Monthly Archives: February 2014

Health

I’ve finally done it!

Leave a comment

Saturday was a big day.  I left the house alone, ventured into Oerlikon by myself and braved my gym visit(s). I was very, very anxious. Branching out out into new areas of life auf Deutsch terrifies the shy girl in me.

The first gym was full of men that I didn’t feel comfortable working out around and offered little in terms of service to its clients, but the second gym was everything I hoped it would be and after a little hesitation I bought a three-year membership on the spot!

It is a bit of a splurge for me to spend so much money on a gym compared to prices in the US, but I really feel like it is the kick in the pants I need to get working out.

Both yesterday and today I have successfully gotten up an extra twenty minutes early, left the house before my usual alarm clock and arrived at the gym by 6:45am. I can change into my workout clothes and work out for around 55 minutes before showering and arriving at work 30 minutes later than normal.

I am still testing how early I should get up, how long my workouts should be, and how much time I need to shower and catch the train to work. I can actually arrive at work as late as 9:00am

Home

Searching for a Sideboard

Leave a comment

Kay and I talked for months about buying a sideboard for our dining area. We searched in many stores in Zürich and didn’t quite find something we liked, but Kay had the idea that we could buy something used on the cheap and paint it bright green to echo the green going on in our kitchen.

We visited several crazy overpriced used stores in Zürich with sideboards costing 2000-5000CHF (ouch!!) before I headed to my favourite used sites, Ricardo and Ricardolino which has since re-branded to Olx but I can never remember the name. I think they may have run into some legal trouble with Ricardo over names…

Anyhoo, I pulled up several comps for Kay in the price range of 100-400CHF and we whittled our choices down to these two:

I found several sideboards with built in lighting, which I knew Kay would love. He is an LED junkie! Most of the options were too expensive, but I liked the look of this one a lot and it was only 150CHF. It would just be harder to paint green. I was also concerned that if we get glass doors we cannot fill the sideboard with extra crap from the kitchen as I was intending.

Option two was the much simpler, all-wooden doors for about 125CHF. I knew it would be a lot easier to paint, but I didn’t know about the quality of the wood on either piece and if we would encounter strange varnishes or evil veneering. But with this option we could hide so many things in there and customize the doors with some handles similar to our kitchen cupboards if we wanted.

We measured both sideboards out to get an idea how much space they would take up and they were both pretty good sizes for our large dining space.

Next I photoshopped both sideboards to be electric green like our kitchen color. You know how bright it is!

Kay always thinks it is interesting to see color choices in Photoshop first and I agree, but I am not sold on the green. It is SO bright. It would make a huge statement.

Some how, the idea of making an entire sideboard this green seems like a much bigger commitment than the tiny strip of wall above the kitchen cabinets and I feel a bit guilty at the prospect of painting over what could be beautiful natural wood.

If we did go with the first option and painted it, it would be clear that the shelves and inside area through the glass doors would also need to be painted something, maybe white or we thought about a mirror foil for a spacey look.

They are just ideas, but whew… that green. I don’t know! Maybe we should keep a neutral sideboard and work on integrating some contrasting green into the living/dining room somewhere else.

What kind of bold color decisions have you made in your house?

Health

Lazy Katie

Leave a comment

Well, to be honest readers, I almost feel like I am avoiding blogging because I am ashamed that I still have not done anything about my gym situation.

Many of you suggested the smart solution of working out at home, but our flat is just too small for me to find space to lock myself away and with all our new furniture, there’s not a lot of room to do anything anyway.

But I’ve finally gotten off my lazy, lazy non-phoning pants and set up an appointment to go see Fitnessplus this weekend. I wanted them to tell me the prices of their membership on the phone and the lady just didn’t want to do that. Sooo I’m sucking up my shy feelings and going to go see the place in real life.

Now I just need to check out Easy fit and Kieser and maybe I’ll make some progress! In the mean time, I’ve got some house updates I’ll be posting soon, I promise. 🙂

Health

Zürich Gyms Part II

Leave a comment

I did some more sleuthing and decided to compile a list of some more gyms not mentioned in part one. This is partly because I would like this list to be a bit helpful to people looking for gyms around here in the future if they happen to find these posts.

