LegendaryLife Blog

As my plan is to live well over a hundred years by following a very healthy lifestyle full of whole foods, vigorous exercise and lots of mental activities, I found this Ted talk by Dan Buettner rather interesting. Here is the embeded video followed by a summary of the talk’s key points. If you wish, you can read more about Dan here.

Lecture’s key points:

• based off the studies of twin lifespans, it’s been calculated that less than 10% of our longevity is based directly off our genes with 90% being dictated by our lifestyle.
• there is a lot of confusion regarding optimal health and lifestyle choices
• a team of experts visited and studied extensively the lifestyle of populations known to live a long, healthy life with few health complications. These four areas are known as blue zones and include Costa Rica, Okinawa, Sardinia and California
• longevity myth #1: you can’t wish yourself to live longer, no matter how hard you try because we are built to multiply, not live long. Your chances of living to 100 are 1 in 5 000 currently within America.
• longevity myth #2: treatments exist that can slow aging. Our bodies have 35 trillion cells… there is simply too much we don’t understand and that can go wrong to possibly know what works and what doesn’t. These cells are completely replaced every 8 years and each time, genetic and cellular damage occurs which builds up exponentially.
• a 65 year old senior ages 125x faster than a 12 year old child
• the capacity of the human body to sustain your life is about 90 years, slightly longer for woman

• in the highlands of Sardinia, there is a place where old age is a given, with 10x more centenarians than in America! They are also healthy, working and enjoying a vigorous lifestyle. Here, men live older than woman.
• diet consists mostly of plant based and whole foods made and found locally using naturally sourced products high in Omega-3 fatty acids
• they are mostly shepards, so they enjoy an active lifestyle throughout their lives
• they enjoy wine which has 3x the amount of polyphenols than any other type in the world (this is a strong anti-oxidant)
• the older you get, the more wisdom and acceptance you get within the social structure of the Sardinian society
• on the island of Okinawa, in the northern part of the island, the oldest female population can be found
• here they live a long time, die quickly with little health problems in between
• 5x the number of centenarians with a fifth of the cancer compared to America
• they have a mostly plant based diet that consists of smaller calorie dense foods – they stop eating once their stomach is 80% full
• isolation is known to shorten lifespan, so the Okinawans have a system in which they develop lifelong friendships
• American’s have adopted a lifestyle that can be divided into two categories, work and retirement but in Okinawa, there is no word for retirement. They simply live by a motto which means “the reason you wake-up in the morning is ___”
• in America, it’s the 7th Day Adventists found in California which live the longest, the study that the numbers come from tracked 70 000 people for 30 years
• they don’t eat a lot of meat, for 24 hours a week they stop everything and focus onto their social being and doing nature walks

• things that all these “high longevity cultures” have in common
• they all do daily physical activity that isn’t overly strenuous on their body or joints
• they have the right outlook on life and a purpose that drives them on a daily basis, they purposefully slow their lives down to deal with built-up stress
• they all take some “time off” to reflect or to relax on a very regular basis
• they eat food based on what is found around them and it forms the majority of their diet
• they eat mostly plant based foods, a little wine and rarely till they are absolutely full
• they put their families and relatives first in their lives and have strong social contacts
• longevity has no short term fix

The Bottom Line

A long, healthy life is a choice that involves incremental and small proactive steps through ones life.

Ask anybody who has accomplished a goal or vision they once had and the very first step they will say is that they STARTED. You can’t finish what you didn’t start… and each small step you take is that much closer towards the end of said goal or vision.

Starting is easy… follow-through isn’t

After you decided to take the first step and turn a dream into a reality… the next largest step is consistent steps forward, whether they happen daily or weekly… continual progress is a must because it create momentum that makes any distractions easier to deal with. Just like the body of a bodybuilder takes years of hard work, if he or she stops going to the gym… it’s always harder to start back up after a prolonged rest period than it is to continue through an injury.

Distractions are what you make them

It’s all too easy to get distracted from a goal, especially when it’s a difficult one or requires more effort than is ordinary. The mind is great at creating “outs” for you so that it can continue along the path of least resistance… the hard part is learning to scope and get back on track ASAP regardless of the distraction being present. You have to consciously decide each time you get distracted if it’s worth your attention or you are better off ignoring it.

What publishing has taught me… patience!

