4Leaf — a simple, flexible and powerful path to vibrant health

Posted on 12/21/2011 by J. Morris Hicks

The latest in the wonderful world of 4Leaf Eating 

This morning, I received a note from Vicki who had featured 4leafprogram.com in her annual Christmas letter. And last week, I received an email from Reggie who had read our book from cover to cover and wasn’t sure how to get started. Then, last night, my son and I met with Dr. Hurley, who is launching a company-wide 4Leaf Challenge in his place of business — with 16 people. During that meeting, we were served a delicious 4Leaf dinner by Lisa and son Andrew.

Earlier yesterday, I met with a member of the Harvard faculty who asked me if I was vegan as we sat down for lunch at The Elephant Walk near Fenway Park in Boston. I replied that while I don’t use the “v” word to describe my way of eating, that my diet-style would definitely be considered vegan by most people. I then quickly explained 4Leaf — a powerful diet-style that focuses on what we ARE eating as compared to vegan, that focuses mainly on what we’re NOT eating. He “got it” immediately.

All of this got me thinking that it was time for me to clarify a few things about 4Leaf. First let’s take a look at the note from Reggie:

Dear Mr. Hicks,

I have taken some time to read your book “Healthy Eating, Healthy World” and my interest is/was born out of curiosity.  The curiosity started with one documentary on food & by the 4th documentary I went out & found your book – read it from cover to cover & I don’t read books unless I have to or really, really want to.

So, I’ve read the book, I know I’m merely curious and I’m very conscious that I don’t have a clue on how to proceed beyond being curious…I’ve seen enough to get me curious but have not learned enough to turn the curiosity into a developed steadfast transition from unhealthy eating to healthy eating.  Do any of the 6 books you recommend address that concern? How do I learn how to carry on after the curiosity stage. Do you have any feed back for me? Cordially, Reggie

Leveraging the simple, yet powerful concept of maximizing the percent of your calories from whole plant foods -- still in nature's package

My immediate response. “Hi Reggie, You didn’t mention whether or not you had visited our website, where we’ve spent a lot of time addressing many of the issues that you cite. Particularly in the 4Leaf section. You can go directly there at 4leafprogram.com Beyond that, I do have feedback for you and would enjoy chatting with you. Do you have any time tomorrow a.m.? Saturday? How about around 10 a.m. Eastern. Let me know. Look forward to chatting with you.”

Since he received my note, Reggie has gone to the 4Leaf section of our website and says that he has found the answers to many of his questions. He was surprised by my quick response to his message and now knows that he can contact me directly if needed.

4Leaf Update. Long before our book came out, we knew that our readers would be looking for recipes, meal plans and other helpful information as they shifted into the 4Leaf lifestyle. Although we provided a list of great books with recipes in Chapter 10, we knew that people would want to learn more about how to make a 4Leaf diet-style work for them. For example, we know that many of the great vegetarian and vegan cookbooks offer lots of recipes that, while 100% plant-based, fall way short of our 4Leaf goal. We knew that our readers would need help.

  • We launched our 4Leaf Page in March 2011.
  • On 6-25-11, we introduced our brand new 4Leaf logo.
  • To make it easy to find, we chose the easy-to-remember 4leafprogram.com url, now pointing directly to our 4Leaf page on the website.
  • On 11-30-11, we launched Recipes from Lisa’s Kitchen page; containing mostly 4Leaf recipes.
  • Does every recipe have to be 4Leaf? This is the question that Lisa, Jason and I pondered last night. The short answer is no. Here’s why.

What about some 3Leaf recipes from time to time? Last night, Lisa, Jason and I delved into that question. The essence of our discussion was all about flexibility. As Dr. Campbell says, we’re trying to describe the ultimate goal for healthy eating — fully realizing that every individual must decide for themselves how close to that goal they want to be and how quickly they wish to move in that direction.

Yes, Virginia, there is a 3Leaf and it's pretty darn healthy.

