Embark on a transformative journey with us as we unveil the secrets to a longer, healthier life, inspired by the world's Blue Zones. This episode promises to not only enlighten but also to equip you with the nine fundamental pillars that stand strong in the lives of centenarians thriving in these remarkable regions. From the natural integration of physical activity to finding your community, we're thrilled to guide you through adopting these powerful habits, one step at a time.
Katie and I are here to share these timeless lessons, encouraging you to weave Blue Zone principles into the tapestry of your daily routine to ensure your year is brimming with health and happiness.
Resources from this Episode:
Learn more about the Blue Zones here
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WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!
Have a question, suggestion or comment for the podcast? Fill out form here
Plant Centered Nutrition Essential Resources:
Embark on a transformative journey with us as we unveil the secrets to a longer, healthier life, inspired by the world's Blue Zones. This episode promises to not only enlighten but also to equip you with the nine fundamental pillars that stand strong in the lives of centenarians thriving in these remarkable regions. From the natural integration of physical activity to finding your community, we're thrilled to guide you through adopting these powerful habits, one step at a time.
Katie and I are here to share these timeless lessons, encouraging you to weave Blue Zone principles into the tapestry of your daily routine to ensure your year is brimming with health and happiness.
Resources from this Episode:
Learn more about the Blue Zones here
_____________________________________________________________________
WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!
Have a question, suggestion or comment for the podcast? Fill out form here
Plant Centered Nutrition Essential Resources:
Welcome to the Plant-Centered and Thriving Podcast. I'm your host, ashley Kitchens. I'm a plant-based registered dietitian and virtual nutrition mentor. I was raised on an Angus Cattle Farm, grew up with a lot of GI issues and used the power of plant-based eating to promote healing. Here you'll find inspiration, ideas and encouragement for your own plant-based journey. I'm so thrilled you're here today. Let's get started.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Plant-Centered and Thriving Podcast. My name is Ashley and I'm Katie, and today we have a really special topic for you, talking about the blue zones.
Speaker 3:Happy New Year, oh yeah, happy.
Speaker 2:New Year, oh, and happy New Year to you listening. Thank you so much for tuning in today.
Speaker 3:Yes, we wanted to come out with a bang. Yes, we did.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh Katie, I cannot leave. I forgot about that. So happy New Year. If you are new here, if this is your first episode, welcome. We are so grateful that you are here and we're so excited to kick off this year with you, Can you?
Speaker 3:believe it, Two and a half years this podcast is going on.
Speaker 2:Killing it, yes. So, for those of you that have been around for a while, thank you so much for coming back and listening to this episode, the first one of the year. The first one of the year, so excited, so excited. So, before we get into the blue zones, who they are and how we can live more like a blue zone this year, in 2024, and actually why we chose the blue zones, we'll get into all that. But first, this episode is brought to you by plant-based and 30 days, which is our signature course, walking you through, step by step, how to go plant-based. It gives you everything you need. It teaches you about supplementation as a plant-based eater. It teaches you about all the great stuff about meal planning, meal prepping and making sure that plant-based living is sustainable for you for the rest of your life, which is so exciting.
Speaker 3:Yes, it's just to help you tune out all the noise. Focus on those really easy first steps to make that change, like Ashley said, sustainable. So such a good thing for the beginning of the year, Gung-ho. What are we waiting?
Speaker 2:for that's right. So if you want more information about how to go plant-based, or if you've been wanting to go for a while just haven't quite taken that leap this course is definitely for you, so check it out. We included that in the show notes below. Plant-based in 30 days Picture yourself where you could be in one month from now.
Speaker 3:You can be plant-based, that's so exciting.
Speaker 2:So let's dive into the blue zone. So to give you a background on what the blue zones are, they are regions around the world where people tend to live much longer than average, and these areas have attracted some major attention because of the high number of centenarians. So those are people who live to be over 100 or 100 or more, and not only that, not only do they live a long time, but they also have a lower incidence of age-related diseases. So these diseases that we think are common as we get older, they really don't have them. So the term blue zones was coined by National Geographic fellow, dan Butner, who identified these five regions as the blue zones, and those five regions are Ikariya, greece, okinawa, japan, sardinia, italy, the Nekoya Peninsula of Costa Rica and Loma Linda, california.
Speaker 3:Hey USA.
