How I incorporate LISS in my everyday lifestyle

The words health and fitness are often grouped together and are emphasized as key package deal for a long fruitful life. There now seems to be a surplus of experts constantly updating the excess information on the best ways to be healthy. I am forever attempting to keep up between the constant change in fads to achieve how to be the healthiest version of myself.

I am Venezuelan. The country of Venezuela is well known for having “the most beautiful woman in the world”. The Venezuelan culture associates healthy with beauty hand in hand.

Since a young age I have been in the search to be my healthiest or by association thinnest self. As I have grown the definition of what it means to be healthy is constantly evolving. As the years go by there is always a new diet, exercise style, or supplement to be healthy.

At the age of six I started to dance and practiced up to my adult life. As a dancer, I always want to strive for a certain physique. I remember I used to practice dance for hours daily, workout and follow diets I would see in magazines or online. After a journey of healthy fad following, I have learned what the concept of healthy means for me.

I have learned being healthy for me does not mean a particular diet or exercise, it simply means movement. I now recognize the task of simply walking is something I do constantly in my everyday life as a medical technician in an ophthalmic clinic. This form of exercise is called LISS or Low-Intensity state cardio.

For one week I tracked on my notes app how many times I got up to walk in my every day work week. I count the walking I do in my job as my form of exercise. I used different colors and symbols to demonstrate how many times I got up to walk and for what.

In this process I learned not only the times I get up but also the extensive amount of time I spend sitting down depending on my task for the day. I learned about how much movement I have in the day depending on how slow or hectic the day is.

Through my observation I have now learned to incorporate more movement or more rest depending on how productive my day has been, or my level of exercise could be increased if I am tasked with a less exertive project.