I’ve just published my forth book yesterday (WoodMarvels.com Volume 2) and the evolution in every respect is rather astonishing. I started this blog to improve my English skills and if you go back to the first article… it took me hours and it’s barely a paragraph and now, I’m editing my most ambitious effort… a science fiction book of over 240 pages! One thing that publishing has taught me is that no matter how much you have done in the past, there is always a better way of doing things, of telling a story, of laying the text out, of delivering key concepts and ideas to the reader. Patience is needed because just when you think you are done… you are NOT! I now fully appreciate why it sometimes takes a year or so between published books by the same author… and the pressure there must be when you have a publisher breathing down your neck to get things done ASAP! Luckily, I’m my own publisher so the pressure to get things done isn’t anything I put onto myself… things are done when they are done

The Bottom Line

First steps always require the momentum of a second!

I’ve now launched my latest book, Transforming Your Life From Blah To Legendary!: A Guide For Massive Positive And Lasting Changes In Your Life as a PDF Downloadable book using the WoodMarvels.com e-commerce system. This means that you can now get this book within a few minutes right onto your own computer if you do not wish to wait to get a physical copy or live where it isn’t available.

About Transforming Your Life From Blah To Legendary!

I decided at a very young age that I didn’t want a “normal life” and, through the years, have developed habits and studied how to improve the efficiency of my life, the thoughts, ideas and concepts from a lifetime of lessons are synthesized within this book. I had also read more than my fair share of motivational books and from those experiences, wrote mine to use extensive imagery using a comic strip of characters to help bring some humor to the information being given as well as a step-by-step guide. My hope is that this book can help turn your life into one that is remembered far after you are gone.

Where to find

You can find Transforming Your Life From Blah To Legendary! at WoodMarvels.com under Special / Books in the top navigational bar.

Here is the direct link

A designer whom I worked with on the site WoodMarvels.com (he designed the great looking planes on my site), Jerry, just had a heart attack and here is what he wrote so that this doesn’t happen to you.

Buzvia: Jerry’s Msg

A sick mouth makes for a very sick body.

It’s a proven fact that a dirty mouth affects not just your love life but your overall health as well.

ABC News Interviews Dr. Nancy Rosen

ABC News had an interesting video with a dentist’s top 5 industry secrets based on a Readers Digest article that was rather tame in my opinion, they were:

1. You cannot mask smoker’s breath, no amount of mints can hide the smell or its oral effects such as stains and white precancerous marks.
2. A mother can pass cavity producing bacteria to their child (and by extension, others) by sharing cutlery or kissing.
3. You need to brush your teeth for 2-3 minutes and floss for 1-2 minutes – electric toothbrushes are the best
4. Whiten your teeth only once every six months, MAX! It can damage your enamel and burn your gums
5. Don’t skip cleanings as they are necessary to maintain proper oral health, you can do a great job.

What they left out

I have written this several times, but the biggest dental industry secret is

• YOU DO NOT NEED TO BUY TOOTHPASTE NOR MOUTHWASH!

I believe we already ingest way too many chemicals, why add some new ones first thing in the morning? Want to kill ALL the bacteria in your mouth? Put a tablespoon of salt in a warm class with 50ml of water and sprinkle some baking soda in it. Use this to rinse your mouth, then brush it with a good electric toothbrush and repeat till you have no more water. The salt will kill everything, the baking soda, acting as a base, will neutralize all the acid build-up which causes cavities. Cost? Next to nothing.

Why a clean mouth is so vitally important!

Imagine living your life with an open wound on your arm, it would be bleeding, get infected and essentially make your life miserable. This is exactly what you are doing to your body when you don’t take proper care of your oral hygiene! Your gums are a wonderful access point straight into your bloodstream, you don’t have thick skin there, just a nice warm place, loaded with bacteria, that is hard to keep clean… constantly being invaded by germs of all stripes and motives!

Why oral health is especially important when you get older

When we are young, the tissues throughout our body “refresh” themselves at a very fast rate, many children don’t have a chance to get many cavities and their gums are nice and pink because the gums are replenishing new cells continually. The bad news is that as we age, this process slows down, so the older you get, the longer it takes for the body to rejuvenate itself, as such, you become more susceptible to injuries, degradation (bones, muscles, cartilage) and guess what, the same holds true for your teeth and gums. Oral health is important when you are young but increasing so as the years pass you by.

The Bottom Line

You are never too old to recover from neglected oral hygiene.

See also: Gateway to health begins with your mouth!

Buzvia: Things your dentist isn’t telling you