Blue Zones and Healthy Aging with Stevyn Guinnip

Have you ever thought about living beyond your 100th birthday? What are are the secrets to longevity and vitality inspired by the centenarians who live in the Blue Zones?

Kelly Augspurger spoke to Stevyn Guinnip, CEO of Grow Wellthy, and they ventured deep into the heart of the Blue Zones and extracted life-enriching wisdom that can shift the way you approach your own wellness journey.

In this episode we covered:

🔹 What are the Blue Zones?

🔹 Where are the Blue Zones?

🔹 What do the Blue Zones teach us about healthy Aging?

🔹 What does it mean to "move naturally"?

🔹 What types of diets are found in Blue Zones?

🔹 How can we improve longevity through connection?

🔹 Can our outlook significantly increase our lifespan?

🔹 How to incorporate Blue Zone principles into your daily life.
 Learn from Stevyn's knowledge and experience how you can pivot towards a 'wellthy' lifestyle. Connect with Stevyn Guinnip for more information on her wellness advisory services through LinkedIn or visit: www.GrowWellthy.com.
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➡️ Watch this podcast:  https://youtu.be/WGscZC48odE

#LongTermCare #FinancialPlanning #SteadfastCarePlanning #GrowWellthy #BlueZones

For additional information about Kelly, check her out on Linkedin or www.SteadfastAgents.com.

Steadfast Care Planning podcast is made possible by Steadfast Insurance LLC, Certification in Long Term Care, and AMADA Senior Care.

Come back next time for more helpful guidance!

For additional information about Kelly, check her out on Linkedin or www.SteadfastAgents.com.

To explore your options for long-term care insurance, click here.

Steadfast Care Planning podcast is made possible by Steadfast Insurance LLC,
Certification in Long Term Care, and AMADA Senior Care.

Come back next time for more helpful guidance!

Chapters

• 0:18 Introduction
• 1:03 What are Blue Zones?
• 2:05 Where are Blue Zones?
• 3:25 What do these Blue Zones teach us about healthy aging?
• 5:30 The Secrets of the Blue Zones on Netflix
• 6:36 Active Lifestyle in Blue Zones and Steepness of the Village
• 9:10 "Move Naturally"
• 10:49 Amada Commercial
• 11:20 Standing at your desk versus sitting
• 13:40 Active Workspaces
• 14:55 How often do we need to move at work?
• 15:55 The 4 Pillars to Longevity
• 16:05 Connect with others!
• 17:20 CLTC Commercial
• 17:35 Outlook: What is your purpose?
• 18:25 Affects of Chronic Stress
• 20:41 Connectivity in large cities like Singapore
• 21:25 Having family nearby
• 23:58 The Costa Rica Model versus the Singapore Model
• 25:50 Incorporating some of these Blue Zone lifestyle habits to live long and well
• 26:00 Quick Review of the 4 Blue Zone Pillars of Longevity
• 26:58 How to find Stevyn Guinnip

Transcript

Kelly Augspurger [00:00:02]:

Hey, everyone. Welcome to Steadfast Care Planning, where we plan for care to live well. I'm your guide, Kelly Augspurger. With me today is Stevyn Guinnip, aka "The Girl Named Stevyn". Stevyn is the founder and CEO of Grow Wellthy, a health and wellness advisory firm that serves the financial industry by providing wellness plans and support. Stevyn, thanks so much for being with me today again, this is your second time on.

Stevyn Guinnip [00:00:26]:

Yes, thanks for inviting me back. We did this about a year ago, and so I'm so excited to be here with you again.

Kelly Augspurger [00:00:32]:

It is round two, and this time I'm really excited about the topic for today. We're going to be chatting about Blue Zones and healthy aging. So, Stevyn, can we jump right in?

Stevyn Guinnip [00:00:43]:

Yeah, let's do it. So this is kind of a hot topic.

Kelly Augspurger [00:00:46]:

It really is and I've just been hearing about this really in the last six months. I'm not sure if I've just been totally in a bubble, but it's come to my attention that, "Oh, there's this thing called Blue Zones." What are Blue Zones? What does this mean? And so that's what we're going to talk about today. So tell us, Stevyn, what are blue zones and where are they?

