EPISODE 8: Remy
INTRO CREDITS
This is this is fine. This is fine. This is fine. This is fine. This is a poor substitute for therapy, but an excellent substitute for Jo…other podcasts. We're not like other podcasts. Join us as we find the answers to the universe's biggest questions like is butter a carb? Does crying burn calories? And what the **** am I doing with my life? We're here to be your part time therapist, astrologer concierge doctor and fairy godmother. Do you need someone to validate you today? Cool, cool. Cool. Come on in. We're fine. This is fine.
EPISODE INTRO
Bonjour mes amis. If you're listening live on the day. This episode has come out a big hello from Europe. This is an obnoxious flex. But it's truly all I have right now. So just indulge me so I can finally be that person on Instagram who went to Europe in the summer and everyone's wondering how they afford their lifestyle. I finally get to be that person. Spoiler alert. I can't afford it to get me up on Patreon maybe anyway, back to business. I'm so excited for you to meet Remy Park, creator of veggie Ken's a recipe developer and Chef Taiwanese Korean Japanese American, gluten free soy free vegan matcha connoisseur and an absolute ray of sunshine. Some of you already know her from tick tock instagram, youtube and her blog. I got to know her on a press trip several years ago. Like all great friendships. This one started in a hot tub in Palm Springs. But for real we bonded over a glass of kombucha and a hot tub in Palm Springs, sharing stories about our struggles, triumphs, hopes for the future and the things that brought us joy. It was an immediate instantaneous connection. And I knew we were going to be friends. Remy has been through a lot in her young life, which we are going to get into today. I asked if she would touch on a few of her lived experiences that have shaped her health habits today, including overcoming addiction, OCD, anorexia nervosa, and so much more. We're going to get into her beautiful cultural background that has shaped her approach to wellness, food and more. In particular how the amalgam of Asian non American cultures that she has been brought up with have influenced her approach to mental health. We're going to talk about some of these Asian quote unquote Eastern wellness practices that have made their way into the westernized world and how we can appreciate and integrate instead of appropriate
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INTERVIEW
Remy my girl I am so grateful to have you on the show today. This is episode eight. We are officially two months into our programming you're in the MySpace top eight How do you feel?
Remy Park 3:47
I feel great. I speaking of Myspace, my younger sisters who are both like Gen Z years have been telling me that the new MySpace angle is back in so no the blast from the past. Oh my gosh. Wait seriously.
But it's different. It's like this zoom out thing and then you hold it from above. Okay, just look like your arm is like two feet long. I'm like I'm trying to master I don't know if this is one I'm going to be able to do.
Dominique Astorino 4:11
You're gonna have to do a
Remy Park 4:44
Yeah, so I always think it's kind of funny because my wellness journey came from a place of being very unwell first and when I look back, I'm very grateful now because I don't think I would have ever found the passion for you know, healthy living and well being had that knowledge In the case, so initially, I started Instagram as kind of like a food log and accountability tool, while working with my psychiatrist and therapist at the time, and working through an eating disorder. And at the same time, I was also kind of beginning to work on addiction issues with substances and alcohol as well. So it was a big transformative time in my life. And I was really using it like a diary. And I think that's part of the reason why now I'm so comfortable just being so open about things going on, on social media. And it was supposed to be a private account, and then kind of started to grow. And I think around that same time, vegan food became a little bit more common, and people were kind of interested in it. So in an effort to, I guess, contribute to the movement, a little I was like, I will just work on improving the recipes, making sure the content looks good. And I'll try and keep this account alive. Even though by a certain point, I'd already kind of felt at peace with where I was with food. And so kind of became more of a blog than a diary at that point. And about a year into my first corporate internship, when I was about to start my first job, I think it'd been maybe three months, it just started to kind of take off on its own. And I hit a place where again, I felt like I needed to check in with my mental health. So I felt like the timing was perfect. I was like, I'm going to take a week focus on my mental health, because I know I'm not going to be able to show up to work, if not. And in the meantime, I did have extra time. So I was working on content. And then it just kind of started to happen. I feel like because I had more time it grew into what it is now today, which has been pretty mind blowing for me. But now, luckily, it is a full time job for me now. And it's just been so much fun. It's a little bit more, I would say, health and wellness and lifestyle than it was just purely food, like when I started but it's been so much fun. And that's how we met too, which I love.
Dominique Astorino 6:45
I know it's the best. And are you just so grateful that you didn't get sucked into corporate culture? And you got to build this instead?
