The dozen or so people who gathered in a basement room at the Beach Cities Health District one night late in August didn’t look like a gathering of particularly unhealthy people. And that, in the end, may have been the point of the Blue Zones Makeover experience.
National Geographic explorer and bestselling author Dan Buettner had put out a call for people to volunteer for what he called the Blue Zones makeover as a way to demonstrate, through them, how simple lifestyle changes can result in significant and positive changes in health. These changes, derived from his research into areas of the world where people live the longest and healthiest lives – the so-called Blues Zones of Okinawa, Sardinia, Costa Rica, and Lorba Linda – are the core of the Vitality City public health initiative, which seeks to measurably improve the overall health and well-being of the entire Beach Cities population.
The people who responded to Buettner’s call for volunteers were fairly typical of the Beach Cities. A Gallup poll conducted as part of the Vitality Cities launch in late 2010 revealed that the Beach Cities ranked 176 out of 188 cities nationally in levels of stress, 160th in anger, and 178th in worry – local residents were angrier than Detroit and as stressed out as New Orleans.
And while local residents are only slightly below the national average in terms of weight – 60 percent are overweight or obese, compared to 66 percent nationally – the composite picture the data revealed of the Beach Cities was one of less-visible ill-health.
The Blue Zones Makeover team, as the volunteers would be called, fit this picture. Some were overweight, but most were not. Many worked long hours in order to afford to live in the Beach Cities. Most weren’t very well connected to the community.
This disconnection, Buettner said, underlies much of the ill-health locally.
“The biggest problems in the Beach Cities, as compared to rest of America, are worry, stress and anger – and these are going to best be mitigated by people knowing their neighbor,” Buettner said. “But that is not the only component; that’s an important component of it. The point is America is so oriented towards the quick fix, the packaged and marketed, lay your money down and get the results approach. And that is not how it works. What works is slow, and steady, and constant.”
The lessons from the Blue Zones are somewhat like a remedial course in living as human beings are built to live. The first of the nine principles Buettner outlines in his Blue Zones book is simply, “Move Naturally” – that is, be active without thinking about it by identifying activities you like and making it a part of your regular daily routine. Others are likewise simple – eat a largely plant-based diet, and at meals, eat only until you are 80 percent full.
The overall idea is to create an environment around yourself that mindlessly “nudges” you into making healthy choices.
“The inspiration of Blue Zones, and Vitality City, is the small changes you can make in your life – not large, dramatic things, really – that can have a significant impact on your health and well-being,” said Lisa Santora, BCHD’s chief medical officer. “And with the makeover in particular, and Vitality City generally, they are connecting with somebody – they are not alone in this journey.”
Move Naturally: Gavin Galimi
Perhaps none of the participants in the Blue Zone Makeover had a stronger and more clearly articulated motive than Gavin Galimi. He wanted to improve his own health in order to protect his three children’s health.
Galimi had grown up overweight and he saw that his son, while not dramatically overweight, had a similar body type and could easily fall into the same unhealthy habits that had plagued him throughout his life.
“My parents were both big, and I’ve been big – I’ve gone up to almost 230 pounds – and one of the things I’ve appreciated is our kids do what they see,” Galimi said. “We’ve done a lot of good things – we don’t smoke, we try to talk and don’t fight…So when I think about what I was doing, I have sort of failed on one front, and that is being a good example in terms of being active and a healthy weight. And it’s easy for me, I sit at the desk at work all day, and you are busy…If that is what I show my kids, how do I break that cycle?”
He’d tried Weight Watcher’s, and it had worked, but only temporarily – he dropped down to 190 pounds, but very quickly put 20 pounds back on. In August, he was at 227 pounds. His wife, Beth, urged him to apply for the Blue Zones makeover. Galimi agreed, but then didn’t do anything about it.
Galimi’s inactivity – like so many South Bay residents – is partly a function of his professional success. He is an attorney who serves as executive vice president, general counsel, and chief compliance officer for March Vision Care. Since 2005, when the company managed the vision care for 65,000 customers in California, the business has grown exponentially – managing care for 3.5 million people in 18 states.
