Health educator will offer classes on healthy eating, stress reduction in new year
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By CRISTINA JANNEY Hays Post
Jessica Moffitt
If you are looking to reduce stress in your life or are trying to make yourself a little healthier in 2018, a new health educator in Hays will offer classes that may be able to help.
Jessica Moffitt is a certified health education specialist who moved to Hays earlier this year.
She will offer a series of classes through the Hays Recreation Commission on techniques for stress reduction beginning in January. She also has a series of four lunch and learn classes set at Professor’s, 521 E 11th St., in January that will look at healthy eating and cooking.
Moffitt has a private service through her and her husband’s business, Prospectively Healthy in Hays, where she offers clients individual help setting goals for better eating and making healthy life changes.
Moffitt has a degree in public health from Portland State University with an emphasis in physical activity and exercise in addition to her 2016 national certification as a health education specialist.
For her lunch and learn classes, Moffitt will discuss the benefits of certain foods, how they can be incorporated into your diet and will provide recipes and samples to participants.
She will offer Nuts & Seeds for Energy on Jan. 4, Chocolate: It’s Good for You on Jan. 11, Health & Lifestyle: Headaches on Jan. 18, and Recipes: Healthier Desserts on Jan. 25. All classes are at 12:05 p.m. and 1:05 p.m. Thursdays. Cost is $15 at the door. There is a $5 discount if you buy lunch at Professor’s. This is a continuing series, check out Professor’s Facebook page for a list of upcoming events.
In the Healthier Desserts class, Moffitt will talk about the benefits of using honey instead of processed sugar as a sweetener. The Jensens, who own Professor’s, process and sell their own raw honey and use it in their dishes.
Honey can be used in much smaller quantities than sugar. Moffitt has a recipe for icing that replaces two cups of powdered sugar with two teaspoons of honey. Honey can reduce inflammatory responses in the body and help people with allergies because of the pollen in the honey.
Moffitt also uses stevia, which is a natural sweetener from a plant, and apple sauce as sweeteners. She recommends against using artificial sweeteners, which are not recognized by the body and may be retained for the body to get rid of latter.
Do you think chocolate may be out of your life as a part of your New Year’s resolution? Moffitt said not necessarily. Dark chocolate has health benefits if you eat it in moderation. She will offer up a dark chocolate truffle recipe made with honey on Jan. 11.
If your emphasis is on maintaining energy through the day, Moffitt suggests adding an afternoon snack of nuts and dried fruit.
“It will provide you with the energy you need and will be a healthy tool you can use through the day,” she said.
Stress is not just something we feel, Moffitt said, it is something that affects our bodies and our hormones. Stress can have effects on weight management, fertility, growth patterns and the health of your hair. Severe stress can affect blood pressure and cardiac health and even contribute to heart attacks, stroke and death.
“I think the goal of all of the courses is first and foremost to understand biologically what causes stress,” she said. “We need to know what stressors are and the reaction in our body. If we are unfamiliar with the reactions, we don’t know how address it.”
In her Hays Rec classes, Moffitt will focus on natural ways to address stress. She will have classes that address sleep, the use of essential oils, deep breathing, using teas and drinks to relax and reducing stress in the work place. See the Hays Recreation website for a complete list of class dates and to sign up online. Her first class of the quarter will be De-Stress Your Sleep on Tuesday, Jan. 9.
“My classes are meant to be informational. Attendees can either use the information or save it for later. The information provided will help each individual make one better choice at a time. Each better choice provides fuel for the next, creating a cascade of health effects, ultimately leading to a stronger version of you,” she said.
Corrected 9:24 a.m. 1-2-18: Her first class of the quarter will be De-Stress Your Sleep on Tuesday, Jan. 9. … All Professor’s classes are at 12:05 p.m. and 1:05 p.m. Thursdays. … Moffitt has a private service through her and her husband’s business, Prospectively Healthy in Hays …
