Make exercise a no-brainer. None of the centenarians Buettner and his team encountered ran marathons or pumped iron. The people making it into their 100s had low-intensity exercise—walking long distances, gardening and playing with kids—woven into their everyday routines. As a result, they exercised regularly without ever thinking about it. To seamlessly work exercise into your schedule: hide the TV remote, opt for stairs over the elevator, park farther away from the mall entrance and look for occasions to bike or walk instead of guzzling gas.

Use smart eating strategies. A Confucian phrase common in Okinawan culture, Hara Hachi Bu, means 'Eat until you are 80 percent full.' It takes your belly 20 minutes to tell your brain that you're satisfied, so if you cut yourself off before you feel stuffed you can avoid overeating. Another trick? Set up your kitchen for healthful noshing by stocking cabinets with smaller plates and removing the telly. Having meals while watching TV, listening to music or fiddling with the computer, says Buettner, leads to mindless consumption. Focus on the food, he says, to eat more slowly, consume less and enjoy flavors and textures more.