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...
13 days 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...
about 2 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...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
Dear Reader, Why is Japanese food so healthy? To answer that question, I think it helps to understand the principles behind it. “Japanese food” in Japanese is read as washoku (和食), with wa (和) meaning harmony, and shoku (食) meaning food. In fact, the kanji 「和」 is often interchangeably used to mean “harmony” or “Japanese”. During the Nara period (710 to 794 AD), Japanese Empress Genmei assigned the kanji for harmony, or 「和」to represent Japan. It is thought that she was inspired by The...
2 months ago • 2 min read
Dear Reader, When we try to adhere to strict health goals– such as a certain weight or waist measurement– we often find ourselves particularly struggling with the idea of having to maintain it. We work hard to reach our health goals, and the irony is that the harder we work to grasp onto the progress we have made, the more engulfed in the anxiety and fear that we may ‘slip back’ we become. This makes us tired of taking care of our health, sometimes tired enough to make us want to give up. But...
4 months ago • 2 min read
Dear Reader, “I am so busy.” I am not exactly sure when I found myself in a position where this statement felt like a 2-in-1 boast and complaint. Perhaps I first started feeling this in high school, when having a social life, good grades, and sleep all seemed to be working in a trade-off system, and choosing to forgo sleep was equated with a certain superiority. Or maybe it was even before then, watching movies and television shows as a child, and seeing scenes of the hardworking, tired...
4 months ago • 2 min read
Dear Reader, It was late at night and I had stopped by the supermarket to buy some salmon filets but hadn’t really thought about how to cook them. When I got home, I looked in the kitchen to see what I could use for seasoning and found the cabinets sparse. Another night of salmon seasoned with salt, pepper, and olive oil, I groaned to myself for not buying more spices while I was at the store. But as I double-checked my fridge for ingredients, I found a small bag of leftover miso that my...
5 months ago • 3 min read
Dear Reader, Mindful eating, like all kinds of meditation, can actually be quite tricky when you’re first starting out. The mind is geared to wander and often likes to gravitate toward thinking about anything but the current moment: Did I get feedback on my assignment yet? Should I renew my insurance for the car soon? I’ll need to book tickets for that trip soon… In most cases our mind wandering is harmless, and it's a very natural thing to do. But when we're eating, being too lost in our...
6 months ago • 4 min read
Dear Reader, What does healthy eating look like? Oftentimes, we imagine something like a green salad, lean protein, (maybe) some carbs, water, and not a dessert in sight. But this illustration of the healthy lifestyle is not just wrong, but its skewed version of reality can set us up for resignation. Any moment we’re not exemplifying perfection, it can feel like failure. The reality is, no healthy person actually lives like this all the time. In reality it looks… kind of unhealthy? Here are...
6 months ago • 3 min read