In The Zone

I just finished reading The Blue Zones, "Lessons for Living Longer From the People Who've Lived the Longest". I recommend reading it if you are interested in healthy living. Longevity expert Dan Buettner travels to the world's "Blue Zones"-- areas scattered throughout the world where there is an unusually high concentration of centenarians (people over the age of 100)-- conducting interviews in order to find the common denominators that may likely contribute to longer living. Here are some seemingly key ingredients for a long & healthy life:

• Eat what you sow: plant a garden, tend to it, and eat mainly food you grow & harvest yourself. You will get regular exercise from gardening and your food will be guaranteed organic
• Go mainly vegetarian: eat meat very rarely, if at all. Many studies have shown that consumption of animal protein is connected with heart disease and most forms of cancer. None of the centenarians interviewed in the Blue Zones consume(d) meat regularly
• Maintain a low caloric intake: a suggestion from the Okinawans: "hara hachi bu", which means stop eating when you feel 80% full, because it takes about 20 minutes for you to feel how full you truly are.
• Diffuse stress: do whatever you need to do to make your life as stress-free as possible. Stress cripples the immune system and leaves us more susceptible to diseases
• Be happy: spend a lot of time with family and friends if that brings you happiness
• Introduce known "superfoods" and medicinal herbs into your diet: some examples are ginger, turmeric, maca, chia seeds, oatmeal, honey & peppermint
• Avoid know killers (duh!), but don't fear the sun: don't smoke cigarettes, drink hard alcohol excessively, or do drugs, but do get enough sun to absorb a nice dose of Vitamin D fairly regularly. Many of the centenarians got more sun daily (sans sunscreen) than we have been led to believe is "safe".
• Exercise daily but don't overdo it: long walks & hikes seem to be more optimal for longevity than extreme exercises that wear your body down over time
• Keep up the good work: it is critically important to maintain a strong sense of purpose throughout life. One sure way to do this is to do what you love & love what you do.
• Be self-reliant: do not hire people to do everything for you; doing is living 
• Be grateful: Interestingly, most of the centenarians spent the beginning of their lives struggling. Once they overcame adversity, they had a profound sense of appreciation for life and its simple treasures

Tips & Recipes:


GARDEN: If you have some land where you live, plant a garden. Start with one of your favorite foods that grows well where you live, and learn & expand from there.
I planted arugula in my backyard, along with citrus trees (lemons, grapefruits, blood oranges, pomelos), peach, plum & apricot trees. I am making it a point to harvest the crop often and make this  homegrown produce a fundamental part of my diet. Farming is more fun when I bring Leon with me.

Quinoa & arugula salad: chop & saute onions in a pan with olive oil. Once onions are soft, add chopped zucchini & mushrooms and saute together. At same time cook quinoa, according to instructions on package. Once vegetables are sauteed and quinoa is ready, mix them together over low heat. In a separate bowl, combine washed arugula with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, Himalayan pink salt & pepper. Serve arugula salad over vegetable quinoa.

DIFFUSE STRESS: The way I have avoided stress in my life is by always being kind. Being nice to everyone and truly wanting the best for everyone makes your life so peacefully simple

EAT SUPERFOODS: A great way to introduce superfoods into your diet is via juices & smoothies. I make myself fresh juices and/or smoothies pretty much every morning.

"Chunky Monkey" smoothie: one tall glass of crushed ice, 1 1/2 or 2 organic bananas, one small spoonful of organic raw cacao nibs, one small spoonful of organic cacao & maca powder, one regular size spoonful of organic peanut butter, organic almond milk or vanilla almond milk, blend in Vitamix on 5.5 power for 1 minute. Enjoy!

EXERCISE REGULARLY: Fit long walks or hikes into your daily schedule. I used to exercise more intensively before I had Leon, but it isn't good to do excessive exercise while breastfeeding because it reduces your milk supply...so.... I have been hiking with friends often, and it is a great way to stay toned and clear your head at the same time.

BE GRATEFUL: This is a really difficult thing to teach... you just kind of have to "get it". I am pretty sure my mom is the person who is most responsible for my strong sense of gratitude and for that I am... SO GRATEFUL !

An Insightful Meditation

My best friend just read me a meditation from the book, The Language of Letting Go: Daily Meditations on Codependency. It resonated with me and I hope it inspires you:

"You are not a victim. I have learned that, if we set our mind to it, we have an incredible, almost awesome ability to find misery in almost every situation, even the most wonderful of circumstances. Be done with it. We are free to stand in the glow of self-responsibility. Set a boundary. Deal with the anger. Tell someone "No". Walk away from a relationship. Ask for what you need. Make choices and take responsibility for them. Explore options. Give yourself what you need. Claim responsibility for yourself.
Learn to enjoy what's good"

A and M Compubook

My friend Michelle Varat and I invented the Kindle in Elementary School, and she just found our prototype when she was visiting her parents the other night. So funny! I am impressed with our thoughtfulness with respect to functionality. She has our entire report that went along with it too...I am looking forward to reading it. Michelle is now a successful business owner: check out her amazing collection of women's intimates: www.topsecretsociety.com

Hiking in Italy (and the islands thereof)

^ The view from three-quarters of the way to the top of Monte Solaro in Anacapri.

