Hi, welcome back to Eat Your Crest podcast. I'm Jisoo.
And I'm Crystal. Wow, Happy New Year.
It's been a while. I feel almost a little out of practice.
I think for anyone who has listened to this podcast over the last five years or so that we've been doing it, knows that we always take a little holiday break.
But we did allow ourselves a bit of a longer break this year.
And I'm not gonna lie, I feel a little rusty coming back to podcast. But the rest was definitely much needed.
At least on my end, I had a lot of travel right before December.
Actually even in December, I had a decent amount of travel too, so I was so tired.
In the last 2 weeks of December, I literally just rotted at home, stayed in bed.
I think I barely talk to anyone too for 2 weeks.
Right. Literally the moment that you stopped traveling… I started traveling so I was also out of state for a couple weeks.
So all in all it was just like a great long break for us.
Honestly reflecting back on it, I'm like, is this just what adulthood is?
Like we just get more and more busy and it's not even necessarily we plan to become busier but just more responsibilities happen and the people around you affect you too so for example you know having people get married means weddings that you're probably going to be attending or milestones that we're hitting our friends are probably hitting too so that means not only will we try to celebrate our own milestones but we'll also be trying to celebrate our loved ones milestones as well yeah exactly and it's so funny because i feel like sitting down and looking at our calendars together, it's just
crazy. It's like a lot of travel, a lot of obligations here and there.
And in general, it's actually a very positive thing, because it just means that there's more to celebrate in life, more milestones being hit, etc. But it does mean that, you know, time is a resource, and it's a fairly limited resource, in a sense.
It really is. And actually that aligns with my personal new year goal slash thoughts.
I'm trying to be a more like responsible person.
I guess it's more like trying to be more intentional with how I utilize my time.
Hopefully, creating more structure in my life would increase my overall efficiency.
I'm definitely applying this a lot to my work life, where I'm trying to be in a simple, all -encompassing term, I'm trying to just be a better version of myself as an employee.
I like that. I think mine is somewhat similar or somewhat not, but definitely a lot of internal reflection because my nearest resolution is to just work on myself.
A big part of that is working on my confidence, trying to be a diva in my daily life.
maybe only the positive parts of being a diva, and I think that means stuff like working out more consistently, being more healthy, being more conscious about the things that I eat and consume, and also even just somewhat simple things like posting more on Instagram.
I think I'm ready to be perceived again.
I love Instagram is such a funny one, because I remember we talked about this in a previous episode where we were like we tried to be supportive of our friends on Instagram by commenting and stuff.
But we're also similar because I think when we looked back on 2024, we both did not post. Like not a single post. Right.
Dude, I fitted my one annual post. Oh my god, you did?
Like second week of December, I was like, I have to post something.
Oh, wait, I do remember now.
You did. I did not manage to post anything, sadly.
But I agree with that.
It really is nice to have some memories to look back on, you know as we get older and our memory fails us more often, it's nice to just look back even if they're like shitty photos having them is already pretty good.
I know you and I talked about a couple of our friends who do like massive photo dumps of their travels or just hanging out with friends and whatnot and we're always like oh that's so cute yeah yet we never do it but this year I was kind of like maybe I should do it even if It's like quarterly or something, right?
And maybe we can do it like our friend where they just have a separate Instagram for like photo dumps.
And then it feels less pressured.
Yeah. Are finstas still a thing?
It is crazy, though, because I wonder if it's such a late 20s thing to come back to posting on social media.
Like, for a while, it really wasn't just us that sort of stopped posting on social media.
I think a lot of our friends became a little bit less active in terms of posting like grid posts and whatnot And would just dabble in stories from time to time But now I'm like, okay I only have what like a year and a half left of my 20s like I have to fucking document it and post it up somewhere True just to prove that I existed once in my 20s But actually speaking of social media that tick -tock ban.
Oh my god. We just talk about that for a second, dude It was crazy I mean guess it's technically actually still ongoing because TikTok is gone from all of the US app stores, but if you have TikTok downloaded then you can still use it.
But for like that what what was it?
Like 24 hours or something?
