By Christiénne Miller

I just found out that I’m expected to live approximately another 50 years! Wow, that’s kind of a really long time, considering I feel like I’ve lived twice that already. Seriously, sometimes I think I’m one of the many cats who have waltzed in and out of my life over the years — I wonder how many lives I have left?

It’s amazing to think that I will surpass both sets of my grandparents’ ages at the time of my potential passing — a thought that absolutely terrifies me, actually. It’s the possible quality of my life, not the quantity that has my blood pressure up, and since the only example I have is of my grandparents, yeah, I’m pretty much freaking out right now. They were wonderful people, but hardly the sterling example of health and vitality.

Apparently, I’m not alone. On Good Morning America this morning, they did a story about the Blue Zones Vitality Project, which gave me the kick in the pants I needed to reinvest energy into my own personal health regimen.

The Vitality Project is sponsored by the United Health Foundation and is being spearheaded by a partnership between Dan Buettner and AARP. The concept centers around a Vitality Compass, which provides you a baseline of health and longevity to work from, as determined by answering a series of questions. Then, your answers are compared to the mental, spiritual, and physical (including diet) practices of populations in areas of the world (Blue Zones) where inhabitants live the longest. Through this process, you’re given solutions to try to increase your overall wellness, vitality, and longevity. They even have a way to set your personal goals, which will be followed up on regularly during a six week period, to ensure you receive the encouragement and motivation you may need to achieve your desired level of success.

Can I just say how excited I am that so many people are interested in getting healthy? I don’t know about you, but it makes it a lot easier, for me, to make vitality a priority when more and more people are doing it.  Maybe it’s a primal “tribe” thing, or just about damn time for more of us to leap around with rainbow banners instead of sitting on the couch inhaling potato chips…BUSTED! (Me included, unfortunately).

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