You know how sometimes we set personal goals like read xx books, lose xx lbs, learn how to play xx instrument, write a book, but never get around accomplishing them coz it takes a lot of time and effort? According to the book Atomic Habits by James Clear, we need to reframe our minds coz the goal is not to read xx books but to become a reader, the goal is not to run a marathon but become a runner, the goal is not to play an instrument but become a musician. He says if we engrain something into our identity, we are more likely to act in alignment with that identity allowing us to build habits.
Most people are clear with their goals and results, he says, but not how to achieve the them. If you know the target outcome, you can work back by thinking about what kind of person could achieve the results e.g. if you want to lose 40 lbs, ask yourself who is the type of person who could lose 40 lbs? Most likely someone who is conscious of what he/she eats, exercises regularly and tracks his/her weight, right? So embody that fitness conscious image and do the those actions that would reinforce that image. If you want to be healthy, ask yourself what does a healthy person do e.g. what kind of food would he/she order from a restaurant menu, what kind of food would he/she cook for himself/herself, how often would he/she exercise, etc. then embody that health-conscious image and do actions that would reinforce the image.
If you want to get into reading, you can start by saying and believing that you're the type of person who likes to read. What are the characteristics of a person who likes to read? Most likely, he/she reads everyday, right? So to reinforce this reader identity, you have to do actions in alignment with this image so you read everyday - even if it's just one page a day. If you want to have an identity of someone who loves to exercise, do actions in alignment with this image so you exercise everyday - even if it's just for 15 minutes. The key is to repeat the behavior because -
The more you repeat the behavior the more you reinforce your association with that behavior. Repeated actions = evidence that you’re that person
In developing a habit, u need repetition not perfection.
If you want to develop a daily journal habit, it could be just writing 1 sentence per day. If you want to develop a daily exercise habit, one pushup is better than not exercising at all. If you want to develop a reading habit, one minute of reading is better than not picking up a book. It’s better to do less of what you hoped you would do versus do nothing at all.
Then once you've succeeded in repeating the action, you can scale up e.g. instead of reading 1 page a day, start reading 10 pages a day, later on do 20 pages per day. Instead of exercising for 15 minutes, start exercising for 30 minutes, then later on, do 1 hour workouts.
I've first read about setting identity-based goals (e.g. I'm the type of person who loves to exercise or doesn't miss workouts) versus performance-based goals (I want to be healthy) years ago and it actually worked for me in developing an exercise habit (though my exercise activities have changed since then).
When you have repeated a belief or story to yourself for years, you become that. Thus, make sure you are highly conscious of the beliefs and identities you associate yourself with because if you say “I’m not good with technology”, or “I’m not good in math”, that becomes a fact and you would resist all actions related to technology or math. But here's some great news - identities are not cast in stone and we can be whatever we want to be. So
decide what kind of person u want to be by completing the statement - I’m the type of person who.... - then prove it to yourself with small wins. Clear said that you don’t have to win all the time but you have to win the majority of the time.
Just a word of caution when deciding on identities - don’t make it role-based e.g. I’m a good athlete, I’m a good business executive, I’m a vegan, etc. because if it’s limited to a single belief, you’ll be less capable to adapt when that role changes. For example, if you define yourself as a vegan but suddenly have a health condition that requires you to change your diet, you’ll have an identity crisis. If you define yourself as an athlete or a CEO but one day retires, you’ll begin to question what are you then? The key is to have trait-based identities so even if your role changes, you’ll be able to transcend whatever challenges come your way. For example, instead of defining yourself as a good athlete, you can define yourself as a type of person who is mentally tough and loves physical challenges. Instead of defining yourself as an entrepreneur, you can define yourself as a type of person who creates and builds things. This way, even if your life drastically changes, you’ll be able to cope and not lose yourself along the way.
Imagine you've just started with a new fitness goal or a new diet plan. One day, you're eating in a restaurant and the waiter asks you - "Would you like a slice of chocolate cake for dessert?".
Would your answer be - "I can't" or "I don't" eat chocolate cake?
Without thinking really hard, either answer seems ok, right?
But guess what? Each answer has a very different psychological impact on our behavior.
"I don’t" is a choice you've made. It affirms your willpower.
"I can't" is a restriction you've imposed on yourself. It undermines your sense of power.
In a study, students who had healthy eating goals were told to either say "I can't" or "I don't" when faced with a temptation. On their way out of the lab, they were offered a chocolate bar or granola bar as reward. What were the results? 64% who answered "I don't" were able to refuse the chocolate bar and opted for the granola bar vs 39% who answered "I can't".
In another study, women with fitness goals were also asked to answer "I can't" or "I don't" when faced with a temptation to skip gym, etc. and to stop using the phrases if the phrases don't help them stick to their fitness goals. By the end of the study, 8 out of the 10 women were still using the "I don't" strategy vs only 1 out of the 10 women who used the "I can't" strategy.
I did't realize how your choice between "I can't" and "I don't" could have a tremendous impact on our behavior until I read this old article from Forbes.
Anyway, this is something to try if current strategies don't work!😉 I think the "I don't" strategy could also be used to get rid of our bad habits. Haha... 🙈😜
Ikaria (or Icaria), Greece is the fifth and last Blue Zone featured in "The Blue Zones, Second Edition: 9 Lessons for Living Longer From the People Who've Lived the Longest" by Dan Buettner.
What are Blue Zones? These are "regions of the world where people people enjoy up to 3 times better chance of reaching 100 years old than we do" Buettner explains. Where are the Blue Zones in the world?Okinawa (Japan), Sardinia (Italy), Nicoya (Costa Rica), Icaria (Greece) and Loma Linda, California.
His story is also featured in the book. What is Stamatis' story? When Stamatis was in his early 60s, he felt short of breath and he fatigued easily. His doctor took x-rays and quickly concluded that Stamatis had lung cancer... Four more doctors confirmed the diagnosis. They gave him six to nine months to live.
Stamatis considered 2 options - stay in the US where he could seek aggressive cancer treatment at the local hospital. That would allow him to remain close to his three children, who were now adults. Or he could return to Ikaria, his hometown. There, he could be buried with his parents in a sloping cemetery shaded by oak trees overlooking a cobalt blue Aegean Sea. A funeral in Boynton Beach (US) would cost at least $1,200, while a nice funeral in Ikaria would cost only about $200.
Stamatis and his wife decided to move back in with Stamatis’ elderly parents in Ikaria. During his first few weeks there, he spent his days in bed. But since he was only given a few months to live, he decided to reconnect with his religion. On Sunday mornings, he forced himself out of the house and hobbled up the hill to a tiny Greek Orthodox chapel.
When his childhood friends discovered that he had moved back, they started visiting him regularly. They would talk for hours, invariably bringing him the locally produced wine, which he sipped all day long. What the hell, he thought, I might as well die happy.
In the ensuing months, something strange happened. He started to feel stronger. He got out of bed in the afternoon and shuffled around the gardens and vineyards behind the house... He planted some potatoes, green onions, garlic, and carrots. He didn’t expect to be alive to harvest them, but he enjoyed feeling the sunshine, breathing the clean ocean air, and getting his hands dirty.