Remy Park 6:51
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think it could be for me, but I think I'm also the type of person that always does a little too much. Like if I had a corporate job, I would be doing something on the side. Yeah. So in theory, I mean, I always say like, if anything ever fell through knocking on wood, I would be totally okay, taking a corporate job. But I think the thing for me is now knowing that it has to be something that doesn't feel like work, and that I really love for it to work out for me. So I'm open to it.
Dominique Astorino 7:19
But I just feel like you maybe dodged a bullet from like the Girlboss era of corporate culture, which did a number on a lot of our mental health. But regardless, I love that your story resonated with so many people and what you were going through and being open and vulnerable with just naturally developed. And you experienced a lot of this at a very young age, right? Yeah. What was the first instance that you experienced kind of the struggles? Like what age were you at this point?
Remy Park 7:48
Well, it's really interesting, because I think when I look back a lot of the time, and I meet people that have similar issues, they can kind of pinpoint whether it's a traumatic childhood, or just like a very negative experience they had, and they were really young, I never really experienced anything like that. I feel like, despite being Asian, like my family has always been very supportive, and also supportive of mental health. And they're all discussion too. But I think part of it is a little bit biology and just genetics and things like that. Yeah, apparently, when I was like, really young, I was always a little bit more withdrawn. And I know that when I was in kindergarten, and my parents were kind of going through something that I was supposedly depressed, like I had started speaking, and then kind of stopped. I don't remember that at all. But I definitely think that part of it is just like the nature of my genetics. And then, around the time that I turned seven, my family moved to Asia. And that was a big change. So I think for my personality type feeling, this loss of control was really difficult for me. And a lot of the things that I struggled with really boiled down to like this need for control, and kind of dialing down feelings versus like dealing with what's going on. So I also have OCD. And I feel like that's a big part of it OCD and like eating stuff, they go hand in hand a lot of the time because it's all about control. Absolutely. So yeah, I think it's it's started really young. And I, in a way, obviously, I wish I hadn't had to experience all of this. At the same time. I think it started young was better than it starting later. Because I feel like I was able to dress a lot of it. And I have the tools to kind of manage everything. And that was before life got real and had to pay rent or anything like that. So I'm very, very glad.
Dominique Astorino 9:22
I remember just being so impressed when I did meet you. And I was kind of being a little bit harmony and introverted myself on our press trip, and wanting to just escape away from everyone else and just hang out in the jacuzzi, and you were there. And we got to talk about your story. And I remember thinking how impressed I was that you had gone through so much at such a young age, and built yourself into this strong, radiant woman and I'm like, Oh my God, she's kicking ass at just being you know, blown away by that. So I'm just grateful that you are able to share that energy with everyone and you know, the stuff that you've overcome is beautiful.
Remy Park 9:56
Oh, that's so sweet. Well, I have to say I think it's funny to hear that but cuz when I met you, I always felt like you had a very extroverted energy about you, like could talk to anyone kind of thing. But I think it just goes to show that like a lot of people are able to socialize, which doesn't necessarily mean you're extrovert because I would definitely say I'm extremely introverted. Totally be alone.
Dominique Astorino 10:15
Yeah, it's funny, I talked about this. On episode five, I think with my friend, Jenny, how we feel introverted. And we, you know, we like people. And we like to, you know, have that connection with people. But afterward, we need so much recharging. Like, I really do need to, like, hide away. So I, yeah, calling the ambivert I don't really know.
Remy Park 10:35
For me, it's like, I want to like microdose socializing. And I like love that. Yes, I love to do it. But like, micro dose is only for me
Dominique Astorino 10:43
Wait love that... This is your version of micro dosing I love that so much. Okay, so you kind of touched on this a little bit about having, you know, access or not access, but you know, an approach to mental health care, emotional self care from the different Asian cultures with which you were brought up. So you're Taiwanese, Japanese, Korean American? And did you live in Singapore? At one point, am I making this up?
Remy Park 11:08
I spent a lot of time in Thailand. Because we have like family there, then we go there forever Christmas. But we're not Thai. I also used to think that when I was younger, and later found out No, we just go there a lot...
Dominique Astorino 11:17
Not actually Thai, so Okay, with the...
Remy Park 11:20
Real disappointment!
Dominique Astorino 11:21
...with all these different cultures, have you had different approaches to your mental health and emotional self care?
