#Clockedin with Jordan Edwards

#189 - (HIW #7) Unlocking Longevity: Secrets from the Blue Zones with Sang Kim

• Jordan Edwards • Season 4 • Episode 189

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Unlock the secrets to living a longer, healthier life with our special guest, Sang Kim. You'll learn about the fascinating Blue Zones, inspired by Dan Buettner's work and the Netflix series "Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones." We explore what makes regions like Loma Linda, Nicoya, Sardinia, Ikaria, and Okinawa hotspots for longevity. Discover how aspects of their environments, from walkable communities to active social lives, contribute to their exceptional health and how you can adopt these principles no matter where you live.

What's the power of purpose? Sang and I discuss how shifting your mindset can transform your life. By focusing on what truly matters, you can achieve greater fulfillment and impact. Hear personal stories that demonstrate the life-changing effects of a positive outlook and how it aligns with living an exciting and meaningful life. Be prepared to rethink how you view your daily activities and the importance of inspiring and uplifting those around you.

Wondering what to eat for a longer life? We break down the dietary habits of Blue Zone residents, emphasizing the benefits of moderate wine consumption and organic, plant-based foods. Additionally, we delve into the principles of connection, offering practical tips for nurturing relationships with loved ones to enhance both healthspan and lifespan. Tune in and find out how these timeless habits can help you lead a more vibrant, connected, and longer life.

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Speaker 1:

Hey, what's going on, guys? I got a special guest here today. We got Sang Kim and we are here for episode seven of Health is Wealth. I can't believe we're already on seven, but that's how it goes. We've talked about a variety of subjects that when you increase them in your life, your health will improve and then your wealth will improve. And today we're going to dive into a special topic. It's going to be Blue Zones and it's the secret of the Blue Zones. You might have seen something on Netflix called Live to 100, secrets of the Blue Zones, and we're going to dive into that today. So, sang, how are you doing? I'm excited to talk about the Blue Zones. I'm excited to learn. I'm excited to grow. Tell, doing. I'm excited to talk about the Blue Zones.

Speaker 2:

I'm excited to learn. I'm excited to grow. Tell us, how are you? Yeah, I'm doing well. I'm getting up at six in the morning and doing my morning routine and getting out and golfing. It's one of my little treats in the morning to get up and get the body moving, get my 10,000 steps in and, yeah, it's been a lot of fun so far.

Speaker 1:

I love that. I love that and I think that's so important for everyone to realize, because once you figure out what your joy is like, you should ask yourself in the last week what made me happy For myself. It was on Friday. Me and a couple of buddies in Madison we ended up going to the beach and it was down sunset.

Speaker 1:

I'm in Tampa, it's very hot out, so we got there around 7.15 and you catch this beautiful sunset and you stay there till like 8 o'clock. You're in the water, you're walking around, you're doing all these good things and on Sunday morning I was like, hey, what was the highlight of your week or weekend? And she was like the beach. And then I go, do we do it again on Sunday? And that's what we did, because once you find what's winning for you, you recreate that. Now in today's episode, we're going to talk about all of the secrets of the blue zones and how to implement those into your life, because where we are I'm in America, zeng's in Canada it can be challenging to implement some of these lifestyle things. But, zeng, take it away.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so if you haven't had a chance to watch Live to 100 on Netflix, please do, and so we'll talk about the Blue Zones and our discussion will be like an introduction and an opening. But I think people get a lot of value at watching Live to 100 on the Blue Zones.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely yeah, and real quick. It was Dan Butteneer and he discovered the five unique communities where people live extraordinary long and vibrant lives. So these are people that are living to over 100 years old and they're not sitting in a nursing home, they're not struggling, they're outside with their communities and their families and planting and all of these incredible things where you start to sit there and go what do I want to create in my life? What do I want to be in my life?

Speaker 2:

And it's really important to realize that. Yeah, yeah, so let's, let's get started. I mean Dan Buechner. I mean he was a National Geographic explorer, right writer and and produced a number of articles, you know, a couple, couple of decades ago, and he discovered, he looked at five different areas around the world where they had the highest percentage of centurions, so 100-year-olds, and he was curious about, you know, what are they doing to live that long? And he looked at these five areas and the first area that he was talking about was Loma Linda in the United States, in California, and the Nicoya region in Costa Rica, sardinia, Italy, akaria in Greece and Okinawa, japan.

