Healthy habits of clinical research monitor Olesya Monakhova
IN RUBRIC "LIFESTYLE" we ask different people about healthy lifestyles with a human face: we talk about the importance of taking care of yourself and pleasant ways to make life more comfortable. The heroine of the new release is Olesya Monakhova, a clinical research specialist.
Wellbeing - This is when there is a desire to live, enjoy and do something useful for themselves and others. And when I get enough sleep.
I start the day withthat I raise the blinds or open the curtains on the windows (depending on where I woke up), so that the room becomes lighter, and I go to drink black coffee.
I work in clinical studies and monitoring: I check how the drugs are tested, evaluate their effectiveness and safety in various medical institutions. Researches are usually multi-center, and the institutions are located in different cities, which is why my work travels.
I discovered clinical studies by chance nine years ago, when, as a student, I was looking for work related to English, but I no longer wanted to be a translator. A couple of years ago, experience in clinical research and language skills came in handy when the company offered a year to work in the United States. Working as a monitor gave me the opportunity to see Russia - I didn’t fly, I think, only to the Far East, but I never was in America. Maybe I would have planned a vacation once, but what would I see - New York, Miami, San Francisco? Therefore, I did not even doubt. During this year I, of course, saw a lot - and not only an ideal part of the country, which is shown on TV. Perhaps buying a one-way ticket in January 2016 is still my most extreme act.
I have from two to eight flights a week. Sometimes there are no direct flights, so I get from Chicago, where I live, say, to Houston via Atlanta. I sleep wherever possible, try to recuperate. Of course, habit plays a role. There are periods without business trips - and in the middle of the week I am already dying from boredom, after all the office is not mine. I read a lot on airplanes, and without a tablet, I take a book with me in an old-school manner.
Before the move, I had four stable cardio sessions per week: three times step aerobics and one - exercises on a trampoline; plus I rode a lot or skied a lot. Now I still have a lot and often ride a bike, from ten to forty kilometers, and even started to run - it has an abundance of parks and treadmills. If it's not too late to return from business trips, then I go to the pool - rather relax than for the sake of load. I also began to walk a lot, although I was constantly driving in Moscow.
I love being active, but there are trainings that just seem boring to me: Pilates, callanetics, stretching - I like skiing and wakeboarding much more. I come from Dmitrov, where there are a lot of ski clubs - and in winter you can get to the slopes and slopes in less than half an hour, ride from the heart, talk with friends. Last year there was a relocation, so it was not up to trips to the mountains - this winter I will master new tracks.
My colleague got me hooked on wakeboarding. I really liked it, and almost immediately I managed to get up, stay in motion on the water and drive a little. I considered this sport a worthy substitute for alpine skiing for the summer and retracted. We have a team, and together we began to go to workouts on the trampoline in order to prepare for the summer and put jumps, which were then finished on the water behind the boat. This same wake company introduced me to kitesurfing. Together we went to kite spots twice - to Turkey and to Spain.
Having moved to Chicago, I was a little upset - there is almost no place to do wakeboarding: on the beaches this sport is prohibited, although there are wake parks where you can try cable wakeboarding. But there are all the conditions for kite-surfing: the wind is strong, they train even beginners. The water is ice cold, of course, so in May I did not dare, but June came and I was already enrolled for the first lesson.
With the move I became less involved in sportsbecause I try to see the country: I often drive on trips and business trips - and all the energy goes to this. I blame myself a bit for changing priorities, but I’m working to love and forgive myself.
My relationship with food has reached a new level. Previously, I limited myself, watched the weight, but without fanaticism; there was a diet period. And each time I seemed to force myself to abandon certain products. Now there is some kind of completely voluntary filtering of what I eat. I still get used to the new food - it is heavy here, and because of business trips I often eat outside the house. Suddenly there were soups - a kindergarten teacher would hear me! I rarely cook, there is always a stock of buckwheat in the boxes, but is cooking cooked buckwheat porridge? I decided this year to limit myself to coffee, because I did not know the measure before. My New Year's vow is two cups a day; sticking with such a regime was easy.
I sleep at least eight hours a dayif possible. Unfortunately, I have no sleep graphics, but with a place without problems - I can sleep anywhere: on a plane, on an electric train, in a hotel, if there are noisy neighbors nearby, at home with the TV on. I gave up trying to catch up on lack of sleep on the weekends: due to the early working hours I wake up on Saturday or Sunday as well as on weekdays.
Regularity is the hardest thing in a healthy lifestyle and a stable training schedule. This does not add up yet: I tried to take sneakers on a business trip, but I certainly forgot something else, like contact lenses.
I think that it is necessary to engage in the sportwho likes. You do not need to force yourself and go to workouts through force. Maybe someday I will ripen for a gym, but now my choice is to run a dozen kilometers to my favorite rhythmic music in headphones.
The most useful health adviceI received: do not be nervous and take time to rest. To offload my mind, I read and talk to my family and friends - it helps a lot to talk to someone, discuss the news, laugh.
Age - This is the number of revolutions around the Sun, which I made while on planet Earth. I am very comfortable at my age.