Six months came and went. Stamatis didn’t die. Instead, he was able to harvest what he planted. He went on with his island routine - he woke up late, worked in the vineyards until mid-afternoon, made himself lunch, and then took a long nap. In the evenings, he either drank wine with friends at home or walked to the local tavern where he stayed up past midnight playing dominoes. The years passed. His health continued to improve.
At the time the author interviewed Stamatis for the book, Stamatis was 100 years old and cancer-free. 😱 He never went through chemotherapy, took drugs, or sought therapy of any sort. All he did was move to Ikaria. 6 months became 35 years and still going! 💪💪
While in Ikaria, Buettner also went to meet a couple married for more than 75 years. Vasilis and Eleutheria were born on Ikaria, married in their early 20s, and lived on the same plot of land their entire lives. They raised five kids.
Like everyone else in Ikaria, their daily routine was -
Wake late, work in the garden, have a late lunch, take a nap. At sunset, they would either visit neighbors or neighbors would visit them. They would drink tea or wine, eat a late dinner, and go to bed. Their diet was also typical of the area: a breakfast of goat’s milk, condensed wine, sage tea or coffee, and honey and bread. Lunch was almost always beans (lentils, garbanzos), potatoes, greens (fennel, dandelion, or a spinach-like green called horta), and whatever seasonal vegetable their garden produced; dinner was bread and goat’s milk. Meat was reserved mostly for festivals or holidays when they would slaughter the family pig.
Wow, the Ikarian life sounds like vacation time everyday! 😊
In summary, below are the secrets to a long life of the oldest people in Ikaria, Greece as revealed in the book:
- Drink some goat’s milk. Adding some goat milk to your diet could provide a great source of calcium, potassium... goat milk is very similar to human milk which promote intestine flora. It's usually hypoallergenic and could be taken by those with lactose intolerance. - Mimic mountain living. The longest lived Ikarians tended to be poor people living in the island’s highlands. They exercised mindlessly, by just gardening, walking to their neighbor’s house, or doing their own yard work. The lesson to us: Engineer more mindless movement into our lives by living in neighborhoods with sidewalks, owning a bike, taking the stairs and planting a garden. To put simply, we don't have to be marathoners; all we need to do is to engage in regular, low-intensity physical activity during ourdaily work routine so we don't have to exercise (or go to the gym) for the sake of exercising.
- Eat a Mediterranean-style diet. Ikarians eat a variation of the Mediterranean diet, with lots of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, beans, potatoes and olive oil... Never cook with so much heat that the oil smokes. High heat breaks down healthy fats, making them much less healthy.
- People in Ikaria enjoy drinking herbal teas with family and friends, and scientists have found that they pack an antioxidant punch. Wild rosemary, sage, and oregano teas also act as a diuretic, which can keep blood pressure in check by ridding the body of excess sodium and water. The key is to drink herbal teas every day and rotate varieties.
- Nap. Take a cue from Ikarians and take a mid-afternoon break. People who nap regularly have up to 35 percent lower chances of dying from heart disease. It may be because napping lowers stress hormones or rests the heart. - Fast occasionally. Ikarians have traditionally been fierce Greek Orthodox Christians. Their religious calendar called for fasting almost half of the year. Caloric restriction—a type of fasting that cuts about 30 percent of calories out of the normal diet - is the only proven way to slow down the aging process in mammals. - Make family and friends a priority. Ikarians foster social connections, which have been shown to benefit overall health and longevity. In fact, researchers who analyzed 148 different studies found that people who weren’t connected to their communities had a 50 percent greater chance of dying during the follow-up period of seven and a half years (on average) than those who had strong social networks. So get out there and make some plans.
But as Buettner explains, each secret reinforces the other. For example, merely eating a Mediterranean diet everyday won't necessarily result to a long life if let's say, you don't have purpose or religion.
P.S. This second edition of the book was published in 2012 which means the interviews of some centenarians were conducted years before that. Some of them may have passed away already, but some could still alive and are now supercentenarians (a term which refers to people who surpass 110 years old). 💪💪💪 *Italicized text are excerpts from the book.
Nicoya, Costa Rica is the fourth Blue Zone featured in "The Blue Zones, Second Edition: 9 Lessons for Living Longer From the People Who've Lived the Longest" by Dan Buettner.
What are Blue Zones? These are "regions of the world where people people enjoy up to 3 times better chance of reaching 100 years old than we do" Buettner explains. Where are the Blue Zones in the world? Okinawa (Japan), Sardinia (Italy), Nicoya (Costa Rica), Icaria (Greece) and Loma Linda, California.
Here are some of the oldest people whom Buettner met in Nicoya:
102-year old Ofelia who could still recite from memory a six-minute poem by Pablo Neruda. (I can't even memorize a mobile number other than my own! 🙈😂)
101-year-old Don Faustino whom Buettner tagged along with on market day. Faustino routinely woke up at 4am every Saturday, took the bus going to the market (accompanied by his grandson and great grandson who lives with him) and bought the exact same items on a grocery list every week. He bought vegetables and meat from the same vendors, not minding to walk even if his favorite vendors are half a mile apart!
Don Faustino also bought corn bread as pasalubong for his son. How sweet that a 101-year old dad still brings pasalubong for his 79-year old son! 😊
Buettner asked Don Faustino about his life. Faustino told him he loved to work, mostly because the fruits of his labor have provided for his family. For most of his career, he worked as a mule driver, hauling logs out of the forested hills and acting as a courier across the largely roadless Nicoya Peninsula. He also grew corn, beans, and vegetables to feed his wife and six children. “I also had two kids with a village girl,” he said matter-of-factly, out of nowhere. “Didn’t your wife care?” Buettner asked. “I don’t know,” he shrugged. “We didn’t talk about it.” He went on to tell Buettner, unapologetically, that he never gave the children his name nor did he ever support them. “How do I know if they’re going to turn out okay?” he exclaimed as if explaining his actions. (According to a local demographer, the majority of the men, and a small percentage of the women in Nicoya, admitted to having lovers besides their spouses.)
From the market, Don Faustino passed by his son's house to deliver the corn bread and where the rest of the family is gathered - from Don Faustino up to his great-great grandsons - all 5 generations in one roof!😱 Upon seeing Don Faustino, his 78-year old daughter lit up and hugged his father and exclaimed "Oh Papa, thank you! You know I wait all week for this!".
Apparently, Don Faustino buys the same ingredients every week to cook the family's Sunday soup. After church, the family will all gather for dinner. He has been cooking this Sunday soup in the last 40 years 😮 and it is the highlight of his week. Wow.
Dr. Fernández, a local nutritionist shared, “We notice that the most highly functioning people over 90 in Nicoya have a few common traits.”One of them is that they feel a strong sense of service to others or care for their family. We see that as soon as they lose this, the switch goes off. They die very quickly if they don’t feel needed.”
91-year old Aureliano but who looks like only 60! Buettner saw Aureliano with a machete whacking weeds, pruning trees, and chasing away vermin. How can a 91-year old possibly do all that????😱 All the nonagenarians I know need assistance when walking or are in wheelchairs or are bedridden.
Aureliano is still living the traditional Nicoyan lifestyle planting and harvesting his own vegetables and fruits, grinding corn to make home-made tortillas, etc. Though Aureliano has lived all his life in relative poverty, he is robust and looks young because of his fresh, organic and nutrient-rich diet.
