The Happy and Healthy Blog

Healthy Nachos!

Jessica Cassity — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 16:03:42 +0000

It’s a bit dreary here in Portland. Nothing like the wall of rain I’d expected, but the days are regularly quite gray. This weather makes me want to get cozy–drinking tea, wearing snuggly sweatpants, and eating comfort food. Now, I love a bowl of mac and cheese as much as anyone else. Maybe even more. But I also know that the winter and spring are going to be quite long so I’m hoping to keep my cravings in check. That’s why I did a bit of experimenting, finding ways to make my comfort food faves a bit healthier. My biggest coup–making nachos healthy! Here’s how:

Nachos are appealing because of the cheese and the crunch from the chips. But nothing says you must overdue it with either. To make healthy nachos I washed a bunch of fresh spinach to serve as the base. I poured on a heated black bean and sweet potato combo and topped it with a bit of cheese. Next up came salsa, cilantro, avocado, and, to top it off, crumbled tortilla chips. You still get the crunch of the chips and the flavor from the cheese but you also get several servings of veggies. Great taste, and it’s good for you!

New Winter Fave: Snowshoeing

Jessica Cassity — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 15:17:25 +0000

Two very important things happened to me this winter in terms of snow sports: First, I decided that it was okay to finally admit that I don’t like downhill sports. I’ve been skiing and snowboarding more than 20 times, and I think there were about 30 cumulative minutes of fun. The odds aren’t good, and at this age–with my fears of going to fast, of falling, of injuring my knees more–there’s really no reason to keep trying. Sometimes you just don’t like something that everyone else does, and that’s okay.

But, the second important event was finding a winter sport replacement. I always knew I would like snowshoeing, but I really had no idea how much. It turns out, this sport is just my speed. You can feel the burn when you walk uphill, stop on a dime to take in the scenery, and go out for a hike anyplace there’s snow–no lift ticket required. Here’s a pic of a friend and I trekking through the woods of Vail Mountain. Check out that smile!

Is anyone else a big snowshoeing fan? What do you do to get outside in the winter?

Everyday Activity for Prevention Magazine

Jessica Cassity — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 15:21:11 +0000

Before I left Prevention I wrote one of my favorite articles of all time. The topic is one I feel quite strong about: the benefits of everyday activity, or finding ways to stay active throughout the day, such as pacing while on the phone or skipping the elevator in lieu of the stairs. Dr. James Levine, MD, of the Mayo Clinic is one of the most fervent supporters of this type of activity and he partnered with Prevention to help track more than a dozen women in a weight loss routine based around this principle (plus a 1600-calorie diet). So, can fidgeting throughout the day really help a person get their health back on track? In a word, YES!

The file is too large to post on the page, but if you’d like to read it in its entirety, and get new weight loss hints, you can download the article by clicking the link:

Lose Weight, No Sweat

21 Days to a Fitness Habit?

Jessica Cassity — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 16:57:10 +0000

I recently enrolled in a 25 day fitness challenge at a local fitness studio called barre 3. The goal: to attend 20+ classes in just 25 days. This sounded like a terrific way to get my fitness back on track and a nice way to start off the year so I signed up. I was so moved by the experience I wrote about it on The Huffington Post. Check out the resulting essay by clicking here.

Cool Bicycling InfoGraphic

Jessica Cassity — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 19:32:02 +0000

I stumbled upon this cool infographic recently. Check this out, then get peddling!

Created by: Healthcare Management Degree

Clyde Commons’s Kale and Pesto Salad

Jessica Cassity — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 22:07:30 +0000

Yesterday a friend and I decided to be ladies who lunch. We went out for a midday meal at Clyde Common, a Portland spot I’d heard a lot about, and we weren’t disappointed. We split a Tuscan kale salad with pesto on it and a burger. Yum! I hadn’t planned to recreate the salad–if I had I would have taken a picture of the original–but when I went to the grocery store last night the kale was just calling to me. It’s packed with nutrients and vitamins but so far none of the recipes I’d tried had been tasty enough to repeat. (I tend to like raw veggies more than cooked ones, and raw kale can be a bit tough.) But the salad (both in the restaurant and at home) was awesome. Here’s how I recreated it:

1. Pull the tough stems off a bunch of Tuscan or lacinato kale then slice the leaves into thin strips.

2. Massage kale with a bit of lemon juice. By crunching it around with your hands in the citrus juice you will really soften it up.

