My Interview with The Happy Healthy Librarian, Debby Kastner
Debby Kastner’s blog and now FB page is one of my favorite and most reliable sources for information on healthy living. I discovered Debby Kastner’s blog, Happy Healthy Long Life about seven years ago, just a few years after I started transitioning to a plant based diet. Debby is a medical librarian at a leading US medical center who's been in the medical library "business" for 40 years. She posts about the latest medical research in the areas of nutrition, well-being, brain health, heart health, exercise & longevity. She is also a great resource for easy and delicious plant based recipes, book recommendations and films.
She continues to be one of my absolute favorite people to follow and I was thrilled when she was willing to answer some of my questions for this post. I am so happy to share her with you all!
Dawn: You live a VERY busy life. Work, creating content, cooking, exercise and spending time with family. How DO you get it all done? Are there a few tips you could give people?
Debby: Ha, ha! I DON'T get it all done, that's for sure. I have certain priorities, & when the time runs out, some things don't get done as quickly as they should. Yep, I procrastinate on the things I'm less interested in doing, like everyone. That said, beyond the "unchangeables" like going to work, my long commute 2 hours round-trip, & family obligations, I never shortchange the following: 7-8 hours of sleep; exercising 6, sometimes 7 times a week; shopping for/cooking/preparing healthy meals (thank goodness my husband helps with both of these jobs); relaxing with my husband in the evening; ALWAYS saying YES to spending time with friends & socializing, especially on weekends; visiting my kids/grandkids & out-of-town family whenever I can, reading the NYT & listening to NPR while cooking & commuting.
So, that means some things only get done at the last minute, when they must, like shopping for new clothes, presents, & home furnishings; cleaning my basement & closets, & decluttering.
Dawn: Do you have plans for a book? Speaking? Other ways of sharing your passion for healthy living?
Debby: I've done some presentations over the years, but it's not something I love to do, mostly because it takes a huge amount of my free time to prepare well (I'm a procrastinating perfectionist), & I'm not that comfortable with public speaking, or coming across as an authority on anything. I usually turn opportunities down. I don't promote my FB page or my blog (which I haven't posted in for a few years)--I kind of prefer people just discovering it. I did, however, say "Yes" to doing an informal podcast for Wendy at Healthy Girl's Kitchen. It's a no-stress, no-prep affair. No real ambitions except to share the interesting & useful info I discover.
Dawn: What are your favorite plant based meals?
Debby: There are SO MANY & I'm always trying new things, but some of my favorites that I keep making over & over again are:
A. Plain yogurt (it had been exclusively homemade unsweetened soy yogurt, but lately I'm preferring Icelandic or Siggi Skyr) with 1/2 cup wild blueberries, 1/2 cup frozen cherries, 1/2 banana, 1 TBS each of hemp seed & flax meal, & 1/3 cup of Ezekiel Cinnamon Raisin Cereal for breakfast
B. A GINORMOUS salad with buffalo ranch seasoned soy curls & Cindy's Sweet & Spicy Mango Dressing for lunch http://bit.ly/2mtPcgq
C. Hummusapien's Kale Black Bean Tempeh Casserole http://bit.ly/2lUrEy7 (a double batch)
D. My own riff on Full Helping's Sweet Potato Black Bean Enchiladas http://bit.ly/2meW692 made with Ezekiel brand Burrito sized wraps.
E. Oh She Glows Golden French Lentil Stew/Soup [Recipe here: http://bit.ly/2kWkUmU (TIP: Don't add the suggested broth & water combo to the soup--use ONLY broth, which comes to 5 1/2 cups broth, NOT 4 cups broth & 1 1/2 cups water--& for the richest flavor, I recommend Imagine's No-Chicken Vegetable Broth (in the box--comes in regular & low-sodium]
F. Almost anything by Minimalist Baker, especially her White Bean Kale Salad with tahini lemon dressing http://bit.ly/2jBlB3H I love her book, too: "Minimalist Baker's Everyday Cooking Cookbook" & Isa Chandra Moskowitz's "Isa Does It"
Dawn: What is your favorite way to exercise?
Debby: I'm HOOKED on exercising in classes! I like the social part, the music, the motivation that comes from exercising in a group, the wide variety of options & instructors, & someone telling me what to do, & to "keep going, only 20 more seconds!". I'm at the same community gym that I joined in 1976---it's been over 40 years! I like spinning, HIIT, power sculpt, step, circuit training--and outdoor hiking & bike riding, but only on bike paths.
Dawn: I read "Small Great Things," by Jodi Picoult per your recommendation and LOVED it. What are you reading now.
Debby: So glad you liked that book! Every single person I've recommended it to has also loved it. So timely, so engrossing, so moving--& Picoult spent years researching it to make it authentic. I recently read "Hillbilly Elegy" by JD Vance--it was for the couples book club my husband & I have been in for 24 years. I really got a lot out of it--but, the group was about 50-50 about it. Half loved it, half were underwhelmed---but, this is a tough group!
"Hillbilly Elegy" is a memoir by 30-something Yale trained lawyer, who overcame extraordinary circumstances to graduate from college & get into Yale. It sheds light on growing up in a dysfunctional family in the once thriving Southern Ohio steel town that's now riddled with unemployment, addiction, depression, broken dysfunctional families, with little promise of a better future. It's heralded as the book that helps to explain why the Rust Belt, Kentucky, & West Virginia went "all in" for Donald J. Trump.
Next book that I can't wait to read--& I'm picking up at my library TODAY: Dr. Paul Kalanthi's "When Breath Becomes Air" http://nyti.ms/2mxhKX3
From the NYT review: "The bittersweet news is that in the 22 months left to him, Dr. Kalanithi, who died at 37, went on to write a great, indelible book, “When Breath Becomes Air,” that is as intimate and illuminating as Atul Gawande’s “Being Mortal,” to cite only one recent example of a doctor’s book that has had exceptionally wide appeal. To paraphrase Abraham Verghese’s introduction, to read this book is to feel that Dr. Kalanithi still lives, with enormous power to influence the lives of others even though he is gone.
Dawn: Anything else you would like to add?
Debby: You don't have to be perfect in your diet or your exercise routine. You just need to start, stick with it & don't look back. It's all about creating new habits.
Find what works for YOU! What tastes great, but is still healthy--the exercises that are more fun than work! Before you know it, you'll crave healthy clean green foods, & you'll love moving everyday. We are all different, & remember that when X,Y, or Z diet isn't working for you. There's no one size that fits all. Find what works for you! Run your own n=1 study, & pay attention to what makes you feel your best & produces the best lab tests. We all have different genes, ages, genders, cultures, stressors, obligations, health histories---and each one of those makes you a UNIQUE study of one.
And one last thing: Whenever possible, everyday EAT (healthy & whole), MOVE, & SLEEP!
Dawn: You can follow Debby Kastner on Facebook Happy Healthy Long Life