It was blocked and people were freaking out.
Yeah it was just such an interesting moment in time.
Yeah. So we were actually together when the TikTok brand happened.
A lot of the people People in our friend group who are also on that trip are also avid TikTok users!
So there was just like a collective level of despair that we were feeling once we opened TikTok and saw the black screen.
Especially because, I don't know, as much as TikTok is a place that I go to for funny content and memes and jokes and whatnot, it's also very much a resource for me for travel tips or restaurant reviews and all those other things that I used to go to different apps for.
So once it was banned, I was like, shit, I guess, on my next few vacations, I'm just gonna go to these countries and do nothing.
Like, I don't know what I would do there.
Okay, that's a bit dramatic.
Is it though? Is it?
There's a lot of bookmarks that we've almost got.
But you are really right, it is a great resource for a lot of different content.
Honestly, I do see a lot of travel TikToks too, and I take notes on them occasionally.
But the day? I think it was like the weekend before the band was gonna be in place, I spent a couple hours just writing down a bunch of recipes that I had bookmarked.
And I was like, dang, I guess if TikTok really goes away, like, where am I gonna find quick and easy recipes?
Dude, that's like full circle taking the most brain -raw app and then turning it into like analog notes in your journal or something.
We're back to the pen and paper route.
oh my god what are you so right oh my god i literally wrote the recipes down in like google docs and stuff but if there was one good thing that came out of that 24 hour tiktok ban it was all the jokes and all the cultural exchange that happened from all the americans migrating to sherrongshu slash red note like that was so funny it really was actually did download sherrongshu for a second but then it asked me to like log in via wechat or whatever and I was like oh i'm too lazy to do this so I was like whatever but one of my friends who does use it, she literally sent me like some screenshots of people
thirsting over Chinese content creators dude it was so funny.
I think there was two there was one of like Americans thirsting over Chinese content creators and then there was also like Chinese people thirsting over these like new random american content creators that's also it's just such a unique situation because the chinese audience would maybe comment in like chinese and so you know the typical us person might not be able to understand that so they're like oh what's happening in my comments but it's just like all thirst comments honestly that's hilarious and i thought it was pretty heartwarming because you see a lot of cultural exchange from people from different
countries on like reddit or like TikTok and other forums and stuff but this just felt so much more direct and in a lot of ways I think the US -China political relations have been a little bit complicated so seeing our general population and the general population of China kind of interact was just so cute like I loved it.
it was, there were some like pretty wholesome jokes and stuff.
I also saw some people start to post on TikTok like, hey welcome to the Red Note users, just some rules of thumb, make sure if you post, throw in a translation.
Even a Google translate is good enough just don't leave it English only or anything.
There's so many users who might not speak English at all.
I don't even know how to describe it.
It was just an interesting, funny, yet hardwarming as you said situation.
But I wonder now, have people all flocked back to TikTok just immediately?
That lasted the short 24 hours, and now we're just back.
Yeah. I mean, I don't know.
I think, like, when someone downloads an app, to get them to delete the app might be, like, another big step.
So maybe people still have it on their phone or whatnot.
But I am very much so looking forward to more cultural exchange, like, more memes and jokes between Shaohong -shui users and TikTok users.
even if TikTok continues to be back.
Also one of the funniest moments, I think was when some random RedNote user made this video like welcoming Americans to RedNote.
And then people were like, oh my God, the CEO like welcomed us.
It's like some random dude.
Yeah, it was not the CEO at all.
Bruh That sago was so funny because I think that guy, his girlfriend actually is a creator on RedNote and then some people were like, dude why is this video of your boyfriend viral?
Doesn't that dude look like your boyfriend?
And she was like wait that literally is my boyfriend.
Why does all of the U .S. think that he's the RedNote CEO?
I also saw one that was like as soon as the Americans started trickling into RedNote.
that some users would post their English homework and be like, solve this, American.
That's so funny. They're like challenge, I bet you can't solve these questions.
Wait, that would get me, that would definitely get me.
I was also very shocked because Red Note or Xiaohongshu is literally all Chinese.