^This was my favorite hike of all, in Ponza, "La Passeggiata al Faro della Guardia" or "walk to the lighthouse of the guard". We walked down to the tiny dock at the bottom and jumped straight in the water, where the ocean floor is full of large, soft, rounded rocks. It was magical!

^This is a picture from the same hike to the lighthouse, in Ponza. The time of day that you take the hike will have a big impact on your experience; I suggest starting the walk no earlier than 5pm.

^This picture is from one of the high points of the hike we took in Portofino, to San Fruttuoso.

^This picture is from the very top of the hike to Monte Solaro in Anacapri (Capri).

I just returned from Italy, where I experienced so many majestically beautiful hikes. The pictures above are directly linked to pages that include additional information on the trails (as close as I could find), as I have noticed that great hiking trails are often difficult to locate on the internet. As you see, I have also included captions with the name and location of each hike. I hope this is helpful; I am a strong believer of getting out and experiencing the natural landscape of any place you visit, and, when the topography permits, long walks and hikes to high viewpoints can be an ideal way to take in as much as possible.

The Startup Game: Inside the Partnership Between Venture Capitalists and Entrepreneurs

I just finished reading The Startup Game, on my flight back from Italy. I am pretty confident that just about anyone with an entrepreneurial spirit would enjoy reading this book. If you know little about the venture capital community and its relationship with entrepreneurs, you will be introduced to a highly intriguing, incredibly fast-paced and hugely value-creating ecosystem. If you are already familiar with this world, you will still benefit from the wisdom of one of the world's veteran, preeminent venture capitalists, William H. Draper III (also former President and Chairman of the Import-Export Bank of the United States, and former head of the United Nations Development Program), and gain valuable insights through the various anecdotes from years of his firms' investments in some the most innovative and important companies in the world, as well as from his notable stints at the aforementioned distinguished government agencies. As an added treat, Draper also discusses his more recent experience with venture philanthropy, by means of The Draper Richards Foundation (which he co-founded with partner Robin Richards Donohoe), his venture philanthropy fund, where he and Richards have aided the development of some of the most impressive, impactful and innovative non-profit organizations, including Ashoka, Kiva, and VisionSpring. All in all, a highly recommended, quick, entertaining read!

Nudge by Richard H. Thaler & Cass R. Sunstein

I just finished reading Nudge, and I am glad I read it. This book emphasizes the little things ("nudges") that can be done to profoundly affect behavior, with a particular focus on potential applications for these nudges in public policy (health care, tax reform, education reform etc). Nudges are things that we, as a society, should take the time to explore and utilize so as to guide people to make sensible choices (within the context of free choice). An example of a successful nudge at work is the targets (flies, actually) that were painted in the bottom of the men's urinals/toilets in the airport in Amsterdam, which resulted in an 80% reduction in spillage. Such a small update contributes to consistent (and thus major over time) labor and capital savings for the airport, as well as significant improvements in sanitation (and thus health) and the overall user experience. The authors also emphasize the nudging power of "default options" and how every effort should be made to ensure that default options are presented in such a way so as to maximize optimal outcomes.

Thaler and Sunstein are self-professed "libertarian paternalists". They believe in a system of beneficent guidance that does not hinder or interfere with freedom of choice. Their public policy prescription lies somewhere between the Democratic one-size-fits-most mandates and Republic laissez-faire. It is certainly a worthwhile prescription to consider.

The book is dense and pedantic at times, but this is merely a testament to the amount of substantive research and analysis that the writing is based upon. The recommendations set forth by these two authors are steeped in years of dedicated research in the fields of psychology, neuroscience, behavioral science and so forth. This book provides refreshing insights, and will certainly have an effect on the way you think about your own methodology and especially that employed by the government.

As is well-stated on its back cover, Nudge is certainly a worthwhile read for "anyone with an interest in our individual or collective well-being" (I am assuming, or rather hoping, that means most of us).

Here are a couple of websites you can visit, which I read about in the book:

1. The blog associated with the book: http://nudges.org/

2. A website developed in-line with behavioral science to help you achieve your goals. I found this one to be pretty cool: http://www.stickk.com/

As highly-evolved as they are poorly-photographed: insights surely worth pondering.