Speaker 2:

So, if you aren't aware, all these areas are warm, so they do have good climate. And it's really interesting because I think, when we talk about the nine principles of the blue zones, I think we have to step back a little bit and think about the context of the blue zones, about the context of the blue zones. So I mean one of the things that we need to look at you know, if we're living in America, if we're living in Canada, or you know, we have a different perspective of the context of these areas and the things that we have to realize is that, in these areas, the environment that they live in caters towards longevity. So so you know, and that'll open up to the nine principles of the blue zones. So, uh, why don't we go right at it?

Speaker 1:

yeah, absolutely, I'm excited for this.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah. So so you know, if we think about a pyramid and maybe maybe we'll be able to get something on the screen and edit that in later on, and and maybe you can or maybe you can't at this point but if you look at the first principle is of these blue zones, they were able to walk everywhere. So what that means is that they lived in a community where they could walk to their church, walk to the grocery store, walk to go see Uncle Sam and walk to their dentist. So their environment was set up to walk everywhere. So they're climbing stairs, they're, they're working on the land, they're, they're up and down.

Speaker 1:

you know they're not driving everywhere like we are here in north america and the interesting thing about this is I've mentioned this in my previous podcast, but I traveled with madison for seven weeks around europe yeah and we never had a car.

Speaker 1:

So I look back at my steps and the differences, it's game changer. Because I was going 18 000 steps a day, 20 000 steps a day, and because what would end up happening is we looked at our phone and we're like, oh, we wanted to get 20 000 steps a day. And because what would end up happening is we looked at our phone and we're like, oh, we wanted to get 10 000 steps, obviously like to push us forward, because we weren't. We were like working out, but then we kind of weren't. And then we're like, hey, it's only a 45 minute walk home. It's like let's walk home. But if we're in tampa, like, or when I'm in new york, like new york you're kind of walking, but everyone's grabbing cars, it's just, it was just such a different environment because we weren't so rushed and we weren't like you need to be in this place at this time. Like there did have those moments, but a majority of the time it was like a free morning and it was just go, explore, embrace and be whatever you want to be.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you think, in contrast to Western culture, like Western culture, as in North America, here let's just say Canada and the US, I mean we're driving everywhere. So how can we use some of these principles? Well, you know, one of the things that I'm mindful of is, let's say, I'm going shopping. You know, one of the things that I'm mindful of is, let's say I'm going shopping, I'm not going to park right close to the entrance of the mall, for example. I'll park far away and then walk in because you get these extra steps in. So you know, it could be just changing some of these behaviors to get additional steps in.

Speaker 1:

Right, so. So there's one example.

Speaker 2:

Right, maybe having a meeting. Let's say you're at work, you're having a meeting and it's let's say it's a one on one meeting. Why not go for a 30 minute meeting and you're walking? You have a walking meeting to discuss what you need to discuss and use technology to record the meeting. Take notes right, you can use ai to take the notes and have a walking meeting instead of sitting there with low energy, sitting down and talking and, and you know. So we can just change some little behaviors.

Speaker 1:

Yes, and even they found that when people do standing meetings, where everyone's standing the meeting actually shortens drastically because people are in this state of like I don't know, I'm not sure how I feel. When you're sitting, you can just be there for hours, so it causes meetings to actually go on much longer than they need to be, and if you're just on the phone, you can walk and talk all day long. And the thing is that most of us don't realize that we just need to innovate one to two degrees and it will change everything for us, because there's just so many different things we can do.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, absolutely, you know what in these five areas, I mean, you know, they move naturally, they work on their land. So a lot of them are growing their own vegetables and their fruits. So, the working on their land, you know, they're getting exercise or cultivating the gardens and they got the growing flowers and their veggies right so, and they're growing flowers and their veggies Right so, and they didn't go to the gym Right so, you know. You know, you know there's some things that we can learn from these places is to incorporate physical movement and activity, you know, in our lives, and I think it's a great principle. So, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, the next principle is this idea of right outlook. It's, it really is this mindset part, and in these cultures they this area called downshifting or having time to meditate, and what's downshifting is slowing down and having a practice to, to set aside for mindfulness practice, um, and, and it could be, uh, you know, like, like you saw on the screen, vacation time to extra time with family, but they are.

