A Little Inspiration for the Day

Dedicated

My grandma balancing on my stability ball a few years ago.

Keep Moving is dedicated to my grandmas. My grandparents have always been a huge part of my life. I was lucky enough to know all four of my grandparents and two of my great-grandparents. Many of them I knew well. Throughout my life, I grew up listening to the stories of their lives, seeing them enjoy retirement, and learning that getting older doesn’t have to be scary. As they aged they had full lives complete with travel, family, and friends.

I owe a lot of who I am to these people who shaped me and played a significant role in my upbringing. It’s one of the many reasons that I dedicated Keep Moving: Take Steps to Relieve Pain & Improve Your Life to my grandmas. In different ways their examples are part of the reason that I move and love physical activity so much.

My Grandmas

Grandma Downie

One of my grandmas did not move and her life was cut short in a family filled with longevity. This is not a judgment of her […]

DedicatedMaggie Downie2018-10-21T19:57:35-04:00

That’s Not A Word

Me & Matt

I’ve been with Matt for nearly 17 years and he never commented on this until today and neither has anyone else I’ve spoken to. I mentioned to him that something stressing me out was giving me “agina.” To which he finally replied, “That’s not a word.”

“Yes, it is,” I insisted.

“Nope, it’s agita.”

After a brief debate we searched for the answer online and the Google Gods proclaimed that agita is in fact a word for heartburn while agina is a word for nothing, unless I mean angina, which I don’t. But I insisted: “Well, that’s not what I mean. I don’t have heartburn. This is giving me agina: an overall feeling of anxiousness. It must be Italian.”

While not true, this seemed a plausible answer as my Italian-American family does use a number of random Italian words. “Moosha moosh” describes when you just don’t feel great. You are still willing to eat, but then you’ll want to lie down. We say “Madone” which is the Italian swearword I know best. […]

That’s Not A WordMaggie Downie2018-08-15T15:05:07-04:00

Plank Story: Do You Fart in Your Sleep?

My younger sister, stepmom, and I were flying to Dallas to visit my brother and sister-in-law and attend a baby shower for the first grandchild in my family. We’d all be sharing a hotel room, so we discussed who would be sharing a bed in a room with two queen mattresses.

Cold at night, even in a Texas climate, my stepmom sleeps in many layers, including a cap. But that doesn’t hinder your fellow sleepers. She admitted to snoring, but a good snore you can hear from either bed.

My little sister basically sleeps like a rock, so she was the general winner in the group—the one everyone would want to sleep with. However, though only I remember this, when we were little we’d sometimes sleep together and she would wake up covered in vomit, which I found repulsive. She claimed she no longer vomited in her sleep and I tend to believe her.

It was determined I was the worst sleeping partner. Sometimes while falling asleep, I twitch which can be off-putting to people. I was told by my best friend on a cross country camping trip that I snuggle. I’m a light […]

Plank Story: Do You Fart in Your Sleep?Maggie Downie2018-05-04T11:15:37-04:00

Self Love

Movement can be playful!

We are often our own hardest critic. I know I am. It’s my Type-A, entrepreneurial spirit. But no matter what our nature or our career path, I think we tend to be harsh with ourselves in a way many of us would never treat anyone else we care for. We all need to give ourselves a little more self love.

In the past, I somewhat always thought this harshness was a motivator. Apparently, I respond to drill sergeant mode. Once upon a time that might have worked for me, but I’m attempting to be gentler with myself. Partly, I’m just getting tired with age (did I admit that?). Egging myself on is exhausting. Plus every year it seems to become more and more obvious that life is too short to waste time being curt with myself. I’ve even drastically reduced my road rage because I came to recognize I was the only one hot and bothered. The driver that would not let me merge was long gone.

That does not mean that I’m always successful. It is in my nature to push through without a nap and struggle with […]

Self LoveMaggie Downie2018-06-19T10:06:03-04:00

The Greatest Showman

I love musical theater. Matt, my boyfriend, does not. When we first started dating if we saw a musical together we both had a terrible time. He hated the experience, and I could tell he was miserable which ruined it for me. The third and final time we ever saw people singing together on stage, I realized that each time the actors inhaled to prepare for a note, Matt sighed heavily and audibly, like the last breath escaping a dying man. He was completely unaware that he was perceptibly expressing his disdain for show tunes.

We stopped going to musicals with each other because I love him and wanted our relationship to last. Also, I have other friends to enjoy them with. Then earlier this year—roughly sixteen years since our last musical—we were out for dinner and looked quickly to see if any movies were playing near the restaurant. If we rushed, we could get to The Greatest Showman, a movie about P.T. Barnum. We both like a good history/bio flick so we rushed to the theater and sat just as the movie was starting. Seconds later when the movie opened with […]

The Greatest ShowmanMaggie Downie2018-06-19T11:23:08-04:00