So, our answer is that YES, there will be some perfectly healthy 3Leaf recipes in our future — and maybe an occasional 2Leaf. But we can assure you that you’ll never find ANY animal products in any of the recipes featured on our site. We must remember that even the 2Leaf level of eating starts at 40% of your calories from whole plants — still in nature’s package. That’s a whopping FIVE times as many whole plant calories as the average American is consuming today.

Daily 4Leaf Goal. For Lisa, Jason and me; our daily goal remains: to consistently eat at the 4Leaf level — over 80% of our calories from whole plants. But we know that in the real world, some of our meals will occasionally be only 2Leaf or 3Leaf. Still, most of those meals will be far healthier than many vegans or vegetarians of the world have ever seen. For, as we said in the book, one could eat nothing but Diet Coke and potato chips and call himself a vegan, and he certainly wouldn’t be eating a very healthy diet.

Our daily goal is always 4Leaf, but in the interest of flexibility, we acknowledge that there is room for a 3Leaf meal from time to time.

Finally, as I wrap up this blog, just steps from Lisa’s Famous Kitchen, she just shared a note from a reader that I will share with you now, from one Lisa to another:

Hi Lisa. I follow your father-in-law’s blog (which I absolutely love!) and have finally had the opportunity to make the 4-Leaf Kale Soup recipe.  It was superb!  I made some modifications to what I had on-hand, adding a jalapeno, carrot, celery, and mushrooms.  I also only had black beans available.  Served it over quinoa and topped with a sprinkle of cinnamon. Loved it!

I’m new to this lifestyle (since September of this year) and having so much fun in the kitchen.  I’m 40 years old and changing to this lifestyle has been the best decision of my life.  I feel it and see it every single day.

Thanks for sharing your kitchen with us.  I’m looking forward to seeing more of your recipes and trying them all! Sincerely, Lisa C. from Columbus, OH

Merry Christmas

If you like what you see here, you may wish to join our periodic mailing list. And if you like what 4-Leaf eating is doing for you and your family, you might enjoy visiting our new “4-Leaf Gear” store. From Lisa’s Famous Kitchen in Holden, MA – Be well and have a great day.

If you’d like to order our book on Amazon,  visit our BookStore now.

—J. Morris Hicks…blogging daily at HealthyEatingHealthyWorld.com

SHARE and rate this post below…One more thing, occasionally an unauthorized ad may appear beneath a blog post. It is controlled by WordPress (a totally free hosting service). I do not approve or personally benefit whatsoever from any ad that might ever appear on this site. I apologize and urge you to please disregard.

Posted in 4Leaf for Life | 1 Comment

From Lisa’s Kitchen — Lentil 4-Leaf Shepherd’s Pie

Posted on 12/20/2011 by J. Morris Hicks

Fourth in a series of 4-Leaf Recipes from Lisa’s Kitchen

From Lisa with Love for the holidays

This American favorite can now be eaten in 4-Leaf homes; a staple in ours. Inspired by the book, Skinny Bitch in the Kitch, this dish is hearty and wholesome. Perfect for the holidays!

Ingredients:

  • cooking spray
  • 3 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 1/2 onion, chopped or 2 shallots, thinly sliced
  • 1 teaspoon herbes de Provence*
  • 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
  • 2 cups lentils
  • 2 1/2 cups of low-sodium vegetable stock
  • 3 tomatoes, diced
  • 1 14.5 oz can of low sodium diced tomatoes, partially drained
  • 1 14.5 oz can of low sodium corn, drained
  • 1 bag of spinach, fresh or frozen
  • 6 cups of mashed potatoes** (see recipe below)

This healthy dish scored high in the 4-Leaf Range with over 90% of the calories from whole, plant-based foods.

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  2. Heat a large stockpot on medium, and spray with cooking spray. Add the onion or shallots and cook, stirring occasionally for about 1 minute.
  3. Add the garlic, herbes de Provence, and 1/2 teaspoon of the salt, stirring occasionally, for about one minute.
  4. Add the lentils and the vegetable stock, increase the heat to high, and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer, cover, and cook untils the lentils are tender and the stock is absorbed for about 20-30 minutes.
  5. Stir in the tomatoes and transfer to a 9 x 12 casserole dish, spreading evenly. Partially drain the canned tomatoes, leaving about half of the juice.
  6. Add the corn, spreading evenly and then the spinach.
  7. Top with the mashed potatoes, spreading evenly.
  8. Bake in oven for about 45 minutes or until potatoes are slightly browned; longer if you prefer your potatoes on the crispier side.

