Blue Zones
Blue Zones Project, a collaboration of NCH and Healthways, will ignite and lead a community-by-community movement to improve the well-being across southwest Florida through the application of the learnings from the Blue Zones. Blue Zones Project will focus on permanent environmental and policy changes that will make the healthy choice the easy choice. For example, experts will work with restaurants to find ways to provide better and affordable choices, such as making fresh fruit the default option rather than french fries. Also, rather than asking residents to walk or bike more, walking and cycling will be made easier and more desirable than driving.
Blue Zones
Blue Zones are geographically defined areas where people live measurably longer.
What if you knew that you could add 12 healthy and happy years to your life? Would you be interested?
Dan Buettner, a world-renowned author of The New York Times bestselling book titled “The Blue Zones — Lessons For Living Longer, from the People Who’ve Lived the Longest,” identified common elements of cultures and healthy living which produced longer life expectancy. This research has been used to develop tools and programs that help people live longer, happier lives with lower rates of chronic disease and higher quality life.
Blue Zones® has incorporated the findings from an array of scientific research along with an eight year worldwide longevity study to produce lifestyle management tools, content and products that help people live well, longer. The Blue Zones findings have garnered national media attention including “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” “Good Morning America,” “Anderson Cooper 360” and “ABC Nightly News.”
Blue Zones Project
Power 9 Newsletters
Blue Zones Project
Blue Zones Project will encourage all communities across southwest Florida to become Blue Zones Communities® in the coming years. Those who exhibit the greatest passion, interest and ability to transform their communities will receive assistance from international experts to transform the well-being of their community. The selected communities will lead the way in transforming well-being across southwest Florida and will share their experiences with others who are adopting Blue Zones principles.
The people of southwest Florida and their communities will have the ability to leverage tools and resources that will enable them to start changing their environment. By becoming a Blue Zones Community, you’ll help your friends and neighbors live longer, happier lives free of chronic disease because the healthy choice becomes the easy choice.
The Blue Zones Project Difference
Anyone who has ever made a healthy New Year’s resolution knows the challenges of maintaining it over time. Your circumstances and environment conspire against you, making the goal difficult to achieve. It’s the same challenge faced by traditional health improvement programs that rely on behavior change alone.
Blue Zones Project is different because it takes an environmental approach to improve well-being. By optimizing our environments — those settings where we spend our time and which influence our behavior — we can make the healthy choice the easy choice so that we naturally adopt healthy behaviors.
Blue Zones Power 9
Researchers found that people who live in Blue Zones share nine common lifestyle behaviors that have a direct impact on their increased well-being and longevity. These healthy behaviors, called the Power 9® Principles, center on moving naturally, eating wisely, knowing your life’s purpose and belonging to a social community. The Power 9 Principles are easy, small steps that everyone can take in their daily lives to feel better, live longer and be happier. These simple behaviors are patterned after the lifestyles of people who live in Blue Zones areas.
