IT'S TIME TO GET ATHENIAN!
From Diocles of Carystus, 4th Century B.C. in Athens - Prescription for One’s Morning
"The cultivation of health begins with the moment a man wakes up. This should as a rule be when the food he ate the previous day has already moved from the stomach to the bowels. A young or middle-aged individual should take a walk of about 10 stadia (a little over a mile) just before sunrise.
After awakening one should not arise at once but should wait until the heaviness and torpor of sleep have gone. After arising once should rub one's neck and head thoroughly in order to overcome the stiffness caused by the pillow. Then rub the whole body with some oil. Those who are not accustomed to empty their bowels immediately after arising should perform this rubbing before the evacuation...Thereafter one shall every day wash face and eyes with the hands using pure water. One shall rub the gums in order to strengthen the teeth or shall simply rub the teeth inside and outside with the fingers using some fine peppermint powder and cleaning the teeth of remnants of food. One shall anoint nose and ears inside, preferably with well-perfumed oil...The head is a part that requires a great deal of care, such as rubbing, unction, washing, combing, and close shaving. One shall rub and anoint the head every day but wash it and comb it only at intervals...
After such a morning toilet people who are obliged or chose to work will do so, but people of leisure will first take a walk. Long walks before meals evacuate the body, prepare it for receiving food, and give it more power for digesting it. Moderate and slow walks after meals mix foods, drinks, and gases contained in the body...
After the walk it is good to sit down and to attend to private affairs until the time arrives when one has to think of caring for the body. Young people and those who are accustomed to exercise or who need it should go to the gymnasium. For older and weaker people it is better to go to the the bath or to some other warm place to be anointed..."
The Cultivation of Health - fragment from Diocles of Carystus in Athens, 4th century B.C. quoted in Henry Sigerist, History of Medicine, Vol. II
Greek amphora, Attica, fourth century BC.