Speaker 2:There's one in the US, one lonely one representing and we're going to talk about these regions and how they share these different lifestyle factors that contribute to their longevity. And a big factor, katie and I know you know this is that they are predominantly plant-based. Oh what? So that's a big part of the reason of why we chose them. So let's get into it, let's go through. So the blue zones are really fantastic in that they have these nine pillars that sort of tie them all together. So we're going to go through each of those pillars, talk about what they are and how we can make some changes to live more like blue zones in 2024. So, as we go through all these nine pillars, what Katie and I want you to do is think about what's one pillar or one thing that I can focus on this year, and then, once you've sort of mastered that, then think about what's the next pillar you can focus on, and maybe you've already mastered a couple of these, so keep those in mind as we're going through these nine amazing pillars. Absolutely.
Speaker 3:Certainly, we all want longevity and we want to be, you know, live a long life where we are not bogged down with chronic disease. But also it makes our day to day life better. It makes us perform better and feel better. We're able to enjoy our people better. Don't get overwhelmed by this episode. Don't try to do all of them tomorrow. Pick one that really resonates with you, that you think may affect your quality of life, and concentrate on that one. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Definitely All right. Well, you want to kick us off with the first one.
Speaker 3:Sure, all right, move naturally so. The blues own inhabitants engage in regular low intensity physical activities, so I love that dan butner talks about that. These are not marathon runners, they are not.
Speaker 3:They don't have a yearly member gym membership not cross, but somehow the movement is kind of accidentally incorporated into their everyday life. So many of them are growing their own food. They're doing a lot of walking to and from different villages, so moving naturally is a big part of, is their kind of number one pillar. So what are some things that we can do every day to kind of emulate this? How can we do this?
Speaker 2:you're okay so this would be things like maybe just walking. That's something that Lena and I do every morning. We go for a little daily walk, biking for daily errands, possibly, or just getting out on your bicycle, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, engaging in activities like gardening, even some hiking. I'm even thinking about parking far away from the grocery store you know the furthest parking spot you can find, just to get a little extra movement in. Think about it, katie. We talk about this all the time. That adds up over time. It really does.
Speaker 3:Yeah and that's why I love Ashley. If you guys have been following her. She's so consistent about posting those. You know it's an hour walk every morning. I mean that's. You know that started your day off, nice, and so shout out to my grandma she's gonna be celebrating her 97th birthday this year and we always contribute that to her and her little ladies. They would get up in the morning and walk like three or four miles, wow, and they did that for like 40 years. So I think it's about the. It's not about the length or how far you're doing, it's about the. Consistency doesn't have to be fancy, doesn't have to be expensive.
Speaker 2:I like that. Yeah, it can really just be walking outside your door and going for a walk, biking heck even my grandma, because she lives in, like Indiana, north central Indiana and she would walk in her house. She would actually just take laps in her house and set a timer for 30 minutes and do that. I have a client, actually, who walks the hallways of her apartment complex, which is indoors. So there's a lot of different ways to do it and I like that. It's approachable, doesn't have to be a gym membership, like you said, or something that's expensive or fancy. Alright.
Speaker 2:So number two is purpose. Knowing your sense of purpose is worth up to seven years of extra life expectancy. Wow, let's say that again, knowing your sense of purpose is worth up to seven years of extra life expectancy. Before, when we were doing some research for this, I actually didn't know that, so that's actually really good. So having that sense of purpose and direction you think about it in life is is really crucial, and so this can look like really identifying your passion and following through with it. But it can be as simple as just pursuing different hobbies that you're passionate about. Do you have some ideas for that?
Speaker 3:yeah, I don't think it has to necessarily be something that you make money from. It's having a reason to wake up and learn to wake up in the morning. So volunteering a lot of time, acts of service can really fulfill that that need. So I like volunteering at the SPCA. I saw some videos over Thanksgiving that I really want to do next year, where they have Thanksgiving with the pups. I don't care about the people, but I would definitely cook a Thanksgiving dinner and go serve it to the dogs that don't have any homes.
Speaker 3:So volunteering, engaging in hobbies or work that resonates with your core values, whatever that may be. So really having you know I mean, we've all experienced, I think, those times I can speak personally where you get up in the morning and you feel a little bit lost, like you know what's really guiding me, what, what, what do I want to get out of today. So I think that makes a big difference in how you feel, your stress, how you digest food. I mean it really affects many aspects of your life. So and so it seems simple, but maybe not always so easy.
Speaker 3:So absolutely so in 2024, think about what's going to feed your soul. What can you get up in?
Speaker 2:the morning. Yeah, I had a therapist challenge me on that one time. She was like actually, do you ever wake up on a Saturday morning and ask yourself, what is it that I want to do today?