There are no English prompts, I think, at least from what I'm aware of.
So I was like how did these people sign up?
How did they get into the app?
Like did everyone just suddenly learn Mandarin overnight?
Oh that's true But I will say like once you get in and like have an account and stuff that app is so awesome Like just being able to use all the features on it Like I felt like I was looking at Tik Tok, Tumblr and like Pinterest or something at the same time And I was like, dude we need this i don't need tiktok live or like tiktok shop, i just want it to be like tumblr slash pinterest that's true, sheeongshu is very like unique in its layout the reels slash short -form videos but there's also that pinterest -slash -almost -blogging layout i wonder though if that means that sheeongshu is going to make
like a us server that would be pretty cool honestly But yeah, the other thing that kind of surprised me was, I noticed a lot of overlap between the audios that Tiktokers use in the US and then audios that were being used on videos on RedNote as well.
So maybe it's kind of like, I don't know, the media we consume is like closer than we think.
Yeah, maybe you're right, because I think sometimes Chinese memes that I see are actually just completely different.
But yeah, I guess there is a section where there's actually a huge overlap.
what's funny is just funny.
It's universal. That is true.
I also really liked that RedNote has like a trending section.
Oh. I think to an extent that's supposed to be like built into the TikTok algorithm because your for you page is a combination of what you want to see and what's popular, but to have a specific discover page of popular posts, like that's pretty cool.
That is pretty cool.
I'm going to be honest though, I actually deleted RedNote, after I decided to not log in with my WeChat info, That's all it took.
Just like one prompt you're like, I'm done.
No, actually. But I do remember that one of my friends back in the day gave me the suggestion that Red Note is really good for if you're looking for authentic Chinese food.
Just check Red Note to see what people post about certain restaurants because most of these users grew up with authentic Chinese food.
they're probably, you know, from Asia, my friend suggested is basically to weigh these opinions a little more than your typical, you know, like Yelp or Google reviews.
Loki genius, like go straight to the true foodies.
I have to give it a shot.
But actually, this year, one of my new year's resolutions, like I said, was to kind of be more conscious about what I'm putting into my body and just of our resolutions this year is to order way less takeout.
So that includes delivery apps and stuff.
I was a power user for a while, but trying to really cut that out.
And also just cooking at home a lot more, which I think we already kind of did.
But really just increasing that and being more health conscious and whatnot.
So maybe those restaurant recommendations will have to wait a little bit.
Hmm. Who I like that.
Okay, I have a question, though.
When you cook at home.
Are you making like big feasts basically?
I don't know. Maybe like, one entree, one side kind of a thing or like two sides.
Yeah, I'm just thinking because I have a similar goal as you basically try to cook at home as much as I can, but it's just to me, I guess the problem might be opposite to you because since I live alone and it's just me, I can eat shitty meals if that makes yeah but if it was like two people if my boyfriend's over it then it feels more like oh we need to have like a proper meal like we actually have to make a meal of substance versus way you know I could just have girl dinner basically and so I can definitely see how it gets very tiring you know making a full proper meal every single day you're
like ah fuck it let's just order takeout today no I totally feel that because any meal that I have where like maybe James us out for dinner with his friends and family or whatever.
It's automatically ramen.
It's like ramen in like a side of dumpling or something and that was like my entire diet for solo meals for the last like three years.
I think this year I was like maybe I also deserve to eat some like cabbage.
Like things that actually grow out of this ground and are not deep fried.
So totally feel that.
I think what's been helping me is I'll try to make four portions of something so then maybe one of the extra portions, we can save it for a weeknight meal.
James can take it to lunch or something.
And that way, I don't feel like I'm constantly making food for a family of two, like every single meal.
It's crazy how just adding one more person into the household increases the food count.
Yeah, yeah. I know, because it's not like doubling the food.
It's almost like 2 .5 or three times because you're like, oh well, Maybe we should have like an appetizer You're like it's not just me we can actually have more than one plate of food Do I love it though like I feel like it makes it way more fun and like joyful Mm -hmm.
