Describe someone you know who leads a healthy life

The person I'd like to describe is my neighbour, Ewa. She lives in the flat opposite to ours in Kraków, in Poland. She is sixty-one years old and she's a pharmacist, but honestly she look maybe fifty.

She does a lot of things for being healthy. She goes to work by bike every day, even in winter when there is snow on the roads. She also has a small garden outside the city, we call it a działka, where she grows her own vegetables, so she almost never buys ready food. And the craziest thing is that every Sunday in winter she goes swimming in a lake with a group of people. The water is nearly zero degree.

She lives like this since about twelve years. Before that she was working very long hours and eating a lot of fast food, and then her doctor told her that her blood pressure was dangerous high. She said that conversation scared her, so she changed everything in one month.

In my opinion her lifestyle is really admirable, because it needs a lot of discipline. But I think some parts are a bit too much, for example the ice swimming, I would never do that. Also she goes to sleep at nine thirty, so she doesn't have much social life. Anyway, she inspired me, and now I also cycle to university when the weather is good.

I'd like to talk about my neighbour Ewa, who lives across the landing from us in Kraków. She's sixty-one and works as a pharmacist, though if you met her you'd probably guess she was about fifty.

What she does to stay healthy is fairly impressive. She cycles to work every single day, all year round, even when the roads are icy and the rest of us are scraping our windscreens. She's also got an allotment on the edge of the city, which is very common in Poland, and she grows most of her own vegetables there, so she hardly ever eats anything processed. And then there's the part that everybody find hard to believe: every Sunday from November to March she goes winter swimming in a lake with a club, when the water's barely above freezing.

She's been living like this for about twelve years now. Apparently in her late forties she was working ridiculous hours and surviving on takeaways, until a routine check-up showed that her blood pressure was dangerously high. She says the doctor scared her into it, and she overhauled her whole routine within a couple of months.

Personally, I think it's a great way to live, and I really admire the self-discipline it takes. That said, I wouldn't go as far as she does. The ice swimming sounds like torture to me, and she's in bed by half past nine, which can't do much for her social life. Still, she's definitely rubbed off on me: since last spring I've been cycling to uni most days, at least when it isn't snowing.

The healthiest person I know is my neighbour Ewa, who lives across the landing from us in Kraków. She's a pharmacist in her early sixties, although you'd never guess it; she has the energy of someone half her age.

Her approach is refreshingly unglamorous. She cycles to the pharmacy every day of the year, and I mean every day: I've watched her set off in sleet while I was struggling to scrape the ice off the car. Like a lot of Poles, she has a działka, a little allotment on the outskirts of the city, and most of what she eats she's grown herself, so processed food barely features in her diet. Then there's the part people never quite believe. From November through to March, she spends her Sunday mornings winter swimming with a club at a lake outside town, in water that's only just above freezing.

She's been living like this for roughly twelve years. By her own account, she spent most of her forties working absurd shifts and living on takeaways, until a routine check-up revealed that her blood pressure was alarmingly high. She describes it as the wake-up call she needed, and she rebuilt her habits almost overnight.

My feelings about it are mixed, though overwhelmingly positive. The consistency is genuinely inspiring, and it's clearly paid off. At the same time, I'm not convinced the ice swimming is for everyone, and her strict nine-thirty bedtime rules out a fair amount of fun. So I'd say I admire it rather than want to copy it wholesale, although she has rubbed off on me: these days I cycle to lectures whenever the weather lets me.