exercise

Valentine’s Day Gift for YOU!

Give yourself a V-Day gift this year. Choose one way you are going to be healthier. It’s the best way to love yourself, and, ultimately, the best way to love someone else. I’m on a mission this year to get in the best shape of my life. I’m not sure how well it’s going, but here are some tips for all of us:

Trade sugary beverages for water or unsweetened herbal tea
Limit processed foods
Try to get at least five servings of fruits and vegetables a day
Start a calorie journal
Sign up for a race or walk to motivate you to get in better shape
Join a fitness class with friends
Give up dessert for the rest of the month

Valentine’s Day Gift for YOU!Maggie Downie2017-09-12T19:31:58-04:00

Shoveling Woes

In the midst of shoveling the other day (just which day who can tell anymore), Matt joked and said that Mother Nature must have known that I wanted to get in the best shape of my life this year and that is why she is making it snow so much. I love when the world revolves around me so much that I’m the reason Connecticut has gotten over 80-inches of snow.

But here’s the problem. I don’t feel like I’m in better shape. Last week when we got the back-to-back heavy and icy snow, I felt really weak. Shoveling felt like a chore for the first time all winter. I had hoped to feel stronger, and like I was getting in better shape, but I just felt exhausted.

Now, on the one hand, I’m grateful to pilates. I’m convinced that one of the reasons I don’t have an injury from all this shoveling is because pilates has made me truly strong, from the inside out, as we like to say. I’m not injured; that should be a […]

Shoveling WoesMaggie Downie2017-09-12T19:31:58-04:00

Jack Lalanne’s Inspiration

Jack Lalanne was an inspirational person. He reminded me of Joesph Pilates in his intense passion for fitness and trying to help and inspire others to a healthier lifestyle. I really hope that when I’m in my eighties and nineties, I’m as active and healthy as they both were.

I imagine that is something we all hope for, but health in our senior years has to start now. It seems so worth it. I think everyone who chooses a career in fitness on some level really wants to inspire others to be healthy too. But everyone is inspired in different ways.

I’m inspired by being able to be active, hiking a mountain like Mt. Washington, being involved in team sports, feeling good, looking good, being outdoors, competition, having fun while working out, and the calm I find exercise provides me. I’m inspired by watching someone really passionate like the video of Lalanne in the above link or reading Joe Pilates. The picture above even inspires me, but probably only becaue I know who Jack Lalanne […]

Jack Lalanne’s InspirationMaggie Downie2017-10-25T14:30:12-04:00

Is Food A Treat?

I guess what I really want to ask is SHOULD food be a treat? Since I’ve been trying to get in the best shape of my life, I’ve noticed that I will think thoughts like, I just shoveled the driveway now I deserve some hot chocolate, or It’s been a busy week, I deserve some dark chocolate, or, I didn’t workout today so I don’t deserve dessert.

I’m struck by the word “deserve” as opposed to want, crave, need, etc. And while I’m sure I’ve spent a lifetime thinking this, I never really noticed or thought about it. On the surface it seems like a bad way to think about food, but is it? Am I the only one who thinks this way? And after shoveling the driveway, don’t I deserve some hot chocolate?

Is Food A Treat?Maggie Downie2017-09-12T19:31:58-04:00

Real Inspiration

Yesterday while driving home from the gym I heard and ad on the radio that frustrated me. It was targeting women and trying to sell some kind of weight loss pill. It announced that scientists have said that women over 40 need to workout one hour a day just to maintain their weight, not even lose weight, so obviously everyone should start popping their pills to get skinnier.

It annoyed me that it was targeting women. It annoyed me that it was targeting women over 40. It annoyed me that is was claiming to have an easy fix to weight loss. It annoyed me that it was using what we know about the body against us.

I wished that there were ads that highlighted and inspired people via real life stories of individuals—men and women of all ages—who used diet and exercise to change their weight if needed. I thought of a very close family friend who in her mid fifties lost 50 pounds using weight watchers as a tool. She looks fabulous. I’d argue that she actually looks 30. It’s amazing. Another family friend lost weight by adding a morning exercise routine. Both of these women have […]

Real InspirationMaggie Downie2017-10-25T14:30:13-04:00