I think there's also the worry of if we just eat what I eat Will my boyfriend be like full like will they be satisfied?
Yeah, he's always like where's the protein in this meal?
I'm like Just eat it.
I I have no protein in this house.
Man, I feel like protein is the first thing I start to crave, but I've been trying to incorporate more veggies and stuff, and I guess anyone who's close to me knows I like love fried food, so I feel like I'm always deep -frying my veggies or something.
But this year I was like, you know, I should dabble in some steaming, you know?
Make that shit more healthy.
Yeah. Or just toss it into a soup maybe?
I don't know, I'm not a big soup person but I'm getting there, I'm working on it.
I have a full year ahead of me.
I do sometimes just do salad, which I feel like is relatively simple and quick but if my boyfriend's over, I'm always like, was this enough for you?
Just a bunch of leaves, you know?
My only beef with salad is like, why is it cold?
I see. Like, I have to have it with something warm.
I can't just do like a full like cold salad.
Mmm. That's fair So maybe like a quinoa salad or something, but then you have to cook bikini and then I'm like I might as well Just have a rice bowl Okay, that's fair.
That's fair. Yeah. I'm like a grain hater True You know me always got like kids and shit on my mind So I've been watching like this one account where this mom makes her two boys food and it's lunch meals that they take to school based on what is left in the lunchbox when they get back.
She knows if it was a success or not and that just like revolutionized my cooking game.
I'm like, oh my God, is James gonna finish his bowl?
You know, I just can't wait to add another family member so I could see if they finish their bowl.
Oh my god. Dude, I would not be able to handle that criticism like damn you didn't eat all the food I gave you?
What the fuck? It makes me think back.
Because actually my mom packed my lunch for a very long time.
Yeah. yeah, almost through like probably like junior year actually of high school.
And I wouldn't always eat everything like sometimes you end up going out for lunch with your friends or whatever.
At the time, it didn't seem like a very big deal.
And now it just like breaks my heart thinking about those days, dude, okay, I'm gonna be honest similar right like sometimes I don't eat everything that's given to me.
So what I would do is I would quietly take it back to my room, try to eat it before giving the Tupperware ban.
Or maybe I would try to make my friends eat some.
Yeah. So that I don't bring back like a filled Tupperware.
I guess it was maybe part of the whole thing about you want to try to finish everything on your plate kind of mentality.
There were some bad days, the worst days dude, this is so bad actually, the worst days I would just have to toss some of it and then be like yeah, this is the finished Tupperware.
No, that was me too.
That's why I feel so guilty i'm just like my mom spent like 30 minutes on that lunch you know what i mean like at least yeah single tier i think by high school though i managed to just convince my mom to like give me a couple bucks for like a slice of pizza at school it was easier on all of us yeah it's brutal man i mean i assume when i have a kid they'll also go through that phase too so yeah i'm just trying to prepare my heart yeah it's inevitable yeah i think i didn't start to like vegetables until probably college maybe even later.
That's true like vegetables to me was more like is like decoration.
Oh my god dude, that's so funny because when my brother and I were super young, you know probably elementary kids or younger for dinner.
Sometimes my mom would make broccoli and then we'd have our little bowl of rice and we'd be like, ah, gross vegetables!
So we would take the broccoli and we would stick it into our rice and basically make a forest and we would just like we're literally playing with our food.
I'm like procrastinating on eating.
I'm like oh, look at this forest. I made I'm dead.
That's so funny You know now that you say that actually I feel like growing up eating a lot of Korean cuisine I wasn't necessarily a vegetable hater Just because the way Korean people cooked their vegetables and like roots and stuff has like sauce or a lot of seasoning on it So it was always like a part of my routine.
But I remember once in high school I went on a quote -unquote diet.
Yeah, and I was like I'm just gonna eat broccoli like every day for lunch so my mom would pack me like a huge thing of like steamed broccoli but broccoli smells kind of weird right so then i remember my friends were like oh my god your backpack smells like broccoli farts and then they called me broccoli farts for the whole day and then after that i was like i'm never bringing broccoli to school oh my god wait that's kind of brutal it was brutal but i i get it because one of the craziest things that always is a The mystery to me is dumplings also smell like fart if you do right like if you put
them in a Tupperware and like pack them up and I'm like what even is making them smell like fart.