Remy Park 11:28
I think later on, I started to notice that a lot of the trends that I was kind of happy to take part in actually had roots in cultures of my own, like, I was very surprised by moto becoming a big thing, something that my grandma would always make for me when I was younger, even quasi like that kind of comes from the traditional Chinese medicine method where they would actually use just bamboo sticks on like your back. So not your face, necessarily, but like scraping really aggressively, like scraping, I would see it in the middle of like parks in China, and never understood what it was. And I think in a way, it made it a little bit more palatable to me to kind of look back at my culture and like, ask my grandparents about certain things. And it was really fascinating for me to be able to understand, like, where they came from, and that opened the door for me to kind of reintroduce myself to my own culture, I think. So things like acupuncture have been really helpful for me, I tend to prefer more herbal remedies over, you know, over the counters as like a first attack sort of, I'm not like, close off to Western medicine by any means. But that was just sort of like the way that my mom would raise us, you know, all these like Chinese medicine herbs that we never wanted to take. But now I'm like, oh my god, Mom, have you heard about like Reishi Mushrooms? And she's like, rolling her eyes
Dominique Astorino 12:40
She's like Girl, please.
Remy Park 12:42
Yeah. it's really, really funny.
Dominique Astorino 12:45
Oh, my gosh. And Did you feel living in New York, And now LA, Like, if you're here for a long time... Do you feel a disconnection from your culture not being there, in Asia?
Remy Park 12:54
I think there's a little bit of that that happens naturally, maybe because, you know, I went to school in New York, but I also went to school in Asia for the majority of my high school life. So middle school to high school, I was in Asia. And it was like a weird feeling. Because you would think that I might feel at home in Asia, but at the same time, like I was so Americanized, like having been born in the US that I didn't feel like I was Asian enough amongst all these other Asian people. And yet, when I would move back to the US, I suddenly felt like, okay, like, not all that American either. So it's this weird in between feeling that you have sometimes. And I think the disconnect came from me actually trying to live like that healthy wellness lifestyle, but the very Western version of that, like the woman's health mag, the Shape magazine type of wellness, at the time, you know, it was very much like grilled chicken. Yeah, totally can type stuff. And none of that really leaves any room for your cultural dishes or Yeah, you know, things that like your family would really understand. I think like anyone from, you know, a non western cultural background could understand that it's just like, you're losing a lot of the tradition because you're living this very rigid and also very, like westernized lifestyle. So there was definitely a little bit of disconnect, then. And I think in recovery, I not only was able to kind of get over some of that, but also realize, oh, there's a lot that I've kind of been missing out on and like, lost touch with because I would think Asian food is inherently unhealthy. Like, oh, it's a lot of carbs, you know, it's rice, it's noodles, it's all these things that I feel like are not diet friendly. And then as you sort of start to reconcile, like what that issue is, and like what these feelings you're having towards your own cultural, like you realize you can really do it, no matter what kind of food you're eating. But also, it's not great to kind of villainize your own culture, I think. Yeah, it's not the intention, I think, but it happens. And I definitely went through that a little bit
Dominique Astorino 14:44
totally because there's not one definition of health and what you brought up like this western obsession. It's not just healthy lifestyle, but it's a fixation, an obsession. The clean eating like looking a certain way, which now I think is finally getting, you know, the backlash that it needs to recalibrate. And, you know, health influencers and magazines going like so far in the wrong direction. But now you're able to bring in this, you know, cultural perspective, you know, your roots, the different areas in which you were brought up. Has that been a big proponent of helping you personally find balance?
Remy Park 15:16
I think so. It's interesting because a lot of the traditional Chinese medicine remedies, for example, are very different from what you might see in like a Western Health magazine, right. Whereas it might be like smoothies, and like iced lattes and stuff, you know, traditional Chinese medicine would say, No, that's actually really bad for your body, like how to cooling. It's too much like raw fruit and veggies like salads, not great two colons, like what do you mean? Like, yep, these are things that I love. You know, I feel like I find myself somewhere in the middle too, because while I feel like it would be great for my body, if I were to really adhere to like warm liquidy brothy foods all the time, I also know that for my enjoyment, nice lots everyone's gonna want me to. So I just feel like with all things, it's making sure you have a balance otherwise, like, I mean, you know, we've talked about this too, it's like, it just becomes extreme and an extreme, neither direction is never good,
Dominique Astorino 16:05
especially when you are kind of biologically wired in the way that both of us are. We have like a proclivity for that need for control, which can lead you to extremes. And we've both been there at different times in different ways. So making sure that we're, I guess, tuned into that. I also love what you brought up about TCM and not having smoothies and iced lattes, because that's one of my biggest struggles. And my acupuncturist, just like girl, you need warming foods like enough with this movie.