Speaker 2:

they are reducing stress on a daily basis, not on a monthly basis. They're doing it every single day. And that's really important because we know for sure the science shows that when we're stressed, cortisol levels rise and when we have elevated cortisol levels and that causes our genes, our poor genes and our suboptimal genes to get all fired up and then they express in some form of symptom and eventually causing some form of disease. So we want to make sure we manage that stress day to day.

Speaker 1:

Yes, yes. And the other major thing I would recommend to everyone is, when they talk about the downshift, it doesn't mean that you have to live your life on vacation. You can do whatever you want. It was pretty optimal when I was on this Europe trip because what we would do is we would work US hours, so we'd work two to ten, one to nine, and so what that gave us was the entire morning to quote unquote downshift where we can go explore, and a majority of us during our downshifts we'll find ourselves just on the couch and think that's rejuvenating when we can go outside, sweat a little bit, connect with your partner, whatever that may be, and really figure out how to slow down.

Speaker 1:

And sometimes what slowing down is. When you go on a walk, it's leaving your phone because you cause yourself to jump from thing to thing to thing, and it's like you need to go on a walk and realize, oh my God, there's a heart in the flower which is like incredible, how is there a heart leaf? Like how did that happen? And you don't realize these little things because your brain is in this mode of we have to do this, this, this, and be in the next thing. So the podcast is one of my. It may not seem like a slowdown activity. It's a slowdown activity to me because I have to be super present and I don't use the phone.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's awesome, that's awesome, that's awesome. The third principle and it's under the right outlook area is really understanding your purpose. So what Dan discovered is that in these regions, the people understood their purpose in life. And the people understood their purpose in life. And it's really interesting because if you have purpose, you have a reason to get up in the morning and, and especially us human beings, right, if we don't have purpose, it you know we're floundering, we don't have a plan, right, and there was a. There was a recent study done in Canada and I believe it was around 4000 to 6000 people. They followed over 15 years and the people that could state their purpose in life had something like a 15 percent reduction in the probability of death, the probability of death. And then there was another study that and I believe this was done in the US, you know showed that they would live people that understood their purpose and could state it would live an additional seven years.

Speaker 1:

Oh wow, it's mind boggling right.

Speaker 2:

So you know, do you have? Do you understand your purpose? Do you know what your purpose is? Have you communicated it? Have you written it down? You know, and maybe your purpose is to make sure your grandkids are set up in a positive way so that they can grow up in a safe environment. You know, or maybe your purpose is to inspire others, like we are doing, to take action.

Speaker 1:

And the major thing I think about purpose is people build it up to be this big idea and this big goal and this big vision, but in reality, purpose is in day to day. It's inspiring those around you, it's helping out the one in need, it's giving when you can't, when others can't. Like it's being there for people and it doesn't have to be this big thing, but it's just a way of life. Like, for example, I have um, it's interesting, my mom. She actually works at, uh, one of these clothing and her whole thing is that she sells. So she sells and gets commission and all this kind of stuff.

Speaker 1:

And when she adjusted her mindset from instead of selling to instead of it being like collecting smiles, her whole life changed her whole direction. Because she cares about the numbers a lot, just from, like just years and years and years. But you start to realize like, even if I do five thousand percent of what I go, my number it still doesn't matter, like it's not relevant, like what actually excites me each day and it's like really helping people, making them smile. So it's, you can find these in your day-to-day, you're doing them actively, but it's how do you view it that way and get the right lenses on, because there's so many of us going through life and we're like this is horrible. I hate this. This is miserable and it's like maybe you're just not seeing through the right glasses.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

Their purpose might be with you the entire time. Yeah, like, for one more example, this call used to be just me and saying and we would talk like once a month, and then we're like, wait, what if we just record what we talk about? And that's where this all came about, because it was just we're like, how do we raise the level of purpose in our conversations? Yeah, and this is what. This is what has occurred.

Speaker 2:

And that's yeah, that's a. That's a great point, Right? It's not just about us having a conversation. It's about adding value to our different communities. It's adding value to you know someone that listens to this podcast or this YouTube video, Right it's? We all can have an impact. Now, on that note, what is your purpose? Me yeah, on the top of your head. What? What do you think your purpose is? It's just and it can change right. So, right now, in this moment, how would you describe your purpose?

