Act Like a Cretan and Live Longer

Want to live to see at least 100? Take a lesson from the shores of Okinawa, the rainforests of Costa Rica and the island of Crete. That’s right, we’re suggesting that you live like a Cretan. Traveling to all of these places where people regularly live significantly longer than their neighbors might be difficult, but you can still learn the tricks to their success and use them wherever you live.

Sites where people live routinely into their 90s and 100s are called Blue Zones. Bluezones.com shows us 9 ways in which these people live just a little differently from us. These little differences really add up over a lifetime. That means there’s still time for you to elongate your life if you follow these bits of advice.

Here’s the list:

1.    Move your body a lot.
2.    Have a strong sense of purpose.
3.    De-stress your life.
4.    Don’t eat till you burst.
5.    Eat more veggies.
6.    Strategically drink alcohol.
7.    Have faith.
8.    Put your family first.
9.    Surround yourself with good friends.

These sound like pieces of advice you could get from a fortune cookie, don’t they? However, when you dig in a little deeper, you’ll likely find that we don’t take these Blue Zone culture cues very well. Sure, we might encourage working out and cutting down on fatty foods, but that’s not what Blue Zoners focus on. Here’s what we mean:

Move your body a lot.

People who live in blue zones walk a lot or do gardening or daily yoga practice. They aren’t out running marathons and grunting through sets of curls. This type of movement is soft, low-impact and low stress. How do you do at this? Do you push yourself until you puke or do you do easy, stress-relieving exercise?

Have a strong sense of purpose.

This feels super-cheesy, doesn’t it? We thought so too. However, the motivation to get out of bed in the morning is important for everyone, especially if you want to live to be old and gray. What’s the purpose of your life?  Known in Japanese as Ikigai and in Spanish as plan de vida, you can earn up to 7 extra years of life just for having a compelling reason to live. Getting up everyday to earn a paycheck is a crappy reason to exist. Traveling, spending time with your family or tending to a passion project are much more valuable. Do you have a valuable plan de vida or are you just treading water?

De-stress your life.

No one expects that you’ll have no stress in your life. It’s just not possible, even in the Blue Zones. However, taking time to de-stress can add years to your life. Stress equals inflammation. Inflammation leads to disease. Reduce your stress and you’ll reduce the incidence of heart disease, diabetes and several other scary diseases. To combat stress, learn a habit that helps you relax, like praying, meditating or even taking a nap.

Don’t eat till you burst.

Eat until you are 80% full instead. This tiny difference is hard for clean-plater Americans, but it can become your new normal by shaving off just 20% of your portions. That 20% is usually the calories that result in weight gain in the Western world. Plus, we all know that your stomach is full long before it can send that message to your brain. Honor thy tummy (and waistline) by eating just a little bit less. Do you ever do this? Do you think it would be easy to make the switch?

Eat more veggies.

Shocking, right? We hear this piece of advice on the front of every weight loss magazine and in nutrition advice all over the web. Now that we’ve been told that for the 1000th time, let’s get real. Some people don’t like veggies. If you turn your nose up to the green stuff, you should blend them up and put them in your sauces, smoothies and soups. You really won’t be able to taste them. Except for in zucchini brownies. Those are just plain terrible.

Strategically drink alcohol.

Yep, that’s right, we’re encouraging imbibing. In many Blue Zone cultures, drinking 1-2 glasses a day of wine or beer or spirits is a cultural cornerstone. Act like a Cretan and drink up! Don’t be dumb and save them all up for the weekend. It doesn’t work that way, pal.

Have faith.

It doesn’t matter whether you worship one God or hundreds. It doesn’t matter if you regularly go to a physical church building. However, faith in something larger and practicing your faith at least once a week can add a stunning 4-14 years to your life. Do you have a spiritual practice?

Put your family first.

Whether you have a partner and children or not, family is supremely important for those who live to a ripe old age. Spending time caring for parents and family members, as well as living in close proximity to them, is looked upon very favorably in Blue Zones. While choosing a life partner proves to add about 4 years to your life, there is conflicting evidence for the impact of children on life span. Do you live near or with your extended family?

Surround yourself with good friends.

This is also fairly trite advice that you’ve seen a hundred times. However, those with super-long lives think of friendship a little differently than we do. In many Blue Zone cultures, small groups of tightly-knitted friends are the norm. These groups, also known as moais in Japan, support each other throughout their whole adult lives. If your group is happy, active, easy-to-laughter and encouraging, you will live longer. On the flip side, if your closest friends are sad, angry or lazy, watch out! That will eat years off your life. What type of friends do you have?

People from the island of Crete are hardly like the modern-day definition of the slang term cretan, which means idiot or one who lacks social graces. Real Cretans, Sardinians, Okinawans and Costa Ricans are brilliant at sorting out the puzzle to long life. We should all be so lucky as to live to be 100. If you want to live a longer, stronger, happier life, start living like a Cretan.

Fareboom.com always encourages people to travel the world. We think everyone should travel to at least one country with long-living people during their lifetime. Here are the longest-living countries in the world, in no particular order:

●    Sardinia
●    Greece / Crete
●    Costa Rica
●    Andorra
●    Ecuador
●    Himalayas
●    Macau
●    Japan
●    Singapore
●    San Marino, a nation state in Italy
●    Hong Kong
●    Australia
●    France
●    Canada
●    Switzerland
●    Sweden

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