When I switched from my skinny-fat, non-fit life to working out every single workday, I was surprised how much criticism I received. Friends and colleagues were sometimes downright outraged by my new endeavor.
“Five days a week is too much.”
“Exercising every day is bad for you!”
“It’s not healthy!!”
These are some of the things I heard over and over from good friends, even months after I started my routine. Honestly, I was surprised. Exercising weekdays is unhealthy? What? What about all those doctors who tell you that you should get a minimum of 30 minutes exercise every day?
One person even insisted that her doctor told her she should not exercise more than 2-3 times a week and never more than one day in a row. Others just told me I was doing too much, that it was too much for my body and that I should think about decreasing.
I had to ignore all of them and brush off their demotivating comments. Maybe they want to justify their own workout schedule. Many people in Switzerland do only workout 2-3 times a week. The trainers at my gym even expect that this is the normal amount because they know that usually people don’t have the willpower or time to come more often than that.
Usually trainers are surprised when I tell them I come five days a week, but never has a trainer told me that this is too much. Instead, they congratulate me on my good workout ethic! Never have any of my doctors told me that five days a week is too much and thankfully, Kay has never told me this either!
Kay is the one who inspired me to exercise daily because he was the one who was exercising every day at lunchtime originally. And by going to the gym every morning, I noticed that there are other people who go everyday too. I asked another woman at the gym if people also give her attitude for her gym schedule and she said they do all the time, telling her that it’s unhealthy to go every morning, but these same people will tell her not to workout too much while they themselves ride their bike to and from the office an hour each way. Doesn’t make any sense, does it? Meanwhile, my colleagues complain that they are not in shape or have gained weight with their 1-2x a week, or never, gym schedule.
I understand that some are intimidated by the idea of doing something every day, but there’s nothing heroic about doing 45ish minutes of exercise in the morning. I alternate weight training with cardio so that I’m never pushing muscle groups too much and I see nothing wrong with running, cycling or weight training every day. If I had to cut down to 2 days a week, I would be so limited with what I can accomplish.
I am proud that I have the will to get up and go everyday and I don’t need any negative Nancys trying to convince me otherwise!
Have your friends and family ever reacted negatively to a new, healthy choice of yours? How did you react?
My meal was fine and filling and they even had some dessert options for me as well, which I always take as a bonus in the celiac department. I was also ecstatic to be eating outside in the evening after the horrible weather in Zurich lately.
Had we not booked a food tour for Saturday morning, I would have tried to stop at a local market to bring things back to the flat. There were limited openings on Friday, but it would have been possible. Because we were on the food tour though, I did not have to worry about the hardest meal of the day on Saturday.
We had eaten sooo much the entire day of the food tour that we were not actually that hungry at dinner time. We ended up going to 
After dinner that night we stopped for some gelato because it was warm and summery and… why not? 🙂
The last morning on Sunday was where we ran into problems. None of the restaurants on my list were open for breakfast and so we walked around looking for a place while we were both hangry. This is never, ever a good time on the trip.
Kay didn’t feel like going to any more of my non-Greek gluten-free restaurants for dinner, but after our food tour we were feeling a little more confident about what I could find to eat.
The chef also asked here about everything that was OK for me to eat including spices and oil. Below was our decadent Greek salad.
Tzatziki. You can bet we ate that up!
I could eat this all day as well.
So, if you are planning on going to Greece as a celiac, make sure you prepare those restaurant cards, bring some snacks and come prepared to eat lots of delicious dairy and meat!
Of course, because it was labor day, the public transportation system was on strike, so when we arrived, we needed to take a bus from the airport instead of the metro. No biggie. I dozed on the bus as per usual in moving vehicles.
Most places were closed on labor day, which did not surprise us in the end, so I’m happier that we decided to fly that morning instead of the night before.
We could still walk around the Acropolis a bit on the first day, although we could not go inside and up to see the Parthenon. It looked so majestic from down below.
Kay also humored the five year old in me by buying me an overpriced cold lemon ice reserved for the tourists. Mmmm.
The views over the city were beautiful. Athens is such an expansive city.
To me, visiting the Parthenon is a bit like seeing one of the wonders of the world. It is an amazing structure to behold with all its history. I love to imagine what it was like in the ancient world and what kind of people lived in Athens at that time.
We did hear some murmurings of “slave labour” from a nearby tour guide. That’s always a topic that pops up in my thoughts when we visit monumental feats like this. I just imagine how it would absolutely impossible and unpayable to create such a structure in today’s world. That’s why you don’t see anyone building new pyramids, Parthenons or Colosseums.
Can you imagine what it would have been like to be one of the free men or slaves helping to build this?
We shared a midnight stroll after dinner to walk by the acropolis in the night and take in the city sounds.
We wanted to go to the Acropolis museum too, but when we realized that it wasn’t included in our Acropolis ticket, we ended up leaving instead of standing in line again and went instead to the Agora to enjoy more of the outdoor weather and those gorgeous tree-lined paths.
 Temple of Hephaestus below.