Speaker 1:

so I have activities that have helped me identify where I live in that purpose. So I have two groups. I have a monday night group and a Thursday morning group and those are me giving to them and I appreciate that and that's wisdom and that's amazing. And then I have the podcast where I'm reaching up, so that's people kind of feeding into me. They might not view it that way, but that's how I view it, because then I'm like a river, so I'm getting the information from one way and I'm sharing it with the other people that I'm speaking with.

Speaker 1:

So my purpose has allowed me to speak to a variety of perspectives and share the information, and I just want to be that vessel of somebody who's like hey, I have a problem, I'm thinking about this the wrong way and because I have so many perspectives, I want to be able to sit there and go this is a new perspective for you. This might change everything and it really. People will say you changed their life. But it's not, it doesn't take that much to do it. And a lot of people only want to focus on the monetary sense and not really living life to the fullest, and I think that's where it's messed up.

Speaker 2:

I think that's where there's a major miss. Interesting, interesting, yeah, you know, I've had the opportunity to go through this exercise with different mentors over the years and what I discovered is that my purpose is to inspire aliveness in myself and others to make the world a better place. And that word aliveness for me stems from the fact that I was in a near-death car accident when I was 16 years old and I was somehow.

Speaker 2:

You know, the car rolled three times across the 401, which is considered the busiest highway in North America, you know that's the highway from Detroit Windsor all the way to Montreal, canada, and and I really believe that some spirit God or whatever you believe in, some spirit god or whatever you believe in um kept me in that rolling car and I wasn't shot out and, uh, you know I have a higher purpose and and I discovered this sense of aliveness yes that I need to inspire myself and others in in this form of the word aliveness.

Speaker 2:

so whatever transpires from there and this discussion we're having has a lot to do with my purpose, so thank you for allowing me this opportunity for us to continue to share.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely. I love that. And the whole thing about aliveness is that there's so many of us that are alive quote unquote but we're not really living is that there's so many of us that are alive quote unquote but we're not really living? And when you said that, what came to my mind was I always set a goal for myself. That was to live an exciting life. And now I don't know what an exciting life means, but I feel like an exciting life has a lot of impact, has a lot of travels, have a lot of different relationships in my life, and it allows you to realize that there's so much more on this planet than just sitting there doing your thing and moving forward. But really you can inspire others and it and it doesn't take away from you, it actually gains into you and it builds you up. So I love the fact of the inspiring and aliveness because it's missed in a lot of society nowadays.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So moving right along, you know, let's get to the. I guess this is number four. This is the fourth principle and it's under the category of eating wisely. It's under the category of eating wisely. So what's interesting in the four out of the five blue zones? What was interesting was their alcohol intake was primarily wine and wine. At 5 pm ish let's just say that happy hour and it was, on average, about two glasses a day. So you know, once again, again, it's in context, right, and if you think about that, well, the wine that they were drinking was organic it wasn't full of preservatives, like what we drink here in Canada.

Speaker 2:

In the US that's sitting on a shelf and actually and we're consuming all these other ingredients other than the wine versus you go to Europe, you go to. Italy and you have a glass of red wine and you don't have the hangovers it's clean and you're thinking, wow, this is awesome, right. So the context here is that you know, the wine they were drinking in these blue zones was very clean and very healthy. The red wine was obviously very healthy, with lots of positive ingredients, including resveratrol, which is a nice active ingredient.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely, you know, which is a nice active ingredient? So absolutely, and I actually saw this when I was going on the trip and it was funny because we went to this I forget where we were, but we were in one of these places and they had this thing called, uh, I think it was paris, and they had a quiche and it was just like we literally had it.

Speaker 1:

We were like, wow, that was so good. Like where did you, where did you, how'd you guys make that? And they're like, well, we got the goat milk from a month, from an hour away. We got the cheese from another farm. And you start to realize that everything is like it wasn't, like they went to the food store and picked it all up, like everything gets delivered and it's all coming from the farms around them and it's much more organic, like if you look at the different ingredients, like so this is something that's been an awareness for me. One was looking at the label and then it's looking at the ingredients on the label, because you start to realize that even if it's got a ton of sugars, it might be a banana, like there might be undercover, like it might be a fruit. So it's not a bad sugar. It's just when all of these things are, when there's a hundred ingredients for a chicken, I don't think it's a chicken.

Speaker 2:

Exactly.

Speaker 1:

Exactly Little things. So like if you can find incredible wine that's minimal ingredients, that's mostly the grapes. That's mostly what Sang was mentioning.