     * herbes de Provence is a blend of dried herbs that can be found at most supermarkets in the spice section. If you are unable to find it, substitute dried thyme, sage, marjoram, rosemary or a combination.

       ** Mashed Potatoes

Ingredients:

  • 6 potatoes with skin, cubed
  • sea salt to taste
  • 1 cup rice or soy milk
  • 1 tablespoon vegan butter

Directions:

  1. In a 4-6 quart pot, add potatoes and cover with water on high heat.
  2. Bring the potatoes to a boil, reduce to a simmer, and cook for about 15 to 20 minutes, until the potatoes are very tender.
  3. Drain the potatoes, return to pot, and mash.
  4. Add milk, salt, butter and mash.

With love from Lisa...

For a “printer-friendly” one-pager, ideal on your fridge with a magnet. Just click here for a PDF.

Please let me hear from you at lisa@4leafprogram.com

If you like what you see here, you may wish to join our periodic mailing list. And if you like what 4Leaf eating is doing for you and your family, you might enjoy visiting our new “4Leaf Gear” store. From the New England village of Holden, Massachusetts — Be well and have a great day.

If you’d like to order our book on Amazon,  visit our BookStore now.

—Lisa Hicks…blogging occasionally at 4leafprogram.com

SHARE and rate this post below…One more thing, occasionally an unauthorized ad may appear beneath a blog post. It is controlled by WordPress (a totally free hosting service). I do not approve or personally benefit whatsoever from any ad that might ever appear on this site. I apologize and urge you to please disregard.

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Happiness = Healthy Body + Healthy Mind

Posted on 12/19/2011 by J. Morris Hicks

by Dr. Dan Baker of the Canyon Ranch — See link below to purchase.

And this post is all about the “mind” part of the equation — Get ready to take charge of your happiness.

While visiting in Florida last week, my girlfriend Ruth shared a book with me that I read while I was there: What Happy People Know, How the new science of happiness can change your life for the better; by Dan Baker, PhD, Director of the Life Enhancement Program at Canyon Ranch. The book leads off with a quote by Aristotle from the Nicomachean Ethics:

Happiness is the whole aim and end of human existence — Aristotle

In a nutshell, it all boils down to fear and love — and, conveniently, both of them cannot happen at the same time. Fortunately for us, love is stronger and can squeeze out the fear factor anytime we choose.

Whereas our book describes how one can easily take charge of their own physical health, this powerful book outlines how many of us can take charge of our happiness. And like our book, his simple and effective concepts are not widely embraced by the mainstream psychological community — YET. Just like in the medical field, there’s not much money to be made in people becoming healthy.

Also like our 4Leaf approach of focusing on the positive, Dr. Baker pretty much ignores the horrid memories of your past and delves right into building on the positive things in your life — the people and things that you love. I just ordered three copies this morning (will make a good companion gift with our book); there is a link for you to do the same at the end of this post.

On page 37, Dr. Baker outlines the six “happiness tools,” as he calls them; techniques for working on being happy. As he says, becoming happy, like becoming fit can be a lot of work. If you want to be happy, you have to work at it. As I read through the book, I thought about how I had employed some of his techniques in the past without really knowing what they were.

While reading, I recalled an article that I had written in 2002 for my executive search website. It was inspired by the fact that the majority of working people in America are classified as “misemployed,” meaning that they’re not really suited for their current method of making a living.

It turns out that most of these “misemployed” people are either overqualified, under-qualified or simply not happy with their employment situation. So, I wrote an article for those people: Get A Life — Then, Get A Job; My Seven Secrets. Here are those seven secrets that I just reviewed today for the first time in years — and they actually fit nicely with the principles outlined in Dr. Baker’s book:

  1. Lead a simple, uncluttered life.
  2. Get real serious about getting healthy and fit.
  3. Purge yourself of any relationships that don’t bring you joy.
  4. Follow your passion and find a way to make a living doing what you love.
  5. Learn to live on far less than you can earn and achieve financial freedom as early in life as possible.
  6. Get involved with some serious fun; things that bring you joy and satisfaction.
  7. Sort out your feelings about faith, hope and the things that motivate you to be all that you can be.  This is a very important piece; assessing your major definite purpose in life.

