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.

Mark Twain 70th Birthday Speech

Note: I often tell my classes about a great quote from Mark Twain about how he smoked so many cigars and didn’t exercise, and while that was a good option for him it would kill another man. This is the full speech from where I got that quote as published on the PBS website.

Mark Twain, 1905.




	Clemens outside Stormfield, 1909 Courtesy The Mark Twain House, Hartford

Well, if I made that joke, it is the best one I ever made, and it is in the prettiest language, too. I never can get quite to that height. But I appreciate that joke, and […]

Mark Twain 70th Birthday SpeechMaggie Downie2017-09-12T19:31:28-04:00

As Easy As Riding a Bike

The group of friends I run with decided we should do more cross training (we should). It was decided we would add bike riding to our routine. I’m not a fan of bikes ever since I was twelve and I rode into a fence and flipped over on my bike. It doesn’t help that I grew up on a busy road. To keep me safe my parents painted a white line at the end of the driveway that I was not allowed to ride passed. That meant my biking basically consisted of riding around in circles in the driveway, which made biking dull and made me afraid of riding on the road with traffic. So I pretty much haven’t touched a bike in over seventeen years. I don’t even own one.

For this adventure I borrowed an old bike from my parents. The rear tire needs to be inflated before every ride. There are gears which I’ve […]

As Easy As Riding a BikeMaggie Downie2017-09-12T19:31:29-04:00

Five Years: Thanks to Our Instructors

This month marks Personal Euphoria’s fifth birthday. It’s an accomplishment I’m quite proud of especially since we’ve been brining Pilates to people through one of the worst economies in the history of our country.

I couldn’t have done it alone. For one thing if I didn’t have such wonderful clients I wouldn’t love my job as much as I do. And if I didn’t have the great team of instructors, not only would Personal Euphoria not have as many fun clients, but my life would be less rewarding. So I want to use this blog to say a couple nice words about all our current instructors. None of these ladies can be summed up in a sentence or two, but I’ll try. And if you take one of their classes, please feel free to add to this list of what makes these women fantastic.

Jeannine—was the first instructor to join Personal Euphoria. She gave me the […]

Five Years: Thanks to Our InstructorsMaggie Downie2017-09-12T19:31:29-04:00

Goals: Jacob’s Ladder

Having goals are important to help you stick to a healthy lifestyle, but it’s not just about being healthy—goals (no matter what their size) can help get us excited about life. I’m not sure why, but I’ve always wanted to be able to climb a Jacob’s Ladder. So this year when I went to a Ren Faire in Sterling, New York with Matt and my brother, I tried it out.

The guy told me I’d only have a shot if I kept my body low and pulled myself up. He was right. The first time I flipped right off. The second time I made it all the way to the top, but as much as I stretched I couldn’t quite reach the bell. So the third time, when I made it up again, the guy came up behind and made the bell swing, as it got closer to my short little body I reached out and dinged it. Success (with a little […]

Goals: Jacob’s LadderMaggie Downie2017-09-12T19:31:29-04:00

Belly Dancing

Four times a year, the Personal Euphoria staff tries to get together and try something physical that isn’t Pilates. This time we tried belly dancing. I was really looking forward it because my Grandma has often told me stories of the time she took belly dancing classes. They used cues like, “dust the stool,” “figure eights,” and “Tarzan-Jane, Tarzan-Jane.” They are pretty self explanatory. In the first you pretend you are dusting a stool with your butt. The second you circle your hips making a figure eight shape, and finally you pull your breast bone in and then stick your chest out to depict the clear different between Tarzan and Jane.

The class was even better than I expected. It was hard to do right, but fun even when I was screwing up (which was a regular occurrence). Shalimar was a wonderful teacher. She explained the moves well and was encouraging. Years […]

Belly DancingMaggie Downie2017-09-12T19:31:29-04:00

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