Further Information

The Blue Zones and what we can learn from them

The Blue Zones are areas in the world where longevity, in good health, is a rule rather than an exception. We want to learn from the inhabitants of these areas how we can reduce stress, avoid lifestyle related diseases, improve our health and life longer - better.

What sparked the idea for this project?

2008 - 2009, then a family of five (before our youngest son was born), we traveled around the world for one year. Since then we have been enthusiastic about learning good habits and ways of doing things from other societies. Gudjon wrote, still only available in Icelandic, in 2016 "Enjoy the Journey" (Njóttu ferðalagsins). The book is partly inspired by the 2008-2009 family journey. He has also given many presentations to all sorts of audience about the travel, aiming at inspiring others to make their dreams come true.

Earlier this year we heard about the Blue Zones - five areas in the world that are exceptional when it comes to well being, good health and longevity. We were instantly inspired by what we heard and learned and began to think about taking the family on another long journey to study these areas first hand.

Sometimes an unexpected encouragement is what you need to make things happen. On May 29, we were awarded "The Carrot" by our municipality, Mosfellsbaer, Iceland. The Carrot is awarded annually to someone that is inspiring others in improving the general health and well being of the inhabitants. We took this as a sign to do more and decided the night we got the award to go on a Blue Zone journey. Learn as much as we could from them and then come back and teach others what we had learned.

We decided to start the journey in January 2019 and go back to Iceland in June the same year. Flight tickets are in house and we are excited to start the journey!

The summer of 2019 we will use to write the book "Longer and better life" based on what we have learned. The book will be published in the fall of 2019 and will be followed up by series of presentations in Iceland - and outside it as well.

Who is the book and the presentation for?

The book is for those who want to take control of their own life. By learning from others and doing everything in their power to increase their own health and happiness and those of others. The book should also be a good read for those responsible for groups and communities. Together, we can do more.

We will in the book describe what the Blue Zones' inhabitants do and have done to life long and happy lives. Being Icelandic, a country also known for longevity and high living standards, we think it is interesting to compare the Blue Zones to Iceland. And that we will do.

We intend to offer practical advice for individuals and communities on how to improve our lives. We know now that the Blue Zones have managed to keep stress levels low and that burn out and other symptoms of too much pressure in work and life in general is almost unknown in these areas. This is something we in Iceland, and the rest of the world, can learn from and we will in our journey place great emphasis on studying ways to reduce stress and pressure in the daily life of the modern man.

The presentation will be based on the book in addition to what we know already from many years of working in this field. It will be inspiring, entertaining and informative - that is our plan at least!

Writing the book

The outline is in place. We are going to cover each Blue Zone separately and compare it with Iceland.

In the latter half of the book there will be a summary from all the Blue Zones, we will look at what they have in common and how they differ.

In the final part of the book we intend to point out what individuals on the one hand and communities on the other can do to increase the well being and happiness of children and adults, paving the path to a healthy longevity.

We will write the book together, possibly our sons, that will travel with us to the Blue Zones, will also play a part in the writing.

More about the book and information gathering

Our goal is to write a positive and informative book and set it up in such as way that it will encourage the reader to make positive changes in their lives. We have worked with groups and individuals for many years. Led seminars, given presentations and workshops all over Iceland, as well as in Europe and S-America. And we have learned that positive encouragement and education is universally the most likely way to success.

In the book, we will include photos, interviews, healthy recipes and various other interesting points from the Blue Zones.

Our information gathering began as soon as we made the decision to visit the Blue Zones. The reason we want to go to these places is that we want to dig deeper and experience first hand their secrets. We want to experience their values and daily habits, how they move/exercise, eat and live.

The Blue Zones are: Loma Linda, California, US; Costa Rica, Okinawa (Japan), Ikaria (Greece) and Sardinia (Italy.

About us

We live in Mosfellsbaer, Iceland where we run our family owned training facility, Kettlebells Iceland. There we train groups and individuals of all ages. People that have in common that they want to improve their health and fitness.

In addition to working with our gang at Kettlebells Iceland, we have been working on other fronts to increase peoples' health and happiness.

Vala is an occupational therapist and worked as such for years at Reykjalund, a rehabilitation center. One of her main roles there was to teach people to establish more balance in their daily lives, for example between work and personal life.

Gudjon has a degree in communication. He has recent years worked for Hagvangur, a consulting firm that focuses on management and human resource management. His expertise is humane management.