Remy Park 16:30
I know I just love a good smoothie. And matcha is like a very cooling food, apparently. And I'm like, that's just one thing I'm not willing to give up.
Dominique Astorino 16:36
So, so funny. I have much of cookies, like on my little recording table here from this link package I ordered from Sugoi Mart. Just like a little matcha snack. I didn't know it was cooling.
Remy Park 16:48
Yeah, they say it's cooling, which is fine for some people too. But I think that's the other thing about traditional Chinese medicine that I love is that I feel like it's a little bit more personalized. And same with like, Iveta. Like, there's these different body types and tests you can do to understand how you run. Whereas with Western Health and kind of diet advice, I feel like it's pretty general.
Dominique Astorino 17:09
Totally personalized medicine with roots from different traditional influences, right. So on that note, we have personally talked about, I guess the difference between appreciating a culture and not appropriating a culture, where, you know, you've alluded to this earlier as well, some of these things have become really popular in the Western world. Now, how would you say? Like, can you speak on behalf of all Asian people. But you know, I know you've written about this before, you know, publicly as well. So I'd love to get your take on, you know, integrating these if you don't come from an Asian culture, how to integrate this in a way that also is respectful and honoring of that culture?
Remy Park 17:51
I think it's a really tricky question. Because, you know, in the very beginning, I felt kind of defensive about it protective. But at the same time, that was also my introduction to accepting some of these things that I also thought were uncool and like, smelly and gross, like he's traditional Chinese medicines, you know, so I think I can understand it from both sides. And I think the most important thing is just to kind of give credit where credit is due or try to understand the origin of an ingredient or remedy, the number one thing that I see that typically kind of upsets me, like, I never really feel upset when I see something from the east being popularized in the West, if anything, I think it's incredible that we all can appreciate and like access these things. But it's more when I see that it's a brand that has kind of stripped it of all its culture and then commercial as something Yeah, totally different, or almost as if it's something that like, you will not believe what we've discovered. Yeah. And while I'm thinking to myself, like my great grandmother grew up with
Dominique Astorino 18:47
this has been used for literally 1000s of years.
Remy Park 18:49
Yeah, absolutely. And there's nothing wrong with kind of bringing something from another culture into your own. Because I think that is also the nature of globalization. And yeah, you know, if they are not doing it, maybe it would never happen. But I think it's erasing the culture, and also founders not having a solid understanding for or appreciation of where something came from. And also not incorporating that into the branding or the marketing at all. I find that to be sometimes a little bit disingenuous, because let's say it's like a Gua Sha tool I love to support my friend Stephanie's brand Mount Lai. And when I see other guasha tools, I'm sure they're equally great. But to me, It's more meaningful to support a brand that kind of really lives the product and understand where it came from, and does her best to source like from China versus like, you know, just these guasha shaped pieces coming from wherever is cheap. Yeah. And it's tricky. It's, I think, a good practice in general to kind of try and support things that are founded by people of the culture, but at the same time, sometimes you don't have that option. So I feel like it's all about intention and just like doing the best that you can, but something I see that happens often is like when someone is trying to share or be helpful or kind of educate, there's this defensiveness that comes in.
Dominique Astorino 20:00
Yeah.
Remy Park 20:01
And I just feel like being open to learning is like the best place to be and the way to avoid as much conflict as possible.
Dominique Astorino 20:08
Totally. Especially if you're public facing, right. Like if you're on social media. Yeah. And it sounds like a lot of this is more so coming from, you know, these businesses, you know, commercialized products, stuff like that versus an individual level. But those people, those forward facing people, and these businesses are, I guess, kind of the engine behind bringing these practices into the cultural consciousness and like the westernized world. So yeah, I guess the onus really is on on those people who are more forward facing to, you know, honor, that background that makes a lot of sense.
Remy Park 20:40
Totally, I think one of the best examples I can think of, and something that I was pretty outspoken about a couple years ago, is this module cafe, they actually used to be one of my favorites in the city. And for some reason, I was under the impression that it was founded by like an Asian woman, because of the branding included, like Japanese cartoons. And I just, I don't know why I assumed that and then later came to find out that it was two white men, and there's nothing wrong with that.
Dominique Astorino 21:04
I know exactly what you're talking about. Yeah.
