Excerpt
The Ultimate Tea Diet
by Mark Ukra
At the same time I started to write this book, I began to invite a group of people to go on The Ultimate Tea Diet journey with me. Eighteen intrepid TEAmmates followed the program for eight weeks, kept journals, answered weekly questionnaires, and lost a combined total of 197 pounds. It was a diverse group, ranging in age from early 20s to mid-50s, with a variety of weight-loss goals. It was more successful than we ever imagined it would be. We even had three members of the same family (two brothers and a sister) who together lost more than 60 pounds in just eight weeks! You'll meet some of these people throughout this book, and hear what they had to say. For instance, when asked after just the first week what was the most noticeable difference The Ultimate Tea Diet made, Christine A. answered:
My appetite! Wow . . . the first day drinking tea all day I wasn't even hungry for dinner. That NEVER happens to me! Tea really does suppress your appetite. I was afraid tea wouldn't work for me, but I was wrong. It does. I have added tea into my life and I love it.
There are several factors that make followers of The Ultimate Tea Diet so successful.
1. Its basic tenet is easy to remember: find the teas you love and drink them all day. One of the best things about The Ultimate Tea Diet is that tea comes in a huge variety of flavors and forms. In the next chapter, you'll learn to identify the types of teas that have the most weight-loss benefits—but within those categories you have literally hundreds of choices. There are sweet teas, pungent teas, salty teas, light teas, and heavy teas. There are fruity teas and spicy teas. There are teas in bags and teas in tins. There are teas that are relatively expensive, and teas that are extremely economical. If there's one thing I can guarantee, it's that with all these choices, you will be able to find many teas that you will not only like, but that you will look forward to drinking every day.
2. The suggested food plan is easy to follow. It's a healthy, balanced diet that includes proteins, carbohydrates, and fats, and even several tasty snacks and desserts. But the most exciting aspect of the plan is that everything in it is infused with tea! There are tea- based foods for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, sweet treats and midday snacks, all deliciously made with tea so that you are getting the health and weight-loss benefits with every single bite you take. And they are scrumptious, to boot! And here's the beauty part: everyone knows that a lean breast of chicken is a nonfattening, healthy diet choice. But as anyone who's ever been on a diet will tell you, after a week of chicken breasts, you'd give up your firstborn for some smokey barbeque. Luckily, The Ultimate Tea Diet not only gives you a huge range of foods besides chicken—you can change the flavor of your food simply by changing the kind of tea seasoning you use. Want a smokey barbeque taste? Try using Lapsong Souchong. Like a tangy citrus kick? Rub on some Earl Grey (which is blended with oil of bergamot, a small acidic orange). The Ultimate Tea Diet includes dozens of recipes along with tips and techniques for choosing the tea that will give you the taste you want.
But the true beauty of The Ultimate Tea Diet is in the simple fact that tea can be added to any other diet or meal plan you are on and produce positive weight-loss results. So if you're on Weight Watchers, you can enhance your results by drinking tea all day and adding tea to Weight Watchers' recipes. If you're on the You on a Diet plan, or The Zone, or South Beach, or the Miami Mediterranean Diet, or Volumetrics, you can do the same. Not only will you lose weight if you follow The Ultimate Tea Diet, but simply by drinking tea all day, you can unlock the potential for any other diet plan to work as well.
3. Dr. Tea's Weight-Loss Philosophy: If you want to make changes in your life, you have to change your thoughts and your habits. There are several commonsense steps you can take to make that happen:
• Say you can and you will! Say you can't and you won't. Do not let saying "I can't" continue to be your excuse for not changing your life and losing weight. Say you can change your life, and you will! Say you can lose weight, and you will! If you want to change what you eat, you have to change how you think about your food. Focus your energy on drinking tea, eating right, and following the food plan, and you will lose weight.
• Drink tea all day so that your body is constantly metabolizing. Scientists agree that an average adult should consume between 2 and 2.5 liters of water per day (that's about eight to ten 8- ounce glasses). This intake needs to be increased during periods of hot weather, and during and after periods of physical activity. Your daily requirement doesn't have to be pure water, however. Tea counts just as well! I recommend at least eight 8- ounce cups a day. But most people on The Ultimate Tea Diet fill their 16- or 24- ounce water bottles, sip from them all day, and refill when necessary. As you read through the book, you'll find many ingenious methods of carrying and drinking tea morning, noon, and night.
• Plan your meals for the day. Everything we do starts with our thoughts. Start the day by thinking about the day's menu, and focus your energy on carrying out that plan.
• Identify the foods that trigger your binging. Everyone has foods that turn on the urge to overeat. For some people it's bread, for others it's ice cream, cookies, cake, or candy bars. Even though drinking tea will help curb those cravings, you have to know which particular foods will have you fighting against the tea's effects, and eliminate those foods from your pantry and your diet.
• Eat only when you're hungry and stop eating when you're full. We all eat for a variety of reasons. Learn to identify your eating habits (do you eat when you're anxious, happy, stressed, overtired?). Let your body tell you when you need to refuel for sustenance and energy, not for comfort or for relief of emotional pain.
• Replace any bad eating habits with a cup of tea. If you have to have something sweet before bedtime, try a caramel- or chocolate-flavored tea, or a tea infused with hints of apple, blueberry, or pumpkin pie (yes, Virginia, they do exist). If what you're about to eat is not on your plan for the day, find a suitable tea to replace it—and the pounds will begin to disappear.
If you want to get started on the diet right away, go directly to chapter 8. But please, come back and read chapters 2 through 4 so that you understand what a miracle tea is and why it will work for you. And be sure to read chapters 5, 6, and 7 so that you understand that you can lose weight, whether you've been successful at it before or not, by changing your thoughts and by finding the teas that are going to satisfy your cravings and make it easy for you to stay on The Ultimate Tea Diet.
It's my goal to make this journey as easy as possible for you. As with everything in life, the more you put into it, the more you get out of it. Don't expect yourself to be perfect, because none of us is perfect. You will have slip- ups, setbacks, and lapses in judgment just like I have. These are temporary. Relax and know that tea is forgiving, and all you have to do is go right back to The Ultimate Tea Diet because, as you will find out by reading the rest of this book, the key components of tea will actually help you stay on the diet. So if you are ready to make a change in your life, then go make yourself a cup of tea—or better yet, brew yourself a whole pot—and let's get started on the journey to a slimmer, healthier you, one cup of tea at a time. It's as easy as one—two—TEA.
Copyright © 2007 by Mark Ukra. All rights reserved.
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You leave old habits behind by starting out with the thought, 'I release the need for this in my life'. -Dr. Wayne W. Dyer
