Ultimate Tea Diet : How Tea Can Boost Your Metabolism, Shrink Your Appetite, and Kick-start

322 Pages·2007·2.23 MB·English

t h e
ULTIMATE
Your Guide to Good Health
One Cup of Tea at a Time
TEA DIET
How TEA Can
✸
Boost Your Metabolism,
✸
Shrink Your Appetite, and
✸
Kick-Start Remarkable Weight Loss
Mark “Dr. Tea” Ukra

with Sharyn Kolberg
DEDICATION
To my entire family, both living and in our hearts. To Gram and Grampa,
Mom and Dad, Sis, Curly Lulu, and Mo. To every person seeking to make a
change in their lives. To my daughter Lucky and my most loving and devoted
wife and best friend Julie, whose guidance provided the catalyst for this
guide.
CONTENTS
Introduction xi
PART ONE:
The Tea/Weight-Loss Connection
1 What’s Tea Got to Do with It? 3
2 Steeped in Knowledge: A Short Primer on Tea 14
3 The Metabolics of Tea:
Tea’s Secret Weight-Loss Ingredients 35
4 Tea’s Other Health Benefits 47
PART TWO:
The Ultimate Tea Diet
5 The Tao of Tea: You Can If You Think You Can 65
6 The Process Begins: Ten Steps to Make Dieting Easier 87
7 Find the Tea You Love 99
8 The Ultimate Tea Diet Meal Plan 120
9 Get Moving: The Ultimate Tea Diet Exercise Plan 156
10 Put Down That Cup of Coffee:
It’s Time to Spill the Beans 169
PART THREE:
All About Tea
11 Dr. Tea’s Kitchen:
Tips, Techniques, and Recipes for Cooking with Tea 187
12 The History of Tea 260
13 Epilogue 274
iv
v CONTENTS
Acknowledgments 277
Appendix A: Resources 279
Appendix B: References 285
Subject Index 297
Recipe Index 304
About the Author
Credits
Cover
Copyright
About the Publisher
INTRODUCTION
I
never set out to write a diet book.
My wife and I own a shop in Los Angeles called dr. tea’s. Every day,
people come in just to enjoy a cup or two of tea, maybe read a book, do
some work in a peaceful atmosphere, or chat with friends. Sometimes they
see me in my bright orange lab coat or apron and we start to talk. And they
tell me their troubles. Now, I’m not a doctor, or a shrink, or even a bar-
tender, but people tend to speak to me about what’s going on in their lives.
Many have a vague notion that tea is good for you, but don’t know why or
how. In only two years of owning dr. tea’s, I’ve had thousands of conversa-
tions about tea.
The one subject that has kept coming up over and over again is: “What tea
can I drink to help me lose weight?” And I tell them about tea and the fact
that it has three amazing ingredients that work together on the body’s chem-
istry to increase metabolism, decrease appetite, and help stabilize blood sugar.
I’d show them the Camellia sinensis plant, the plant from which all true tea
comes, and tell them that any tea—White, Green, Oolong, or Black—that
comes from this plant will help them lose weight.
I explained to them what has worked for me, and that it could work for
them, too. People began to follow my plan, and they lost weight. And they
told their friends, who came into dr. tea’s wanting to know my “secret.” I
gave them the same information, they would tell their friends—and you know
how that goes. I soon realized that the best thing for me to do was to write
down my “tea” story and spread the word.
Thus The Ultimate Tea Diet was born.
vi
vii INTRODUCTION
A tea diet? Really? I don’t blame you for being skeptical. I would be, too—
if I were to say that all you had to do was drink tea and the pounds would
come flying off. No such luck. Tea is miraculous in many ways, but it is not a
miracle drug. If you want to lose weight, you have to be able to say: “I can lose
weight, eat a balanced diet, and exercise a moderate amount.” But you don’t
have to go to extremes, and you don’t have to be perfect every single meal for
the rest of your life. You do have to eat proteins, fats, and carbohydrates (yes,
carbohydrates). The Ultimate Tea Diet will show you how to easily judge pro-
portions and portions of these nutrients without a scale or a calorie counter.
You’ll get a 14-day meal plan you can follow as is, or use as a guideline to
make your own healthy breakfasts, lunches, snacks, dinners, and even desserts.
And, oh yes—the recipes! You may be surprised to learn that you can not only
drink tea, you can cook with it, too.
I am proof positive that the Ultimate Tea Diet works. But I am not the
only proof. I now have hundreds of “test-TEA-monials” from people just
like you who’ve lost both weight and inches by following the simple diet
and drinking tea all day. In fact, you can get started on The Ultimate Tea
Diet right now, before you read another word, just by finding a tea you love
and drinking it all day—in the morning, at noontime, in the evening, be-
fore meals, with meals, after meals. Drink it hot, drink it cold, drink it how-
ever you like. Just start drinking tea and you will begin to see and feel a
difference.
This book is devoted to everyone who feels hopeless, disheartened, and just
plain tired of the way they look and the way they feel. There’s no mumbo-
jumbo here, it’s all backed up by science. All you have to do to begin is find a
tea you love and start drinking.
When I began drinking tea, I began to feel healthier and happier about
myself! I began to take control of my life—you will start to take control of
yours. The simple act of making an educated, well–thought out choice about
what you ingest all day, each and every day, will be your ticket to making all of
the changes you’ve wanted to make in your life.
You will probably start on this diet just to lose weight. You will lose weight
and you will lose inches. But you will gain so much more. You will see differ-
INTRODUCTION viii
ences in your skin and your hair. You will want to be more active and begin
working out, and you will feel sharper and a lot more energetic. And you will
get back the confidence you once had and have somehow lost along the way.
And I can confidently say that to you, not only from my own experience, but
from all the feedback I get from people who have gone on the Ultimate Tea
Diet and have come back or emailed me at [email protected] to tell
me how much their lives have changed, one cup of tea at a time.