Blue Zones Project Blog

Local moai in 'Ewa Beach, Hawaii is still going strong despite COVID-19 pandemic. Not to mention, they were the first moai to get started in this Blue Zones Project community. They show up each Sunday afternoon on Zoom to "meet."  Member Irene Chung mentions, "we are not just  walking friends , we are  FRIENDS ." Some of the moai members do not use technology, yet they still keep in touch through phone calls to one another. Moai leaders, Teresa Sakurada and Flo Baruz call each member every week to check in with them, especially those who do not use technology. 

Last year, I took a step back to evaluate my weekly routine as I was finding myself spending an increasingly large number of nights going out to dinner, stopping by a happy hour or grabbing lunch out while I was on the go. I also found that I was spending a lot of money and eating some pretty unhealthy food options. I was hearing a lot of the same from my group of girlfriends. We knew we had an opportunity to change the activities we were doing so we could start living a healthier lifestyle. A group of six of us decided then to commit to a year of health and well-being improvements.

When I started working remotely about five years ago, I quickly recognized how different it was than going into the office and having a regular group of people to chat with throughout the day. Having owned pets my entire life, I knew that adopting an animal would help ease the gap of in-person co-worker interaction. Owen (the cat) has now been a part of my family for three years and is voted ‘employee of the month’ on most occasions.