Do you want to live a longer, healthier life?
Then we have a show for you.
The idea of blue zones was popularized by author Dan Buettner in his book, “The Blue Zones: 9 Lessons for Living Longer From the People Who’ve Lived the Longest.” He discovered five places in the world where have greater longevity and happy, healthy lives past 100.
Now this fascinating research has been adapted for a beautiful Netflix docu-series, “Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones,” hosted by Buettner, who takes viewers to these locations and introduces us to people who live there. It’s a great show – well worth your time. Buettner identified nine lifestyle habits of people in the blue zones. Here’s some of what he found, and how we can adapt them to our routines.
- Move every day. Maybe you can’t walk to work, but you can walk somewhere. And you can join us for workouts for functional fitness.
- Purpose. The Nicoyans call it “plan de vida” or why we wake up in the morning. Know your purpose: It adds seven years to life expectancy.
- Downshift. Blue zoners have daily routines to shed stress. What do you do to deliberately relax?
- 80 percent. A Confucian mantra reminds us to eat till we’re 80 percent full. Think about this before you reach for seconds.
Live blue!
Holly Kouvo is a personal trainer, functional aging specialist, senior fitness specialist, brain health trainer, writer, and speaker.