But I'm like I can never like I love dumplings but I would never allow my my mom to make me pack dumplings to bring to school.
It's a sacrifice. I'm willing to make because it just the smell is too strong.
That's such a good point cabbage too.
Also very fart smelling But so delicious, like I feel like it's totally fine when you eat it at home Yeah, no one's gonna judge you at home They're like, oh you're hitting us on dumplings like can I guess some yeah But outside you might be called dumpling farts dude.
You never be safe Well back to our thoughts on new year reflections and goals and stuff We actually have a big announcement for the podcast which is aligned with a lot of these upcoming things and goals that we've set for ourselves.
And it's kind of bittersweet, but we've decided that we will upload every two weeks now, instead of every week.
And honestly, part of this is because I was looking at our calendar when we were starting to plan out January, and I was like, I think it's physically impossible, literally impossible for us to release an episode every week due to our upcoming work schedules, travel schedules, and just personal things coming up.
Yeah, it's just a very like bittersweet decision that we had to make.
Yeah, and I hope to think that with us reducing the frequency of our episode uploads, we could focus on bringing more quality episodes to you guys, so hopefully the love and passion that we always pour into this podcast, you'll still feel it just as strong but we will miss grinding to put our weekly episodes up.
It will be a somewhat of a bigger change for us, I think.
It was crazy too because I remember when we were planning out the next couple months after we made the decision already, we kind of stopped in the middle and we were like, oh my god, if we had to release an episode every single week we would have to like, record on the plane or something.
This podcast would have to go global, so I guess just know that a lot of this is logistical.
But also at the same time, I think it's just, you know, it's been about almost six years now that we've been running this podcast. So you and I are on the complete opposite end of the 20s spectrum now in terms of age, like a ton has changed over the years, so I think this is just one of those changes.
It really did make us reflect a lot on the podcast too.
We're like, wow, we put a lot of ourselves into it.
And it also really is just a reflection of, like you said, us getting older, things changing, and sometimes change as much as you might not want it, just like has to happen.
So hopefully you guys still continue to tune in with us, just at a slightly slower cadence now and we will of course still continue to put out our eat your crest content for you .oh my god but also back to like non podcast related resolutions I have a confession to make oh so last year when we talked about like goals and resolutions and everything I mentioned how I have this like one camera that I think is broken and I want to get it checked out to see if it's fixable or not And you were like, I'll give yourself the full year.
And my confession is that I never did it.
Oh shoot. Are you gonna make it a recurring resolution this year?
Yes. Actually, I do still want to get it checked to see if it's fixable or not.
I think I need to move it.
So what I did is, I put it where all my keys are and stuff to remind myself every day, But I guess just being there every day you grow blind to it, right?
It's just another piece of decor Right.
So I need to maybe move it every like week Has a constant reminder to myself.
It's like Elf on the Shelf just task version Yeah, exactly Damn, honestly though who can even blame you as you were talking about that I was trying to recall what my New Year's resolutions were last year And I do not have much recollection of what my goals were We should have listened back to our episode.
We should have. But you know, I do have a different resolution this year, which I feel like is a little bit more doable.
And it's just drinking more water.
Being the peak consumer I am, I went and bought a 40 ounce handheld tumbler for the house.
And then another one, just like it for my workplace, so that I won't have an excuse of like, Oh, I forgot to grab water.
It's always just sitting at my desk staring me in the face and it's honestly been helping a lot I do feel like i'm getting way more water intake just being reminded to fill up these tumblers But the one downside is I feel like i'm constantly peeing oh my god You know what?
I I know that feeling too That used to be my number one complaint about drinking more water like then I have to constantly run to the bathroom right But I guess you just have to get used to it That's true and I try to tell myself like at least I'm like getting up and like moving that's true But sometimes I'll be peeing and I'll be like damn I feel like I was just here Feels like just ten minutes ago.
