Living Well (or Trying To) with Janet

How can I keep my skin barrier healthy during cold months? Should I wear sunscreen even when I don’t get sun exposure? What do I do about frizzy hair - thoughts on gummies and supplements?  I’ve invited Dr. Joyce Park, otherwise known as Tea with MD (@teawithmd) to answer these questions and more. She is a board-certified dermatologist based in Washington, founder of Skin Refinery, a virtual derma...

One of the biggest challengers to living in the present moment are digital distractions. The advancement of consumer technology has resulted in a lot of habits and behaviors that are detrimental to our health - negative effects on our brains, our ability to focus, our ideas about ourselves, and the quality of our social skills and relationships which have resulted in a loneliness epidemic. In this...

Birthdays are an interesting time to reflect and evaluate, and honestly, it’s been one of the harder years of my life. It was the perfect storm - a cataclysm of many things being upheaved, in transition, unsettled, or in flux. Moreover, I turned 39 this year. It’s the year before I enter a new decade - pretty much midlife - and when we are at this stage of life, there are a lot of life milestones...

Did you know that botox can be a treatment for teeth grinding? Or that your oral health needs may change during pregnancy? Ever heard of minimally invasive veneers? Curious about teeth whitening best practices? I chat with @joycethedentist about all of this and more. Dr. Joyce Kahng is a cosmetic & restorative dentist and the owner of Orange + Magnolia Dental Studio in Newport Beach and Costa Mesa...

If you've ever felt that you needed to turn your life around, Charles Chen is someone you must know about. He is a yoga teacher, holistic chef, and the creator of 888 Process - a wellness community and collective that promotes transformation as a collective experience. He shares his message about the transformative power of holistic health and wellness on his various social platforms, posting cont...

From nutrition and morning rituals to beauty and fashion, I share my current summer wellness practices. Let me know which of these practices you also do, are interested in trying, or other wellness practices you're currently into! Become an ABG Bestie to get new audio episodes ad-free, monthly “Dear ABG” AMA sessions, discounts on merch, and shout-outs in our episodes. https://abg.supercast.com/ ...

I’ve spoken often and at length about my love for yoga. In this episode I talk about how I got into yoga, why I love it so much, details about my current practice, and tips for anyone who wants to get into yoga (especially in the LA area).  If you enjoyed this episode, leave your favorite yoga pose in the comments! Become an ABG Bestie to get new audio episodes ad-free, monthly “Dear ABG” AMA sess...

Middle age is usually defined as age 40-60. Some say it begins as early as our mid-30s. I am at the beginning of that period - this year I turn 39 and I’m on the precipice of my 4th decade. As I contend with midlife and all it means in relation to my health, my relationships, and my purpose in life - I’ve been referencing how others have navigated this period before me. Mimi is a midlife pro-age m...

I’ve been feeling really sensitive lately and got curious about this quality. I went down a rabbit hole of research, and it turns out that there is such a thing as highly sensitive people, or HSPs. In this episode, I talk about examples of sensitivity, explore a framework from psychologist Elaine Aron, and share ways I manage sensitivity. And yes, there is a test you can take to gauge whether you...

I am a big believer that food is medicine. Growing up in a Chinese household, my mother often told me (and still tells me) to eat certain foods based on Eastern philosophies of health. Once I went to college, I was more exposed to Western ways of thinking about healthy eating, which sometimes conflicted with what I was taught growing up. Through the years, I’ve experimented with vegetarian and veg...

I really love minimal living. Whether it’s from moving around and traveling a lot in my adult years sampling life in different cities, a desire to leave less of a negative footprint on the planet, a real resonance with the Marie Condo mindset, or a combination of all of the above - the less stuff, the better, and the more minimal and efficient the design, the more I’m drawn to it. That’s why I was...

In a previous episode, I talked about the importance of play and how I have been trying to incorporate more of it into my life. *Spoiler alert* In that episode (In My Play Era, I Took a Heels Class) I talked about how scheduling a playful activity like a dance class actually wasn’t the best way to get into a state of play. In this episode I share a moment when I unexpectedly, and without planning,...