100-year old Panchita (partially deaf and blind) whom Buettner cites as the most extraordinary among all the centenarians he has met. Here's how Panchita described her young life -
“In those days, there were no roads in Nicoya. My father owned a guesthouse, and occasionally mule trains would come by. I woke up at three each morning to make coffee and tortillas for the men who stayed overnight. I took care of my parents,” she said. Then, turning to me, she scolded congenially, “It’s like this, Papi. Those who honor their parents are rewarded by God.”
Panchita eluded questions about her husband and the father of her children. From her answers, we were able to ascertain that she did raise her children mostly by herself. They all lived with Panchita’s parents until they died, then Panchita inherited their farm. There, the family grew most of their own food. When they needed salt or sugar, Panchita would walk the 18 miles to town and back to get it. “Life was hard those days..."
Then Panchita shared a tragedy which happened 50 years ago -
“They killed my son,” she shared. “When he was a beautiful 20-year-old man, he got into a stupid fight with a friend, and he killed my son.”
“God does everything for a reason, though,” Panchita resumed brightly. “I am a blessed woman today.” Buettner noted that Panchita’s faith was amazing—her unwavering belief that no matter how bad things got, God would take care of everything. He also noticed that when you ask the most highly functioning seniors how they are, they always say, ‘I feel good … thanks to God.’ Yet they may be blind, deaf, and their bones hurt.
Late in the morning, the neighbor boy, 10-year-old Luis, arrived, as he does each day, to help Panchita catch her free-range chickens and put them in the coop. Later, her 31-year-old neighbor, Carmen Gómez, stopped by to help Panchita sweep her floors. “I don’t come here because I have to,” she told me when I asked. “Panchita has a way of making my day happier. Everyone in Hojancha loves her.” Awww.... 😍
Panchita's 80-year-old son, Tommy, also biked to see her each day. Awww.... 😍
Panchita had no packaged or processed foods. All her food required preparation except the fresh fruit. And she still cooked on a wood-burning fogón. Yes, she's still the one cooking! 😲 She still grinds corn kernels using a hand crank to make tortilla dough and roast them over the open fire. 😲 And when she slices cheese, Buettner said she could still cut paper-thin slices considering she could barely see the cheese coz she's partially blind. Wow. 😱
In about 30 minutes, Panchita finished preparing their lunch—small portions of beans, corn tortillas, and one egg on a small plate. Whoa... 😱 In 30 minutes, the only way I can produce that lunch is to heat beans (in a can!), toast ready-made tortilla and fry an egg OR get take-out food. 🙈😂
90-year old Juvenil but who also looks like he's only 60! When Buettner saw him in the jungle, he was shirtless and was fiercely chopping wood. How can a 90-year old be chopping wood??? 😱😱
When Buettner asked him some questions, here are his answers:
What do you eat? “Beans, tortillas, fruit, and once a year, beef when I butcher a cow.”
When do you go to bed? “When the sun sets.”
When do you wake up? “When the sun rises.”
A middle-aged woman named Aida who was visiting their nonagerian Nicoyan friends in a place called Juan Diaz. You know how far she and her husband walked to visit their elderly friends? 5 miles and walked for 2 hours. Whoa... 😲
When Buettner asked Aida how their typical day is, here's how she describes it -
“We wake up when the sun rises. I make breakfast for the family and then Ananias (her husband) takes our boys into the fields. Meanwhile the girls and I stay home and clean up. At noon or so, the men come back. We eat our ‘strong’ meal and then relax. We maybe visit someone like today or someone visits us. We have a light dinner. Usually we’re in bed by 8:30,” she concluded. “Since we don’t have TV, there’s not much for us to do after sunset.”
“And for food, what does one eat in Juan Díaz?” Buettner asked. “Beans and rice,” replied Aida, and after a well-timed pause added: “Or rice and beans. It depends how we feel.” Everyone laughed. “We eat what God provides,” Ananias said, now serious. “Eggs, rice, beans. Sometimes we kill a chicken.”
“We don’t need much,” Aida interjected, heading off an implication of poverty. “We’re satisfied..." she trailed off. “You have to keep busy,” she resumed, now answering a question I did not pose. “When people have too much time they get involved with vices. Here we have enough to do. We stay busy enough to keep the Devil away, but not so much that we get stressed. It’s a clean, pure life.”
“But don’t you ever get bored?” Buettner asked coz when he looked around, there was no TV, no radio, or electronic entertainment of any sort. “What do you do to entertain yourself?” he asked.
“I find a patch of shade and eat an orange,” Aida answered, not skipping a beat.
Wow. Such meaningful and wisdom-packed answers. We should learn a lot from the Nicoyans.
In summary, here are the secrets to a long life of the oldest people in Nicoya, Costa Rica as revealed in the book:
- Have a plan de vida. Successful centenarians have a strong sense of purpose. They feel needed and want to contribute to a greater good. - Drink hard water. Nicoyan water has the country’s highest calcium content, perhaps explaining the lower rates of heart disease, as well as stronger bones and fewer hip fractures. - Keep a focus on family. Nicoyan centenarians tend to live with their families, and children or grandchildren provide support and sense of purpose and belonging. - Eat a light dinner. Eating fewer calories appears to be one of the surest ways to add years to your life. - Maintain social networks. Nicoyan centenarians get frequent visits from neighbors. They know how to listen, laugh, and appreciate what they have. - Keep hard at work. Centenarians seem to have enjoyed physical work all of their lives. They find joy in everyday physical chores. - Get some sensible sun. Nicoyans regularly take in the sunshine, which helps their bodies produce vitamin D for strong bones and healthy body function. Regular, “smart” sun exposure is about 15 minutes on the legs and arms. - Modern Nicoyans’ roots to the indigenous Chorotega and their traditions have enabled them to remain relatively free of stress. Their traditional diet of fortified maize and beans may be the best nutritional combination for longevity the world has ever known.
P.S. This second edition of the book was published in 2012 which means the interviews of some centenarians were conducted years before that. Some of them may have passed away already, but some could still alive and are now supercentenarians (a term which refers to people who surpass 110 years old). 💪💪💪 *Italicized text are excerpts from the book.
Loma Linda is the third Blue Zone featured in "The Blue Zones, Second Edition: 9 Lessons for Living Longer From the People Who've Lived the Longest" by Dan Buettner.
What are Blue Zones? These are "regions of the world where people people enjoy up to 3 times better chance of reaching 100 years old than we do" Buettner explains. Where are the Blue Zones in the world? Okinawa (Japan), Sardinia (Italy), Nicoya (Costa Rica), Icaria (Greece) and Loma Linda, California.
Loma Linda is Spanish for “lovely hill” and the centenarians here are Adventists whose religion discourages the consumption of meat in general, as well as rich foods, caffeinated drinks, and even “stimulating” condiments and spices. Some of the most conservative Adventists don’t also believe in going to the movies or the theater or indulging in any other form of popular culture. There's a saying that “Cleanliness is next to Godliness"; for Adventists, healthiness is next to Godliness.
One of the Adventist centenarians whom Buettner met is 100-year old Marge Jetton. Marge woke up at 4:30am and after getting dressed, she did what she called “my devotions,” reading lyrics in the song hymnal, and then the Bible.