Remy Park 21:07
Yeah. But I think what was really shocking for a lot of people was that they just were not very racially inclusive, people like to some of their black employees, they just did not treat them well. And it was a very well known fact, they would poach employees from other Japanese establishments that serve like the same kind of tea, they would market it as like a metabolism boosting ingredient versus like the ceremony of it. And their launch was really not that great. They store it in a glass jar, which tells me right away, they don't know anything. Yeah, and so I was like, Oh, this is kind of disappointing. And I think the really the straw that broke the camel's back was finding out that there were videos of them dressed up as like Geisha is kind of making fun of like, the Japanese language and like, you know, pulling your eyes and stuff like that came out. And I was like, wow, this is so disappointing, because that's the culture that you're profiting from, like, at the very least, you could kind of respect that...
Dominique Astorino 21:56
not be an ass.
Remy Park 21:57
Yeah, yeah. But you know, some of the other media companies that I love are also owned by white men, but you can tell it's a completely different relationship that they have with the origin like one this guy Zach from Kettle, he spent time living in Japan and really understands like the process of cultivating Lotro from start to finish and knows the farmers like never claims it to be this like health ingredient, you know, it's just so different and so beautiful. So I think that's just the tricky thing is that like, a lot of people wouldn't know what to even look for it, because it's something that they're not familiar with.
Dominique Astorino 22:29
Yeah, I think it's interesting that you bring up the idea of how matcha specifically is marketed, you know, as a wonder ingredient. And from just my like, own personal perspective, someone very close to me, has a disease that is actually helped like the the only study, the only clinical study on a, I guess, alternative remedy, something that's not pharmacological is on green tea extract, which obviously, is in very high amounts and matcha. And it showed that it, you know, helps with this disease, right, so I got this person, very into matcha. And like, I learned from you and I ordered, but the photo that you told me to order, you know, got the whole, like ceremony part, but it very much did start because, you know, I wanted to introduce her to this person to it, because it had this health component, versus introducing the ceremony, I guess I like, you know, incorporated some of the cultural stuff into it as well. But it is very much a lot of this stuff is Western marketed. And what I mean by that is, it leads with the benefit before it gives the context. Do you feel like, do you feel similarly about this?
Remy Park 23:35
Yeah, definitely. And there's something to be said about that. Because, you know, with Japanese brands, that's not going to be their angle. And right, so part of it is just understanding Western culture and what's going to sell. And that's where I feel like, it's tricky, right? Because on the one hand, it does popularize a product, which is great. I love that people know about matcha and love it, but the same time, I'm like, I don't know, how do you how do you do both? It's just tricky.
Dominique Astorino 23:56
It's like the access point for a lot of people who have, you know, no di... like, no diverse background, right. And when I say that, I just mean, you know, grew up in America and don't have a lot of connection to like, their ancestral heritage. Those kinds of people, you know, maybe their access point to learning more is hearing, Oh, I hear that matcha and like green tea extract can help with certain types of blood cancer. I'm going to look more into it. And you know, if that exposes them, maybe that's a good thing, but I guess, yeah, it is such a fine line. Obviously, I don't have any of the answers, but it is something interesting to kind of, you know, keep in the conversation.
Remy Park 24:30
Yeah, absolutely. And it's interesting, because I think on tick tock and also with food, specifically, people go really hard for their culture, which I think is amazing, but sometimes it can think it's a little bit aggressive. You know, there are tick tock accounts where they dedicate their content to basically kind of educating their audience on some of these products that you find at Whole Foods and why the branding is totally off or why it's a little bit of appropriation or why product is not marketed correctly, and There are channels that exist like that. But I feel like the best thing to do overall is just Google, you know, like a quick google and ingredient. And it's honestly kind of fun. Because the more you know, I feel like you're able to take advantage of the product more anywhere. But even for myself, like there are so many things that I'm not knowledgeable about, for example, Mexican culture, I don't know a lot about and I've had to kind of research a little bit more myself since moving to California, because now some of the recipes that I'm sharing, have a little bit of California influence that, but I don't know enough to really share. And I feel like that's really important when sharing on the internet in general is like, just do a little bit of research and know your stuff. And kind of add a little disclaimer, disclaimer, but more like a contact comes from this just like more information I told you, I think that's just the best way to go about it.
Dominique Astorino 25:44
Education is never a bad thing, both for you and your audience. If you happen to be in one of those positions, I think the more we learn, the better we are, culturally, personally, really, a lot of it comes down to education, just reading, learning, listening.
Remy Park 25:57
Yeah, absolutely. I think what's tricky for people of any culture is seeing something that has been kind of made fun of in the past suddenly become cool. Yeah, but then also lose all of its cultural ties. That's, I think, where people have a hard time. But I mean, personally, I feel like everyone should be able to eat and use and benefit from anything from any culture. It's just all about mutual respect. Always.
