Blue Zones

Albert Lea, MN is a Blue Zone community. My aunt lives there and it's been interesting to hear about the positive changes that are happening. So, I finally went to the www.bluezones.com website to see what it was all about.

Here you can take an assessment of your own life very similar to www.realage.com where, based on your answers, gives you biological "real age" compared with your actual age. I like the Blue Zone community because it seems to be more doable; more real world. Here are the top tips. The website states that you can add up to 14 good years to your life and stay younger along the way. The idea of adding "good" years strikes a note. Nice!

1. De-convenience your home – lose the remote, buy a light garage door and lift it yourself, use a shovel instead of a snowblower
2. Eat Nuts – Have a can of nuts around your office or home, eat a handful daily
3. Drink Sardinian wine – Sardinian canonau wine has the world's highest levels of antioxidants. Drink a glass or two a day
4. Play with your children – this is excellent low intensity exercise and will strenthen a family. Both associated with longer life expectancy
5. Grow a Garden – This proven stress reducer will put your body through the range of motion and yield fresh vegtables
6. Hour of Power – Downshift daily with a nap, meditation, prayer or a quiet walk--destressing is a proven way to slow aging
7. Eat Tofu – Arguably the world's most perfect food, eaten by the world's longest lived women. Contains a plant estrogen that makes skin look younger
8. Get a Tan – Doctors are rethinking the notion of slathering yourself with sunscreen. Up to half of Americans are Vitamin D deficient--a condition that can double your chance of dying in any given year. A tan not only looks healthy, it is.
9. Donate your large dinner plates – eat off 9 inch plates as the Okinawans do and reduce calorie consumption at dinner by 20-30%
10. Write Down your Personal Mission – Know and putting into practice your sense of purpose can give you up to a decade of good life.