Stevyn Guinnip [00:01:06]:

So, several years ago, Dan Buettner wrote a book called The Blue Zones, and it was identifying these five regions across the world where people are continually overliving in a healthy way, up to and beyond 100 years old. And the reason they're called Blue Zones is because someone who was doing the research had a blue marker, and he kept just putting dots every time he found a concentration of centenarians, people who live over 100. And so it became like a blue blob, and that was considered a blue zone, and that's how it got its name. But it's people who are living beyond the normal lifespan, which here in the United States, I think is around 79 years, or so. You may have some better stats on that, but these Blue Zones are where people are active. There's no signs of dementia, they don't have chronic diseases, and they're living really well beyond their hundredth birthday.

Kelly Augspurger [00:01:56]:

Yeah. So this is fascinating, right? Like, is there a Blue Zone here in the United States? Here in the Midwest? I'm thinking not. Right? I don't think we're probably a Blue Zone here. And so, okay, five different locations across the world. Where are some of these places?

Stevyn Guinnip [00:02:14]:

So the United States does have one, and it's Loma Linda in California, and it is a Blue Zone in a metropolitan area, which is odd because most of the Blue Zones are in more rural areas along the equator. And so Linda loma is because of the 7th Day Adventists and the weather and the way that they design the pillars of their faith and health is one of those. And so it dictates a little bit more about how they choose to eat or how they choose to move and protect this pillar of their faith, which is health. And so that's the only one that's in the United States. And then there's one in Costa Rica. Sardinia, Italy. There's one in Greece, and then Japan.

Kelly Augspurger [00:02:59]:

Okay. Okay. So, yeah, a variety of locations across the world, but obviously they have things in common, which is they've got people that are living to 100 or beyond, and they're healthy aging. And I would imagine being active probably has something to do with it and probably the food that they eat. And maybe there's a religious faith component to some of these, like you said in Loma Linda. So what do these Blue Zones teach us about healthy aging?

Stevyn Guinnip [00:03:26]:

There's a lot of things that because really, we're like, okay, what does this mean for us, the people who are not living in these Blue Zones? What we're trying to do. This conversation you and I are having is how can we pull pieces of the Blue Zones and make them part of our life here in the Midwest or in the Southeast or anywhere. We might call some of the zones in the United States yellow Zones because you go out to eat and it's all yellow food, right? It's all fried chicken, it's brown french fries.

Kelly Augspurger [00:03:56]:

Shades of brown, tan shades of brown, yeah, exactly.

Stevyn Guinnip [00:04:00]:

So, you know, one of the main things that he talked about was just making your food more colorful, making it more plant based. Not saying that you have to go vegan or vegetarian at all, but that you can just make it more real foods. And I thought it was really interesting that so many of these Blue Zones have gardens, and they are out working in their gardens and eating stuff that they're producing or that's produced locally to them. And a lot of it, like, I think it was Costa Rica, Nicoya, Costa Rica, where they call it the Three Sisters, and it's bringing in these three kinds of food, which together makes a complete protein because there are nine amino acids, and people think, "Oh, I have to eat all this red meat and dairy." And some people are allergic to that, but you can actually get full protein from The Three Sisters, which were corn, squash and beans. But then in the other ones, like Okinawa and some of the others, they were doing root vegetables, like sweet potatoes, purple sweet potatoes or whatever was local to them. But really getting foods that have lots of fiber, and carbs wasn't an issue. I know there's a lot of people out there afraid of carbs, and they think, "Oh, I have to stay away."

Stevyn Guinnip [00:05:03]:

These people are eating lots of carbs, but they're really fibrous carbs, and so that's protective to them as well. So eating real food was one of them.

Kelly Augspurger [00:05:11]:

So I found that really fascinating. And before Stevyn and I had this episode set up to record, she was like, "There's this show 'Live to 100'."

Stevyn Guinnip [00:05:20]:

Right.

Kelly Augspurger [00:05:20]:

What's the rest of the title, Stevyn? Live to 100...

Stevyn Guinnip [00:05:22]:

"Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones".

Kelly Augspurger [00:05:24]:

The Secrets of the Blue Zones. And it's on Netflix. And so I binged over the weekend and watched a bunch of episodes, which is unlike me, I don't typically binge watch TV, but I did, and I was really getting into it. I think I watched almost all of the episodes in a row. It was a lot. But I thought it was so fascinating that, just like you said, in a lot of these places, these are carb heavy foods that they're eating, and some of them very little meat, some of them more meat than others. Maybe some of them is fish because that's local to them. But a lot of it is local whole foods.

