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.

The Minimalist’s Purge Game Complete

The goal: To purge 465 items from your house within one month. We pushed it to the very end. On May 30^th Matt and I still had 98 items to purge. I was worried we’d struggle at the end because each weekend, I’d go room-by-room clearing out everything I wanted to get rid of only to count the items and find I’d purged barely fifty. So I’d hunt through the house to find another fifty. On our last weekend of purging, I thought it would be even harder, but it wasn’t; it was the easiest.

I think purging becomes addictive. It became easier to get rid of stuff I liked, but never used or am keeping for “just in case.” I suddenly didn’t want it anymore.

I’d highly recommend doing a materials purge if it’s up your alley at all. You start to notice just how much you accumulate over time. Matt and I moved into this house six years ago and there were items I packed, made my friends help us move and I haven’t touched them since. That’s crazy. It actually felt good to get rid of them. We had over twenty packs of playing cards. I purged eight wooded […]

The Minimalist’s Purge Game CompleteMaggie Downie2018-01-13T16:19:52-05:00

Henna Party: The Best Times are Spent with Good Friends

Henna Hands

I wrangled a couple of girlfriends together for a henna party in March. I thought I was going to have to twist some arms, but everyone came willingly. I was a little worried my friends might think it was cheesy when I learned that in some local high schools henna goes in and out of fashion with sixteen-year-old girls. I don’t think of myself as super girly, so I was conflicted about wanting to try it. Not knowing what to expect, I was most intrigued to have someone paint on me. I love any excuse for proprioception.

Henna is an Indian tradition, usually used at times when women gather—before a wedding, during a pregnancy, or a naming ceremony. Henna Feet

Two women, Shruti and Snehal, came to our house to do the henna—every image was done freestyle. They could create a pattern from a picture or produce their own design in minutes. No matter what design we picked or where we placed the henna on the body, they fashioned fabulous art. It wasn’t what I expected though. I’m […]

Henna Party: The Best Times are Spent with Good FriendsMaggie Downie2017-12-29T21:10:58-05:00

Walking on Fire

The fire ablaze.

Why did I want to do a firewalk? That was the question everyone asked me when I mentioned I was doing one. I still don’t know the answer. Curiosity. An interesting experience. To know what it feels like. Conquer fear. Know that I can do it. To see how my nervous system responds. Those were all a piece of what intrigued me, but when I tested those answers on different people none seemed to satisfy anyone.

I don’t have an answer. What makes anyone want to do anything? I don’t want to bungee jump or cliff jump even though that might help me get over my fear of heights and would be an adventure. I’m not a thrill seeker. Firewalking isn’t like a rollercoaster ride. I don’t want to do an ultra-run, but I can understand why someone would feel compelled to run in an extreme environment for days. I hadn’t thought about the why at first because I naively assumed everyone wanted to firewalk. As it turns out most people don’t. I told

Walking on FireMaggie Downie2018-05-09T18:07:11-04:00

Purging: The Microbiome Diet & the Minimalism Game

The Food Part: Gut-friendly food

I’m amazed. Giving up dairy, sugar and most grains last Monday hasn’t been as hard as it normally is. The only thing I can think of that accounts for the difference is that I felt really ready and motivated to try this experiment.

Normally when I give up sugar for a month, I think about sweets—ice cream, muffins, and chocolate in any form—hourly. I’m truly in awe that I’ve been okay…that is until last Thursday—four days in—when I drove by Starbucks. Now, I’m not a big coffee drinker. In fact I don’t like it. Still a couple years ago, I started needing a little caffeine fix on Thursday afternoons. I get a mocha to mask the taste of coffee and very often I only drink half. I found myself pining as I drove past the green goddess. And the urge didn’t dissipate until Sunday. It didn’t help that I was visiting a friend in New York where Portland’s Stumptown Coffee was in nearly every shop. Stumptown is my favorite, and I longed to go inside a small coffee house with a good conversation […]

Purging: The Microbiome Diet & the Minimalism GameMaggie Downie2017-12-29T21:17:52-05:00

Plank Story: You’ve Got to Feel the Car or Why I’m Incapable of Driving a Lamborghini Fast

Getting Ready to Drive

I raced a Lamborghini. More accurately, I drove a Lamborghini around a small track at a mall parking lot in Pennsylvania, but it was awesome. Some of our great friends wanted to take Matt to drive a fast car for his birthday, and I said if we were going I’d try too. I’m not a car person, but why not?

I hadn’t thought much of it until a week before we were going when I woke up in the middle of the night, bolting upright in bed, realizing that it might actually be hard to drive a fast car through sharp turns. I was right.

On our way to The Motorsport Lab and Experience, temporarily in Harrisburg, PA for our driving pleasure, I asked Matt whether I should choose the Lamborghini or the Ferrari. It’s all the same to me. He suggested the Ferrari—apparently everyone gets that a Ferrari is fast. I’m not sure what most people think of Lamborghinis. If they are like me, they don’t. Then I got there and said, “Oh, which one is the yellow one? I want to drive the […]

Plank Story: You’ve Got to Feel the Car or Why I’m Incapable of Driving a Lamborghini FastMaggie Downie2017-12-29T21:20:13-05:00

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