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.

Six Reasons You Might Be Cramping…Consider Electrolytes

Foot cramps, toe cramps, Charley Horses, even back spasms—they are all a form of muscles cramping.

Have you ever wondered where the term “Charley Horse” comes from to describe a cramp in the leg? It first pops up in newspapers and magazines around the 1880’s always referring to something terrible that afflicted baseball players. There is speculation that there was actually a horse named Charley that had a role on the baseball field. Or perhaps, a ballplayer had grown up with a lame horse named Charley. When players got cramps in their legs they walked around like the horse and the player said they looked like his horse, Charley.

While we don’t know the full etymology of the term, we do somewhat better understand what it going on when we get a muscle cramp. Here are science’s best assumptions on cramping right now:

Puberty, pregnancy, menopause—they can all cause you to wake in the night with a cramp in your leg. So if your body is changing first consider that as a possibility.
If you aren’t properly hydrated you are more likely to cramp. So make sure you are well hydrated for exercise, but also throughout the day. If you have chronic back pain, […]

Six Reasons You Might Be Cramping…Consider ElectrolytesMaggie Downie2017-12-29T21:54:13-05:00

Detox Debrief

So, you may recall that right before Christmas, I did a Detox that basically eliminated grains, dairy and sugar (except in fruit). Here are the highlights of how that turned out:

I could not have done it alone. Having some people on board made a big difference, especially in the beginning. It was good to have people to keep me on task or to talk to when I wanted chocolate cupcakes.

Though the book I’d read swore I wouldn’t be hungry, and I think I was eating a lot, I was starving the entire time. I’d wake up hungry in the night. I’ve never felt such a bottomless, constant pit of hunger. If I ever get on Survivor I will do this detox before to help prepare myself.

In ten days, I lost six pounds. Since then, I’ve put three back on. That much weight that quickly is never healthy.

On day seven for the first time in my life I actually did stop craving sugar and carbs. I’ve heard people talk about cravings stopping, but I’ve never actually experienced that myself. I usually give up sugar in the form of dessert in February, never all types of sugar. I’ve never stopped craving it […]

Detox DebriefMaggie Downie2018-01-13T16:46:49-05:00

The Magic of Christmas

And, my mom is rocking this little toddler bathrobe too.

This is a picture of my mom. She’s about three. While she was napping one day, my Grandma decorated the Christmas tree. My mom woke up and discovered the tree aglow. Someone got this snapshot, which is impressive because everyone wasn’t running around with a camera on their phone.

You can see the awe, wonder, and joy that Christmas can bring on her little face. It’s not only Christmas. We can feel wonder at other times and in other places. Usually for me nature inspires those feelings more than anything else.

I pick the places I travel and the activities I do to find a little bit of that astonishment. When you’re 8,000-feet on a snow-covered mountain at night and you look up at the stars, your jaw drops in amazement. I regularly seek the sense of wonder, awe and joy my mom is living in that photograph. It can be harder to find during the daily grind and on a day-to-day basis, but it’s there.

And Christmas is a time of year […]

The Magic of ChristmasMaggie Downie2017-10-25T14:24:28-04:00

5 Ways to Chill Out in the New Year

Mundane tasks like dishes can be a time to be present.

I need to listen to what I’m about to say more than most. But as 2016 approaches, and we start thinking about New Year’s Resolutions, I’m trying to come up with little changes I can make that serve the purpose of meditation (help me chill out), but don’t require me to sit and be still for more than 30-seconds. Because every New Year I fail at that.

Stop at Yellow Lights

I’ve always lived by the moto: red means stop, green means go, yellow means go faster. I also have a tendency for road rage. Driving calmer and trying to get less frustrated has helped me hate driving a little less. This is actual the idea of one of my clients who used to work with patients post heart-attacks. It was one of her tricks to help them de-stress.

Pick the Longer Line

This idea was from the same client, and I love it. So much of life is a mind game. If you pick the longer line at a store, it doesn’t seem […]

5 Ways to Chill Out in the New YearMaggie Downie2017-09-12T19:31:10-04:00

Do a December Detox

Do you want to join me on a 10-day detox this December? Please keep reading.

This holiday season I will not bite the head off of any more chocolate Turkeys.

This is not a detox where you don’t eat. That has never appealed to me. I’m way too active to skip meals and drink only tea, and I get really crabby when I don’t eat. My desire to do this detox comes from a couple of areas. One, I always like a good food experiment, and, two, I’d been eating so terribly that on Halloween I looked at a bowl of Reese’s and thought the idea of sweets were disgusting. That was perhaps a first in my entire life I was repulsed by food. But it’s been working in my favor. Since then I have been eating better. December is really hard month to stay on track, so a couple friends and I are trying this little challenge. Here’s the info (if you’re still reading):

A friend and I got together to combine forces from the most recent books […]

Do a December DetoxMaggie Downie2017-09-12T19:31:10-04:00

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