Kelly Augspurger [00:06:01]:

And that's really key.

Stevyn Guinnip [00:06:02]:

Right.

Kelly Augspurger [00:06:03]:

And I found that really interesting because I do think a lot of people are afraid of carbs and are afraid to eat carbs in their life. But if it's a complex carb, that's different, probably from, like, a simple carb and then being active.

Stevyn Guinnip [00:06:15]:

Right.

Kelly Augspurger [00:06:15]:

Like, so many of these Blue Zones, I noticed, live a very active lifestyle. Like, they're walking a lot of yes. Yeah.

Stevyn Guinnip [00:06:23]:

Kelly that's one of the things I was really surprised at. And it's interesting because you and I talked. I'm moving to Madeira, Portugal, here soon. Is that one of the predictors of longevity in these centenarians was the steepness of their village?

Kelly Augspurger [00:06:37]:

Yes. I was blown away by that. Like, these 90 year olds doing these steep inclines on a regular basis, like, going to the store, they're going up and down these steep hills, going to church, going here, everywhere they're going. And that probably contributes to them living such a long, healthy life.

Stevyn Guinnip [00:06:54]:

Yes, it does. And so then you're like, "Well, okay, how do we pull that into our lives here?" I'm sitting here talking to you in Illinois right now, it's flat as a pancake right where I am. How do you have a steep village? Well, there's lots of places you can take the stairs. Right. Some of my clients recently went on a cruise, and they're like, how are we going to walk on a cruise? I'm like, the staircases on a cruise are perfect for a steep village. Right.

Kelly Augspurger [00:07:19]:

Good idea.

Stevyn Guinnip [00:07:20]:

You can find ways to kind of incorporate some of these ideas in. And just as a little side note, I just spent three weeks in this steep village I'm moving to with my mom, and I'm a big tracker of data. Like I love wearables. I love to look at the numbers and see what the numbers tell us. We were there three weeks, and both of us saw marked improvement in our cardiovascular sleep cycles, like, our stress response and how our bodies responded to all the walking. Like, over just three weeks of doing that and we both were healthier when we left than when we got there. And so I was like, "Oh my gosh, that's a thing!"

Stevyn Guinnip [00:07:56]:

"Steepness of your village!"

Kelly Augspurger [00:07:57]:

Wow. Yeah. Real life example right there. And Stevyn. Yeah, I mean, we were talking before we started the show, and you're moving to Portugal very soon, right? Like selling stuff at home back in the States and really preparing not just you, but your husband and your kids are moving to Portugal. And although Portugal and where you're going is not a Blue Zone necessarily, but like you said, you're going to be able to walk a lot of places and probably, I would imagine, a lot of seafood. You're near the sea right?

Stevyn Guinnip [00:08:25]:

Yeah, yeah, definitely.

Kelly Augspurger [00:08:26]:

Yeah.

Stevyn Guinnip [00:08:27]:

So you get local fresh fruits and vegetables that you can get at the market. And everybody goes shopping almost every day or every other day. Get your fresh stuff from local areas. And then you've got your steepness and you've got your ocean and your fish and your sunlight and your fresh air and all those things. So you think about these Blue Zone people and that's what was another thing that was really interesting is they're not members of gyms. They don't take supplements, they don't spend any money on this stuff. It's all free. And so you're like, well, what are they doing to move? Yes, they're walking these steep hills, but some of the places aren't steep.

Stevyn Guinnip [00:08:59]:

I don't think that all of the villages had this steepness to them, but they all had what he calls "move naturally". They all had natural movement built into their lives. So you had these 90 year old people out there bending and stooping and gardening and pulling and raking and sweeping and doing these things or tending their sheep, and they're walking the hillsides. So they're just out naturally moving. And it's interesting because about six years ago, there was a metaanalysis, a study that was done and it said this is here in the United States with middle aged Americans. And it said that people who go to the gym every day for an hour are not protected from chronic disease and all cause mortality if they sit still the rest of the day. And so you're like, "Oh my gosh, going to the gym, I'm being healthy, but then I go and sit behind this desk all day long and I'm sedentary." Then you top that with stress because of the industries that we work in or the business of our lives.