3. Scoop on a dab or two of pre-made pesto then mix/massage it on the kale. (I bought mine at Whole Foods–I only used a quarter of the package.)

4. Plate the kale, sprinkling with pine nuts and a bit of cheese. (I had ricotta salata in the fridge.)

5. Top it off with a segment of grapefruit, which adds a bit of sweetness and tartness. Delish!

I paired this with a baked ziti-like dish I made really quick. A few weeks ago I roasted too many veggies–peppers, onions, eggplant, tomatoes, etc.–so I threw the extras in a pasta sauce and froze it. Today I thawed the sauce then put it in a baking dish with some cooked orechiette and a bit of mozzarella and ricotta salata. It baked for 55 minutes and just like that, lunch was served. I really like cheese and carbs but there were so many veggies in this lunch that I feel totally guilt-free, even though I had pasta!

Vision Boards for the Future

Jessica Cassity — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 17:39:00 +0000

So I finally wrote out my goals for 2012. But before we get to that, here’s a look at a vision board I made for myself a few years ago. The goals are along the right side.

Ironically, write a book was at the top of the list, although I didn’t think I’d accomplish that until 2019. A few others I’ve checked off: spending at least 2 hours a week in nature, living with trees in my backyard and the city at my doorstep, listening more and talking less, getting certified to teach yoga, growing my own herbs and vegetables, and in my opinion, driving a convertible–that huge sunroof is the closest I will likely get to that, which is fine by me.

My resolutions/goals for 2012 aren’t written out as succinctly (and “improve penmanship” is one goal that I perhaps should have added to the list), but here they are. I’m toying with the idea of inviting friends over for a vision board “party” but all of that talk of goals seems so un-Portland. Which may be precisely why it’s a good idea.

NOOK Daily Find: Better Each Day

Jessica Cassity — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 21:54:26 +0000

Exciting news for anyone who’s been holding out on buying my book, “Better Each Day”: It’s today’s NOOK Daily Find, which means you can get a copy for your eReader for just $2.99. Click here and scroll down to get the deal. So exciting!

2011 Successes

Jessica Cassity — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 20:28:28 +0000

I’m mentally preparing myself to write resolutions for 2012. It’s not that I haven’t been thinking about this–I have a general idea of what I want out of this year–but I feel like I need some distraction-free down time (read: No internet) to really refine them. Next week I’m taking a couple of plane flights which should serve this purpose perfectly. And, since I’m flying to a ski destination, and I don’t really ski, I may have a lot of time to goal set.

In case you missed it, just before New Year’s I wrote a piece for the Huffington Post on setting effective resolutions for 2012. You can read the whole piece by clicking here, but to summarize, researchers say that we become more likely to reach big goals after sticking with several small goals. Your confidence builds each time you stick with something challenging, so small successes lead to larger ones.

Now, 2011 was a big year for me. Right around the turn of the year I got my yoga teacher training and tried surfing for the first time. On January 3, 2011, I appeared on the Today Show for the first time. And then there was that whole mid-year “quit my job, leave my home of 10 years, buy a car, and drive across half the country by myself, stopping to mountain bike and so forth along the way” thing. But certain things have slipped–like my fitness habit and teaching fitness classes–and other things that I meant to do, such as start volunteering at the Humane Society, haven’t worked their way into my schedule yet.

So, while I don’t doubt that I have the confidence to stick with the goals I set for myself–last year I surprised myself with how resilient and courageous I could be–I do need to refine my ideas and make sure I continue to challenge myself and grow. Now it’s just a matter of homing in on what I want and going for it!

Because last year I literally climbed mountains. Or, well, partially up Rainier.

Better Each Day on AM Northwest

Jessica Cassity — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 20:43:53 +0000

This morning I had the pleasure of talking up my book on Portland’s local station, KATU. I chatted with Helen and Dave, the co-hosts of AM Northwest about 9 ways to stay happy and healthy in the new year. I can’t seem to embed the clip, but you can access it by clicking here.