Here’s a round-up of highlights for March 2016:

With spring just around the corner, it's time to get gardening in Texas!

Gardening is common in all Blue Zones^® areas, where people live the longest, healthiest lives. You, too, can garden your way to better health! By being outside, working with your hands to tend and reap, you see an increase in your mood and a decrease in stress levels.

According to the Center for Disease Control & Prevention, you can burn up to 150 calories for every 30-45 minutes you spend actively gardening! The best part is when you get to see (and eat!) the literal fruits of your labor.

If you don’t have a backyard garden or are unsure how to start one, choose to get involved with a community or local school garden. Gardening in shared plots also encourages you to socialize, develop new friendships and feel a part of something larger — all great benefits to your personal well-being.

A great place to start is getting involved with the Tarrant Area Food Bank’s Community Garden program that helps community members and organizations create thriving community gardens by teaching effective gardening techniques. Community members help tend the garden and grow fruits and vegetables that are distrubted to those in need. Each week, volunteers are invited to come to the TAFB Learning Garden to help plant and harvest fruits and vegetables, pull weeds and learn new gardening skills. TAFB also provides garden tours and regular workshops on gardening techniques.

The Healthcare Leadership Council, (HLC) a coalition of chief executives from the nation’s leading healthcare companies and organizations, has named Blue Zones Project - Fort Worth as the recipient of the organization’s 2016 Wellness Frontiers Award. The award recognizes innovative entities that are contributing to the transformation and improvement of American healthcare. The Council selected Blue Zones Project because of its successful implementation of an evidence-based wellness program that prevents disease and improves population well-being.

Are you ready for some football? Super Bowl 50 is almost here, and Blue Zones Project^® wants to help you create the ultimate tailgate! Plan your party with these delicious and healthy recipes created by Fit Foods Face-Off Healthy Tailgate winners, Trimble Technical High School Culinary Arts students. You can count on these MVP's (most valuable plates) to score big before the game with tasty tailgate fare that is also good for you.

Here’s a round-up of highlights for February 2016:

Here’s a round-up of highlights for January 2016:

What’s your reason to get out of bed every morning? Studies show that people with a clear goal in life, or something to wake up for every morning, live longer and stay mentally sharper than those who don’t. Your sense of purpose can come from something as simple as watching your children or grandchildren grow up, being engaged in a job or a hobby that gives you a sense of fulfillment, or learning something new. Ready to start fulfilling your life purpose? Sign up to attend a free Purpose Workshop.

When we use our time – and our passions and talents – on things that are truly important to us, we have found purpose. Ready to start fulfilling your life purpose? Here are a few tips to help you get started:

• Attend a Purpose Workshop. Find a free Purpose Workshop in your area.
• Gifts + Passion + Environment = Purpose. If you are using your gifts to do something that you feel passionate about in an environment that is a good fit for you, you are living your purpose.
• Create a personal mission statement. Assess where you are and where you want to be and keep a journal to jot down your thoughts along the way.
• Focus on your strengths. Using your talents and strengths will make you feel happy and help you feel valuable to yourself and others. 
• Listen to your heart. If you hate something – stop doing it. Get educated, get creative and start doing what you love. Life is too short to be miserable. What do you love to do?
• Learn something new. A new activity can give you purpose too. Try something that will “exercise” your brain – like learning a musical instrument or a new language.
  

At Blue Zones Project^® and our parent company, Healthways, we'd like to think of our office as a “living lab,” meaning we try our best to practice what we preach by making healthy choices whenever possible through implementing the Blue Zones^® Power 9 principles into our lives. Each week, we'll introduce you to a different colleague of our Right Tribe, and share his or her favorite Power 9.

At Blue Zones Project^® and our parent company, Healthways, we'd like to think of our office as a “living lab,” meaning we try our best to practice what we preach by making healthy choices whenever possible through implementing the Blue Zones^® Power 9 principles into our lives. Each week, we'll introduce you to a different colleague of our Right Tribe, and share his or her favorite Power 9.

Here’s a round-up of highlights for December 2015: