I have to admit I was struggling a bit today thinking about what to write. While I was walking this morning I mentally walked through my week and thought about what was working and where we could make changes. It dawned on me that while "physically distancing" is imperative to our health - "socially connecting" is critical to our psyche and overall health as well. Sometimes it's the words we use that stand in the way of doing the right thing. This got me thinking about the longevity project that our local community energized around in 2009. At the time we were living in Albert Lea, Minnesota - not the healthiest of communities at the time - the community leadership was interested in making improvements so engaged with Dan Buettner and Blue Zones in an effort to improve health and well being. 

Blue Zones, according to its website are recognized pioneers and innovators in population health, providing tools to transform environments that drive physical, mental, social, and professional well-being. Mr. Buettner, traveled the world for National Geographic to identify the diet, eating patterns, and lifestyles of the world's longest lived people. These areas were dubbed "Blue Zones". Buettner and his team found that the lifestyles of all blue zone residents shared nine (9) specific characteristics - referred to as the Power 9®.  This model was tested in communities like Albert Lea to see if the community health and well being could improve.  Check out Blue Zones for the specific stories about Albert Lea and other locations around the country to see how these cities changed following the implementation of these changes. It's quite remarkable. 

I wondered today if the Blue Zone Power 9® thinking could be applied in today's pandemic environment to promote overall health and improve social connecting while maintaining physical distancing. I'm curious what you think...

Power 9®

1. Move naturally - the world's longest lived people don't pump iron, run marathons, or join gyms. Instead they live in environments that constantly nudge them into moving without thinking about it. They grow gardens and don't have mechanical conceniences for house and garden work.

It's easy for us to move naturally because we have a dog. We live in a very small town-house with a postage sized enclosed patio - not exactly designed for dog necessities. We walk Tux at least 3 times per day - many days more than that if we go to the local park. Our mail box is about 1/2 block from our home, so there's another opportunity to move naturally. With today's fitness watches we can program an alarm to get us moving - just walking around the house - walking around the block - switching out laundry - pulling weeds - planting a garden - all these can be turned into moving naturally.

2. Purpose - The Okinawans call it "Ikigai" and the Nicoyans call it "plan de vida"; for both it translates to "why I wake up in the morning". Knowing your sense of purpose is worth up to seven(7) years of extra life expectancy.

My friend Deanne posted a similar message on Facebook this morning - "...You will feel better if you stick to your routine...". I recalled, as a child, my mom would say (when we thought we were too sick or too something to go to school): "get up, get cleaned up, get dressed, get going - you'll feel better." And most often that was definitely the case. I'm certain we had the lowest absentee records in our entire school. It's been interesting to me how a routine has developed for us during isolation and I continue to be amazed when I look at the clock and it's time for Tux's evening meal and walk. To this point we have yet to feel like there isn't something to occupy our time and our minds.

3. Down Shift - Even people in the Blue Zones experience stress. Stress leads to chronic inflammation, associated with every major age-related disease. What the world's longest-lived people have that we don't are routines to shed that stress. Okinawans take a few moments each day to remember their ancestors, Adventists pray, Ikarians take a nap and Sardinians do happy hour.

How many times in our busy pasts have we wished for time to meditate, pray, sit in silence. Now we have that opportunity - let's not waste it!  Today's featured photo is a result of my sitting in the back of our home - listening to the sounds of the outdoors only to hear a very different call of urgency from a bird - I looked up and saw a bobcat about 45 feet from us. It was an awesome site. He was hunting quail - but I do not believe he was very successful.

4. 80% Rule - "Hara hachi bu" - the Okinawan, 2500 year old Confucian mantra said before meals reminds them to stop eating when their stomachs are 80% full. The 20% gap between not being hungry and feeling full could be the difference between losing weight or gaining it. People in the blue zones eat their smallest meal in the late aftrnoon or early evening and then they don't eat any ore the rest of the day.

I'm not so good at this - Bob is excellent at this practice. Both what we eat and how we eat will help us ward off disease and will hopefully help us fight this pandemic. Eat well - stay healthy!

5. Plant Slant - Beans, including fava, black, soy and lentrils, are the cornerstone of most centenarian diets. Meat- mostly pork - is eaten on average only five (5) times per month. Serving sizes are 3 - 4 ounces, about the size of a deck of cards.

We try to go meatless a couple of times per week - Bob is big on beans - and we do eat mostly pork and fish (hopefully our farmer friend will be proud of us for making pork our main meat!)

6. Wine @ 5 - People in all blue zones (except adventists) drink alcohol moderately and regularly. Moderate drinkers outlive non-drinkers. The trick is to drink 1-2 glasses per day (preferable Sardinian Cannonau wine) with friends and/or with food. And no, you can't save up all week and have 14 drinks on Saturday. 

Those of you who know us well - know we rarely give up an opportunity for wine at 5p.

7. Belong - All but five of the 263 centenarians Buettner and his team interviewed beloned to some faith-based community. Denomination doesn't seem to matter. Research shows that attending faith-based services four times per month will add 4 - 14 years of life expectancy.

For many of us I believe trying to virtually attend weekly services with our congregations has been one of the more difficult changes. I miss receiving the Holy Eucharist and I miss the people. I am truly amazed at how quickly churches reinvented themselves in order to stay connected to their congregations.