Stevyn Guinnip [00:10:02]:

And you have this toxic cocktail for disease, right? So the key here to me is that when people change that by 2 hours a day, that's what this research showed. They take their sedentary time from 12.6 hours down to 10.6 hours a day. Then they have a significant change in their all cause mortality. The gym has nothing to do with it. And so when we look at the Blue Zones, you're like, these people are just doing really easy, low level movement, kind of throughout the whole day. We can do that, right? Like we can get up and walk to the mailbox, know, do a stretching or go do something low level movement, clean the house, get in the garden. So there's lots of things we can do to kind of feather movement throughout our day and get one of those benefits too.

Kelly Augspurger [00:10:44]:

The Steadfast Care Planning podcast is sponsored by AMADA Senior Care. AMADA provides complimentary consultation with a senior care advisor to find the right care from in home caregiving to community care, as well as long-term care insurance claim advocacy and unique support partnerships for financial advisors to address family transitions and generational retention. To learn more, visit www.steadfastwithamada.com. So probably a simple thing that we can all do if we are working at a desk is stand. I mean, would that be one thing? Like, do you have to actually move or can you just kind of engage your body in standing versus you're sitting? I mean, I have a standing desk and I stand almost the whole day except when I'm doing a podcast, I sit because I move around a lot too much when I stand. But standing, I would think, because you're engaging your whole body basically, right? Like you're actively having to hold yourself up versus you're sitting and you're just using the chair. So would that be an example of we're not moving but we are engaging our body more so?

Stevyn Guinnip [00:11:52]:

Somewhat, yes, OK, I would say there's a caveat to this. You're up and you're standing, which is good. But we've noticed in research that people who stand all day and don't change their body positions can end up with negative effects of that too. Like varicose veins, swollen ankles, back pain, some hip issues. Because the body is trying to always adjust. It likes to be moving constantly. Really? Like it really just does. You think about a racehorse going into a stall, it's going to deteriorate very quickly if you keep it in that stall all the time.

Stevyn Guinnip [00:12:22]:

It needs to move and that's how we are. So our body needs lubrication and it's called synovial fluid and that goes into all of your joints. It's kind of like engine oil, right? So standing is good. And that flips on all these switches like oxygen uptake and glucose uptake and it keeps the lights on in the house, which is good, and it's signaling your body that it's alive. But if you stand still, you're still getting pooling of fluids in the feed and lots of other muscular things and joint things going on. And so like, people who cut hair for a living, or bank tellers, they end up with a whole host of different kinds of issues going on because they're standing all day. So the key is the next position is the best position. So wherever you are now is fine, but know that you're going to be moving into a new position.

Stevyn Guinnip [00:13:05]:

So when I used to work with companies about their active workspaces. We'd tell them every 30 minutes to an hour, change your position, go sit on the floor, go sit in your chair, stand up and walk around on the phone. Do something different. So you're making transitions like ten to twelve a day, something like that. Ups and downs throughout the day, right?

Kelly Augspurger [00:13:24]:

Yeah.

Stevyn Guinnip [00:13:25]:

It's just you just don't want to stand all day still because you're still technically still. Right?

Kelly Augspurger [00:13:30]:

But if you're standing and even, okay, I'm not necessarily going to go walk across the room, but what if I do ten squats, right? Or like ten, something like that. Stand on one leg, right?

Stevyn Guinnip [00:13:40]:

Do heel raises. I call your calf muscle your second heartbeat. Because if you can just go up and down on your toes, you're actually helping the fluid get back up to your heart so that it can move it and clean it and do all that stuff. So ten heel raises every hour or something, or a few squats or standing on one leg, all that's good. But caveat for you guys who are standing a lot, as soon as you notice your body shifts to one leg and your hip cocks out, sit down or change your position because that's your body saying, "I'm really fatiguing in this position". Or if you find yourself kind of leaning on the table or getting kind of wonky in your posture, then that's just like, "Oh, my body's ready for a new position". So just be aware of that.

Kelly Augspurger [00:14:22]:

That's an easy cue, right? I do find myself doing that. Like maybe one leg is holding more weight than the other and then I switch, right? I'm like, "Okay, that leg is getting a little tired. Okay, yeah, I need to do something different", but that's something good to remember. So during the day, if we are at a desk, if we don't have an active job, right, like we're not delivering mail or anything like that, we're at a desk. You said going to the mailbox, taking a quick little walk. I mean, how often did you say we should do this?