Speaker 2:

Yes, Drink the wine, let it take some time off, let it let it unload, because this is what they're doing, this is how they're surviving, but it's choosing the right ones that make a major difference. And the context there too, in these areas, is you know, the drinking of wine. You know slowly enjoying it amongst friends, so they've got that love and connection along the way. It's organic and they're not drinking you know 10 bottles of wine. You know it's, on average, a couple of glasses of red wine or white wine. You know, and it's, on average, a couple of glasses of red wine or white wine. You know, and it's, it's, it's clean and you know it's enjoyable. Right, it's, it's part of the culture and it just adds, adds to their longevity, their love and connection.

Speaker 2:

The other area of eating wisely was well, these five areas. It was primarily a vegetarian diet. However, you know the proteins they ate, for example, in the Mediterranean. So, looking at Sardinia and Acaria, well, you get the Mediterranean. There, of course, they've got fresh fish, great source of protein bioavailable for the gut and it's you know, it hasn't been processed right Like, unlike Atlantic salmon, which is actually this horrific.

Speaker 2:

you know, I would not advise eating Atlantic salmon because you know the pellets that they feed the salmon are full of tons of chemicals and basically they have paint in these pellets, amongst other chemicals, to get the Atlantic salmon to look that pinky orange color.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Right, right. You know, so the farm there's lots of, lots of infestations of bacteria, worms and bugs in these farming situations, so I would not, you know, and that's different than what we're talking about.

Speaker 1:

Right yeah.

Speaker 2:

You know. So you know Mediterranean. They're eating the fresh fish. And if you're looking at, you know, the Nicoya region in Costa Rica, there's lots of beans, you know lots of fiber in there and they're eating, you know, very organic corn with their beans down in Costa Rica. And if you look at the Okinawans right, their main source of carb were the you know, the purple sweet potatoes.

Speaker 1:

Yes.

Speaker 2:

So we're talking about just full, rich of nutrients and vitamins and minerals in the purple sweet potatoes, right.

Speaker 2:

Yes, right so they're eating organically, but they're. But they have a good variety of vegetables and plants around in their fruits to give them the natural nutrients and a lot of their farms I mean, they're not large farms, right? So they're not getting hammered with all the pesticides, the herbicides and the nitrogen that kills the soils and and and destroys the nutrient value of of the of the vegetables that are being grown, right? So you know, you know. So the context is different, but it is primarily plant-based. But they did, of course you know it's organic beef, pasture-raised beef, right, yeah, and it's the.

Speaker 1:

The important thing here is like I know you might be listening and being like I, I don't know where I'm gonna get these ingredients, I don't know where I can get this stuff, and it's not the point of the podcast and this episode is not to be like let's rearrange every aspect of our life, but it's if we pick up one or two things that may be actionable, like maybe, when we go to the food store we go by the pasteurized beef instead of the regular beef. It's these little things that might cause little incremental changes. That might be that one percent change each day. Which is why you listen to podcasts because you're trying to get one percent better. You're trying to do one percent learning. It might be entertainment that's another aspect but this is more of a learning base. So I really appreciate that saying yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 2:

And and the the other principle in eating wisely was this 80% rule that was found in Okinawa. So the Okinawans practice eat till you're 80% full versus Western culture, right? What does your mom say Eat?

Speaker 1:

until you're full.

Speaker 2:

Make sure you take everything off your plate. Eat everything off your plate. There's Western culture mindset on eating Okinawans is eat until you're 80% full and then you're good. You don't need to overeat. It's a different mindset. The other thing about eating in these cultures and it was consistent amongst all five of the blue zone areas that we have referred to is that the largest meal wasn't dinner time. The largest meal was breakfast.

Speaker 1:

Really.

Speaker 2:

Next largest meal was lunch and then the smallest meal was dinner. Wow, largest meal was lunch and then the smallest meal was dinner. Wow, yeah, so it's reverse to Western culture, pretty much Right. And, and you think about it, if you don't have a large meal before going to bed, your body's got to actually rest better, because now the blood is going to not your gut, right? And yeah and really focus on relaxing the body. And your body is not in that sympathetic nervous system, you know, it's not digesting yeah, and taking away from sleep.

Speaker 2:

It's ready to go to sleep our bodies that way yeah this is an observation right and maybe, maybe we can learn from this a hundred percent I mean.