After praying, Marge walked in the hallway to the other end of the building of the facility for the elderly, back and forth six times, total of about a mile! 😱💪 She would stop by the dining area and drink a glass of water every time she passes there, thus she ends up drinking 6 glasses of water before breakfast. 😱
Not only does she power-walk but also rides a stationary bike and does 6 to 8 miles a day (😱) and also weight-lifts! She lifts a 5 pound dumbbell for each hand. 😱 Shame on me, my dumbbells at home are only 2 pounds each! 🙈🙊😂😂
Here are some words of wisdom from Marge -
“It took me a year to realize that the world wasn’t going to come to me,” Marge said. “That’s when I started volunteering again, and it was the best thing to ever happen to me. I found that when you are depressed, that’s when you do something for somebody else.
When asked if she ever got lonely, she replied - “Well, sure, you miss people. Most of my friends have died. My husband is dead,” she said matter-of-factly. “But I just like to talk to people. My motto is: A stranger is a friend we haven’t met yet.
Buettner also interviewed an Adventist nonagenarian, Ellsworth Wareham, who was 91 at that time. At 91, he still performs open-heart surgery! 😱 He assists in open heart surgeries about two to three times per week. 😱 He shares - “My hands are still steady, my vision is good, and I don’t have Alzheimer’s disease."To increase my endurance I exercise regularly by doing my own landscape maintenance and gardening. But in recent years, in spite of adequate exercise, my stamina is decreasing. The hormones that build the muscles are diminished. (Oh my, I am not even half of Wareham's age but I could feel my stamina is decreasing and have memory lapses! Tsk-tsk.... 🙈😂)
In summary, here are the secrets to a long life of the longest-living Adventists in Loma Linda, California as revealed in the book:
- A combination of four types of exercise will keep the body balanced and strong. Endurance: Activities like walking, hiking, swimming, and cycling improve the health of the cardiovascular system. Strength: Lifting weights builds up and maintains muscles. Flexibility: Stretching keeps us limber and flexible. Balance: Practicing balance through activities like yoga will help avoid falls.
- Studies have found that a belly laugh a day may keep the doctor away. In 2005, researchers at the University of Maryland showed that laughter helped relax blood vessels, linking it to healthier function and a possible decreased risk of heart attack. Others have found that laughter may lower blood pressure and increase the amount of disease-fighting cells found in the body.
- Find a sanctuary in time. A weekly break from the rigors of daily life, the 24-hour Sabbath provides a time to focus on family, God, camaraderie, and nature. During Sabbath, they shut off the television, not think about work or business, and just spend time with the people who are important to them. Adventists claim this relieves their stress, strengthens social networks, and provides consistent exercise. Sabbath reminds Adventists that they are creatures and not creators. It reminds them that they don’t need to have all the answers, that they recognize their finite capabilities, and that they are dependent on God.
- Adventists with healthy BMIs (meaning they have an appropriate weight for their heights) who keep active and eat meat sparingly, if at all, have lower blood pressure, lower blood cholesterol, and less cardiovascular disease than heavier Americans with higher BMIs.
- You don’t need to be a marathoner to maximize your life expectancy. Getting regular, low-intensity exercise like daily walks appears to help reduce your chances of having heart disease and certain cancers.
- Spend time with like-minded friends.
- Adventists who consume nuts at least five times a week have about half the risk of heart disease and live about two years longer than those who don’t.
- Give something back. Like many faiths, the Seventh-day Adventist Church encourages and provides opportunities for its members to volunteer.
-Adventist Health Studies (AHS) show that consuming fruits and vegetables and whole grains seems to be protective against a wide variety of cancers. For those who prefer to eat some meat, Adventists recommend small portions served as a side dish rather than as the main meal.
- A light dinner early in the evening avoids flooding the body with calories during the inactive parts of the day. It seems to promote better sleep and a lower BMI.
- Non-smoking Adventists who ate 2 or more servings of fruit per day had about 70 percent fewer lung cancers than nonsmokers who ate fruit only once or twice a week. Adventists who ate legumes such as peas and beans 3 times a week had a 30 to 40 percent reduction in colon cancer. Adventist women who consumed tomatoes at least three or four times a week reduced their chance of getting ovarian cancer by 70 percent over those who ate tomatoes less often.
- Adventist Health Studies (AHS) suggest that men who drank 5 or 6 daily glasses of water had a substantial reduction in the risk of a fatal heart attack—60 to 70 percent—compared to those who drank considerably less.
P.S. This second edition of the book was published in 2012 which means the interviews of some centenarians were conducted years before that. Some of them may have passed away already, but some could still alive and could now be supercentenarians (a term which refers to people who surpass 110 years old). 💪💪
Okinawa, Japan is the second Blue Zone featured in "The Blue Zones, Second Edition: 9 Lessons for Living Longer From the People Who've Lived the Longest" by Dan Buettner, a book which I am currently reading.
What are Blue Zones? These are "regions of the world where people people enjoy up to 3 times better chance of reaching 100 years old than we do" Buettner explains. Where are the Blue Zones in the world? Okinawa (Japan), Sardinia (Italy), Nicoya (Costa Rica), Icaria (Greece) and Loma Linda, California.
One of the centenarians whom Buettner interviewed was 102-year old Kamada. What is her story?
At age 18, Kamada entered into an arranged, political marriage with a man four years older than her. They had 3 sons and 3 daughters. Her husband died ten years ago, at age 96. When asked what his her secret to surviving 75 years of marriage, she simply replied “I learned to be patient.”
When asked to describe her daily routine, she said “I wake up at about 6 a.m. and make a pot of jasmine tea and eat my breakfast—usually miso soup with vegetables. Then,” she pointed toward her door, “I go to the sacred grove to pray for the health of the village and thank the gods for making it safe.”
Kamada is a noro, some kind of spiritual leader where the health of the village depends upon her paying attention to the stars and the moon and the spirits of her ancestors. Roles are very important in Okinawa. They call it ikigai—the reason for waking up in the morning. A sudden loss of a person’s traditional role can have a measurable effect on mortality. We see this especially among teachers and policemen who die very soon after they quit working. Police and teachers have very clear senses of purpose and relatively high status. Once they retire, they lose both of those qualities and they tend to decline rapidly.
At noon, Kamada said, she wanders into the kitchen garden behind her house to harvest some herbs and vegetables for her lunch. “I’ll use mugwort to give my rice flavor or turmeric to spice my soup,” she said. “I don’t eat very much any more. Usually just stir-fried vegetables and maybe some tofu.” “And meat?” I asked. “Oh yes, I like meat, but not always. When I was a girl, I ate it only during the New Year festivals. I’m not in the habit of eating it every day.”
All day long she nurses a pot of hot, green tea. Before each meal she takes a moment to say hara hachi bu, and that keeps her from eating too much.”
Hara hachi bu is a Confucian-inspired adage which Japanese old folks say before eating. Hara hachi bu means ‘Eat until you are 80% full.’ This means cutting your calories by 20% every time you eat. The mindset of Okinawans is to stop eating as soon as they no longer feel hungry while most of us eat until we feel full! 🙈 That difference between the 2 mindsets is about 500 calories a day if your daily calorie intake is at at least 2,400.
Most afternoons Kamada naps, does some light gardening, and then, at 4 p.m. or so, joins a group of lifelong friends—her moai—for sake and gossip. She eats a very light dinner before 6 p.m. that might include some fish soup, whatever vegetables are in season, some spring onions, salad, and rice. She’s usually in bed by 9 p.m.
