Suburban Reviews

“Boost your metabolism, shrink your appetite, and kick-start remarkable weight loss”

At first glance, the above quote sounds like a line from a cheesy infomercial for diet pills doesn’t it? It seems like every diet plan out there makes these same claims, and none of them work as a long-term lifestyle solution. To restrictive, too expensive, too hard to follow; you get the gist. To be honest I’d given up any real attempts at losing weight, until the Parent Bloggers Network offered me the chance to check out Mark Ukra’s The Ultimate Tea Diet, and I figured what the heck, what have I got to lose?

Let me start out by saying, this book is not what I expected. Instead of delving right into how to follow this ‘tea diet’, it was actually an interesting read on tea itself. In fact most of the book is about the history of tea, the different types and how they are used, and all the various health benefits of tea. Being a southern girl, sweet tea practically flows through my veins, but even I had no clue about half the information presented. I’ve been drinking herbal teas for years thinking I was getting those health benefits touted on the news, only to find out herbal tea is not ‘tea’ at all, and thus does not give the same antioxidant boost. Who knew?

The meal plan itself is facinating, in that the author lists it as nothing more than a suggestion based on what has worked for him. He doesn’t insist you follow it, and in fact states that “the only two dictums of the Ultimate Tea Diet are: 1) add tea to your day, all day; and 2) say you can lose weight.”  Never in my life have I seen a diet that was so loose. On the the contrary, most of them seem to be full of lists of ‘acceptable foods’ you can eat on whichever ‘phase’ of the diet you happen to be on at that time.

How can it work? Simple. By following his direction to drink as much tea as you can with and between meals, you soon find yourself so full you have no desire to snack. Whether this is because of the chemicals in the tea working as an appetite suppressant as he claims, or just because of the sheer volume I have no idea. What I do know is that when I am filling up on tea I’m not grazing or drinking sodas, and that alone made a difference. (Tea has very few calories on its own, compared to the 140 or so in every can of Pepsi I was drinking.) Pair that with being more conscious of what I was eating, and heading back to the gym, and I found myself losing weight quickly. Even though I didn’t get to really start the tea plan until after Christmas due to the holiday rush, I have been on it a week now and have lost 4lbs.

I know I know, I might have lost that just by working out and eating better. Who’s to say the tea had anything to do with it? Maybe it did, maybe it didn’t. While I’m not ready to say this book changed my life and the way I eat, I can say it was worth the read just to help me kick a year long soda addiction! I am now drinking tea almost exclusively, and pairing that with sensible eating and working out, I expect to see the weight continue to drop. Here’s to a healthier 2008!

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