In this episode, I chat with Alexis Fernandez, the host of Do You F*cking Mind, a podcast that uses brain health and neuroscience as a jumping board to teach listeners how to improve their self-perception and view of the world through physical and mental alignment. We talk about how breakups can be a catalyst for big positive life changes, managing anxiety and burnout, a lot of tips around sleep h...

How many people should you date at one time? What’s the best way to ask someone about their past relationships? Listen in on my conversation with Elite Matchmaker, Cassindy Chao to find out! We also talk about having accountability partners when you’re dating, cultural differences in interracial relationships, and why someone should consider using a matchmaker. If you haven’t already, check out th...

On a recent episode of ABG, I shared that I had a conversation with a matchmaker who offered me the tip to practice flirting more in 2024. Given we are about a week away from Valentine’s day, I’ve invited her to the pod for an extensive chat about dating. We talk about what makes two people compatible, common hang-ups that I (and probably other Asian American people) struggle with in dating, manag...

Play is the act of doing something purely for enjoyment. More often than not, we prioritize the practical. Our adult lives are filled with responsibilities to people at work, to our partners, to kids, parents, extended family, etc. And when it comes to ourselves, there is no shortage of tasks, activities, and engagements that we stack onto our to-do lists for personal and professional development....

It's the last episode of 2023! In celebration of making it through one full year of continuous episodes, I'm answering some questions from listeners who submitted to my callout on @janetdoubleu (thank you!). How do I get back on track when I fall off of a healthy habit? What do I emphasize in my dental health? How do I calm myself before sleep? Do I stalk my ex on social media? I talk about all of...

When a loss happens (a death, a job, a breakup, whatever) some people experience emotions right away. For me, I usually cry a bit but then soldier on and attend to the To Dos. Only when things calm down do the feelings come. So when I went through a pretty big breakup back in August, while I cried when it initially happened, I became focused on the logistics of moving out, finding a new living sit...

What is Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) and who can benefit from it? Is trauma limited to single-event experiences? How does Gen Z approach mental health versus previous generations?  To help me answer these questions is Dr. Monica Band, an award-winning practicing mental health therapist and educator, specializing in providing trauma-informed care for Black, Indigenous, Peopl...

Just because you’re alone, doesn’t mean you have to be lonely. Listen in as I share my thoughts on loneliness and how I've been living my life so that I can be alone without being lonely. Leave a 👉🏽👈🏽 in the comments if you enjoyed this episode! I'm also curious if you have tips for combatting loneliness - leave 'em in the comments so we can all get ideas :D Also, let me know what other subjec...

Have you ever experienced a situation that seemed catastrophic in the moment, like when you think back to it as a memory, you feel it in your body - whether it was wide-eyed panic, stomach sinking disbelief, or rising anger fuming through your nose and exiting your mouth in expletives? In this episode, I share how I discovered that my car was stolen, the surprisingly calm reaction I had, and how I...

'Healing girl summer' is the concept of taking a season to focus on tending to yourself, for yourself. It’s all about taking both the time and the space to prioritize your relationship with yourself over anyone else - to introspect, reflect, care for, inspire, and learn how to love yourself before you can love anyone else. In this episode, I share how I relate to this concept in my life right now...

On today’s episode, I talk about different tools for achieving and maintaining wellness. Many of us have probably heard of talk therapy, but what about hypnotherapy? And we all probably know that Yoga is a great tool for living well, but what about Ayurveda? To help us dig deeper into these topics, I invited Neelu Kaur to the pod - she is a Certified NLP (NeuroLinguistic Programming) coach, certif...

It’s been a pretty big year for me for a number of reasons, but an even bigger year for a few of my loved ones. As someone who is fairly introverted and generally shies away from hosting events and celebrations, I’ve had to step into my discomfort a couple of times this year. In this episode, I share how I hosted three major social events as someone who isn't the hosting type - my partner's birthd...

When Lulu Ge went off birth control, she started experiencing intense health struggles. After an extensive journey, she finally found something that worked when she reconnected with her culture's practices of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). She then created Elix Healing - a treatment for menstrual pain that uses Chinese medicine wisdom and modern medicine approaches. What is TCM's take on cycl...