#18: Teak Ramos
"Don't stand closer than an arm's length away from any brightly lit mirror."
Teak is an artist, gymnast & one of my longest-standing Twitter mutuals. Her most recent show took place at Ulrik last fall.
At a glance…
Location: NYC
Big 3: Taurus/Capricorn/Leo
What does health, or being healthy, mean to you?
My idea of health is concerned with mood regularity (seems to rely heavily on fat content in meals and satiety), energy (sleep quality and restricted caffeine intake), and having perfect skin (I will alter my life to better my skin before I will alter my life to better my “health”).
How would you describe your current lifestyle?
I have built my life around having an “active” job so as to not spend my free time exercising, but this is of course a fallacy that is, as of late, demanding to be reconciled. So, my current lifestyle is one concerned with maintenance/conservation, but it needs an entire overhaul.
How do you start and end your days?
No phones in bed is very important to me, though sometimes I cheat with an iPad at night. So I get straight out of bed and have 2 cups of coffee (the caffeine window ends at 11:30am sharp) while I check my email and social media. For mental health, I have different feeds/accounts for informative/interest content and social/friends’ content. I like to save the friends’ content for later and the informative content (not news), I enjoy over coffee. I am in the midst of determining if I am committing to 12-9pm intermittent fasting window again, though I heard women should do earlier fasting windows... I found my mornings most productive when I was coffee-free and fasting and I enjoyed that.
The train ride to work I am either looking in on friends, doing research for work, or updating my “Month In Review” journal I keep. I started doing this last year where I give highlights for each month about work and life so I can reference it in the future and give myself a heads up on busy/chaotic times of the year and be more prepared. Sometimes it turns into a diary entry, but my rule is I don't edit it. The best filter is no filter.
Usually my amazing boyfriend is finishing cooking dinner when I arrive home. The day ends with cleaning the kitchen, a shower around 10pm, and too much streaming. Skincare routine happens in bed since I began waiting longer between product application. Also, I like to wear those toe spacer socks while I sleep. I take foot health very seriously.
What’s your relationship to self-healing?
I usually spend more time thinking about how I make myself sick as a byproduct of stress, repression, or exhaustion. When this happens, I can always rely on a weekend of rest (couch-locked scrolling TheRealReal) and a good night's sleep to act as foolproof self-healing. Mental self-healing usually requires some form of confession, restriction, or an extreme act of hedonism.
Was there a specific moment in life that made you change your approach to health, or become more conscious generally?
While I do not believe that one's health is exclusively based on food, it is the factor that I explore most in my pursuit of health. I had made it to about 23/24 years old with the diet of a picky 7-year-old. During this time, sharing food with friends and often times just feeding myself became so difficult and anxiety-inducing. When I read this book [“The Man Who Ate Everything” by Jeffrey Steingarten] and explored Chicago's accessible New American restaurants, I finally learned how to love food and cooking. My life expanded so much.
Where do you look to for information and guidance?
I like these kind of carnivore/“nutrient dense” moms/people with vague credentials like “nutritional therapy practitioner” on IG that feed their kids liver tonics and beef tartare. A lot of the things I read or listen to I take with a grain of salt or see if it makes sense in my life. If I am curious about it, I will try to find what the critics say and if I want to put stock in the criticisms or not. I listened to a podcast on butter that really resonated with me and explained experiences that I have had throughout my life, so I stan the Weston A. Price Foundation because of this. I have a hard time believing much of the novelty information that gets shared around because I'm usually just waiting for the other shoe to drop to get the “whole” picture.
When do you feel the most at home in your body? The most nourished?
I love when I eat a well-rounded meal and then no longer want the dessert I planned for. It makes me feel responsible and like I am being so kind to my future self.
Fuck, marry, kill: three health trends of your choice.
Fuck: reiki, marry: mineralized water, kill: veganism and imitation foods.
What’s your palette like? What meals do you find yourself returning to?
I gravitate towards making soups/stews/curries in bulk for easy dinners. The act of cooking always takes me longer than the average person, so I find it the best use of my time to make more and reheat. First meal (kind of a 1/3 breakfast, 2/3 lunch-type meal) tends to be short-grain rice-based with roasted vegetables and eggs with a Japanese angle. Today, I made a large roasted cauliflower and fennel pesto pasta salad that I will serve with crispy chicken thighs.
What do you think is the most pressing health issue of our time?
I'm overwhelmed .... I believe there to be a lack of self-reflection and/or self-interrogation? Projecting onto others what you should be investigating within yourself.
What advice would you give to your past self?
The sooner you realize you are scared, the sooner you can work through it and live your life.
What advice would you give to the person reading this?
Don't stand closer than an arm's length away from any brightly lit mirror.
Note: this Q&A was originally published via Mailchimp. Read the full issue here.