So I took the Blue Zone test the other day.
When I punched in my year of birth, it estimated I would live to my late 70's.
After I did the quiz, and, touch wood, all goes well, it postulated that I could survive until I am in my mid-90's, and to my mid-80's at the very least.
It seems I am doing some things right that may garner me a few more years, according to the quiz: getting my two servings per day of both fruits and veggies, dairy, whole grain, and protein; getting lots of sleep without sleep aids; not smoking; getting daily exercise (just yoga and walking these days); having regular weekly social interactions with people outside the household; having a purpose to get out of bed every day (caring for the cats, the house, my various jobs and volunteer duties, depending on the day); and having a positive attitude.
I was even truthful about my meat intake (daily, but less would be better), and alcohol consumption (1 - 2 happy hour drinks per day), and it still gave me an estimate of the mid-90's.
It seems the most long lived people in the world drink alcohol moderately, and only eat meat once per week or so.
They get their daily proteins from nuts and beans mostly.
So, that is on my new list of things to do.
To eat less meat.
Apparently it can cause all sorts of inflammation in one's body.
And inflammation is the enemy of longevity.
I should stress "healthy" longevity.
For those of us who would desire both quantity and quality, these things are imperative.
We never know what is really in our DNA, but we can do what we can to help whatever is outside of it.
I am surprised to see what is "outside" our physical bodies is as important as what is "inside".
And I am talking about positive attitudes, a reason to get out of bed every day, social connections.
Our mental health and the care of it is as important as, if not more so, our physical health.
Oh sure, what we put into our bodies is of utmost importance of course.
I believe we are what we eat, and if that is a box of pogos or frozen pizza or a package of fried up breakfast sausages, well, our bodies are not likely to thank us very much for that.
And it also turns out that these centenarians don't go out of their way to exercise either. No marathons, no extreme mother mudder competitions, no interval training or high intensity workouts.
Just daily walking for errands, climbing steep terrain herding the sheep, bicycling, gardening, daily chores which burn as many calories if not more I'll bet, than going out of our way to hit the gym.
It is called "Non-Exercise-Activity-Thermogenesis", and yes, it is a real thing.
NEAT for short.
And our daily puttering is burning calories for us; who knew!
None of the centenarians are obese, a fact which I am sure has a lot to do with their longevity and their quality of life as well.
Granted, it may be difficult in our very rural North American communities to walk to the grocery store and back; we are a very large country with the corner store often located several kilometres away.
And when I see parents drop off their children at school in their vehicles, and then pick them up again at the end of the day in their vehicles, I wonder what sort of fitness example is being set.
How far away do these kids really live?
They should be able to walk, should they not?
Granted, their backpacks are so heavy that the ones that do walk with them are very nearly toppling backwards.
How is that going to affect their spinal development, one wonders.
But we are each on our own journey.
I have resolved to try to continue to better mine; eating less meat and trying a different sort of protein, such as legumes.
It is a major rethink, especially for those of us raised with Canada's Food Guide, now knowing how important protein is as something that keeps us feeing "full" after each meal, and thus less likely to snack and fall off the healthy eating bandwagon when a table of donuts is laid out before us, or a bowl of deep fried potato chips.
But, if quality and quantity of life are something to be desired, they don't just happen all by themselves automatically.
Precious self-care is utmost priority, or should be.
As I now enter my sixth decade on this planet, I look forward to at least, hopefully and God-willing, a few more.