What is moai? It means “meeting for a common purpose”—originated as a means of a village’s financial support system. If someone needed capital to buy a parcel of land or take care of an emergency, the only way was to pool money locally. Today the idea has expanded to become more of a social support network, a ritualized vehicle for companionship.
When asked what is Kamada's secret to living to age 102, Kamada replied:
“I used to be very beautiful,” Kamada replied. “I had hair that came down to my waist. It took me a long time to realize that beauty is within. It comes from not worrying so much about your own problems. Sometimes you can best take care of yourself by taking care of others.” “Anything else?” “Eat your vegetables, have a positive outlook, be kind to people, and smile.”
That's Kamada's secret! And there's nothing even scientific about it.
Another Okinawan centenarian whom Buettner met is 102-year old Gozei. For most of her life, Gozei had worked in the mountains barefoot, cutting firewood and carrying it back to the village to sell. When she was 18 her parents arranged a marriage to a local farmer. They had 4 children.
Here's an amazing anecdote in Gozei's life:
Once when Gozei was working in the mountains, she came upon a much bigger woman who had been bitten by a habu—a potentially deadly poisonous viper indigenous to the island. Gozei, who weighs about 85 pounds, cut off a strip of her dress to apply a tourniquet to the bite, then hoisted the woman onto her back. She carried the woman four-and-a-half miles back to sea and into a boat that she rowed to a neighboring village for help. The woman survived. Gozei was 62 then.
At 102, Gozei lived independently in a tiny wood-and-rice-paper house. She tends a vegetable garden daily and harvests three times annually—mostly garlic, bitter melon (goya), scallions, and turmeric. She reads the comics her grandchildren give her and loves watching baseball games on television. She cooks for herself, washes the dishes and cleans her home.S Late afternoon is her favorite time of the day, when neighbors stop by for a visit.
She makes daily offering to her ancestors, a ritual that is a cornerstone of Okinawa spiritual life. She stands in front of a wall which held a collection of vases with flowers, urns, and old photographs. Gozei lit a few sticks of incense and recited a series of prayers bowing toward the altar.
“This is what we call ancestor veneration. Older Okinawan women have great respect for their deceased ancestors. They believe that if they make the proper offerings in the morning, the ancestors will watch over them for the rest of the day. It’s like if something bad happens, it was meant to happen; if something good happens, it’s because the ancestors were looking out for them. It’s a great stress reducer for these people. They relinquish worries to a higher power.”
What else is amazing about Gozei? At age 102, she could spring up and down from a tatami mat on the floor!💪💪💪 (I'm not even half Gozei's age but I can't spring up from a squatting position!🙈😂)
Another centenarian whom Buettner met is 104-year old Kamata Arashino. What's her life story? In 1945, when she was 43 years old during WW2, she, her children and other villagers were hiding in a cave coz they were told that if American soldiers captured them, they’d be tortured to death. So in the event of capture, villagers were given suicide bombs they could detonate for a painless ending.
US Troops advanced from the beach toward the cave. The villagers made a hasty decision to detonate the bomb. But a split second before the bomb went off, Kamata decided that she wanted to live. She rushed her children to the back of the cave.
Over half of the people on the island died. Kamata and family were captured by the Americans but the Americans didn't hurt them. Eventually, the war ended and prosperity came in Okinawa.
When Buettner asked Kamata about her experience in the cave, she just simply replied:
“Yes, I was there. There was a great explosion and I lived, my children and I. This is enough!” she said, chopping the air with her hand. “I’m tired of the past. I don’t want to talk about it. I’m happy now. I have enough to eat. I’m surrounded by my friends. Why relive misery when better times have arrived? I’ve lived those hardships, and now they serve me well because they allow me to enjoy today.”
So nice to hear such beautiful words of wisdom from these Okinawan centanarians! I love to read real stories and listen to life lessons like these, not because I want to live a long life (😬), but to learn from those who have been there. It's also to minimize the stupid things I might do in life coz if you think about it, some of the mistakes we commit are obvious mistakes yet we still do them anyway. 🙈🙊😂
In summary, the book lists down the following secrets to a long life of Okinawa's centenarians:
- Embrace an ikigai. Older Okinawans can readily articulate the reason they get up in the morning. Their purpose-imbued lives gives them clear roles of responsibility and feelings of being needed well into their 100s. A sense of purpose may come from something as simple as seeing that children or grandchildren grow up well. It can also come from a job or a hobby, something that gives you sense of freedom, enjoyment, fulfillment, and skill.
- Older Okinawans have eaten a plant-based diet most of their lives. Their meals of stir-fried vegetables, sweet potatoes, and tofu are high in nutrients and low in calories. Goya, with its antioxidants and compounds that lower blood sugar, is of particular interest. While centenarian Okinawans do eat some pork, it is traditionally reserved only for infrequent ceremonial occasions and taken only in small amounts. - Do gardening. Older Okinawans grow or once grew a garden. Its also a physical activity that exercises the body with a wide range of motion and helps reduce stress. It’s also a good source of fresh vegetables.
- Eat more soy. The Okinawan diet is rich foods made with soy, like tofu and miso soup. Flavonoids in tofu may help protect the hearts and guard against breast cancer.
- Maintain a moai. The Okinawan tradition of forming a moai provides secure social networks. It's their stress-shedding security of knowing that there is always someone there for them.
- Enjoy the sunshine. Vitamin D, produced by the body when it’s exposed on a regular basis to sunlight, promotes stronger bones and healthier bodies.
- Exercise. They are active walkers and gardeners. And having very little furniture, residents take meals and relax sitting on tatami mats on the floor. The fact that old people get up and down off the floor several dozen times daily builds lower body strength and balance,
- Mugwort, ginger, and turmeric are all staples of an Okinawan garden, and all have proven medicinal qualities. By consuming these every day, Okinawans may be protecting themselves against illness.
- They have affable smugness. They’re able to let their difficult early years remain in the past while they enjoy today’s simple pleasures. They’ve learned to be likable and to keep younger people in their company well into their old age.
BTW, I like a quote in the book given by one of those whom Buettner collaborated with. He pointed out that Okinawans throughout their life, eat a lot of vegetables which are powerful anti-inflammatory, antiviral, anticancer drugs like garlic, mugwort, turmeric. He said, “You know, you don’t just wake up one day and have cancer. It’s a process, not an event. And prevention is the same way; it has to be a daily activity." This is a good insight coz I think most of us have this misconception that one day, you could just catch cancer and we forget that if we do get sick, it's not just because of genes but also due to a lot of other little things we've probably done over our lifetime.
P.S. This second edition of the book was published in 2012 which means the interviews of some centenarians were conducted years before that. Some of them may have passed away already, but some could still alive and are now supercentenarians (a term which refers to people who surpass 110 years old). 💪💪💪 I quickly googled one of them - Kamada - and guess what? According to Fandom, Kamada passed away only last year in Sept 2017. 😢 You know at what age? 113 years and 134 days old. Wow. 😱
I'm currently reading "The Blue Zones, Second Edition: 9 Lessons for Living Longer From the People Who've Lived the Longest" by Dan Buettner.