Dominique Astorino 26:19
Absolutely. And there's so much to get into, especially from the three cultures that you were born into. You know, obviously, I learned a lot about matcha and gua sha from you. Do you want to share some of your favorite wellness practices that have been inspired by your background?
Remy Park 26:35
Oh, yeah, absolutely. So I think a lot of the cultures have a lot in common just because they're East Asian countries, and they're kind of close together. And there's just been a lot of crossover in history. But I think one of my favorite things in Korea is like this body scrubber, they have these incredible intense body scrubbers and if you go to a Korean spa, they will just completely scrub you down. And you'll see the dead skin coming off you it's like very satisfying, but also gross. But that's a big one like exfoliation is huge and green culture and it's great for stimulating blood flow and also circulation and just like Skin cell regeneration. It's just like amazing for you and you feel great. So they saw these like, I don't even know if it's microfiber or these like very scratchy cloth that I don't know what it is about them but it gets everything off and you'll start to get this pilling of your sale. That's one that I love. I love it but you are so good. And kimchi, I think is another great one because it's very good for your gut. It's a lot of like, I guess got healthy ingredients that I personally don't like kimchi. I'm a bad Korean but your overall health and I feel like that's something people are like warming up to now a little bit more than to love acupuncture, traditional Chinese medicine, amazing stuff and really quite painless, but does wonders for me specifically. So I love acupuncture. And just general traditional Chinese medicine like tongue scraping, which is also I think shared by red as well. And what else they do like, foot.
Dominique Astorino 28:02
Reflexology
Remy Park 28:03
Reflexology massages! Yeah, those are incredible as well. Even just some of like the adaptogenic herbs like Astragalus and Reishi. Like those are also traditional Chinese medicine herbs.
Dominique Astorino 28:13
Yeah, and people don't realize that because it's just marketed right now is superfood mushrooms.
Remy Park 28:18
Exactly. And then for I would say Japanese culture where they really really love like their emphasis on bodywork and also like hot tubs and just like hot baths like my grandma. She's a hot bath every single night. She's well into her senior years but never fails to take a hot bath every single night. Which has also been helpful for me in terms of just like warming up my internal body temperature because I've circulation problems
Dominique Astorino 28:41
Me too!!
Remy Park 28:42
And I started doing that. I was like, This is amazing.
Dominique Astorino 28:45
Wait that's so funny also that like one of my like core memories like from meeting you is just hanging out in the hot tub drinking kombucha. Just practicing our Japanese bodywork together.
Remy Park 28:58
Absolutely. That's so funny.
Dominique Astorino 29:00
Oh my gosh.
Remy Park 29:01
Yeah. Obviously that in green tea. I mean, there's so much that sometimes you don't even realize like what's out there. And it's impossible to do it all in one day. But I just think there's so many ways to be well, and yeah, it's just it's just fun.
Dominique Astorino 29:13
Yeah, these are these are really beautiful points to start with as well. Just exploring anything that Remy just shared with us. You know, doing a little bit of research seeing if you can maybe meet with an acupuncturist or TCM specialist. Oh my god the scrub. I heard that there's like a really popular Korean spa. I don't know if you're familiar with this San Diego area. It's like the Convoy area where it's like a giant amalgam of all these different Asian cultures. And they have amazing restaurants and boba tea places and stores them they've got like a big Daiso there and what is it Marukai Mart, I can't say I'm like still in level one.
Remy Park 29:47
Oh yes!
Dominique Astorino 29:48
Duolingo of Japanese. But they have a very popular Korean spa and I was reading about the treatments and they're like they're gonna scrub your skin raw like they are going to scrub you down. So Oh, I need to get one of these little cloths before I dive into that.
Remy Park 30:05
It's amazing. Like, I think you'll really love it. It's kind of like I said, like, it's kind of gross, but it's great. They're really affordable on Amazon, like a couple dollars. So I highly recommend
Dominique Astorino 30:13
Okay, do you have any on like your personal like Amazon store anything? Should I direct people?
Remy Park 30:18
I can send you a link. I don't I don't know if I have one I really should.
Dominique Astorino 30:21
Okay. This will be fun. I'll do some of your like, favorite pickss, and we'll put them in like the description, or the transcript or something like that.
Remy Park 30:27
I would love that, yeah!