Speaker 1:

So the other two that we talked about the veggies and the wine those were a little bit more specific and those can be a little challenging to implement, just based on what you eat. But the, the 80% rule is pretty easy. Also, the inverse of eating heavier than lighter, because we've talked about this in the sleeping episode where we were talking about the 3-2-1 rule, where it's three hours before bed you don't want to have food. So it's kind of like this idea of how do you slow things down and how do you not overfill yourself, this idea of how do you slow things down and how do you not overfill yourself. And it is really interesting that a lot of people have that ingrained in them where it's like finish your plate. If you don't finish your plate, then you're not going to get dessert and it's all these things. But in reality it's when you're full pause, wait a second, wait 20 minutes, and then you'll see if you're still actually hungry. Because in a definitely western culture we end up eating, overeating a lot, and it's not even that it's mostly our portion sizes are just way, way bigger. So, like some of the ways I've been able to implement this a little bit in my life is like, maybe I'll get and I'm not saying this is accessible to everyone, but this is what I do usually. What I'll end up doing is like so we had a on sunday.

Speaker 1:

We went to go get food by the beach and I really wanted a burger and there was also a wrap. So we ended up getting one burger, one wrap, and me and madison split both of them, and the reason we did that is because the wrap was kind of light. The burger was very heavy. So if I realized if I ate the entire burger, I was like dude, I'd be not feeling well. If I ate the entire wrap, I'd still be hungry. But I'm like, if they can do an in-between, because she was like yeah, what do you think was like your favorite one, and I'm like they should offer this, like they should sell this, like this is what they should sell, because you don't always have to have the heaviest thing, you don't always have to have the lightest thing, but if you can find a way to kind of switch it out, it's super, super useful.

Speaker 1:

Yeah super, super useful.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and you think about. You know if you're pushing the limits on eating and eating 100% fullness or 110%, you know it's stressing the body out right, it's taxing the body.

Speaker 2:

The body's got to actually work harder to digest and focus more energy, more blood, more oxygen and nutrients to and you know, to get the digestive tract working. And you know, and as we age, our digestive tract has worked for many, many years, right, so it's not as efficient, it's not as optimized as it once was when we were in our 20s, as it once was when we were in our 20s. So so you know, just you know.

Speaker 2:

It's like common sense, right don't yeah push the limits of your digestive tract and, yeah, eat to 80 fullness absolutely this makes sense, right?

Speaker 1:

it doesn't make sense when you look at the context of it yeah, a hundred percent, and I mean there's just been many times in my life where you see people who predominantly live overseas and they'll literally come. I had a meal with uh joe foster, the founder of reebok, and his wife right and they literally split a shrimp appetizer and I was like, are you positive?

Speaker 1:

that's all. And then they're like the serving sizes are too big here. I was like, okay, but that's how. They're in their eighties, nineties, almost nineties and traveling all around the world.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

You know what I mean.

Speaker 2:

So you're like you start to take notes and you're like whoa, like this is interesting definitely yeah, yeah, I think you know we can talk about um, this you know in in lots of different contexts. And let's, let's move or move along here. You know, the next three principles are in the area of connection, and, and what dan witnessed is that these five blue zones really focused on the idea of loved ones first, and what does that mean Is to make sure your spouse and your children are well taken care of. You know mentally, physically and emotionally that you repair conflict and you talk about things that aren't working and you talk about things that are working, but to have this close connection with your inner circle family so important right, yes.

Speaker 2:

And you think about when it's not working. You know there's a lot of stress right. There's sleepless nights, you're not eating well, so all these basic, fundamental areas that we need to be excellent at for increasing our healthspan and lifespan are not there, and it's so important to really take care of your loved ones and to have that connection.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely, and that might come down to having difficult conversations with some of them yes because a lot of the time, if we avoid those difficult conversations, then we can't rip off the band. Then it becomes a oh my god, how did this build up after so long? But it's like, no, I felt this way every day and it's like to share it when you feel it the first time or the first two times, and it's like we would. We. I felt this way every day and it's like to share it when you feel it the first time or the first two times, and it's like we need to optimize this. How are we going to get better at this?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, whatever this may be yeah.

