How have your annual check-ups gone lately? Has your doctor ever shook his or her head and said, “We’re not going to make any money off of you”? At my last follow-up appointment for my annual exam, my doctor didn’t have a lot to tell me after my blood work and other tests all came back with good numbers within the normal ranges. Instead, she told me about blue zones, and I told her about our Honeyboomer website.
She mentioned that blue zones are pockets of people who live to be over 100, and we talked about why they live so long. I came straight home and started researching this intriguing phenomenon. The more I learn about blue zones, the more I want to learn, and what better place to share this new-found knowledge about living a happier, healthier life than in a Honeyboomer blog post.
Who Found the Blue Zones?
The following is on the back cover of Dan Buettner’s book, The Blue Zones Challenge:
Dan Buettner is the founder of Blue Zones, an organization that helps Americans live longer, healthier, happier lives. His groundbreaking work on longevity led to his 2005 National Geographic cover story “The Secrets of Long Life” and four national bestsellers: The Blue Zones, Thrive, The Blue Zones Solution, and The Blue Zones Kitchen. He is also the author of The Blue Zones of Happiness. He lives in Miami, Florida.
The Blue Zones Challenge
Buettner led a National Geographic expedition to Okinawa, Japan, in 2000, to determine why people live longer there. He came up with the phrase “Blue Zones” in 2004 during a subsequent project where he and a team of scientists searched the world over for other communities where people lived longer. You can read more about the history of Blue Zones at this website: https://www.bluezones.com/about/history/#
Where are Blue Zones?
According to Page 18 of The Blue Zones Challenge (2021), the five original blue zones discovered during the 2004 project are:
- Sardinia, Italy
- Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica
- Okinawa, Japan
- Loma Linda, California
- Ikaria, Greece
What made the people in these zones unique was their lack of “heart disease, diabetes, dementia, and several types of cancer” (Buettner, p. 9, 2021). Wow! These are the things that kill us! Buettner and his team decided they could use the knowledge found in these zones to “reverse engineer longevity” for the rest of us.
What are the Lifestyle Habits of People in the Blue Zones?
Buettner and his team found nine “evidence-based common denominators” (Buettner, p. 21, 2021) that they attributed to the longevity of these people. I will list those nine here, but to see a complete explanation of each, please visit the Power 9® website. You can also find the explanation by clicking on this link to buy The Blue Zones Challenge workbook, which we recommend to help you get started.
- Move Naturally
- Purpose
- Downshift
- 80 Percent Rule
- Plant Slant
- Wine @ 5
- Belong
- Loved Ones First
- Right Tribe
What is the Blue Zones Project?
Since none of us probably live in any of the five original blue zones, you’ll be happy to hear that Buettner and his team have expanded this concept to more than 50 communities around the United States through the Blue Zones Project. Over the past decade, they have shown that by adopting the habits of people in the original blue zones, they could positively affect the health and well-being of people in these 50 communities. As Buettner says, “the benefits of blue zones can be built from the ground up” (p. 19, 2021).
What is the Blue Zones Challenge?
This is where we, as individuals, come in! The Blue Zones Challenge starts out as a 4-week challenge which can be extended for as long as you want. I purchased the book, The Blue Zones Challenge, from Amazon. It includes all of the information and checklists needed to proceed. In a nutshell, this challenge helps you set your path to a “better, happier, and less-stressed life”.
I haven’t started the challenge, but I’m ready! The first step is to determine a baseline, so that an individual plan of action can be defined. The book provides links to three self-tests to get you started:
My hope is to find several like-minded individuals who want to take this journey with me. In fact, after taking the three tests above, the next step is to find a “Blue Zone Buddy”. Stay tuned as I track progress through the Blue Zone Challenge, or comment below if you are ready to join me in the challenge!