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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.
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Body Shaming

Me, Hiding My Fat

My gastroenterologist prescribed me a dietician for guidance doing the Low FODMAP’s diet to help with SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth). Normally, I would handle a diet plan myself, but I wanted to do it right, and every website seemed to differ on what low FODMAP’s meant. Also, I did not expect to wind up dealing with body shaming.

I made an appointment with a local dietician. It went terribly. Somewhat foolishly I made a follow-up appointment because I thought anyone could have a rough day. I didn’t want to judge someone based on one meeting. These are moments I look back on and get frustrated with myself. As I near forty, it’s time to learn that my time is valuable and I can usually trust my first impression. The woman was not having a difficult day; she is just not the right person to guide me in any direction.

Where Things Went Wrong

After listening to her story of Lyme disease and SIBO and how she saved herself, she put me on a scale and gave me the fat pinch test. I have not had a fat pinch test […]

Body Shaming2019-07-10T17:01:21-04:00

Workout Outside

When you workout in nature you are more likely to enjoy it, feel less pain, and move longer. “Green space” or the great outdoors motivates us to move. “Blue space”—somewhere near water—increases the gains even more. Step outside to exercise, and you just may find yourself skipping for joy! When you workout outside, it doesn’t feel like a workout at all. Well…

Here are a few places I love to move outside. Please share your favorites in the comments!

Old Wethersfield, CT

This combines green space (with exceptionally large 300-year-old trees lining the streets) and the blue space (with the Wethersfield Cove). In addition you get to feel like you have stepped back in time surrounded by historic homes. Walk Main Street, the Broad Street Green, Hartford Avenue, and Garden Street. As an added bonus, it’s all flat.

Airline Trail

This was a new discovering for me, but it is great for walking, running, or biking. There are multiple points of access throughout the state of Connecticut. I started in Colchester, CT, and the walk was absolutely lovely.

Devil’s Hopyard

Start by a waterfall and then take a short (maybe 45 minute), easy trail to an […]

Workout Outside2019-05-24T16:13:22-04:00

Plank Story: Strut Zone

This spring I’ve had a weird obsession with the turkeys living in my backyard. About a year ago, I watched a male turkey strut his stuff in the field behind our house. With his chest puffed out, his tail feathers enshrining him, and shimmering iridescently in the sun, he paced back and forth while two female turkeys pretending not to notice. I watch this sad state of affairs far too long and then just felt bad for the guy. Clearly, these coy ladies who would glance his way and then turn away were not interested.

About six weeks later a female turkey trotted through my yard followed by a flock of chicks. His display had actually worked. Since that time we have had 11 turkeys living in our yard. They sleep about 40-feet up in the trees behind my neighbor’s house. They lay claim to the yard throughout the day perched on the fence between our yard and my other neighbor’s. In winter they leave tracks in the snow. And, earlier this year one female turkey chased me out of my own backyard—a display of both her character and mine that I […]

Plank Story: Strut Zone2019-05-10T14:33:59-04:00

Travel Sites & Places to Visit

Movement is what enables us to do all the things we enjoy in life.  Eating is movement.  Breathing is movement.  Talking is movement.  For me, one of my favorite ways to move it to travel the globe.  Here is a sampling of some of the travel sites that still make me smile when they cross my mind:

Favorite Trips:

Salt Flats in Bolivia:

Stand in the center of the salt flats and all you see is white to the horizon line.  You can play games with perspective in pictures.  I’d love to return in rainy season when the white salt with a layer of water reflects that sky and people upon it. 

Hot Springs in Pamukale, Turkey: 

As you approach the hot springs it looks like people are soaking in snowcapped inlets on a mountainside.  The reality is more like hard baking soda surrounding warm blue baths.  It’s quite unique.  In Yellowstone there is a smaller version of something similar […]

Travel Sites & Places to Visit2019-05-10T14:11:11-04:00

Lunge Form: How to do a lunge properly

Often people are afraid to do lunges or squats.  They think those moves hurt their knees—either their experience is that it hurts the knees when they do them or they have been told those moves are bad for knees.  The only problem with that is that in order to move throughout our day we need to be able to do a lunge and a squat.  It’s not the lunge that is the problem.  It is the lunge form.  

Lunges enable us to get up and down off the floor.  Squats get us on the toilet.  A cross between a lunge and a squat enables us to get into the car.  These are movements our body is doing whether we fear them or not.  How do we resolve the question of whether or not we should be doing lunges? The answer: Learn how to do a lunge properly without hurting the knee.

Proper Lunge Form Tips

The video below will demonstrate and talk you though how to do a lunge safely, but before you start, here are some key factors to consider:

What […]

Lunge Form: How to do a lunge properly2019-05-10T14:13:27-04:00
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