As I mentioned some time back, I’m now pursuing my masters in Personalised Nutrition. My focus is of course on how to help us all to age in the best way possible in order to promote longevity and health span.
One of the great benefits of the masters is the access I have to the latest research on the topic. One of my most prized findings was some research from Dan Buettner and others about the 5 “Blue Zones”: 5 areas
in the world where there live the most centenarians. These areas are: Sardinia, Italy; Icaria, Greece; Okinawa, Japan; Nicoya, Costa Rica; Loma Linda, California (Seventh-Day Adventists).
Buettner uncovered something he named “the power 9”: 9 key things that most people who live to a ripe old age in all 5 Blue Zones do that helps them to age so well that they live to their 90s and beyond. Over the course of the coming months I’ll be sharing these 9 key things with you each week so stay tuned, but here is the first of the nine:
Rule 1: Include regular movement in your day
Let’s be honest, we’re all busy people with too few hours in a day and too much to do. We don’t really have time to put too many anti-aging changes into place; but at the same time we also don’t like the idea of ageing. If we could choose, we’d remain young and fit forever, yet we don’t want the sacrifices we make to stay youthful to be too big.
Let’s be honest again. Very very few of us even think about sacrificing anything we love to stay young and fit for longer until it’s much too late and time has already caught up with us.
As a Nutritional Therapist, Hypnotherapist and Naturopath specialising in helping people to age more slowly and to stay healthy longer, I have a very tight fine line to walk with what I can advise that people will actually follow. Give a weight loss plan that will ensure weight loss (being overweight is highly ageing) but also that demands sacrifice and buy in will be limited. Give a plan that demands less sacrifice and results will be limited. It’s a tough balance.
That’s one of the reasons why I so love the data coming out of the Blue Zones: 5 areas where people live longer better and where there live the highest number of centenarians globally. Because people in these areas just live a healthier life naturally, without the need for feeling like they’re sacrificing anything.
And, after all, why should giving up processed junk food, fake sugar (or sweetener) filled fizzy drinks, cigarettes and other unhealthy habits feel like such a sacrifice? But mostly why should adding regular daily movement into every single day feel like something that’s difficult or challenging to do?
People in the Blue Zones don’t have gym memberships and they don’t force themselves to train for marathons. They just walk regularly instead of driving somewhere. They work in their gardens. They put together their own furniture. And they walk to and from local shops with their groceries instead of having them delivered. Movement is something naturally and easily added to their every day. They dance with friends when they feel like it or when music inspires them. They walk in nature and to visit friends and family. Movement is something naturally included in every day.
So why should adding movement be something difficult or challenging to do? And if they can do it, why can’t all of us? Adding movement into every day shouldn’t be something we need to measure with an Apple Watch or Fitbit, but if it helps you get inspired by closing circles or measuring steps, by all means. I shouldn’t have to tell clients an amount of time to minimally move, but about 60-90 minutes a day is ideal and 30 minutes a minimum.
That means any movement by the way. Even just getting up to make yourself a tea is a start. If you need inspiration, take a walk every day for at least a half hour in nature somewhere if you can, or even just to your local shops or around your nearest shopping centre if that’s all you have. Another half hour of movement you can get by bouncing around, dancing, doing a workout on YouTube or spending time in the gym (if you enjoy it). And the last half hour you can get just by moving around your home if you make sure to add some regular movement. Time yourself if you must, or just make sure and move. This is one of the easiest additions you can make to your life that will have a tremendous benefit to your weight.
More additions coming in the next weeks with each of the Power 9 rules uncovered from the “Blue Zones” research.
Want to get started on living longer better and staying healthier and more youthful?