2023 Life Logs, Day 282: Transition to Cooler Weather
Date: Sunday, October 8, 2023
Weather: Partly Cloudy; High 62, Low 51 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA
We’ve had some ups and downs with the weather this summer and fall, temperatures have been up and down, but today I felt like we have finally turned the corner to cooler fall weather. I hope I am wrong, but if my prediction is right, the 70 degree days might not return until spring. Mother Earth, please, please, prove me wrong. But what I do know is that for the next few days we will have highs in the 60’s and lows in the 50’s. Then next week, both our highs and lows will be in the 50’s. I think it might be time to pull out my fall jacket and maybe turn the heat on.
I spent part of yesterday watching the first three programs in a Netflix documentary called The Blue Zones. In the early 2000’s, Dan Buettner teamed up with National Geographic to write a book about the Blue Zones. These are places in the world where more people live longer, more centenarians, than anywhere else on earth. Why just these four or five locations? What do these people do that allows them to live longer, healthier lives? Last week at my Health and Wellness group meeting, someone suggested that we watch the documentary based on Buettner’s research. I did and I took notes while watching the first three episodes. I am going to share my abbreviated notes below. I hope you will read them and try to come up with a list of the four categories that Buettner came up with and shared in episode four., the four major things you can do to live a longer, healthier life. Write down your four categories and I will share his tomorrow night so we can compare notes.
Blue Zone—Okinawa, Japan (island)
1. Medicinal Foods (add herbs that keep you healthy)
2. Caloric Density Foods (lots of vegetables instead of meat)
3. Hara Hachi Bu (stop eating when you are 80 % full)
4. Moai (getting together with small group of friends daily)
5. Ikigai (sense of purpose)
6. Balance (do things to keep physical balance to prevent falling)
Blue Zone—Sardinia, Italy (island)
1. Steepness (don’t avoid steep climbs and steps)
2. Good Carbs
3. Control Stress
4. Care for Elders (outsized reverence for elderly family members and friends)
Blue Zone—Loma Linda, California (urban suburb with heavy concentration of Seventh Day Adventists)
1. Volunteer
2. Plant-based Diet
3. Faith-based Community
4. Right Tribe (surround yourself with the people who live a heathy lifestyle)
Blue Zone—Ikaria, Greece (island off coast of Turkey)
1. Herbal Teas (sage, rosemary, common mallow)
2. Raw Local Honey
3. Partnerships of Love
4. Ikarian Wine
5. Dancing and Laughing (Panegyris)
Blue Zone–Nicoya, Costa Rica (northern Costa Rico near border of Nicaragua)
1. Plan de Vida (reason for living)
2. By Hand (avoid mechanisms that do work for you)
3. Slow Down (make time for things that are really important to you)
4. The Three Sisters (corn, beans, squash)
