Dear Reader,

Happy Sunday! How have you been doing?

If I'm being honest, I've been feeling quite overwhelmed recently. It feels like there is a lot happening at once, and a lot of it outside my control.

In times like this, when mentally I feel out of balance, it's very easy for me to feel overwhelmed by the prospect of taking care of my physical health. Thinking about eating well, exercising, and sleeping early can take a bit more effort than usual.

So rather than trying to be perfect in my health habits, I go back to the foundations. I do what I know, with what I can.

If you've been needing a reminder in self-care, I hope it helps 😊

5 easy health tips from life in Japan for effortless health

1. Eat until you’re 80% full

This one is straightforward enough– no need to change what you eat, how you eat, or at what time you eat. At any of your meals, try stopping at harahachi-bunme (腹八分目) or 80% full. In more qualitative terms, it’s eating until you feel satisfied, but not stuffed.

2. Add frozen vegetables to your meals

A common misconception about healthy eating is that healthy food needs to be fresh, organic, and prepped from scratch– but it doesn’t need to be!

One of my favorite tricks is simply adding frozen vegetables to whatever meal I’m having. For example, frozen spinach to pasta, or frozen edamame to fried rice. Frozen works especially well with soup and stews! And feel free to add it to your takeout .

The idea is that when it comes to health, we can actually focus on eating more rather than eating less. We should still practice moderation of course, but by shifting our perspective from what we need to eliminate from our diet to focusing on what we should add, we can take on a mindset of abundance rather than deprivation. There’s so many foods to enjoy!

3. Cook vegetables in the microwave

Adding onto the point of convenience, feel free to use the microwave to cook food– you don’t need to boil broccoli for it to be healthy, you can just microwave it for 30 seconds.

Because let’s be real: boiling water, salting it, adding broccoli and watching over it for a minute, then draining it through a colander, and then washing all those dishes is tiring.

Try microwaving broccoli, sweet potatoes, cauliflower, peas, carrots, or squash (or really anything else in your fridge).

4. Drink some water

This is not a tip for suppressing hunger– if you feel hungry, you should eat. But sometimes we mistake thirst for hunger, and we end up snacking without satisfying that need. So if you’re unsure, try drinking some water and then checking in to see if you still want to eat.

This is especially important to consider as the weather gets warmer, when we sweat and otherwise need to be drinking a bit more water than usual.

5. Use herbs and aromatics for flavor

Herbs and aromatics are a great way to significantly elevate meals (be generous with them!). You don’t even need to use fresh– keep some dried herbs in your cabinet, and use it as you need it.

In Japanese home cooking, many recipes actually rely on ginger, garlic, wasabi, and shiso (perilla leaves) to add flavor without overpowering the dish. Another home cooking favorite seasoning is furikake.

The great thing about dried herbs and many aromatics is that they last a while in your fridge 🙂 Flavor doesn’t need to be salt, sugar, or oil-based.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the prospect of living healthfully these days, remember that you don’t need to be perfect– start small, and stay consistent. Think in terms of how you can add to what you already do, or slightly shift your current eating habits.

And of course, be kind and patient with yourself. Health is first and foremost, self-care.

Warmly,

Kaki

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