Eating healthy in the A.M. — “Sailors Oatmeal” at mid-morning

Posted on 02/17/2011 by J. Morris Hicks

Sailors Daily Oatmeal — Definitely a 4-Leaf meal

As with all meals, I never eat until I get hungry.  After a delicious bowl of fresh fruit at either 7 or 8 a.m., my body’s signal that it’s time to eat again comes between 10 and 11. That’s when I have my Sailors Daily Oatmeal shown shown here.

Sailors Daily Oatmeal – complete with lighthouse and book of knots

It features a big pile of fresh fruit on top of old-fashioned oatmeal that soaks in a mixture of cold water and vanilla-flavored almond milk (unsweetened, of course). While the oats and raisins are soaking, I have time to cut the fruit that goes on top.

By the way, there is no cooking involved — that’s right, I eat it cold; a trick I learned from Dr. Esselstyn and his wife Ann in their summer home in Claverack, NY in 2009. I now enjoy my oatmeal course more than ever. You should try it.

Outdoor dining at its finest — overlooking the fabulous Adirondack Mountains in Lake Placid, New York

For this nutritious 4-Leaf meal, the fruit on top was blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, apple and banana. To that, I added a few sprinkles of Uncle Sam brand whole wheat berry flakes with flaxseeds…and some cinnamon on top. Yummy.

For a one-page, printer-friendly recipe of this great meal: Just click here for a PDF.

Pictured here is an outdoor version of this great meal. For more info on that first bowl of fresh fruit in the morning, click here.  Above all, when eating 4-Leaf…stay positive and always….

Think celebration — not deprivation

Positive, simple, flexible and powerful!

Handy 4-piece take-charge-of-your-health kit—from Amazon.com

Want to find out how healthy your family is eating? Take our free 4Leaf Diagnostic Survey. It takes less than five minutes and you can score it yourself. After taking the survey, please give me your feedback as it will be helpful in the development of our future 4Leaf app for smartphones. Send feedback to jmorrishicks@me.com

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J. Morris Hicks, working daily to promote health, hope and harmony on planet Earth.

For help in your own quest to take charge of your health, you might find some useful information at our 4Leaf page or some great recipes at Lisa’s 4Leaf Kitchen.

Got a question? Let me hear from you at jmorrishicks@me.com. Or give me a call on my cell at 917-399-9700.

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Blogging daily at hpjmh.com…from the seaside village of Stonington, Connecticut – Be well and have a great day.

—J. Morris Hicks, board member, T. Colin Campbell Foundation

Posted in Healthy Eating 101, Recipes & meals | 4 Comments

Eating healthy in the morning…first course is fresh fruit only

Posted on 02/17/2011 by J. Morris Hicks

Easy, delicious, & nutritious — a great way to start your day

Fresh fruit early in the morning; definitely a 4-Leaf meal.

Long before learning the “big picture” about the food that we eat, I read Fit for Life by Harvey and Marilyn Diamond and, as a result, made some pretty big changes in what I was eating. Following their simple guidelines, I started eating only fruit before noon. They pointed out that fruit is most beneficial if eaten on an empty stomach — reason being that fruit digests very quickly and delivers all those great nutrients to your 100 trillion cells right away.

I still practice their “empty stomach” rule but have modified the “nothing but fruit before noon” part. I have added oatmeal as a part of my “second” breakfast meal, a meal that keeps me feeling comfortably satisfied until mid-afternoon. My own  regimen features 100% of my calories from whole plants – in nature’s package and I absolutely LOVE the food, savoring every bite, every morning.

Fresh fruit on a February morning -- Bosc pear, juicy orange and sweet banana

My first food of the day is a large bowl of fresh fruit; including 3 or 4 items from the following list: pear, kiwi, orange, banana, plum, grapefruit, peach, berries, or mango. The picture below is an example that I had on Monday. In my next post, we will take a look at that oatmeal course mentioned earlier.

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 4-Leaf page. 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

PS: 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 Healthy Eating 101, Recipes & meals | 2 Comments

Making the most of each bite…for trillions of cells

Posted on 02/16/2011 by J. Morris Hicks

Helping our bodies do their job of replacing our 100 trillion cells

J. Morris Hicks

The human body is truly a miracle; for 24 hours of every day, it is busy taking care of business. It has a full-time job, regardless what our conscious brain might be doing — delivering nutrients to trillions of cells, eliminating toxins and waste and literally regenerating approximately 10 trillion cells per year. That’s right, over the course of ten years, our bodies miraculously replace almost ALL of our 100 trillion cells.

Our bodies are constantly managing millions of processes without any supervision from us. All the body needs from us is food and water — a regular feeding of the absolute best fuel AND that we minimize the intake of toxins from whatever sources. Further, for vibrant health, your body will also need for you to get adequate sleep & regular exercise, while keeping your stress level to a minimum.

So, what is the best fuel for humankind? As you probably know by now, those of here at the 4-Leaf Program believe the overwhelming preponderance of evidence suggesting that our most ideal fuel is whole plants – in nature’s package; the natural food for our species. But in the modern world, those kinds of foods supply us with far less than 10% of the total calories consumed. It’s no wonder that our health care costs are spiraling out of control.

Now, if you have accepted our premise, then it’s only logical that you might want to help your body do its job of replacing those ten trillion cells every year…by trying to greatly increase the percentage of your calories from those nutritious foods. To achieve the highest level on our 4-Leaf scoring system requires that one derives over 80% of their calories from whole plants.

Keep in mind that every single bite is a fleeting opportunity to do something wonderful for your body…assisting that “full-time cell replacement factory” of yours as it strives to reward you with vibrant health for the rest of your life. Just for fun, we did the math and counted the bites for each meal, then computed this little factoid…

For every bite of food that you put in your mouth, you are providing ALL of the energy and nutrients for your body to replace 100 million cells.  Chew on that…and have  nice day.

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 4-Leaf page. 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

PS: 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 Health in General, Healthy Eating 101 | Leave a comment