Dear Reader, I recently discovered a very interesting fact. According to research by Unicef, among 41 developed countries in the European Union and the OECD, there is only one country where fewer than one in five children are overweight: Japan. It’s an alarming statistic that I’m not necessarily happy about – I wish all countries everywhere had lower levels of childhood obesity – but it’s a true one nonetheless. Low levels of childhood obesity can also partially explain why adult obesity and...
11 days ago • 3 min read
Dear Reader, Does cooking stress you out? Let’s face it– even if you love cooking, sometimes cooking is a chore. After working for 8 hours, the last thing we want to do is be on our feet, sweaty, and then think about having to do the dishes afterwards. This is why I’ve adopted Zen principles to my cooking philosophy. A major tenet of Zen is on letting go of what generates stress and to instead bring in elements that make us feel at peace. A part of this is building a natural flow to our...
18 days ago • 3 min read
Dear Reader, When you type in ‘healthy’ in Google, do you know what definition comes up? It is quite literally defined as, “in good health”. It’s a seemingly simple concept– to be “healthy”-- but the truth is that many of us haven’t spent that much time thinking about what this means, and upon closer examination, many of us aren’t really sure how to measure being healthy. Limitations to common measures of good health At the most basic level, many of us have been taught growing up that...
25 days ago • 2 min read
Dear Reader, How have you been recently? Sometimes, we have tough weeks. It's not always a “one really bad thing happened to me” sort of tough, but sometimes we find the setbacks we usually accept with compassion, begin to morph into a tsunami of self-loathing. Why did I do that? I’m a terrible person. I’m so stupid, everyone thinks I’m incompetent. It almost seems silly writing it out like this, but sometimes that mean voice can feel so real. Learning from Japanese values of acceptance Being...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
Dear Reader, A while ago I had a (thankfully minor) infection, and was prescribed antibiotics to treat it. The antibiotics worked great on the infection, but unfortunately, my gut health took a bit of a hit. So like nurturing a wilting plant back to life, I decided to pay a bit of extra attention to how I could help my gut health thrive. First, prebiotics to power the process Prebiotics are non-digestible compounds in food that promote the growth of beneficial bacteria (probiotics) in our...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
Dear Reader, When it comes to self-improvement, we often feel pressured to make big changes. This is especially true with our health, as poor health impacts every aspect of our lives, making us long for a quick transformation. The irony is that drastic change rarely works. Fortunately for us, we can experience lasting changes to our wellbeing without a complete overhaul of our life. Ichinichi ichizen: “One good thing a day” There is a well-known Japanese proverb ichinichi ichizen (一日一善),...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
Dear Reader, In Japan, the beginning of the year is a big deal. It’s a festive time, where people typically have time off until January 3rd, during which they visit family and friends. There’s always lots of food, gatherings, and events. But one thing Japanese people also often do aside from celebrating, is they pray. They may go to a shrine or temple to make their first prayer of the year, a tradition called 初詣 hatsumode, or they may visit their family’s grave to pay respects to their...
2 months ago • 2 min read
Dear Reader, Wow! It’s already the end of the year. In ways it feels like I’ve been looking forward to this day for a while, in other ways it’s incredible that so much time has passed already. How are you feeling about it? I tend to have a bittersweet relationship with the end of the year. On the one hand, it’s a lot of fun to reflect on all that I had happened in the past year— memories of travel, accomplishments, change, hobbies, and relationships. On the other, reflecting on what I had...
3 months ago • 2 min read
Dear Reader, We're approaching the end of the year! For many of us, it’s natural to start reflecting on everything that’s happened. I've been doing a lot of that myself lately—thinking not just about my favorite memories, but also the lessons I've learned and how I've grown through them. A big part of that reflection, of course, is about health. After all, there’s not much in life that affects our wellbeing as much as our own health does. 12 things about living healthfully I’ve learned from...
4 months ago • 2 min read