Remy Park Wants Your Vegan Lifestyle to Feel Creative and Fun

For Remy Park, the journey toward a vegan lifestyle—and her well-followed blog, Veggiekins—was one of authenticity. After struggling with stomach issues in college, Park went dairy-free and began to experiment with recipes to suit her new needs. Dairy-free soon became vegan, a term that at the time, Park didn't fully understand—but what she did know is she felt better. And soon, she learned that the planet was better for it, too.

"I don't know if it really would have stuck if I hadn't learned about the environmental impacts," Park tells Brightly in a recent episode of Good Together. "The longer I was vegan, the more I fully understood what that meant. It healed a lot of things."

Park's social media presence began as an exercise in overcoming an eating disorder—a means of chronicling her relationship with food. When her friends discovered the account, she opted to enhance rather than hide, learning to style (and play with) her food.

"I had not had any interest in food prior to that—I was, in fact, very afraid of food. So that was a great stepping stone for me," says Park. "And then it just became something that I was really passionate about."

Eight years later, Park makes a living creating and sharing vegan recipes. Her main aim? To help followers (vegan and non-vegan alike!) realize that a plant-based diet need not be restrictive—it can actually be really fun.

Getting Creative in the Kitchen

Park's most popular vegan recipes are the ones that don't seem vegan at first. "Noodles, stir-fries—like a pad thai, for example, or like a peanut/cucumber noodle dish, things like that," she says, adding that dishes that don't include ingredients like tofu or nutritional yeast tend to be a good entry point for people. "It's just like something that seems normal," says Park. "And when you think about it, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are vegan. It's funny when people tell me I've never had vegan food."

Park likes to incorporate Eastern ideals of what your plate can look like, as Western associations with veganism tend to lean crunchy and stifling. Rather than centering your thoughts around food on what you can't have, Park recommends using the limits as an opportunity to think outside of the box.

"It's so much more fun to experiment or kind of test with your family and see, 'How can we make this vegan?' or 'What kind of versions can we come up with?'" she says. "I think it kind of pushes you to be more creative about what it is that you can eat."

Keeping Your Vegan Lifestyle Real

While Park certainly believes in the merits—both health and environmental—of veganism, she doesn't consider the dietary shift an essential aspect of being a good earthling.

"There's just so many ways that you could do better for the planet," says Park. "There are so many reasons why somebody might not be able to be successfully vegan including health medication, access."

Park notes that while there's always room for improvement, she sees the brands she works with striving to make their models more earth-friendly. "Regenerative agriculture, for example, giving back more than you're taking—that's something that I see that's really exciting as a trend," she says citing sustainably-packaged vegan products as another area where growth is possible.

But the best way to approach a vegan lifestyle? Realistically. "Like many lifestyle changes, I've just come to realize for most people, it's not sustainable when it's really extreme," says Park, adding that the same goes for embracing more eco-minded habits. "The best way is to be kind to yourself and realistic with what is doable for you," she says. "Make it something that isn't stressful, but just more fun."

Listen to Remy Park's full interview in this episode of Good Together.