I thought I was on the toilet like how many hours of this day Have I spent in the bathroom?
So agree that having a big water bottle just at your desk helps a lot at work I don't have that so I actually forget to drink water more often than at home Yeah honestly, I feel like having one at work is the true game changer because you have bottles and like glasses that you like at home but at work sometimes I'm like oh I don't know if I want to use the communal thing or like waste a whole plastic cup so just having my own designated thing, it just makes it so easy and I just wash it every once in a while.
Redacted on how often I wash it.
I try to remind myself to wash it every now and then.
I love how vague we're keeping it.
It's like mad libs.
But dude honestly I know that I've just shared that I have all these health and wellness related New Year's resolutions this year but it really gets me thinking.
Do I even know what it feels like to feel healthy?
And what I mean by that is not just like oh I've been unhealthy my whole life but it's really more like, what am I seeing visible impact in my life from drinking more water or going to sleep earlier?
Like how do I measure that?
And what's my baseline?
I just feel some people are so in tune with their bodies, and they know exactly when they're not feeling well and exactly when they're feeling fine.
But for me, I think that line is a little bit blurry.
Maybe through my health adventures this year, I'll know what it means to really feel good and really feel bad and feel normal or whatnot.
But I think even starting to define that is a big task that i want to tackle before i hit 30 hmm honestly that's a good point i'm not sure if i am that in tune with it either but also i guess we've been driven by like i i don't know what to call it like the extreme health of being young right i'm sure we'll feel it more with the years because i think i do for example feel it more now if i don't get proper sleep right and it definitely affects me but things like water and stuff like that, I'm like, I don't know.
Is this headache because I didn't drink water or is it just because I've been staring at screens all day?
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
It is hard to tell sometimes I know and maybe that's why stuff like aura rings or all these wearable health devices are so trendy right now because I guess one of the peals of the aura ring is it'll tell you your readiness score for the day or something like that be like oh, you are feeling tired because you didn't get enough sleep or whatever and it just like clearly defines it but to a certain extent i'm like i feel like i should be knowing how to define this yeah i feel like the most i can do is like oh today i don't feel so great why these are some possibilities but nothing is for certain sometimes
i feel like the reasons that i think of on why i don't feel so great aren't internal like Sometimes I might be like, I think I'm stressed and I think it's this and that without thinking about like health reasons first. Is this like aging?
Oh my God, I guess it is.
But you're right, we definitely need to build these healthier habits, especially as we get close to 30 because just everything is slowing down as we get to 30.
So morbid. It feels scary, but I guess at the same time From what I've seen, a lot of people love being in their 30s.
So it's scary but also exciting.
Yeah, I think it's just it's just a different chapter in your life.
I feel this way even when I go to like whole foods or something.
and I think if I were to grocery shop in my early 20s, I would have grabbed a tin of blueberries because I like the way they taste and then a bottle of pomegranate juice because the packaging is cute.
But now that I'm in my late 20s, I grab the blueberries, because they're full of antioxidants.
And same thing for the pomegranate juice.
Like it's so good for clearing out toxins or whatever.
Just like the reasons aren't different, even though my actions are the same way.
And, oh my God, the last time we entered a new decade was ten years ago.
Oh God. All in all, I feel like 2025 is going to be somewhat of a crazy year.
half of me feels like it's gonna be like a reset year then the other half of me feels like there's gonna be a lot of dynamic changes that we will commit ourselves to as well maybe next year for our New Year's Resolutions episode we'll have to come back to this and see if we truly live like a health as well then, uh, be better at work, kind of a year but for now, I think these are good goals I hope so.
I hope we look back at this episode and we're like, oh yeah we did everything that was important yeah exactly well thank you so much for chatting and thank you for our listeners for listening we look forward to the rest of the year and if you have any new year's resolutions or thoughts on the new year feel free to share with us we have instagram at eatyourcrestpod and we also have email eatyourcrestpod at gmail .com and if you'd to catch our other episodes then don't forget to follow us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
We upload new episodes every other Wednesday morning.
Thanks for listening.
And don't forget to eat your crust!