What are Blue Zones? These are regions of the world where people live much longer than average or as Buettner describes - "where people enjoy up to 3 times better chance of reaching 100 years old than we do". Where are the Blue Zones in the world? Buettner identified five geographic regions in the world as follows: Okinawa (Japan), Sardinia (Italy), Nicoya (Costa Rica), Icaria (Greece) and Loma Linda, California.
In the book, Buettner attempts to identify what the longest-living people eat, what physical activities they do, how they socialize, how they deal with stress, how they heal themselves or avoid disease, etc. and see if there are common denominators among the 5 blue zones.
I'm just in the first Blue Zone which is Sardinia, Italy and it's amazing to learn about their lives and hear profound thoughts about life.
But first off, there was something in the intro of the book which caught my attention. Buettner shares that "Scientific studies suggest that only about 25 percent of how long we live is dictated by genes, according to famous studies of Danish twins. The other 75 percent is determined by our lifestyles and the everyday choices we make. It follows that if we optimize our lifestyles, we can maximize our life expectancies within our biological limits."
It caught my attention coz oftentimes, we use our genes as an excuse for everything - why we gain weight easily, or why it's hard to lose weight, or why our blood sugar/cholesterol level is high... 🙈😜 So noted, 75% of how long we live is actually within our control. 😆
Anyway, going back to Sardinia, it's amazing how centenarians are revered there. Everyone knows them and are treated like celebrities. Buettner shares that in taverns instead of seeing posters of women in bikinis or sports cars, you'd see calendars of their centenarians. How cool is that? 💪💪
Buettner goes on to describe what he has discovered - Most centenarians in Sardinia spent their time somewhere between their bed and their favorite sitting chair. Their days were punctuated by meals with their families and perhaps a stroll to meet friends. As a rule, they had worked hard their whole lives as farmers or shepherds. Their lives unfolded with daily and seasonal routines. They raised families who were now caring for them. Their lives were extraordinarily ordinary—with one exception.
Here's an example of an exception - in the life of 102-year-old Giuseppe Mura - whose life sounds like a movie plot material. Here you go -
Giuseppe was raised by a single mother. His father got his mother pregnant and then went off to war. When he returned, he took up with another woman and soon got her pregnant too, leaving Giuseppe and her mother alone. One Sunday morning, when Giuseppe’s father was on his way to church with his new wife, Giuseppe’s mother intercepted him and shot him dead, murdered him right on the church steps. The police put her in jail, but everyone in the village knew that her honor had been violated. The police let her out after only four months. The other child, Giuseppe’s half brother, was named Raimondo Arca. Giuseppe did not even know he had a half brother until one day when he was 17 years old and was playing a Sardinian game with other boys in the village square. “It was a game of elimination, much like rock, paper, and scissors.." Giuseppe and Raimondo found themselves in a final round of elimination when a dispute erupted and a fistfight ensued. Raimondo was giving Giussepe a licking when a passing villager who knew the story of their mothers broke them up saying, ‘Brothers shouldn’t fight.’ The secret was out, and once they learned it, they became friends and remained so ever since. Guess what? Raimondo is still alive and lives right down the street. The whole village celebrated when the two of them turned 100.
The story could have broken Giussepe (or Raimondo) or made him remorseful or rebellious, but it's amazing how he went through life gracefully and how he welcomed his long lost brother so openly and immediately after they found each other.
After learning about Giussepe's lifestyle, Buettner thought of participating in the life of a Sardinian farmer to observe more closely. He met with a 75-year-old shepherd in the 3,000-year-old village of Silanus who still tended his own sheep, made his own wine, and lived in a traditional Sardinian home. His name was Tonino Tola.
Tonino and Giovanna married when they were in their early 20s, and they quickly had four children. When their family was young, in the 1950s, they were very poor. They ate what they produced on their land—mostly bread, cheese, and vegetables (zucchini, tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant, and most significantly, fava beans). Meat was at best a weekly affair, boiled on Sunday with pasta and roasted during festivals. They usually sold their animals to buy grain staples, from which they made their pastas and traditional breads Sheep and goat milk products contributed most of the protein. Their small vineyard grew Cannonau grapes for wine. Almost every day for the past 70 years, Tonino had walked or ridden his donkey the 5-mile journey (whoa!😲) to tend his sheep on his family’s mountaintop pasture.
Take note, that's a 5-mile journey almost every day in the last 70 years, doing the same thing and seeing the same scenery every day. Buettner asked if Tonino ever gets bored.
You know what Tonino answered?
“I’ve loved living here every day of my life. I love my animals and taking care of them. We don’t really need the cow that I butchered today. Half of the meat will go to my son, and most of the other half we’ll share with our neighbors. But without the animals and the work it takes to raise them, I would be sitting in my house doing nothing; I would have little purpose in life. When I think of them, I think of my children. I like it when my kids come home and they find something here that I have produced.”
What beautiful answer! 😊 He clearly knows what matters in life.
Buettner interviewed another Sardinian, Giovanni Sannai, 103. He drank goat’s milk for breakfast, walked at least six miles a day, and loved to work. For most of his life, he woke early and spent his day in the pastures. In the winter months, from November to April, he would herd his sheep over 100 miles to grassier lowland pastures. He made these journeys on foot, sleeping in pinnettas at night and eating only carta da musica bread, pecorino cheese, wine, sheep’s milk, and the occasional roasted lamb—which they could obtain along the way.
When Buettner asked if Giovanni had ever been stressed in his life, Buettner said he looked flummoxed (perplexed) so he asked the question in a different way.
Giovanni replied:
“Sometimes, but my wife was in charge of the house, and I was in charge of the field,” he said. “What’s there to worry about in the field?” Then he added, “Mostly I’ve always tried to remember that when you get good things from life, enjoy them, because they won’t be there forever.”
What a sense of humor and such wisdom! Can their wisdom and profound thoughts be implanted into my tiny brain? 😂
And similar to Tonino, Giovanni never gets tired of his surroundings. In fact, he takes a few moments each day to admire the view of the island from his pastureland perch—though he’s seen the same vista nearly every day for almost 80 years. Wow.
Sadly, Buettner points out, modernization is little by little changing the Sardinian lifestyle. Technology is replacing long work hours and manual labor. The availability of vehicles is eliminating their need to walk long distances. Junk foods are slowly replacing their traditional foods. Buettner said that in 1960, almost no one in Sardinia’s Blue Zone was overweight. Now 15 percent of adolescents are. 😔 I just hope that even with the trimmings of modern life, the core values of Sardinians when it comes to family, remains the same.
Anyway, to recap, here are the secrets to a long life of the oldest living Sardinians as revealed in the book:
The classic Sardinian diet consists of whole-grain bread, beans, garden vegetables, fruits, and, in some parts of the island, mastic oil. Sardinians also traditionally eat pecorino cheese made from grass-fed sheep, whose cheese is high in omega-3 fatty acids. Meat is largely reserved for Sundays and special occasions.
Put family first.
Drink goat’s milk.
Celebrate elders. Grandparents can provide love, childcare, financial help, wisdom, and expectations/motivation to perpetuate traditions and push children to succeed in their lives.
Take a walk. Walking five miles a day or more as Sardinian shepherds do, provides all the cardiovascular benefits you might expect, and also has a positive effect on muscle and bone metabolism without the joint-pounding of running marathons or triathlons.
