Midweek Missive

Do you want to live to be 100?

Friends, just a quick update to this letter. If you’ve already read this, then I want to clarify. My husband is alive and kicking. I had a weird sentence indicating that he was long gone when I meant his parents. Whew! Thanks, Laura, for pointing that out.

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Hi friends, and welcome new pARTaker’s!

I haven’t done a Midweek Missive for a minute, where I write about midlife, aging, and anything other than food, art, and books. Though (spoiler) this missive does mention books. I want to share some thoughts on the 2023 Netflix series Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones because don’t we all want to live to be 100?

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Eilis Garvey on Unsplash

I spend a decent portion of my time thinking and acting as if I will live to be a centenarian. Of course, assuming I have my health and mind intact, it feels doable. That gives me thirty-eight years to go. As of now, I’m NED (no evidence of disease). My mind is sharp, even though sometimes it takes longer to remember things. That comes with age. I’ve learned the way to know if you’re not doing well mentally is this: If you don’t remember where your eyeglasses are (probably perched on top of your head) or where your keys are (maybe in the car), that’s normal for an aging mind. But if you don’t know what to do with your glasses or car keys, that’s a problem.

After watching Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones, the 2023 Netflix series based on author Dan Buettner’s 2010 book, The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer From the People Who’ve Lived the Longest, and the numerous Blue Zone books since, I realized a few things. I’ve been incorporating many life lessons and habits for longevity, “The Power 9” Buettner prescribes for most of my life. I don’t deny having lived many fast and recklessness years in the past. I’ve been affected by a chronic illness that nearly killed me, and I circled the drain after a Lonestar tick bit me. But I survived both and then some and still have hope. Interestingly, cancer in 2019 was the reason I slowed down, primarily due to two abdominal surgeries with complications, but it was also a wake-up call. I wasn’t ready to die, and I’m still not. Thankfully, I’m not entirely disabled from cancer. One of the things cancer did for me was to make me hyperaware of how fragile life is, which might explain my sudden interest in wanting to live the longest, healthiest life possible.

Zambezi River sunset, 2023, maureencberry.com

Below is Buettner’s list from the Blue Zone, The Power 9, those things that will help you live your longest, healthiest life, with notes on how I have been navigating through life to show you it’s not too late to incorporate simple changes to live your best life. Prefacing this list with the message that I could sway your life makes me feel like an imposter. I’m one person. I’m a somewhat complicated woman in the autumn of my life, but I’m also always open to change and growth. Last weekend in Nashville, my best friends of forty-four years suggested that if nothing, I’ve been able to adapt for most of my life. So with that, let’s go.

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The Power 9

1. Move Naturally, i.e., move without thinking about it.

I grew up in the south hills of Pittsburgh in the 60s and 70s, the least Blue Zone-friendly environment. The three rivers and the air quality were toxic and polluted by the steel mill industry. We ate processed food. We couldn’t afford a car, so I walked everywhere, both for economic reasons and also for exercise. As a young teen, I was shedding weight from an eating disorder, so I didn’t mind lacing my sneakers and running up and down the hilly streets in Mount Washington. (As it turns out, walking up and down hills is an essential indicator of longevity in the Blue Zone lifestyle.) But also, since I didn’t get my driver’s license until after I moved to Florida when I was thirty years old, I rode my ten-speed bicycle for the first few years of living there. Ultimately, though, necessity and a desire to travel forced the issue. Now, I walk daily (having dogs will do that) and practice light yoga daily. I cook, garden, and clean my house, i.e., I Move Naturally. Gone are the days of HIIT exercises, triathlons, and early morning power runs. I thought those activities served me well in the past (perhaps they didn’t). Now, I’m focused on preservation.

2. Purpose, i.e., why you wake up in the morning.

I said yes to an eighty-piece art exhibition 2024 before considering what that would entail. That’s my purpose these days. If you’re still raising children, that might be your purpose. But I would encourage you to consider gifting yourself ten minutes daily. There’s a reason the airlines tell us to put our masks on before helping a child or elder.