This place will always hold a special place in my heart; I still cherish the Cross pen with the Rambling Wreck logo that they gave me that Tuesday evening in November of 2002 following my speech.

Origins of my interest in nutrition. Shortly after writing that article, I was asked to speak at the Georgia Tech Alumni Association to a group of unemployed Tech graduates. So I chose my “Get A Life” article as the topic for my speech that November evening to a group of about a hundred out-of-work Yellow Jackets. To my great surprise and delight, the response both during and after my speech was overwhelming. I must’ve received fifty thank-you emails the next day. That got me to thinking.

Sensing that there was an opportunity to help millions of people get a life, we decided in that tough business environment of the post 9-11 era, that we would develop a one-day “Get A Life” seminar that we could sell for $199 and throw in a free lunch. But first, we needed to learn enough about those seven secrets to be able to conduct a first-class seminar.

We divvied up the list of seven topics among our firm’s partners — I ended up with #2 (health) from the above list — and the rest is history. The “Get A Life” seminar never happened, but my preparation for it changed my life forever as I proved what Dr. Baker says in his book and what Steve Jobs said in his famous Stanford commencement speech, “You have to find what you love.” See #4 in my list of seven secrets and review the Steve Jobs speech at the link below.

My three-legged stool of health: Diet, Exercise and Mental Attitude

On a related topic, within a few of my blogs, I have spoken about my “three-legged stool” of health.

  • Healthy Diet
  • Physical Exercise
  • Mental & Spiritual

I place all of Dr. Baker’s twelve qualities of happiness in that third bucket. They are: love, optimism, courage, a sense of freedom, proactivity, security, health, spirituality, altruism, perspective, humor and purpose.

In keeping with our 4Leaf theme throughout our book and this site, I recently modified the above list for our 4Leaf page to feature the “four leaves of health.”

  • Leaf #1 — Diet (Eating at the 4Leaf level every day)
  • Leaf #2 — Exercise (Preferably outside doing something you love every day)
  • Leaf #3 — Rest (Give your body the 7 or 8 hours sleep that it needs)
  • Leaf #4 — Purpose (Find the passion in your life)

One final point. As Dr. Baker said in his book, none of us are going to get out of here alive and many of us fear death more than others partly because we don’t feel that we’ve accomplished very much in our lives. I have felt that way in the past, but now that I have found my passion and have begun working more on that third bucket, that fear has subsided.

Just last week, I was thinking of the comfort of having a published book that helps people take charge of their health — and may help to save the planet in the process. It is comforting to know that my work can now live forever and will hopefully be embraced by all future generations of my own family. It’s always a warm feeling when I think about my legacy, and it’s that feeling that combats whatever fear might be trying to invade my thoughts at any particular time.

Stay tuned for more on this “happiness” (mental health) topic after I receive my copy of Dr. Baker’s book, But for now, here a few earlier posts that are related:

J. Morris Hicks, author and activist. Working daily to promote health, hope and harmony on planet Earth.

If you like what you see here, you may wish to join our periodic mailing list. Also, for help in your own quest to take charge of your health, you might find some useful information at our 4Leaf page.

And if you like what 4-Leaf eating is doing for you and your family, you might enjoy visiting our new “4Leaf Gear” store. From the seaside village of Stonington, Connecticut – Be well and have a great day.

If you’d like to order our book on Amazon,  visit our BookStore now.

—J. Morris Hicks…blogging daily at HealthyEatingHealthyWorld.com

SHARE and rate this post below…One more thing, occasionally an unauthorized ad may appear beneath a blog post. It is controlled by WordPress (a totally free hosting service). I do not approve or personally benefit whatsoever from any ad that might ever appear on this site. I apologize and urge you to please disregard.

Posted in Happiness, Health in General | 1 Comment