Here are some more options for those looking for a gym in the Zürich Oerlikon area:

Easyfit

Easy Fit

Annual Membership:  499CHF ($552)
Opening Hours:
Weekdays: 6:00 – 22:00
Weekends: 9:00 – 18:00
Locations: Oerlikon

This place is dead cheap! It’s a bit far from the station in Oerlikon, but it has amazing hours and for the price, I am strongly considering it. I just wonder if the hike from the station (it’s about 15 min) would add too much in the morning, because that’d be 30 minutes dedicated to walking to and from the gym in the AM, plus my normal 40 min commute somewhere in there.

 

West Side Fitness

Annual Membership:  990CHF ($1095) including a 4 week time stop
Opening Hours:
Weekdays: 6:00 – 23:30
Weekends: 9:00 – 21:00
Locations: Zürich Hardbrücke

This is the earliest open place I have found at Hardbrücke, which is still a good option on the way to work. It is also about the closest thing you will get to a 24 hour gym in Zürich. It’s fairly pricey, but it’s actually the same price as a year with Kieser, which is the gym I am slightly leaning towards from the last post.

 

Fitnessplus

Annual Membership:
1Y: 1370CHF ($1540)
2Y: 2370CHF ($1332 per year)
3Y: 3459CHF ($1298 per year)
Opening Hours:
Weekdays: 6:30 – 22:00
Weekends: 8:00 – 19:30
Locations: Zürich Oerlikon

Originally I  wrote this place off because they didn’t have one in Oerlikon, but now they are taking over the old TC Training Center, which I also didn’t know about. The only bad thing is that they don’t list prices online and I have no idea if they are affordable or not. (Edit: They refused to tell me prices on the phone because they wanted to convince me to come in person for a tour, so I finally found out the prices this weekend and have added them.)

The opening times are good, but I would be annoyed to visit the place only to find out that they cost too much money and they haven’t returned my email inquiries about prices. I’m pretty sure it’s partially because I always leave a fake number because I don’t want them to call me, but I’m not giving my number out to a gym I’m not even sure I want to join. Nope.

 

Halle 41

Annual Membership:  890CHF ($986)
Opening Hours:
Weekdays: 6:30-21:30
Weekends: 9:00 -18:00
Locations: Zürich Kloten

This place is close to the airport, but not even at the airport. If you worked or lived near there, that would be useful, but for me it sounds like this place is in the middle of nowhere.

Nord Fit

Annual Membership:  1000-1200CHF ($1108-1329)
Opening Hours:
Weekdays: 7:00-22:00
Weekends: 9:00 -19:00
Locations: Zürich Oerlikon

I forgot about this option. Kay was here last year but he left this gym because it’s very expensive and he likes Kieser better. You can get a cheaper membership if you just go during the day, but that would cut out night time training, which I guess I would need on days I cannot go in the morning.

Swiss Training

Annual Membership:  560CHF ($619)
Opening Hours:
Weekdays: 10:00-22:00
Saturday: 10:00-17:00
Sunday: 10:00-14:00
Locations: Zürich Oerlikon

This place is also super cheap and it’s half as close to the station in Oerlikon as Easy Fit, but the hours are not the greatest. The 10am start means I could only go in the evening, which is really limiting, so I probably wouldn’t choose this place.

 

 

 

 

Galmarini Elite Training

Annual Membership:  ???
Opening Hours: ???
Locations: Zürich Oerlikon

No information available really and from the website, I get the idea that this is not a place for me. Maybe professional, male athletes or body building-types.

With the addition of Nordfit, I have listed all of the mainstream big-box gyms around Zürich. There are a few more large, albeit very expensive ones in the city centre itself and anyone willing to scour through Google can find some of the smaller local gyms in their specific area.

I will say that it’s worth doing a thorough check to find the best price. I think I plan on visiting Kieser, Easy Fit and Fitnessplus around Oerlikon to see which gym would suit me best in terms of equipment, location, cost and courses available.