East Hawaii Blue Zones Project

East Hawaii, which includes Hilo, was selected as one of 3 communities in the state of Hawaii as a Blue Zones project by HSMA, Blue Zones LLC, and Healthways Inc.  The Island of Kauai has been a Blue Zones Project pilot since 2013.

According to Dan Buettner, author of The Blue Zones, people in the Blue Zones he identified reach age 100 at 10 times the average rate.  Blue Zones LLC states that only 20% of how long a person lives is because of their genes; the other 80% is due to their lifestyle and environment. 

The Blue Zones project has best practices for communities to improve the lifestyle and environment for the residents. In Albert Lea, Minnesota, a Blue Zones project since 2009, the residents lost a total of 12,000 pounds, cut their health care costs, and added over 3 years to the residents’ average life expectancy.    

To be selected as a Blue Zones project, the community must have broad buy-in within the community including local leaders, schools, employers, restaurants, and grocery stores who agree to support the program.  In addition, at least 20% of the citizens must sign a personal pledge to take actions to improve their well-being which include eating wisely, moving naturally, making changes at home, connecting socially, and finding a purpose.

The personal pledges are based on 9 shared traits of the world’s longest lived people that Buettner identified.  Summaries of these traits listed on bluezones.com website include:

Move Naturally The world’s longest-lived people don’t pump iron or run marathons or join gyms. Their environments nudge them into moving without thinking about it.

Purpose Why do you wake up in the morning? Knowing your sense of purpose adds up to seven years of extra life expectancy.

Down Shift Stress leads to chronic inflammation, associated with every major age-related disease. The world’s longest-lived people have routines to reduce their stress.

80% Rule “Hara hachi bu” – the Okinawans say this mantra before meals as a reminder to stop eating when their stomachs are 80% full. That could be the difference between losing weight or gaining it.

Plant Slant The cornerstone of most centenarian diets are beans. They typically eat meat, mostly pork, only five times per month.

Wine  Moderate drinkers outlive non-drinkers, especially if they share those drinks with friends.

Belong Attending faith-based services four times a month adds 4 to 14 years of life expectancy.

Loved Ones First Centenarians put their families first. They keep aging parents and grandparents nearby, commit to a life partner, and invest time and love in their children.

Right Tribe They world’s longest lived people chose or were born into social circles that support healthy behaviors.

East Hawaii is the perfect place for a Blue Zone project as it already has many of the nine shared traits listed above. When we researched our book on “Why People in Hawaii are so Healthy and Happy” we found lots of reasons why people in Hawaii already live longer and have better health than the rest of the US. 

Why are People in Hawaii so Healthy and Happy?

We moved to Hawaii seven years ago to escape our stressful life in California.  We were out of shape, exhausted, and obese.  Fortunately, just being in Hawaii improved our health and helped us lose weight.  We have watched many other people lose fat  and improve their health by spending  time in Hawaii. We have even seen people who arrived in Hawaii barely able to walk with a walker become more mobile every month; some were ultimately able to walk freely without any assistance.

After completing our Hawaii Island travel guide, a friend of ours insisted that our next book be about why people feel so much better when they are in Hawaii.   We agreed that it would be fasinating to research the mystery of why every year residents in Hawaii are ranked the healthiest and happiest in the US.

We were not prepared for the shocking answer. We found hundreds of medical studies that completely contradicted everything we had been taught about what is healthy to eat. The diet we thought was healthy was actually harming our health significantly according to the health studies.

Our weight loss and improved fitness in Hawaii were due to high levels of nutrients in Hawaii’s food and environment, not because of the foods we thought were healthy.  Just by living in Hawaii we had stumbled into better health. The miracle health improvements we saw in ourselves and others were because of critically missing essential nutrients abundant in Hawaii yet missing on the mainland.

Our new book, Your Ideal Hawaii Health: Why People in Hawaii are so Healthy and Happy, answers our friend’s question.  The book cites the health studies  and tells our personal experiences of the changes we made in our diet and lifestyle in Hawaii that allowed us to achieve our health goals, improve our fitness, and increase our happiness.

If you are struggling with your weight, depression, or health conditions you may want to read the book and find out why just living in Hawaii can make you healthier and happier. 

Balmy arctic winter in Hawaii

Snow covered Mauna Kea

It has been a chilly winter on Hawaii Island this year.  It may be hard to believe that 61 degrees F is incredibly cold to us, but compared to our normal morning lows of 74 degrees, waking up in a room 13 degrees colder is quite a surprise.  On Oahu, temperatures in the 50’s were the coldest recorded in 122 years and far below the comfort level for those of us used to endless warm days.  Kauai and Maui have also broken temperature records in the 50’s this winter.

We have been bundling up in jackets for our chilly morning walks.  Visitors wearing shorts and tank tops give us funny looks as they walk by.  Mornings are the only time of day they are not overheated.   

 

View from Mauna Kea of the ocean below

Last year we had our warmest winter in Hawaii; most days the temperatures did not get below 81 degrees at night and it was over 100 degrees on our porch during the day in January.  This year is completely different with temperatures barely climbing to the mid-80’s during the heat of the day.

The cooler weather hasn’t dampened our enthusiasm for sitting on the beach to enjoy the ocean spray.  The whales have already arrived in Hawaii for the winter and we have seen them breaching.  It is unique to sit on the beach under palm trees and look up at snow covered Mauna Kea Volcano towering over us.   Where else in the world can you do that?