(What I Wish I knew When I Was Younger!)

Here’s the deal: I’m 68. And as I keep on aging I’m paying closer attention to “old” people. How they live. How they eat. Especially how they eat.

It’s because of this interest that I found the book, The Blue Zones Solution, written by best-selling author and National Geographic fellow Dan Buettner. This book explains how ordinary Americans can adapt the healthy-living habits of those in such longevity hot spots as Ikaria, Greece or Okinawa, Japan.

Centenarians in the Blue Zones—locations around the globe known for longevity and good health—follow daily rituals around food and meals. Research is proving practicing these powerful food practices is one of the keys to longevity and happiness. And since I’m an ordinary American (and maybe you are, too), I thought I’d pass on a couple of the author’s discoveries.

According to Buettner’s findings, the absolute, most-impactful thing we can do to live healthier, longer is “BREAKFAST LIKE A KING; lunch like a prince; dinner like a pauper.” Make the first meal of your day your biggest, and only eat three meals a day. The routine is the same in almost all of the Blue Zones. Nicoyans often eat two breakfasts and a light dinner. Lunch tends to be the big meal for Ikarians and Sardinians. Okinawans like to skip dinner altogether. People may occasionally grab a mid-morning piece of fruit or a mid-afternoon handful of nuts, but most don’t make a habit of snacking. The average meal contains 650 calories, so with just three meals a day and a small snack, most people get all the calories a day they need.

Recent research supports front-loading calories. An Israeli study found that dieting women who ate half their daily calories at breakfast, about a third at lunch, and a seventh at dinner lost an average of 19 pounds in 12 weeks. They also saw drops in triglycerides, glucose, insulin, and hormones that trigger hunger.

And the second most-impactful thing we can do is to practice HARA HACHI BU. In translation: Plan before you start eating to stop eating when you’re 80 percent full. If you’re ever lucky enough to share a meal with older Okinawans, as Buettner has, you’ll often see them murmuring this 2,500-year-old Confucian adage before they eat. Dietary experts have estimated that if the average American would follow the practice of hara hachi bu, he or she could lose 17 pounds in just the first year!

Rituals like this and other rituals, such as saying grace, provide a pause in everyday living, forcing people to slow down and pay attention to their food. Ikarians, Saridinians, Costa Ricans, and Adventists all begin meals by saying a prayer.

Other things he discovered that active centenarians do? They fast on a regular basis (at least once a month), they cook whole food at home, they eat with friends and family, and they celebrate and enjoy food.

Now do you notice anything conspicuously absent from these health- and longevity-promoting food practices? NOTHING is said about what to eat (other than cooking whole food). Is that not awesome? Aren’t these habits doable? How about we seriously think about implementing these into our lives, right now? I’d love to be writing for you when I’m 100, and I’d love for you to be reading my stuff when you’re 100. And would it not be incredible to be up and at ‘em, cooking our own whole foods in our own kitchen when we’re 100? No nursing home for us!

OK, so I’ll close with a recipe for a fantastic whole food breakfast dish. Let’s all make this, serve it with fresh fruit and a whole grain muffin, and perhaps a fresh fruit smoothie or cup or herbal tea, and go breakfast like a king!

DECADENT OATMEAL BAKE (yield: 9 servings)

3 cups old fashioned oats

1 cup packed brown sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 eggs

1 cup milk

1/2 cup butter, melted

1 cup roughly chopped pecans or walnuts

¾ cup raisins, Craisins, or dried cherries

Additional milk (for serving)

Preheat oven to 350°. In a large bowl, combine oats, brown sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. In another bowl, whisk eggs, milk and butter. Stir into oat mixture until blended.

Spoon into a greased 9-in. square baking pan. Bake 40-45 minutes or until set. Serve warm with milk.

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