Stevyn Guinnip [00:14:49]:

30 minutes to an hour is good. And you just have to do it for 1 minute. Okay, just 1 minute. So if I need to make a quick phone call to like I just was paying a phone bill, then I'll just walk and talk while I do that. So just quick things like little snacks. You don't have to do a big deal, and that's going to help. Just keep all the systems and the lights turned on.

Kelly Augspurger [00:15:07]:

Yeah.

Stevyn Guinnip [00:15:07]:

So we can bring some of that movement. So really just don't be sitting for long bouts. Don't be still, I should say for long bouts. Find ways to incorporate a little bit of movement in throughout the day and feather it. Don't just clump it all to beginning or the end of the day kind of feather. And that's what these Blue Zones are doing.

Kelly Augspurger [00:15:25]:

Got you. So outside of the movement, eating whole foods, it sounds like local food is important. What else, like, even within our diet or outside of the movement, do you think that we can what lessons and principles, what else can we learn from there that we can incorporate in our lives?

Stevyn Guinnip [00:15:42]:

So Dan Buettner came up with four things, right? So there's the movement piece, which is move naturally. There's eat the whole foods, the real foods, and then there's two other pieces that have nothing to do with moving or eating. And they're more about mindset, more about happiness, more about faith or spirituality. And so one of them was Connect. And Connect is having the right tribe around you, making sure that you've got friends and support networks, and they're there to help you. Because loneliness I don't remember what the stat was. He said I want to say maybe like six years or something. Like loneliness can actually take away longevity.

Kelly Augspurger [00:16:18]:

Yeah, I recall him saying that in the show. Yeah.

Stevyn Guinnip [00:16:20]:

So Loma Linda, they had this woman, and she was the pickleball queen, and they all played pickleball together, and it was young and old kind of together. They actually looked at Singapore, too, because they're looking at developing countries, because all of the Blue Zones, aside from Loma Linda, are more like they've just been isolated. And modern world hasn't entered their world yet, right? So they were looking at more modern world. So they looked at Singapore and what are they doing. And so they're building these they called it like a club sandwich of buildings, and it's different layers. So there's like, shopping, and then there's medical care, and then there's living. And then on the top are the terraces with the gardens and everything. And they're bringing all kinds of different people together to interact.

Stevyn Guinnip [00:17:06]:

Children, older people, people working and trying to keep families close together so that they can take care of each other. So that Connect was really important.

Kelly Augspurger [00:17:14]:

And now for a brief message from our show's sponsor. The Steadfast Care Planning Podcast is sponsored by the CLTC Certified in Long Term Care Training program, which gives financial advisors tools to discuss extended care planning with their clients. Look for the CLTC designation when choosing an advisor.

Stevyn Guinnip [00:17:32]:

And then the other piece he calls Outlook. And Outlook is just what's your purpose? What do you believe about life, about faith, about why you're here, some of those things, and just having a reason to get up and do what you're doing. And the stress component, we'll say that, of our lives. And one of the things I loved was when he talked about the shepherds in Sardinia, I think it was, or it could have been Ikaria, which is in Greece, he talked about they were going out and they would have stressors, and these stressors would be about their sheep. The sheep is injured. They can't find water. There's something trying to attack the sheep, whatever, but those are stressors that the shepherd could address. He could problem solve those, and that reduces stress.

Stevyn Guinnip [00:18:13]:

So one of the things that we have in our lives is kind of a chronic level of stress of world events and politics, and everything is at our front door from our phone, and it's causing us stress, but we can't control it. And that is an unresolved stress. So looking at things in your life and paying attention to the things that you do have control over and trying to take action on those things is going to lower your stress and help you have a better outlook on life. And so those were the four main components he was discussing.

Kelly Augspurger [00:18:44]:

And we do have control over many of those things, right? We have control of how often are we looking at our devices and the news. Do we constantly go to this newsfeed and read articles and watch the news? And there's a lot of doom and gloom out there, Stevyn, and I don't want any part of that. I think I probably do live in a bit of a bubble, and I rely on my husband a lot to tell me what I really need to know, because he does read the news regularly. But I look at him and I'm like, maybe you read it too much, because I feel like it's added stress that you don't need. So it's like, we want to be aware of what's going on, but we don't need to be inundated all the time of the latest getting those buzzes on our phone and having to read the latest news, whatever that might be. So being able to control that and we can say no, like, you don't have to engage in that way, right?

