5 tips to become fitter, healthier and happier than ever, from an expat who transformed her body and mind in Malaysia
- Never much one for sports or spirituality, Lise Poulsen Floris now exercises most days a week, has embraced therapy and become a reiki practitioner
- Here are her tips for making positive changes to your life, including giving up alcohol – something that led to better sleep, mental clarity and weight loss
After four-and-a-half years of living as expats in Beijing, my diplomat husband, my daughter and I moved to Kuala Lumpur, where he was posted in August 2020.
I have not worked full-time these seven-and-a-half years. Now we’re going to Brussels, in Belgium, where I will be taking up a job as a European Union official.
In Malaysia, I’ve gone from being rather uninterested in sports to exercising five to six times a week and taking part in official sports events such as a bike race in Kuala Lumpur, my first ever triathlon, and my first open-water 2km (1.2-mile) swim.
I’ve embraced therapy, worked on my mental health and gone from having little interest in the spiritual world to being a reiki practitioner and sound healing student.
Here are five ways I grew while living abroad.
1. Adopting an active lifestyle
When you live in the tropics and the temperature is regularly above 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit), your life can go in two directions: either you use the heat as an excuse to never go outside, or you realise that it makes having an active lifestyle really easy.