Speaker 3:now, I was like no, I don't so even something as simple as that. Yeah, cuz I think a lot, of, a lot of us are busy and like, we get up in the morning and immediately go to a to-do list and so it's all the stuff that we have to do, and certainly we can't escape that. But I think we need to have that balance of what do we want to do?
Speaker 2:yep, yep couldn't agree more yeah, okay.
Speaker 3:So this next pillar I definitely struggle with is stress management down shifting. How can we reduce our stress and manage it in the best way possible? That really is critical in all aspects of our life. So learning how to do that could definitely help us live more like, live more like a blue zone. So I love some of these strategies. Breathing we just posted a best of episode and sunsack was one of our experts that we featured and he reminded me about how important and how much research has shown that breathing yeah, breathing that we have to do Specific techniques can really help. I mean, I think he said something crazy like a staggering statistic, like after using his program of like stress reduction and the special breathing can reduce your stress by up to 70%. Wow, who wouldn't sign up for that? And it wouldn't take long. You know, five minutes of breathing, yeah. But again, I think the common denominator that we're going to see is not just once or twice. It's that consistency Is where you're going to start to see those results and feel those results too.
Speaker 2:Yep, so you can do what you said deep breathing exercises, breathing exercises, which I've actually tried, those to help me fall asleep, and I will say I think there's something to it, but I'm not consistent. You can also do yoga or even just taking moments throughout your day to relax and pause and just truly try to be present in the moment, which I also know can be challenging, but it can also be really beneficial. One thing I really try to practice is stepping away from my desk for lunch and just trying to have that moment for myself. I try not to get on my phone I will say I'm not consistent with that either but just to really try and be present and enjoy just a few moments to myself can be really helpful. Recharge, yeah.
Speaker 3:Then really being aware of what is stressing you out and if there's any way to take those things out of our lives, to do that as much as possible. And I think it's important to remember that stress that affects, that stays in there. If it doesn't go anywhere, if you're not able to let it go, it's going to affect your body and how you digest food and how you sleep Absolutely. It's definitely important.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the fourth pillar is called the 80% rule, and this comes from Okinawa, japan, and it's a term that I'm probably not going to pronounce correctly, but it's something related to Harahachi Buu, which is a 2,500-year-old Confucian mantra said before meals, and that reminds people to help them stop eating when their stomachs are about 80% full.
Speaker 2:And the reason this has been adopted, especially in Japan, is because it really helps you slow down, savor your meals and really listen to your body's fullness cues as you're eating, and it helps give you a greater appreciation for the food that you're eating. So I appreciate some aspects about this. I think it's important when you're using this quote 80% rule is to really just try to practice more mindfulness while you're eating. So one thing that we've worked on and we've taught past clients is that really try and be present with your meals. And, of course, this can't happen at every single meal, because we are busy or we might be feeding other people while we're eating, a lot might be going on, but the more you can engage your senses, the more you can slow down and think about what it is that you're eating. Heck, even where this food came from can really give you a greater appreciation for that food and also help with you connecting more with your body and being able to listen to your hunger and fullness cues.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it touches on so many of the intuitive eating pillars that we're so passionate about. So it's just a reminder that sometimes our digestion it takes a little while to catch up to our brain. So if we're scarfing, all of a sudden we've cleaned our plate and we get to the point where we're overly full. We've passed that point because of the speed in which we're enjoying the food. So I think it's such a good reminder that slowing down this is eating. We got to do it three times a day. It's like one of those basic, basic necessities of life and so rushing through it, so easy to do that it's just like one more thing to check off the list. And when we slow down we're able to connect with our bodies and really listen to ourselves and those cues. Yeah, we're going to agree more.
Speaker 2:All right, our favorite one.
Speaker 3:The plant slant, very passionate about plant-based eating. So I think it's important to remember, especially in January, if those of you are out here thinking about making the transition, a lot of these blue zones are plant forward, so it's maybe not 100% plant-based Eat more plants. It doesn't mean, it doesn't talk about taking anything out or restricting yourself. It's just about eating more plants. So beans, lentils, soy are the cornerstone of a lot of these centenarian diets. There's so many things that we can do in order to eat more plants, so prioritizing fruits and vegetables, legumes, nuts, whole grains, while trying to just have those meats on special occasions.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 3:We love a good plant, slant and again buy our course if you're looking to make that change. That's true, we want to walk you through it.
