Green Tea...and Why You Should Drink It

I've been working hard to lose weight. I eat well, exercise often, drink plenty of water, and try and get enough sleep every night. Lately, it seems that the weight has been falling off a little more easily than before. I have wondered about that. At first, I couldn't see where I had changed anything about my routine. I mean, I wasn't complaining but I was puzzled. What could be causing my weight to come off a little more easily than it had in the past. I finally came up with what I believe to be the answer...

Green tea.

Over the past year, my family has become tea drinkers. Not sweet tea but hot tea. I have an addiction to Teavana and cannot go in the store without sampling all the different teas and buying something. I drink all kinds...black, green, white, herbal, oolong, chai. For a while I had eliminated coffee completely and only drank hot tea. Eventually I started drinking coffee again but usually only one cup in the morning and then some sort of hot tea at other times during the day. Somewhere along the way, I sort of let the tea drinking fizzle out.

Recently, I started drinking plain green tea about twice a day. Sometimes I drink three to four cups. It just depends on my mood and if I want it anymore than my normal two cups. I think I started drinking it again when I was battling a cold or sinus infection. It was soothing and good for me. I generally drink my first cup around lunch time and often with my lunch. I add a small amount of honey or German rock sugar to my first cup as the particular brand of green tea bags that I currently have brews a slightly bitter tea during the first steeping. I then drink a second cup, using the same tea bag but this time with no honey or sugar, during my daughter's nap time. It is very relaxing to sit and sip my tea in peace and quiet! :)

I have no scientific proof that the green tea is what is causing me to drop my weight a little more quickly and efficiently but I believe that it's the reason. Back in March, my dad's doctor told him that he needed to gain five pounds. Here we are in December and he is yet to have gained any weight but not for the lack of trying. My parent's eat healthy in general but my dad has a sweet tooth and he has allowed himself more food indulgences since the doctor told him to gain weight. My dad, on average, drinks about five to six cups of green tea a day. He also believes that this is the reason he has been unable to gain any weight. However, he's never weighed that much in his life!

Please do not hear me say that drinking green tea is a cure all for weight loss or that you can eat whatever you want as long as you drink lots of green tea. Your diet is extremely important. If I was not eating right and exercising daily, I do not believe that the green tea would be having the effect that it seems to be having on me. I am not dropping extreme amounts of weight each week but I have gone to averaging about two pounds a week instead of one.

Numerous studies have been done on the health benefits of drinking green tea. Which include:

*The potential to fight cancer
*The potential to fight heart disease

Limited studies have also been done on green tea's role in:

*lowering cholesterol
*burning fat
*preventing diabetes
*preventing strokes
*heading off dementia

Green tea is full of antioxidants and compounds that help to preserve good health. And for that reason alone, drinking green tea in any capacity is beneficial.

Drinking green tea after you work out is also beneficial in restoring your energy and stamina. Yesterday, I went to the gym and used the elliptical for an hour. Once I came home, I did some ab work and strength work with hand weights. After my shower, I fixed a cup of hot green tea and drank it with my lunch. Up to that point I felt tired after my workout. Shortly after I had consumed my tea I felt awake and refreshed. I also believe it is what helped me to have the energy to go run intervals with my friend. We went for a total of two miles. Grant it, I am a bit sore today in my legs but it is a good sore.


If you are working on losing weight and getting healthy, I challenge you to drink just two cups of green tea every day for two weeks to a month and see what results you get.

You can read more about green tea here.

Happy tea drinking!


Peace, Love, and Healthy Living,

Jessica