Speaker 2:

And I'm not perfect at this. I mean, I've avoided conflict for a good chunk of my life and it wasn't until I was working with a coach where I start to learn how to have these crucial conversations, these conversations that were a little bit more difficult. You know, I'd get stuck, I would, I'd have to think about it for a while. You know, I avoided these conversations that were uncomfortable and and what I realized is that that wasn't me that was feeling it. You know, my soul wanted to have these conversations, but my patterns of the past, my relationships, the way that I grew up, you know my relationship with my parents, and they weren't very open, right? So they didn't resolve conflict by sitting down and talking, right?

Speaker 2:

yeah, so you realize that you, we have to have these crucial conversations in a reasonable amount of time, like sooner than later yes right and and sometimes you know your partner needs a little bit more time, you know, depending on their attachment style, depending on you know their personality, and just having some ground rules on how to have difficult conversations. I think that's really important and this is what we're talking about, right, and this is what we're talking about, right?

Speaker 1:

Well, it's so pretty much. I think the underlying thing is that there's frameworks to winning, there's frameworks to having great conversations, there's frameworks having great families, there's frameworks to living a long life, these blue zones that we're talking about. These are the frameworks to living a very long life, and we're diving into some of them, diving into the details, but in reality, it's how can you prioritize your family to make it so you're having better experiences with each other? How do you make it? And that might be Friday night we don't use our phones, or at dinnertime, we don't use our phone, or we eat dinner together. It can be anything phones. Or at dinner time, we don't use our phone, or we eat dinner together. It can be anything, but it's. How do you find these winning formulas to make things work? Because what ends up happening is we always get bogged down and our day is the most important and we're struggling. And it's like what they found was community, was building people up, not breaking them down. Yeah, and it's. How do you find those communities for yourself?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And you know, on that note, with family, I find have any reason to celebrate, celebrate the little things, celebrate the big things, celebrate every birthday, celebrate every graduation, celebrate every small win, and you know, be connected right there's, you know, pick up the phone right. And it's really really important because, essentially, when you think about health, span our quality of our life, I think a big part of it is the quality of our relationships determines the quality of our life. You know, like that's a big part of it. It's not everything, but if you've got really good relationships with your loved ones and friends and family, you know it's a pretty good life, right, that's a good chunk of it, right To be able to share and to be vulnerable. And family, you know it's a pretty good life, right, like a good chunk right To be able to share and to be vulnerable and to, you know, to be there in the good and bad times.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely. And the other thing is, no one remembers all the hard work you put in and speaking to the people that you didn't like, and doing all these different things. Whenever you think about your year in review, it's always these moments you created, whether you traveled somewhere, whether you had time with family, whether you surprised someone, whatever it may be, but it's not usually. Oh, I was working and I did that. So the point is you have to prioritize these relationships. They're not going to build on their own. So one of the best ways and tips I I have and then we could touch on the last two uh, one of the best tips I have is I use this thing sometimes where it's uh on our phones, we can do a voice memo. So I think a voice memo is very good.

Speaker 1:

I think a community group chat, like a family group chat, where you're just like yeah hey, today I got this win like, or it's just like oh, this is what's going on, or send photos or whatever, and it's all these different people and it makes you feel as if you're in something more when you might be feeling a little down, so it can be super valuable yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 2:

And moving right along, you know we're, on principle, number eight and it's under the connection. Umbrella and Dan recognized that all five of these communities, they have a sense of belonging and they were. You know these cultures, the church was a big part of these cultures, so it's under the sense of belonging to a group and having a community. So these groups went to church on a regular basis and whether you go to church or you belong to different types of communities and groups. It could be a running group, it could be a friend group, a men's group, a woman's group, whatever it is that sense of belonging in community is a must, and you think about the opposite of that feeling disconnected.

Speaker 2:

You know, we have prisoners in jails. What do we do with them? Right, we isolate them, we put them in darkness. No stimuli, we remove them from society. So that's the opposite to health and longevity, and what we're talking about here is the positive side of managing your health span is being a part of that important community for you to be around people and I just want to give this story because sometimes you think it's weird or awkward, right?