Stevyn Guinnip [00:19:33]:

Yes, absolutely. I have a client who asked me. He's like, "What's your news show? Are you a FOX'er or a CNN'er?" And I was like, "I'm neither. I don't watch either one of those shows. You're not going to put me in a box, and I don't even watch it anyway." And so what I was surprised about that question is, everyone assumes that every single night we're absorbing all of this stuff and we can choose not to. And that's what I choose. I choose not to do that.

Stevyn Guinnip [00:20:00]:

I'll read the headlines. I'll ask my husband, what's going on as well, but try not to get into the weeds of it. But the other piece of that is that that was a divisive question. That was like, are you on this side or this side? And remember, of the four pieces, connection was one of the things that gives us longevity. Being together, finding the things that are alike about us, and looking for those things and being a detective for those things, as opposed to how are we different from each other? And so just being aware of that, I think, is a real way to lower stress as well.

Kelly Augspurger [00:20:31]:

I thought it was so lovely in the show how in the different Blue Zones and it wasn't just one in particular, but I think it was Singapore where they were talking about connectivity and that it's a big city, they don't have a lot of green space.

Stevyn Guinnip [00:20:44]:

Right.

Kelly Augspurger [00:20:44]:

Like to go hiking and do all these things. But being together or being near your family is really important. Or even having a community, doesn't have to be your family. Right. But having a tribe, having people that you can rely on and talk to and share your life with is really important. But I did find it really fascinating that I think they even give some type of a financial incentive to people. If you live close to your family, like there's a certain radius and I forget the mileage, but it was like, if you live this close to your family members, to your parents, then we're going to give you this financial incentive. I don't know if it was like a tax deduction or what it was, but I remember like, "Oh my goodness, wow!"

Kelly Augspurger [00:21:20]:

Because they want people to age and have family nearby to pitch in and help so that they don't have to rely on the government to step in and care for that individual. And so when I being in the long-term care world and extended care and thinking of so often, so many of the families that I help and serve, their families are not necessarily near each other. Like, they might be across the country from one another in completely different states. And so they absolutely cannot rely on family members other than if they have a partner or spouse. But most often you're not looking to your kids to be able to help in caregiving or any of that. And a lot of times people don't want to, at least here in the States want to do that, necessarily rely on their kids to provide that care. But in other countries, it's encouraged and it's just a very different lifestyle and way of thinking. But I found it endearing to an extent of, well, gosh, yeah, we love our family, we want to care for them as much as we just we live in a lifestyle in the States where we are go, go, go, right?

Kelly Augspurger [00:22:19]:

And we have a lot on our plates and so it's hard for a lot of us to be able to do caregiving in that way. But I think it might have been in was Italy, one of the places? Or maybe it was Greece.

Stevyn Guinnip [00:22:29]:

Yeah, Sardinia. It was Italy.

Kelly Augspurger [00:22:31]:

Sardinia. And there was a great aunt of a family and so they were all there, like, sitting around this table and she has hard of hearing, but the nieces would come into town and they weren't necessarily next door, but they were fairly close. And so they'd come and visit her and they're like, "This is actually kind of a break for us", because, yes, they're preparing meals, and she didn't, I don't think, needed a lot of hands on assistance. It was mostly like, help with laundry and preparing some meals, but a lot of it was conversation. Stevyn.

Stevyn Guinnip [00:23:00]:

Yes, right.

Kelly Augspurger [00:23:01]:

That connectivity. And I think that is what we really can take away from learning, that is wanting to connect with people, to communicate, to stay engaged socially with people that are important to us. Yeah.

Stevyn Guinnip [00:23:15]:

And what I loved about that, too, is that they saw their elders as being a resource of wisdom for them, too. So that's something that they value the place of the people who've got the experience, and they enjoy talking to them and learning from them. And it's kind of a two way street. Right. So it doesn't feel like a burden. It just feels like I'm getting something from you and you're getting something from me. Because it was really interesting that there weren't any nursing homes in those areas.

Kelly Augspurger [00:23:42]:

I know, right!

Stevyn Guinnip [00:23:43]:

That's very different than here. And so there have to be other things in place to be able to provide the care that's so yeah, and it's interesting, the concept of the Singapore model versus the Costa Rica model, like, one of them is policy oriented and the other is individually oriented. And so there's one is by necessity from the individual, and one is an encouragement or a carrot from the policies of the region. And there's a concept I teach my clients called Locus of Control. And locus of control is internal versus external. If it's internal, it means you have the power. If it's external, it means you're the victim. Right.