Drink a glass or two of red wine daily.
Men in this Blue Zone are famous for their sardonic sense of humor. They gather in the street each afternoon to laugh with and at each other. Laughter reduces stress, which can lower one’s risk of cardiovascular disease.
P.S. This second edition of the book was published in 2012 which means the interviews of some centenarians were conducted years before that. Some of them may have passed away already, but some could still alive and are now supercentenarians (a term which refers to people who surpass 110 years old). 💪💪💪
I've been drinking lemon juice in the morning for several years now but I stopped for sometime when I noticed that my teeth has become sensitive when I eat ice cream or eat something extremely sour like green mangoes or vinegar.
Apparently, when we consume foods that contain citric acid such as lemons, they weaken our tooth enamel. To prevent this, you can do things: (1) use a straw to minimize contact between lemon water and teeth and (2) don't brush your teeth immediately after drinking lemon water.
With this, sharing with you my updated cheat sheet on the proper way to drink Lemon Juice -
1. Brush your teeth before drinking lemon juice. This is optional depending on your preference whether to brush your teeth before and/or after breakfast.
2. Squeeze 1/2 lemon into a glass of water (I use room temperature water).
3. Drink through a straw to minimize contact with teeth. I use a reusable glass straw.
4. Rinse mouth right after drinking lemon juice (or any drink/food that's acidic to prevent the weakening of tooth enamel).
5. Avoid brushing teeth for the next 30 to 60 minutes after drinking lemon juice (or any drink/food that's acidic). This waiting time would allow calcium in our saliva to re-mineralize our teeth.
While I was reading up on Emma Morano last week who lived up to 117 years old, I came across articles about Jeanne Calment who is recognized as the person who lived the longest human life span. How long did she live? 122 years and 164 days, outliving her daughter and grandson. 😲😲 She was born in 1875 and passed away in 1997.
But unlike Morano who had some challenges in family life and had to work in a factory to fend for herself, Calment's life was a privileged one. Her dad was a shipbuilder and her mom came from a family of millers, both from Arles, France. Yes, the same Arles where Vincent Van Gogh spent considerable time. Calment even remembered meeting Van Gogh when she was a teenager in her uncle's shop where Van Gogh bought canvas.
After getting her diploma at 16, Calment did several activities like painting and piano lessons while awaiting marriage. At age 21, she got married to a second cousin who was a wealthy shop owner. Her husband's wealth allowed her not to work for life. She kept herself busy by pursuing hobbies such as fencing, cycling, tennis, swimming, rollerskating, watching operas and playing the piano.
Her husband passed away when Calment was 67 years old. Both of them ate dessert with preserved cherries which were treated with copper sulfate. Her husband developed jaundice and died from the poisoning after one and a half months. Calment, having eaten fewer cherries, fortunately survived. Her daughter died of pneumonia and her grandson died from an automobile accident.
At age 90 with no heirs, she struck a deal with a lawyer, age 47, to sell her apartment. The deal was that the buyer would pay her a monthly fee until she died and upon which, the apartment's ownership would be transferred to the buyer. Since you're dealing with a 90-year old seller, one would think it's such a bargain, right? Except that Calment lived up to age 122. She even outlived the buyer who passed away at age 77. The buyer's heirs had to continue to pay the monthly dues to Calment. At the end of Calment's life, the total payments made to her for 32 years were more than double her apartment's value. 😱
Calment lived alone from age 88 (after her grandson died) and only moved to a nursing home at age 110. And guess what? She rode the bicycle until the age of 100! 😲
Here were some of Calment's recorded daily rituals between at age 111 to 114:
She started her day at 6:45am with a long prayer by her window thanking God for being alive and for the beautiful day that was about to start. Sometimes, she would loudly ask the reason for her longevity and why she was the only one alive in her family.
While seated on her armchair, she did some flexing exercises.
Her breakfast consisted of coffee with milk, and rusks (dry, hard biscuit or twice-baked bread).
She washed herself unassisted. She applied olive oil on her skin and powder.
She washed her own cutlery before going to lunch. She liked braised beef and she wasn't too keen on boiled fish. She made herself a daily fruit salad using banana slices and squeezed orange.
After eating, she smoked a cigarette (in her earlier years, it was a cigar) and drank a small amount of Port Wine.
In the afternoon, she took a nap for 2 hours in her armchair and when she woke up, she would go around the nursing home to share what news she heard from the radio.
At night, she would have dinner and return to her room to listen to music, smoked a last cigarette and went to bed at 10pm.
Like Morano, there are so many surprising things about Calment's lifestyle which don't follow the conventional healthy habits. The most glaring ones are -
She loved chocolates - she consumed 2 pounds of chocolates a week! In one article I read, it states that she only stopped eating chocolates at age 119!
She started smoking cigars at age 21 (influenced by the husband) and she only quit smoking at age 117!
A public health researcher who co-authored Calment's biography thinks that Calment's secret to longevity is her immunity to stress. Calment once said - If you can't do anything about it, don't worry about it. Another article I read concluded "Thought over lifestyle". 😂😂 But I leave it up to you to draw your own takeaways from Calment's life.
I was going through some of the articles I've bookmarked and one of them is a story published earlier this year about the world's oldest person passing away at age 117.
Emma Morano when she celebrated her 117th bday (Source)
Emma Morano, an Italian, is the last surviving person from the 19th century having been born in 1899. That's the same year when Guglielmo Marconi successfully transmitted the first radio signal. And that was 4 years before the Wright Brothers successfully flew the first airplane.
Just imagine what she has witnessed throughout her lifetime - not just the 2 World Wars but also in terms of the progress in infrastructure, technology, ways of doing things, people's values and behavior, among many other things. 😮
When I was in high school, personal computers were still super expensive and I remember we first learned how to type using a typewriter.
Just thinking about the evolution of typewriter to a personal computer, floppy diskette to cloud-based storage, rotary phone to smartphone, walkman to Spotify (and all formats in between) - are all mind-blowing to me.
Evolution of storage devices - from floppy diskette to CD to SD card to
USB and today, cloud-based storage (Source)
Evolution of the telephone - from rotary phones to cellphones and today, smartphones. (Source)
Evolution of music players - from Walkman to mp3 players to ipods and
today, online music streaming like Spotify (Source)
What more for Morano whose lifetime spanned 3 centuries?!
Having enjoyed a long life one might easily conclude that Morano's life might have been easy but nope, she had a very challenging life. As she shared in past interviews, she was forced to marry a man she didn't love (who threatened to kill her if she didn't marry him), gave birth to a child who died at 6 months' old and separated from his husband coz he was abusive.
What about her occupation? She was a factory worker until age 65 then from there, she worked in a kitchen of a boarding school until age 75. That leaves her with 42 more years post-retirement! 😮 😮😮 There's nothing much written about what her daily routine was like after retirement. But I am curious to know what activities kept Morano's life busy for those 42 years of active life.
Morano was a devout Catholic and wore the rosary on her neck up until her latter years when she was prevented from wearing them for fear that it would choke her while she was asleep.
She also had a penchant for clocks. She had a collection in her home and she also loved to give them as gifts. This is very interesting - to some people, clocks may cause stress. Like me, I don't like to keep a clock in my bedroom coz the ticking sound at night makes me feel more pressured when I couldn't sleep. Haha... 😂
When asked what Morano's secret to a long life is in 2013 (when she was 114 years old), she said she ate 3 eggs a day, drank a glass of homemade grappa (grape-based brandy), enjoyed chocolate sometimes, and above all, she thought positively about the future.