Speaker 2:So I find this pillar very interesting, and recently, at the beginning of December, we had Dr Kahn on, who talked about alcohol and its impact on the cardiovascular system and on your health in general. It was a fascinating episode. I'd highly recommend listening to it, especially if you are unsure about your alcohol intake or what you want to do in regards to alcohol. Drink more, drink less, that type of thing. But one of the pillars with the blue zones the sixth one is wine at five. So people in all the blue zones drink alcohol moderately, and they drink it pretty regularly. So the trick, though, is they're not drinking the standard American serving size of alcohol. They're drinking about one to two glasses per day, and that, again, that's at most. I probably should say zero to two glasses per day, and this is with friends and or with food.
Speaker 2:So they're either in their community setting with other friends and family, or they're having it with a meal over the course of maybe an hour or two. This isn't something that they're just kind of scarfing down and moving on. They're really savoring this like they do their meals, and the idea is to not save up. There's zero to two drinks per day, and binge drink on the weekends. They're just casually drinking kind of throughout the week, but it's again with their community or with a meal as well. So I don't know how. I honestly I will say, katie, I don't know how I feel about this pillar, because there is so much research that talks about how there is little to no benefit of drinking alcohol. And, again, the alcohol they are drinking is probably a bit different than, again, what we're drinking here in the States. But it's just something. It's obviously a personal choice, so you kind of have to figure out where you're at on that.
Speaker 3:And I think what they have is kind of a healthy relationship with food and with wine and kind of enjoyment in general. It's not something that they're using as a coping mechanism or to forget things. It's a part of celebration, it's a part of their everyday life and they're not doing it alone, yeah, which I think is a big distinction in kind of how typically Americans use alcohol sometimes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm going to come home from work and wind down with a glass of wine, that's kind of the opposite of what they're doing Alone on the couch kind of zoning out.
Speaker 3:I think that disconnects. It's a big disconnect between kind of how we deal with alcohol and what they're doing. So yeah, this is definitely controversial.
Speaker 2:It is. Yeah, I would check in Dr Kahn's episode because he definitely goes into a bit more detail and again how it relates to our health and what his recommendation is when it comes to drinking alcohol.
Speaker 3:Yeah, he talks about his personal relationship with alcohol and kind of the differences that happened with him anecdotally about his reduction in alcohol.
Speaker 3:So very interesting yeah very much so All right, all right, this is one of my favorite ones. So community is a big part of being in the blue zone. How they connect to their community, I think, is a big part of it. So a lot of them are faith-based community. We're not talking any specific denomination, so research shows that attending faith-based services four times per month may add four to 14 years of life expectancy.
Speaker 3:As someone who is not necessarily religious, I don't think that's what they're saying here. I think it's having those community ties and having a strong support network, yeah, and so I think a lot of times it's just assumed that's going to be family and that's not necessarily the case. With a lot of these centenarians it extends much, much further into the community. So, again, we're big proponents in finding the like-minded people. So, again, a volunteer group, a meetup group, plant-based group, and maybe you're in a small town. It doesn't necessarily have to be in person. We're still kind of lingering in COVID time. So Ash and I definitely have an extensive network of an online community. So, again, it's about not kind of isolating. It's about having those connections to help extend our life.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I definitely think that's something to consider moving forward in 2024, especially if you've found yourself a bit more isolated alone, like scrolling on social media a lot, and you don't feel like you belong somewhere or don't have that community, that could be really beneficial to seek out this year. Again, it's connecting with like-minded people around activities or events or things that light you up and excite you or that you share common interests with other people, with yeah, and I think it can help with that other pillar about finding your purpose.
Speaker 3:It can kind of kill two birds with one stone. It gives you a reason to get up. If people are depending on you too plant the garden, or depending on you to walk the dogs, it gives you a reason to get up in the morning.
Speaker 2:So those are kind of interconnected, I like yeah, it's actually reminds me of a book that I read in 2023 called Cultish.
Speaker 2:I've heard of that, but it talks about how there are a lot of different things in the States in particular that are quotes around cult-ish and across it being one of them even yoga, like different things, where it's these people that are really passionate about this one common interest and they get together and they share that and they might even have some like their own like language around certain things, like I know CrossFit certainly does. So that's, yeah, something to consider.
Speaker 3:I think that's a good reminder that some of those things are so tempting, because they've said that loneliness, especially in America, is the new epidemic. People are desperate to belong and find their place. So that's what sets these communities apart is they're all kind of interconnected with each other? Yeah, beautiful.
