The second aspect of leading a healthy lifestyle is exercise. People who engage in some forms of exercise tend to stay healthy longer and as a result, live longer.
This article series is a rewritten version of the series I have already written in my other blog Omi-merchant’s way of Sustainable Prosperity. I am adding some new features here since my knowledge is upgrading day by day.
Move naturally in your daily life
Centenarians in Okinawa constantly move by working in their vegetable field and doing other household chores. It is the same for other areas of Blue Zones that they move a lot as their daily activities such as walking or gardening. Ikaria, Greece and Sardinia, Italy are both in mountain areas and people often walk up and downs. This applies to the Seventh-day Adventist church in Loma Linda, California, too. They take a walk regularly. Through their gardening, most people in the Blue Zones get enough exercises.
Japanese people, on the whole, move a lot in their daily lives. People in Satoyama work in their rice fields, vegetable fields, and mountains. People in cities either walk or cycle to the train station, often stand on the train, walk up and down stairs when they change trains, and finally walk to their office from the train station.
Therefore, one thing I recommend is that design your lifestyle where you have to move a lot as part of your daily routine. Doing gardening is one, commuting to work by bicycle or public transportation is also good.
Gardening
If you decide to do gardening, you can grow organic vegetables. It will help your diet, too.
There are some studies which suggest that spending time outside makes you live longer. Growing organic vegetables has multiple benefits.
Through working with soil, you have more access to microorganisms in the soil, which will help you in a similar way as the gut microbiomes helping you.
You pay attention to the sun, wind, rain, weeds, and insects, which will connect you with nature more and you will be living in a natural rhythm.
Satoyama walking
Doing popular exercises like jogging and walking are also good. I jog regularly. For some people, jogging can damage your knees so walking may be better.
If you go Satoyama Walking, which is a walk on a farm or forest, it has multiple benefits, too, such as breathing in clean air and meditating.
It is good to do aerobic exercises like jogging or walking, but also you want to do some stretching type exercises like yoga, as well to gain holistic benefits. I will talk about it some other time.