Dominique Astorino 30:28
Yeah, fun. Fun, fun. Okay, so we've gone over some of your favorite practices. I want to kind of circle back to I guess, the mental health aspect of it. Do you feel like there's a different approach to mental health? Here versus there?
Remy Park 30:43
I think absolutely. One of my distinct memories is like being in high school and I had some issues at school. Um, it was really affecting, like my attendance, and also my grades and everything. And my school basically told me, I need to be there because I cannot come back to school. And it was actually really difficult to find a therapist, they were very limited at the time. And I think it's not something that's very common in Asia, maybe more now. But it's definitely not something that's even really talked about very much. Yeah, and it's weird, because it's not like my parents would ever say to me, like, Oh, it's you know, we don't really talk about it, or my grandparents ever said anything, you just kind of inherently know that they're not really gonna understand. Part of that comes from I think, also just like, culturally, you have this guilt. And especially if you're an immigrant, or like an American, Asian, I feel like it's very strong. Because, you know, you've heard stories about like, your parents and your grandparents struggle. And in comparison, being stressed, or having anxiety is just like, you have everything else you need, how could you possibly be stressed, you know, or you don't know stress? You're not like, emigrate somewhere. So that makes you feel worse? Yeah, absolutely. It's definitely something that's not talked about as much. And then at the same time, I think culturally, people are a lot more blunt. And what's considered maybe not great to do here in the US, people do all the time in Asia. So for example, comments about weight and appearance are so common in Asia, it's not even intended to be malicious or anything, but it's like, you'll see your family. And the first thing that they'll probably say to you is either that you've gained weight, or that you've lost weight, or you look great, or you don't want very much and then followed by like, okay, that we're going to eat and they'll always feed you so much, because it's definitely part of the culture to like, show love through food. I love that. And it's tricky, because imagine hearing like, you know, you've got a lot of weight. So anyway, looks like more and keep filling up your plate. It's just like, such a weird thing to experience. Yeah, so yeah, I think there's that and also just the way that parents show love culturally, it's not words of affirmation. It's not like, I like to think of it as like love languages. And I would say for most Asian parents and grandparents, it's more like acts of service where they just take care of you really love you through food and through Yeah, shelter, like making sure you're good. But the rest is not really communicated. Like you know, they love you, but they're not going to send you like, a heartwarming mom text or like, you know, it's just so...
Dominique Astorino 33:02
Totally different love language that also makes it such a perfect against even Western way to look at it as the love languages that makes it just immediately clicked in my brain. So last question. You are vegan, obviously, you eat gluten free, you're sober. How has that impacted your connection to these cultural dishes?
Remy Park 33:24
Um, I think the alcohol thing has been not much change. Okay, I will say, in Korea, like alcohol and drinking culture is a big part of everything. But I feel like I never spent too much of my life in Korea, so it never really affected me. Cool. Thankfully, my family's not all that much like that. That's great. But food wise, yeah, it's kind of similar to sort of that diet thing that we talked about where I felt a little bit disconnected because naturally, a lot of the foods that are Japanese are made with fish stock. Korean food is can be heavy on the meat, but usually it's also some fish stock in the soup. And then same with Taiwanese food, it's a lot of like chicken and kind of like different animal based proteins. And so for a long time, I just felt like it was easier for me to eat sandwiches and salads that were vegan. I really relied heavily on like vegan cheese and processed vegan meats until I realized that actually, each of my cultures has their own kind of vegetarian culture. So for example, in China, there was a great book called The China Study, but it basically goes into how the majority of the people in China were subsisting off of like a vegetarian grain and vegetable based diet, because that was what was affordable for most people at the time. Yeah. And then as things started to evolve, meat became kind of like a status symbol where it meant you were wealthy enough to afford it. Although it wasn't really a big focus of the original diet. But even still today in Taiwan, and in China, you can find some of the most incredible mock meats from Buddhist temples because that's part of their belief. So it is there. I just feel like you don't realize it. When you think of Asian food or Chinese food to start, oh dumplings, I can't have those anymore. So it's all about I think finding ways to make vegan food fit your culture, I don't feel like eating vegan means you have to suddenly start eating Western food and vegan cheese and things like that, like, it's actually more fun I find now to make recipes from my culture, but find ways to veganism. And I think that's more relatable for family members too, because you get a lot of like family members not understanding why you would choose to eat that, or they kind of take it as like, you're trying to, like, you know, abandon your culture, I got a lot of that. I can only imagine when you're making dishes, they recognize I feel like it's a little easier for them to understand and like connect to it
Dominique Astorino 35:30
More palatable.
