🚀 The Book in 3 Sentences
- Discover interesting stories of humans around the world who have lived long and abundant lives.
- Learn good tips for strengthening family and friend bonds, giving you another reason to keep going and live up to 100 years old.
- Living a long and fulfilling life is possible with the right mindset and the right ritual (as a habit).
🎨 Impressions
My impression of Dan’s book is that it is a great discovery to explore and talk to centenarians to understand their secrets of living. The most important factor is to live a long life with joy and the ability to enjoy it, which includes having healthy limbs and senses to explore and take in the world around you. In addition, the book’s insights on diet are eye-opening. I believe that one key to a healthy meal is not just eating healthy foods, but also consuming a variety in moderation.
Finally, Dan offers an easy recommendation for cultivating a mindset for a longer life, which is a sustainable way of living.
Who Should Read It?
Do you want to lead a fulfilling life, no matter how old you are? Would you like to catch a glimpse of the lives of people who have lived past 100 years? If you have these ambitions, then this book is a good place to start exploring.
The point of the book isn’t to copy everything that centenarians are doing, but rather to provide a compass for adopting the right approach into your daily habits. It’s a simple and common approach, but not often practiced in our digitalized world.
☘️ How the Book Changed Me
💡 How my life / behaviour / thoughts / ideas have changed as a result of reading the book.
- I am integrating some new foods into my diet, such as tofu, and drinking organic herbal and green tea, which contains antioxidant substances.
- I am making sure to take a daily walk and engage in aerobic exercise to promote blood flow and cultivate personal time for reflection.
- I have resumed my 30-minute morning meditation practice to better understand myself.
- While I have abstained from alcohol for nearly 5 years now, I have heard some people mention red wine and sake countless times. Maybe one day I will try a sip, but I want to make sure to choose the best time to do so.
- I am paying closer attention to what I eat and have realized that meal planning is important to overcome the temptation to make unhealthy food choices. Additionally, I am making a conscious effort to avoid distractions, such as my phone, during meals.
✍️ My Top 3 Quotes
- “HARA HACHI BU” – a common phrase used by Japanese people before meals as a self-reminder to only eat until they are 80% full.
- “How long can I live? How well can I live?”
- “Begin by answering this question in a single, memorable sentence: Why do you get up in the morning?”
📒 Summary + Notes
The book mentions many names, including both researchers and centenarians. It is organized into 5 chapters that focus on the places with the highest density of centenarians. These places are:
- Sardinia, Italy: an island with a population of 1.6 million.
- Okinawa, Japan: a Ryukyu Island located between the North Pacific and the East China Sea, with a population of 1.3 million.
- Loma Linda, United States of America: located east of Los Angeles, with a population of 21,000.
- Nicoya, Costa Rica: a peninsula on Costa Rica’s Pacific coast, with a population of 47,000.
- Ikaria, Greece: a Greek island in the Aegean Sea, with a population of 8,000.