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Blue Zone - Lesson #2 - Eat Less, Live Longer
Apr 23, 2019
Do you over-eat? I do. Especially around the holidays. Easter indulgences usually take the form of cute little animals fashioned from chocolate or marshmallow. And Easter dinner usually results in bursting pain and crushing lethargy. It’s bad. And my waistline agrees.
What ever can we do?
Hara Hachi Bu.
What can we do?
Hara Hachi Bu. (Ok, I’ll stop.)
The phrase Hara Hachi Bu is one of the most practical and insightful lessons that I took away from the Blue Zone book. The phrase comes from the Okinawan Blue Zone and means, “eat until you are 80% full.” Okinawan elders recite this mantra before every meal as a way to be more mindful.
Okinawa is the only known culture to consciously restrict caloric intake in this way, a practice that is shown to increase longevity in some laboratory experiments. I don’t need an experiment to tell me that I'll benefit from eating less. Did I mention the chocolate bunnies? 20% reduction would be a good start for me.
Why does the idea of Hara Hachi Bu work? Several reasons, I think. The book points out that our bodies take about 20 minutes to realize that we’ve consumed enough food. During that 20 minutes, you’ve likely polished off another helping of cheesecake. Most of us probably eat 120% of what we need at a given meal. Trying to stop at 80% could result in a 40% reduction! I might fit back into those skinny jeans yet.
Another reason why Hara Hachi Bu works is because it is sustainably simple. Most people abandon their diets within six months because they are unsustainable. We’re forced to cut out our favorite foods entirely. We’re forced to follow complex rules that are challenging to adhere to from the comfort of our own kitchen, let alone when we’re eating out. Hara Hachi Bu tells you to eat what you want, just eat less of it.
But won’t I be hungry if I stop at 80%?
Probably not. Most Americans eat until we feel full. Okinanwans eat until they are no longer hungry. There’s a huge difference.
When it comes to reducing caloric intake, it’s not just a game-time thing. With strategic planning and preparation you can take a lot of the pressure off yourself. Imagine if your dinner plate is full of healthy foods rather than sugary, starchy, processed foods. Have you ever tried to overeat on broccoli? I find that if I make good decisions at the grocery store it is way easier than making good decisions when I’m sitting on the couch and I have a choice between raw almonds and almonds surrounded by ice cream.
The book offers a few strategies for implementing this in your daily life. In the video portion of this post, I’ll offer a few of my own strategies to adopting the principle of Hara Hachi Bu in your life. Here is what the Blue Zone book suggests...
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Serve and Store - When you server yourself at the counter and immediately return the unused food to storage, you are way less likely to go back for seconds and thirds.
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Make Food Look Bigger - Increase the volume of your burger with lettuce and tomatoes. (Don’t use fries and a fried egg, I’m guessing.)
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Use Smaller Vessels - Use the smaller plates and glasses and you will trick your brain into thinking you ate more. Plus, you’ll get frequent flyer miles to the clean-plate-club.
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Make Snaking a Hassle - Hide the snack food away from sight. Better yet, don’t keep it on hand at all.
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Buy Smaller Packages - Pay attention to the packages that are available to you and go with the smaller ones. Of course, this creates more waste, but you have to pick your battles. Maybe you can switch back to the bulk purchases after you’ve trained yourself to recognize the food quantities better.
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Give Yourself a Daily Reminder - Fitness experts have known for a long time that weighing yourself on a daily basis contributes to better eating habits and has a strong correlation to successful weight loss. Put the scale somewhere obvious, so you are reminded to weigh yourself daily.
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Eat More Slowly - Slowing down allows time to sense and react so your body has time to tell you when you are full.
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Focus on Food - When you are eating, focus on eating. Don’t eat in front of the TV and definitely don’t snack in front of the TV. You’ll continue eating unnecessarily because your attention is actually on the screen and not your body.
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Have a Seat - When you eat food on the run, you are less likely to notice what you are eating and how much you are eating. By sitting down and being more intentional about meals, you will be more likely to make good decisions. Plus, most foods that make good travel companions are crappy for you.
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Eat Early - Most of the blue zones eat their larger meal at lunch or at breakfast. The theory is these meals fuel you throughout the day allowing for a lesser meal before you lay down for 8 hours.
Of course, caloric restriction in the Blue Zones is often more a function of necessity than choice. There’s no Costco on the island of Ikaria. The bread truck comes every morning, so you only buy what you need for that day. Not to mention, the average Ikaria doesn’t have space to store a 50lb bag of rice or 12lb tub of butter. It also helps that fast-food isn’t available on every street corner. The book mentions that some of the Blue Zones are seeing more and more American-style fast food places popping up and they are already noticing the negative impacts to people’s health. You’re welcome!
The Challenge
How mindful are you about the amount of food you are putting into your body each day? To what extent are you eating to fuel your body versus other reasons that have less to do with energy and more to do with emotion? What are these decisions costing you in the long run? Which of the strategies mentioned above could you implement easily into your life? Check out the video portion for more ideas about how to apply the concept of mindful caloric intake to your life.
Are you interested in becoming more intentional about your Life Design? If so, I have two excellent recommendations for you.
1) Subscribe to our weekly Vlog so you can get these articles and videos sent directly to your inbox.
2) Take the Life Design Assessment to identify the areas of your life where you can benefit from some intentional design. The assessment is free as part of our Life Design Jumpstart Kit.
Prosperous Journey,
-zog
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PhotoCredit: https://pixabay.com/users/devanath-1785462/
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