Speaker 2:The eighth pillar is loved ones first, and what this means is that how they explain it is that successful centenarians in the blue zones put their families first, and this means keeping parents who are aging or even grandparents nearby, or maybe even in the home. They're also committed to a lifelong partner, which, I found this interesting, can also add up to three years of life expectancy. We're not sure if we did agree with that. I feel, like, if we check all these boxes, we're going to be living a long time.
Speaker 3:I know we're at 150 years.
Speaker 2:And they're also investing time with their children or with even other people that they quote parents. So I don't feel like personally, I feel like there are a lot of opportunities to invest in the younger generation. You don't necessarily have to have your own children to do that. Whether it's your nieces or nephews, or school age children or heck your friends children, there's a lot of ways to kind of invest your gifts and abilities into other people.
Speaker 3:Yes, we're proud aunties are, and it doesn't necessarily have to be a romantic partner. I thoroughly enjoyed some of the single gals out there on Instagram talking about moving in with their best friend and helping raise their kids under the same roof. So, again, I think it's just kind of surrounding yourself with loved ones, whatever that might look like for you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. The whole idea is to prioritize your family yes, and again, that's if you have a good relationship with them or prioritize those close relationships and nurture them and invest time, energy into them, dedicate time regularly for whether it's family gatherings, friend gathering, shared meals, meaningful conversations, whatever that may look like to you. Again, this kind of all ties into what we've been talking about, where that sense of belonging community, finding your purpose, getting involved in other activities that let you up?
Speaker 3:Absolutely. I love how they all kind of are interconnected. Yeah, these are good reminders going into 2024.
Speaker 2:I know that's our thing is like. It's highlighting some things that I could definitely spend some time focusing on in 2024.
Speaker 3:Yes, and that brings us to number nine, which is finding the right tribe. So again, kind of, we talked about community ties, your close family ties, but, again, finding these like-minded people that share your passions, share your purpose, finding those people and spending time with them and, again, investing in those relationships. They've shown research that things that are a little bit worrisome so maybe bad habits like smoking, those things are contagious. But the good things are contagious too, like happiness. So having these social networks are really a commonality in these long-lived people and have favorably shaped their health behaviors. So people that have those connections tend to make better choices when it comes to taking care of themselves as well. So how do we do this in 2024? So, again, we just live one of the great things about living in the internet age it just makes it so easy to kind of filter out the people that you connect with. So people that love dogs, people that love to eat plants, people that live in your neighborhood there's all kinds of ways to kind of find your people, yeah.
Speaker 2:It's really about finding people who also support your quote healthy behaviors.
Speaker 2:Because, like you said, loneliness and smoking and drinking on the weekends like those are just as contagious as really trying to, because, I mean, think about we all have crap going on in our lives. We're all stressed, busy, and I think it takes a lot of work to try and build healthy habits throughout your day, throughout your week, and really try and even shift your mindset a little bit to. Even though I have SHIT going on, I'm still going to try and like work through this, but also I don't want to say like have a positive mindset. I don't want to be like create, like any toxic positivity, but really try and like work on your mindset around the things that are going on as well, which is a practice.
Speaker 3:And that's kind of think again simple, not necessarily easy where you can manage your environment. Maybe you can't control everything that happens on a day to day basis, but you can manage how much. You know how many bad habits are around you, I think. Or you maybe, to put a more positive spin on it you can promote, you know your environment to be what you want it to look like. So you know, for example, ashley and I, you know we really try to follow business people that are doing things that inspire us and other entrepreneurs that are doing things that are changing the world and making things better, as opposed to the opposite or what's popular. We really try to make sure and you know it extends to your social media too you can take the opportunity to start there and see if you can filter out some things that maybe don't make you feel good, or people that you're following that don't align with what you want your 2020 for to look like, absolutely.
Speaker 2:And I think, as we start implementing these throughout this year, changes aren't necessarily going to happen overnight, like these things do take time and they do take effort too. So it really is about prioritizing. You know what's going to add value to my life this year, like, what do I want it to look like and how can I kind of start pursuing that this year as well, or at least thinking about some changes that I want to make? Thank you for joining us on this episode. We appreciate you. We hope you have a lovely year, genuinely, truly, and also, if you're thinking about going plant based, we have that course for you, that step by step guide to help get you there in the next 30 days, which you can check out in the show notes.
Speaker 3:Yes, here's to 2024. Here's to 2024.
Speaker 2:Here's to the kinks and glasses and the slink. All right, Cheers y'all.
Speaker 1:Have a great rest of your day. Thank you so much for listening to the plant centered and thriving podcast today. If you found this episode inspiring, please share it with a friend or post it on social media and tag me so I can personally say thank you. Until next time, thank you.