3. Downshift, i.e., de-stress each day.

We all experience stress. Buettner found people in the Blue Zone have anxiety, too. There are many ways to cultivate a practice of harmony and balance. Meditation, prayer, a twenty-minute nap. If it helps, an excellent way to keep this practice for life is to add it to your daily habits without making it a chore. As you wake up, make the bed, and brush your teeth, you can add ten minutes of prayer, meditation, or sun salutations. I find the best practice for me (since I’m no longer working in an office) is a midday break. I set a timer, lay on a mat, and meditate. I’ve learned to set the timer because I find slipping into a nap easy once I regulate my breathing. But I don’t want to sleep past twenty minutes because if I do, my nighttime sleep is affected. The midday meditation gives me a reset for the remainder of the day. Find something that works for your schedule. You’re worth the extra seven years of life expectancy.

4. 80% Rule, “‘Hara Hachi Bu,’ the Okinawan, 2500-year-old Confucian mantra said before meals remind them to stop eating when their stomachs are 80 percent full.”

This is easier said than done. In the US, we supersize food. If you eat out, you know restaurants pile food on our plates. I’m guilty of this as well. When I managed The Wooden Spoon restaurant, I filled the surface of the plates with bacon eggs, hashbrowns, platter-sized pancakes, and french toast, burritos stuffed for three people, and served mile-high biscuits with butter and jelly, or slathered with biscuits and gravy. I didn’t eat that kind of food, but my customers did and loved every bite. Now, I eat several small meals because of my reconfigured digestive system. That doesn’t mean I don’t want to eat more. I’m a lover of food, and that will never change. I have found that what works best is to not eat after 7 p.m. What time do you stop eating?

5. Plant Slant

If you’ve watched the Netflix series or read the Blue Zone books, you know beans are the main staple of most centenarian diets. This is a real challenge for me (again, my reconfigured digestive system), but I’ve always been a less meat is better eater. Now, once or twice a year, I eat a cheeseburger or a few ounces of beef topped on a salad. Occasionally, I eat pork, and I always eat fish. Portion is vital when eating animal protein. Envision a deck of cards. That’s roughly three to four ounces. That’s it, friends. Easy peasy. Primarily plants and beans. Dessert on occasion, because what’s life without pie? Here’s the Blue Zone Sardinia Minestrone recipe to get you started.

6. Wine at 5

   

Moderation and regularity are key here, though research is polarizing about consumption. I enjoy wine when I’m cooking and certainly when I am with friends. You do you.

7. Right Tribe

According to research, having a faith-based community four times a month will add 4-14 years of life expectancy. I was raised Catholic, which meant Sunday mass services, Saturday confession, and Wednesday catechism. I finally quit the Catholic church for good in my early twenties after I took a world religion course during my first year in college and realized I was attending mass intermittently when I went home on weekends to gain my mother’s approval. I have faith in God, but I also believe in science-based evidence of the universe.

8. Loved Ones First

In centenarian communities, they keep aging parents and grandparents in the home. We tend to do it backward (generally speaking) in the US. My parents are long gone, as are my husband’s parents, and his children are busy. I’m happily childfree, but as I age, it’s hard not to wonder who will care for and love me if I live to be 100. I don’t let that deter me since I’m happy being me.

9. Right Tribe

Social circles support healthy behaviors. I have my tribe. Do you have yours?

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Kalden Swart on Unsplash

Some people have genetics on their side. Suppose that’s you, congratulations. Let me know, and we can take notes together. Many of us will encounter a chronic illness or unexpected setbacks in our lifetime. We’ll continue to have stress as our planet is on fire (literally and figuratively). We’ll continue to look for our eyeglasses when invariably they’re exactly where we put them when we took them off.

I don’t purport to have all the solutions, and I’m assuming Buettner doesn't either, but he makes a compelling case for longevity and has done the research. You can increase your life span by making simple Blue Zone changes. I want to witness sunrises and sunsets, dance in the kitchen, laugh with friends, eat, drink, and be merry for as long as possible. Don’t you?

What’s your tip for longevity? Let us all know below.

I’ll return to your inbox with some fun Nashville travel tips next week. Have a beautiful, blessed day. I look forward to hearing from you.

Maureen xo