Remy Park 35:31
So that's kind of where I'm at now.
Dominique Astorino 35:34
And I have to ask, like, doing all these wonderful things for your health? Do you just have like no health problems, I feel like I need to just emulate everything you're doing?
Remy Park 35:43
Oh, you'd be surprised. I mean, I think it's always ongoing. My biggest problem is like, doing too much and like very type A personality. And it's really difficult for me to de stress, even if I'm like, taking a bath, like, I'll find some way to be like, well, you know, like, while I'm in the bathroom and do some emails, like, I just really can't sit still. So my biggest issue now is hormones. And that's just also kind of ongoing from the damage I did from messing up, like, you know, not eating too much. And like, whatever. So it's kind of like an ongoing thing for me just keeping everything in check. But I feel like that's really what it's all about is making it a sustainable lifestyle for you. And just like maintaining, you know, it's kind of something you have to keep on your toes about. But the more it can become natural to you and like part of your lifestyle with ease. I think the easier it is to feel like health isn't a chore.
Dominique Astorino 36:30
It's just your life. Your life is health.
Remy Park 36:32
Yeah, like what feels good. You know, you've learned to kind of enjoy it, the minute it becomes stressful. I feel like it's no longer healthy.
Dominique Astorino 36:38
Yeah, it's off balance. And I love that it also kind of comes back to what we were saying about with different Asian cultures. It's more personalized medicine, right? Like it's more personalized health and finding stuff that's very, I guess, prescriptive to you, and not the general public and not, you know, copying what someone else is eating or doing. You can try it and see if it works for you. But you don't have to follow someone else's formula, like making your own.
Remy Park 37:02
Yeah, absolutely. It's like a smoothie bar. I feel like we should all just customize our own wellness plan. It takes a little bit of exploration, but it's worth it.
Dominique Astorino 37:10
Yeah. Are there any other resources that you would want to point people to on their health journey, or for learning more about different Asian wellness practices? Besides your own TikTok, of course.
Remy Park 37:22
I think actually, on my website, which is veggie greens blog.com. I have a lot of blog posts about like Asian ingredients that are great for wellness. And if there's ever anything about like matcha, for example, or Korean dish, I'll always include some kind of explanation of like the origin of the dish and some of the health benefits. So I think that's a great place to go here. We're looking into reading more about things. But yeah, I think now where I'm at with my content, even it is a little bit more inclusive of like my cultural background. So you'll see a little bit of that throughout everything that I share. So I think that's a great jumping off point. If you're curious or .
Dominique Astorino 37:58
awesome, Yes, I have been noticing on your videos more like was it around Lunar New Year, I think you were making some veganized versions. And I loved that. And honestly, it kind of kicked off like watching that. And just I think reading a little bit more about Lunar New Year, it actually like inspired me to start on Duolingo I started with Japanese, Mandarin, and Vietnamese all at the same time to see which one I would like kind of gravitate more toward because I didn't know which one to pick, anyway was this was like TMI, but I just, you know, started on that educational journey. And largely thanks to you and what you're putting out there and helping people learn about.
Remy Park 38:33
Oh, I love that. That's so great! well, I was very impressed by your Duolingo progress.
Dominique Astorino 38:37
Thank you so much. I'm working really, really hard on level one. Remi, thank you so much. This is such a beautiful conversation. Thank you for sharing your time and such a vulnerable story. I'm so so grateful.
Remy Park 38:49
Oh, thank you for having me. I'm so excited. And we'll definitely have to catch up more because I feel like we live closer now than ever. So we have no excuse!
Dominique Astorino 38:55
no, no excuses. I really do. I like I'm so overdue for an LA trip. So when I'm back from Europe.
OUTRO
I'm so glad you got a little time with Remy today. She is so incredible and has so many beautiful things to share with this world. If you loved today's episode, we'd be so grateful. If you left a five star rating and review hit subscribe, share this link with your friends or maybe even visit us on Patreon. patreon.com/thisisfinepodcast all one word. Tune in next week for a special episode in which I am the guest. It's gonna be weird mostly for me. We'll see you then. And until next time, thank you for coming. We love you. I love you. A bientot bye bye.
CREDITS
Thanks for tuning in to this episode of This is fine. I've been your host Dominique Michelle Astorino. We're based in San Diego recording in studio at DLI productions in Pacific Beach with Emmy award winning sound designer Dan De La Isla. This is a comedy and advice podcast but for legal reasons. This entire podcast is a joke and none of it is medical advice. To download a transcript or learn more visit thisisfinepodcast.com
