New interview series start: How do you stay healthy and fit?

As you know, last week I published the post "Being a healthy freelancer: your eyesight matters". I didn't realize then how popular it would become. In fact, it turned out to be my most popular post in November. That gave me an idea to make a new series of interviews with just one question for fellow freelancers: How do you stay healthy and fit?

I posted the info about the interviews on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn and I am both amazed and humbled by how many colleagues responded! If you haven't seen my posts in social media, but this topic is of interest to you and you want to share your experience please contact me at olga @ yourprofessionaltranslator (dot) com! I am looking forward to hearing from you!

The first two colleagues that want to share their experience with us are Flavia Ivascu and Olga Dyussengaliyeva.

Here's what Flavia says:

I can answer to your question with just one word: running. Yes, I'm one of those people, if I don't run at least 6 k/day I feel off. And I do Pilates.
I also walk my pups, I've got 3, all over 37 kg, so I've got my resistance training right there :)
All kidding aside, standing in front of the computer for about 10 hours each day can greatly damage our bodies. I just found what works for me, and I stuck with it. If in the beginning it was a choice to be able to deal with those back aches (from sitting at the computer all day), now it's a lifestyle.

And here's what Olga shared with me:

It is really important for a freelancer to incorporate some healthy lifestyle into daily routine. However with the amount of work that is there for a freelancer, especially if the freelancer is a mother of a small child, it is very difficult to find time for healthy habits. The habits are not to be given up though, so many of us find their ways to stay fit.

My biggest challenge is cooking healthy food. There's always temptation to order pizza or just have a sandwich. By the way those can be healthy as well. I learned that healthy cooking is not necessarily complicated cooking. So I took some time to find several reliable simple recipes that save me when I'm in a really tight schedule. I won't go on too much about cooking, since this really isn't my strong side.

Exercise is different: I've always been a big advocate of fit lifestyle. First and foremost it's yoga. I do my yoga first thing in the morning: only 30 min of practice fill me with energy for the whole day. I have a whole post about yoga for freelancers in my blog: http://mtw-blog.com/more-reasons-to-yoga/

I also like exercise that make my blood flow and make muscles lean and strong. Mmmm, that fantastic muscle ache on the following day! :) My best bet during a busy day is intense training with multifunctional exercises, without any equipment - only body weight. Burpies is a good example of those. Various squats and lounges, push-ups, and so on, with a minute of intense skipping rope training. Half an hour of those will make one really want to go back to the workplace. Such training is very easy to stick to, because you can do it anywhere, and it gives fantastic results.

Flavia and Olga, thank you so much for sharing! Dear readers, whose approach speaks to you best: Olga's or Flavia's? Or would you like to wait and see how other freelancers keep fit? Let me know in comments. And if you are a freelancer and enjoy living a healthy life, please contact me!

Authors bio:

Flavia Ivascu: A translator for 10 years now, she's worked in Romania and in Canada. She does English, French, Romanian, and to a smaller degree, Spanish translations. Flavia received her BA in Translation in Romania back in 2004, and she is also a certified translator by the Romanian Ministry of Justice. She also does interpretation (English, French, and Romanian) and some terminological work.

She enjoys, in no particular order, running, movies, spending time with her family, and walking her three pups: a 5-year old Chocolate Lab, and two American Akitas, a 3-year old and a 1-year old. You can learn more about Flavia if you visit her website, connect with her on Facebook or LinkedIn.

Olga Dyussengaliyeva: Olga is one of the many freelance translators and interpreters working long hours to deliver high quality texts in great variety of languages and spheres to the clients all over the world. Olga specializes in technical translation in oil and gas area. It is a very extensive area which includes finding and producing oil and gas, safety, construction, commissioning, geology and geophysics, transportation and processing. However, Olga can't think of any accomplishment of more significance than becoming a mother to her little boy.

Visit Olga's website and connect with her on LinkedIn