I lost 132 pounds. People always ask me how — expecting a diet plan, a prescription, a secret worth selling.
The truth was much quieter than that.
While I was losing the weight, my grandmother lived with me. Every day, she told me the same thing: eat tofu. It sounded old-fashioned. I listened anyway, more out of love than belief.
What I didn't expect was what came after the weight came off. No sagging skin. No hormonal crashes. No accelerated aging. My body felt, somehow, at ease — like it had been cared for, not punished.
That stayed with me. So I started asking why.
What we found surprised us. Tofu — and the soybean it comes from — contains compounds that support collagen and help regulate hormonal balance. My grandmother's daily ritual wasn't superstition. It was wisdom, the kind that gets passed down before science catches up.
Today, millions of people are losing weight on GLP-1s and facing the very things I was spared — sagging skin, hormonal disruption, the feeling that beauty has come at a cost.
I built Aruen because I believe it doesn't have to.
Real beauty isn't something we punish our bodies into. It's something we grow — gently, slowly, from the inside out. That's the Korean wellness wisdom I grew up with. And it's the one I want to share.
Beauty, and beyond. — Young, Lee