Stevyn Guinnip [00:24:21]:

Like something happened to you. And so being able to understand you yourself is where the change starts. And maybe policies catch up or help or support, but that's not where the biggest movers are going to come. It's going to come from you, from me, from us making decisions about how we're going to care about our health, about our family's health, about where we're going to live, what our environment is going to look like, what we're going to eat. And that all, really, is the place where we can all start. And it doesn't have to be hard. We don't have to wait for anything. We don't have to stress, because it's not changing politically or from a policy standpoint fast enough for us.

Stevyn Guinnip [00:24:21]:

And that feels like a really good place to kind of know that you have control right here and right now.

Kelly Augspurger [00:25:01]:

It does because who wants to be out of control? Nobody, right? I mean, if we can retain some measure of control in our lives, humans, we crave that. That's what we want. And so being able to make those decisions, lifestyle decisions, is really key. Well, I think this is such a fascinating topic, Stevyn, and I think we probably could talk about this for hours, but we are limited on time. But it's great to know that even though most of us don't live in Blue Zones, we can still adapt and have some Blue Zone lifestyle habits that we incorporate into our lives so we can still benefit. And I think living to age 100 would be amazing, but I don't want to live to age 100 and be unhealthy and in poor shape.

Stevyn Guinnip [00:25:45]:

Right.

Kelly Augspurger [00:25:46]:

So how do we do that? Gracefully, successfully, and healthy. And maybe incorporating some of these Blue Zone lifestyle habits is a way to do that. Yeah.

Stevyn Guinnip [00:25:54]:

And just as a quick review, find your tribe, connect with people around you, make the effort, then go out and make sure you've got the right outlook. If there's lots of negative thoughts running through your head, find something that's going to help you have a purpose or help change that outlook. Join a faith based group or something, and then move naturally. It doesn't have to be at the gym. Just move naturally and then make sure you've got good, real food that looks like real food. It looks like something that you know what it is that grows in the earth. So those are just the four main things. And I love that you're spreading this word.

Stevyn Guinnip [00:26:27]:

And when we can start to incorporate this, hopefully we see that long-term care has a safety net for us that's really, really important. But we also can live well longer before we need that safety net, maybe, and that some of these tips can maybe help us all.

Kelly Augspurger [00:26:42]:

Awesome. Well, I was just going to ask you what's your final advice, but there it is. Stevyn, you just gave us a nice wrap up of what your final advice is for everybody listening and watching, so thank you for that. And Stevyn, where can people find more information about you and how you help people?

Stevyn Guinnip [00:26:56]:

So find me on LinkedIn "Girl Named Stevyn". I post there every single day. I try to put out as much content as I can there. And then on my profile, there's a health credit score quiz, and you can see how you're doing, if you're in debt with your health or if you're doing okay. So you can take that quiz if you want to or go to www.GrowWellthy.com, and you can see about the different services I offer there.

Kelly Augspurger [00:27:16]:

Fantastic.

Stevyn Guinnip [00:27:17]:

And it's "wellthy".

Kelly Augspurger [00:27:17]:

W-E-L-L-T-H-Y right? Yes.

Stevyn Guinnip [00:27:21]:

Yeah, it's a little play on words. It's an abundance of wellness. W-E-L-L-T-H-Y? Yes.

Kelly Augspurger [00:27:27]:

Awesome. Awesome. Well, thank you, Stevyn. Really appreciate your time. Best of luck to you and your family as you guys make this trek across the world to Portugal and incorporate a lot of those Blue Zone lifestyle habits that we were just talking about into a new way of living. So that is really exciting.

Kelly Augspurger [00:27:44]:

Yeah. Be sure to follow Stevyn. She does put out a lot of content. Not just content, but, like, really helpful content and tips. You really do. I mean, not just visually stimulating, but like, "Oh, I'm going to try that. I think that's a great idea.

Kelly Augspurger [00:27:59]:

I should incorporate that into my life." Good yeah, really, really good stuff. So thank you again, Stevyn. Really appreciate it.

Stevyn Guinnip [00:28:05]:

You're welcome. Have a great day. Thanks, Kelly. Bye.