Speaker 1:

so probably about four years ago, I thought every time I was meeting with people I would meet up with them, and it would always be at these like outings, right? So we'd be out at the bar, we'd be getting lunch or just running into people in the neighborhood or whatever, and it wasn't very intentional. So I thought I wanted to create intentional conversations with people and that's why, with Edwards Consulting, I created some groups. So I have a Monday night group and a Thursday morning group, and the purpose of these groups is to have deep conversations. And I'm not saying like you have to join this group or you have to do any group, but you want to get around people that are looking for the same values as you, who value these different areas of life, because what ends up happening is you start to feel a lot more comfortable with them, and then it also the other amazing thing is that you still build your own friend groups, even throughout that.

Speaker 1:

So I just want to say, if anyone's on this or listening and wants to check out the group, more than happy to have you reach out. Just shoot me an email at jordan at edwardsconsulting and the purpose of that is just because community is super important, like saying mentioned. Like the whole reason me and saying met was because we were in a community together. We didn't know each other. Saying it's saying is canada, asian mid-50s. I'm 28, white florida. Like we're completely opposites but like our energy is very similar. We both have a great drive looking at health and looking at bettering our lives, so we connect. But like am I gonna run into saying randomly on the streets no, that's why you need to be in these communities in these different areas.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's, that's a great point. And and and the last principle you know that we're going to discuss about the Blue Zones is being a part of the right tribe. So, really I mean Tony Robbins says this all the time you become the five people that you hang out with the most. So be very choosy, be very careful on who you choose to spend your time with and, most importantly, you know your significant other right. Choosing your significant other wisely is very important and, as a former portfolio manager and financial planner, I would say that's probably the most important financial planning decision that you can make is choosing the right partner that you will have for life and you know. So, choosing this right tribe, it is important.

Speaker 2:

You think about if you're spending, if you're the only non-smoker, for example, and you're hanging out with four other smokers, guess what and you're hanging out with four other smokers, guess what? You probably will have a good chance of becoming a smoker because the influence there is, they're all smokers and you're going to be amongst them. You're either going to leave that group or become a smoker, right? So, yeah, choose that inner circle very wisely. And you know, obviously, what you said, jordan. You know they have the same values as yourself and maybe the same mission. Maybe not, but the values are aligned. And then you guys, you can cheer each other on and rise each other up instead of bring people down A hundred percent and I know some people are going to be like, wait, I can't afford these things and rise each other up instead of bring people down 100%.

Speaker 1:

And I know some people are going to be like, wait, I can't afford these things. I can't find these groups. There's not around. There is accessibility in this day and age that has never been here before. So, like with my group, it's all virtual. That's just one thing. But what I'd also offer you is it's not just the people you're around, but it's the things you listen to and it's the things you watch.

Speaker 1:

So when we watch reality TV, is the liken higher that you're going to be healthier tomorrow. Like I'm already sitting here, I'm waiting on, like we're about to have, I'm going to have dinner right after this, and I'm like Jordan, you can't do that. Like I'm hungry, thing. Still, you got to stop at 80%. Like like you just take these informational buckets and you implement them into your life, because there's so many times where if we're not listening to stuff like this life, because there's so many times where if we're not listening to stuff like this, then we're not getting exposure to it. So I just want to say we're influencing the circle right now by you guys listening, which is pretty incredible.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, absolutely, and you know not that we're all perfect at these things, but I think you know we can learn some important lessons, important principles, with those nine principles that we talked about. You know number one moving naturally. Number two downshifting, meditating and reducing stress. Number three understanding your purpose. Number four having some organic red wine. And number five having more plants and more variety of plants and veggies. You know fruits and veggies in your diet. Number five 80% rule. Number six loved ones first. Number seven sense of belonging. And I messed up the numbers, but we're on number nine being a part of the right tribe, selecting your closest people that you want to be around, your five closest people.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely, and I really hope that maybe just one of these items might have impacted you. I know a few of them impacted me, especially the right outlook, seeing how to implement that, the belongingness connecting with the different areas and then, especially, the eat until 80% Sang. What says you? How do we close this thing out?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I just think I would recommend watching Live to 100 on Netflix. Reach out. You can reach out to me at sangkim67 at gmailcom. I'd be more than happy to have a conversation about longevity and lifespan, and I think there's a lot that we can learn from here and and like what jordan said, you know, take a few of these principles and incorporate them in your life and um and live. Live a beautiful, healthy and wealthy life amazing, amazing.

Speaker 1:

I appreciate your time saying I appreciate you hopping on sharing the wisdom and it's always a pleasure Until the next one.

Speaker 2:

Until the next one, cheers.

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Jordan Edwards

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