In 2016 when she turned 117 years old, she was again asked the same question. This time, Morano credited her long life to her diet of raw eggs (reduced then from 3 to 2 eggs) and cookies, and staying single (or the lack of a husband). And yep, she lived alone. She cooked for herself until age 112 and lived alone in her home up until she was 115 years old! 😮😮😮
But wait, there's more revelation. In the few times, she became ill, she refused to be sent to the hospital. Also, according to her doctor, Morano has never eaten much fruit or vegetables. 😮😮😮 Her characteristic, her doctor said, is that Morano always ate the same thing, every day, every week, every month and every year. Wow!
Morano didn't take a conventional healthy balanced diet but there she was - she lived until the age of 117. I don't know what lesson to take away from here but it seems like if you want to live long, eat whatever makes you happy as long as it's always the same food every day, keep a positive attitude and don't marry. 😂😂😂 But honestly, I don't think I want to live that long. 😂 Besides, how can you save up and prepare for 42 years of retirement life? 😂 Imagine, her post-retirement life is equivalent to the mid-life of an average individual! 😬 😊
Have you ever gotten a back problem? It's excruciatingly painful, right?
I've so far had 2 episodes in my lifetime and they are both travel-related (due to heavy baggage!😜). The first one I ended up seeing a chiropractor but I'm glad I did coz the chiropractor taught me how to properly get up from the bed (turn to your side near the edge of the bed and with one arm in front of your upper body, push up to stand and let your legs swing towards the floor). He also gave me stretching exercises which greatly improved my back and which I still do everyday.
The second one was last year when I tried to weigh our luggages using a portable scale but I forgot to bend when I lifted them! When I woke up with back pain, I initially thought it was due to the bed so I did some exercises to ease the back pain (wrong move coz this just worsened my condition). The following morning, my upper body felt like it was disconnected from my lower body. Yes, I could walk - but really slow - and it was so painful to get up from a lying down or sitting position. I can't even laugh coz my lower abdominal muscles hurt when I laugh. Riding a car is excruciatingly painful too - every bump, brake or sudden turn cause your insides to hurt. And when I lie at night, I was stuck with one position coz I could no longer move the moment I lie down. 😱😢
What made the situation worse at that time were: (1) I was overseas, in Copenhagen, and (2) in a few days was my return flight to Manila. The flight was about 18 hours. Do I need a wheelchair so I make it to the boarding gates? How will I be able endure the long-haul flight? How will I pull out my heavy luggage from the carousel (coz my friend gets off in Singapore which means I'll be alone in the last leg of the flight)? 😰 So I did a lot of research on what I could possibly do and here are the things that worked for me:
1. To get up from a sitting position, the best technique I found was to move my butt until it's near the edge of the chair, then slowly push up using my hands against the arm rest. (When I stand up though, I look like an elderly - I'm in a hunched position holding my lower back and I walk in that hunched position. But after a few steps, my back finds its position and I'm able to walk with a straight back.)
2. I massaged the pressure points (where I could feel the pain most) in a single direction (e.g. downward only).
3. I meditated frequently during the day and imagined all the painful parts of my body were healing internally.
4. Prayed a lot! 🙏🙏🙏
I survived the return flight to Manila (without the need for a wheelchair) and strangers helped me with my luggage. Whew! 😌
Within 12 days (since the problem occurred), my back fully recovered. I didn't have to see a doctor or chiropractor. I would normally seek medical help but for this one, I knew the pain was due to pulled muscles, not broken bones.
Since then, I've been more careful when lifting or carrying heavy objects - never forget to bend. I actually don't even want to lift anything heavy now if I could avoid it. Haha.... 😆
I thought bending properly when lifting heavy objects is all I need to remember so I won't hurt my back again. But last week, I accompanied someone to the rehab doctor and I learned other bad habits I unconsciously do which could possibly hurt the back too. Take note, I wasn't even the patient but there I was, probably more attentive than the patient. 😂
Below are the new things I learned from the rehab doctor - with visuals I found online for easier reference.
Here's the proper way to wear socks, sandals with straps, or shoes with shoelaces or zippers -
Proper posture when putting on your shoes (Source)
Here's the proper way to mop or sweep the floor. You could also bend both of your knees.
Proper posture when mopping or sweeping the floor (Source)
I couldn't find a visual for the last common mistake we unconsciously do but it's the correct posture when washing your hands or face on the sink. The correct posture is - you also need to bend your knees to adjust to the level of the sink.
The rehab doctor said that we don't have to wait until we're old or until we start having back problems to start practicing these because these are the correct postures regardless of one's age. Need to start correcting my bad habits asap. 😬
I call my back problem experience last year as my early lola (grandmother) moment. It wasn't a pleasant experience but right after I recovered, I realized I was also lucky because it made me realize a lot of things. For example, it doesn't mean just because someone looks young and healthy, he/she is as strong or fast as you are. When we see people who are walking slowly, maybe they wish to walk faster but they just couldn't because they have physical limitations which we couldn't see. When we see people who don't smile, maybe they wish to smile but they just couldn't because they don't have any reason to smile or they are in so much physical pain.
The experience also gave me an early glimpse of what lies ahead. Someday, our minds may still be active and alert but there will come a time when our bodies won't be able keep up with what our mind wants or wishes to do - no matter what. So whatever you want to do now while you still physically can, it's time to do it now. 😉
I used to wash fruits and veggies by soaking them in diluted vinegar until I read Dr. Greger's book, How Not to Die. He compared the results of using different solutions to wash vegetables and fruits.
Here are the results:
Using plain water:
Soaking potatoes in water removes between 2% to 13% of pesticide residues
Using diluted vinegar:
Diluted vinegar only seemed marginally better than tap water in removing pesticide residues.
Using 5% acetic acid solution (aka full strength plain white vinegar!):
Using undiluted plain white vinegar removes up to 100% of pesticide residues.
So how do you make this best ever veggie and fruit wash? Mix up about one-part salt to nine-parts water e.g. 1 tbsp salt to 9 tbsp water, 1 cup salt to 9 cups of water. That easy! :) Just make sure to rinse the vegetables and fruits thoroughly after soaking them in salt water.
When I went grocery shopping, I couldn't find rock salt in store shelves. There were only iodized salt and table salt. I googled what kind of salt you can use for cleaning and found out that any salt - rock salt (unrefined salt), table salt (refined salt) and iodized salt can be used for cleaning (excluding Epsom Salt since this has a different composition). (Source: FoodMatters)
NutritionFacts.org, which Dr Greger founded, recently published an article that comprehensively talks about this topic including some studies on commercially available fruit and vegetable washes.
So pure white vinegar and salt water are the best vegetable and fruit wash solutions you can use. Though pure vinegar costs more than salt, pure vinegar is more practical if you want to save on time since it's just soak and rinse. Whereas for salt water, it requires you to follow certain measurements, you need to dissolve the salt first and you need to thoroughly rinse the fruits and vegetables with plain water after soaking since too much salt residue is bad for the health especially if you're prone to UTI. But either yields the best results so it really just depends on your preference. :)
