wouldn’t think it but it takes a lot of time to take a picture of everything you eat
4) Taking pictures of your food makes you think about everything you put in your mouth

There is a bit of reality here. I am very busy, and I enjoy life that way. I would love to have the time to cook full, well-balanced meals, but I just don’t have that time every day. (I hope to have that kind of time when I retire.) Still I try to eat reasonably healthy foods. I get in phases where I eat something often. For example I’ll go through a frozen burrito phase or a goat cheese salad phase. Eventually they will shift to a Caesar salad and a pasta phase. It’s easy and doesn’t take much thought for me to plan what I’ll be eating with some idea of the number of calories I’m consuming.

Where I try […]

Week of Pictures ReviewMaggie Downie2017-09-12T19:35:26-04:00

A Nurturing Thought

When I took the anti-gravity yoga class, I was really impressed by the instructor, Kevin. I like the way he worded his thoughts and I enjoyed one line in particular.

At the beginning of class he asked us to think about something that we’d put a lot of energy in or that had been taking a lot of energy from us that we did not want to continue having in our life. With each exhale we were supposed to blow this item/idea further away from us. Admittedly, the non-meditater in me thought this was a little cheesy, but I was willing to go with it.

Then he asked us to think of a thing or an idea that we wanted in our life. We went through the entire class before he brought it up again. While lying in corpse pose suspended in the hammock, he brought our attention back to the item we wanted in life. With each inhale we were supposed to draw that thing closer to us. Again, a little cheesy for me. But then […]

A Nurturing ThoughtMaggie Downie2017-09-12T19:35:27-04:00

New Year Challenge: Be Kind To Yourself

I catch myself on a regular basis saying something like, “Maggie, you dolt” or “Ugh, Maggie, what were you thinking.” (Yes, I talk to myself.) I think we all sometimes subtly, sometimes more obviously put ourselves down. Sometimes with the way we look at ourselves or the way we think about ourselves.

This year, catch yourself when you’re thinking negative thoughts about you. Try to stop and exchange the bad thought with a good one.

New Year Challenge: Be Kind To YourselfMaggie Downie2014-08-04T18:06:03-04:00

Your Core is a Tree Trunk

You might have heard Pilates folks talk about your core being like a the trunk of a tree–strong and solid in order to protect your body. This holiday season my family decided to test that theory.

We like over-sized trees–no less than nine feet (short for us) and the wider the better.

The tree was the most prickly tree I ever remember having, so we had to bundle up for protection.

In addition to sharp needles, the tree was so heavy that we couldn’t lift it. We needed leverage, so my boyfriend Matt volunteered to let us roll the tree on top of him so that he could lift it with his core (and legs). We rolled that tree right onto Matt’s core and instead of a Darwin Award, which we half expected, we had success–a beautiful tree to enjoy the whole month.

Your Core is a Tree TrunkMaggie Downie2017-09-12T19:32:26-04:00