The growth came at a cost. Galimi regularly worked 80 hour weeks, or more. Though the company – which, after all, is in the business of health care – encouraged its employees to live healthily, Galimi worked so hard and so long that a sedentary life seemed unavoidable. Even after his wife asked him to apply for the makeover, he couldn’t find the time to do it.
So she did what anyone who loves their spouse would do: she nagged him. “You are going to miss the boat,” she told him. Finally, he wrote the letter, showed up at the Blue Zones meeting, and in September, began his makeover. It could not have gone much better that it has: he has lost 15 pounds and feels as good as he has ever felt in his life.
“Look, I met my wife when I was 16, so I have known her 23 years,” Galimi said. “In May, we will have been married for 12 years, so I am grateful that I have somebody who loves me enough to nag me. But why would I do this, and why keep doing this? It’s my kids. I have got to give my kids the gift of being active and being at a healthy weight….All three of them deserves the benefit of this knowledge that we didn’t have before.”
When Galimi took the Blue Zones Personal Pledge – which includes 17 items, ranging from having a dog and a place of worship to removing TVs from dining and bedrooms and growing a garden – he discovered the family was already doing much of what Blue Zones people do.
“We have dog, we practice a faith, so what is it I wasn’t doing?” Galimi said. “It’s being active, and being sure I eat the right amount.”
Buettner made a home visit. He noticed many things. The family had bicycles, for example, but they were jammed into the back of the garage, hard to access. That was an easy fix – they moved the bikes to the front of the garage, and pretty soon family cycling jaunts became a regular thing. But Buettner, who also conducted phone conferences with the entire makeover group twice a month, noticed other things that were more subtle.
“He’s probably the most cerebral of the group – he always has something to add,” Buettner said. “He is sort of cognizant, always bringing up the challenges. Like at Christmas, he asked, ‘How do we get around eating a plant based diet when everyone is eating meat at family parties?’ I said, ‘Look, this is not about not enjoying life – you get time out here for Christmas parties.’ But when I went through his house, I remember they had this big bag of M & M’s – he was trying to potty train his child by giving rewards of M&M’s, which is the worst thing you can do. It sets up a habit that you do something good, and you get a piece of junk food, a sugar-infused sweet. And he said, ‘You know what? You are right,’ and got rid of them right there.”
The Galimi family has been transformed. Always a close family, they are now closer than ever – they walk or bicycle together almost every day. Buettner, on his home visit, asked them where the nearest grocery store was. It was a few blocks away from their central Redondo Beach home. Then he asked how many times, in the decade they’d lived in the neighborhood, they’d walked there.
“Twice, maybe?” Beth Galimi responded.
Now, even on family vacations, they relish their walks together. On a recent trip to New York City, they walked more than 40 blocks – joyfully – on a museum excursion. On a recent weekday night, while the family fairly bounced along on their daily post-dinner walk, Gavin Galimi reflected on the change.
“The other thing, as kind of an incidental benefit, is that there is no better time with your kids to learn about their lives, what’s going on with them, then taking a walk with one of them,” he said. “You have a conversation with them and you learn who they love and who broke their heart and what’s going on at school.”
His oldest son Logan, meanwhile, has become vibrantly active. Gavin participates in the Jefferson Running Club with his kids at the school. The whole family runs together and this year Logan has already quadrupled his total miles from last year – he’s cumulatively run four marathons.
For the Galimi family, the Blue Zones Makeover has not come to an end, though Buettner will no longer be guiding them. In a way, the family has just begun.
“Blue Zones has helped my Dad be more active,” said 9-year-old Logan Galimi. “We walk and talk and play tag and bicycle together. I know my dad’s journey hasn’t ended. He has a long, active life ahead of him. I look forward to living it with him.”
Next: more makeovers, and the Vitality City Blue Zone expansion. Dan Buettner will be joined by actress Goldie Hawn and members of the Blue Zones Makeover team for a rally on May 2 at the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Details on the expansion of the Vitality City initiative into the national Blue Zones Project will be revealed at the event. See vitalitycity.com for more details.
