14 Day Tea Cleanse Plan: Program To Lose Up To 10 Pounds And Live A Healthier Life (2016)

Chapter 2. Starting The Tea Cleanse

Starting the tea cleanse may not be as easy as you could be led to believe. This is after all, a cleansing plan that requires a lot dedication.

If you're not used to drinking a lot of fluids, you could find the program quite challenging. Fear not! I have come up with some helpful tips that could make your tea cleansing journey a little easier

Helpful Tips:

When To Drink Tea

Ideally, you should drink a cup of tea before or with breakfast, one before or with your lunch, and again when you eat in the evening. It may be hard for you to drink a lot more fluid than you're used to, so please make sure that you only drink tea that you like. This will ensure you stick to the program, which in turn means you're likely to lose up to 10 pounds.

How Do I Make Tea?

Let's face it, not everyone out there is a tea aficionado. We don't all know how to make the perfect cup of tea, or even a really nice one. But don't worry, it's fairly simple, and after a while it will become second nature.

Add two grams of your chosen tea leaves to an infuser, and place the infuser in a cup. Alternatively, add a tea bag to a cup.

Pour in some boiling water, and almost fill the cup up.

Stew the leaves or tea bag for three to five minutes.

Remove the infuser or tea bag from the cup.

Add a touch honey or lemon to taste if you wish.

Enjoy the tea hot or cold.

Cleanse With A Friend

This program is not going to be as easy as you may think. It's likely that you will find it tough to drink a lot more fluids. It's also likely that it will be hard to find the motivation to stick to the program, but it's the only way you're going to lose weight and detox in the process.

Ask a friend to join you so that you can both share the difficulties and the rewards. Cleansing with a friend won't leave you feeling isolated, and it will also give you a chance to compare notes, and that's never a bad thing.

Don't Push Yourself Too Much

Occasionally the going will get tough, and you will feel like giving in. While it's important to keep yourself going, you should make sure you don't push yourself too much. If you're struggling, take a break for a day or two, and then get back to the program. Carry on where you left off, and don't be too hard on yourself.

Starting a new cleansing program could be vastly different to anything you have ever done before. There will be times when you feel like giving up, but accept the difficulties. Perhaps giving yourself an odd break, and then carrying on is best until you find your feet and become used to the program.

Make A Note Of When You Drink

Making a note of when you drink is a good way to track your progress. There may be times when you have forgotten to drink, whereas there may also be times when you simply don't want to. Keeping a note of how many times you have drunk some tea, and perhaps some water too, can ensure that you know where you are in the 14 day program.

What Tea Do I Drink And When?

There are some tea cleansing programs out there that tell you exactly what tea you should drink and when. A lot of these programs tell you that only specific brands of teas can be drunk. Unless you want to pay a subscription fee every month for tea that tastes good, but works just as well as other naturally detoxing teas, I would suggest making up your own mind. Try to have at least 2 different types of antioxidant tea per day, so you reap the benefits. Please refer to the shopping guide below for details about which teas are suitable for the 14 day tea cleanse program.

If you plan to do the program more than once, you may want to think about experimenting with different teas. This will help you to get a feel for what is out there, and you're more likely to come across some teas that work well, or just taste great.

Shopping Guide:

Some people are more than happy to source all of the ingredients they need to make their detoxing tea, before mixing the ingredients up and creating a home made brew. This process can be quite difficult as it means you will need to buy various boxes or bags of tea, and know exactly how much of each type of tea you need in each serving.

Others are happy to buy the tea as it comes, and use it as directed. This is a much easier way, as there is very little preparation involved. There is no right or wrong way to prepare your tea, but if you have a busy lifestyle, or you're worried that you may not stick to the program, then opt for prepackaged tea.

Bleached Tea Bags

One point I would like to add is that a lot of tea comes in tea bags that have been bleached. Bleached tea bags are white, unbleached teabags are darker. Many organic teas come in tea bags that haven't been bleached, and if you don't fancy using tea bags that have been bleached with chemicals, opt for unbleached ones. Alternatively, you may want to look for tea bags that have used a chlorine-free process known as TCF.

The teas I recommend include:

Burdock Tea

Used for centuries as a means of purifying the blood, Burdock tea is one of the lesser known antioxidant teas, but this doesn't mean it won't work. Burdock is a natural diuretic, which means it will flush out excess fluids, as well as helping to rid your body of those nasty toxins. What's more is this lovely sweet tasting tea is also thought to boost the immune system.

Cilantro Tea

Cilantro doesn't just taste great, but it's also a great detoxifier too. What's more is you can also use this great herb as a tea in order to fight infections. With a gentle, calming flavor, Cilantro tea is also thought to be a great anti-arthritic too.

Green Tea

Green tea is perhaps one of the better known antioxidant teas. Most of us know that it's very good for us, but many of us aren't sure why. As well as being a particularly effective antioxidant, green tea also works to eliminate fat from your body, while also helping you to get rid of water retention.

Green tea can taste a little odd when you first start drinking it, but don't worry, you will get used to the flavor. Try different brands of green tea, as some flavors will be stronger than others. If you struggle to get to grips with the flavor, why not look for a mint/green tea combination?

Ginger Tea

In addition to tasting great, Ginger tea is pretty good at helping you to detox. What's more is it also helps to aid digestion, boost your circulation, and even wake you up a little in the morning thanks to its slightly tart flavor.

Milk Thistle Tea

Milk Thistle tea is great for your digestion, and it's also incredibly good at helping to detox your liver. If you have liver disease, or your liver isn't as healthy as it could be, then you might want to give this tea a try. Please speak to your doctor before you try this tea as it could counteract with any medication you're taking.

Mint Tea

A natural appetite sup present, this tea is also great for settling your stomach and therefore helping to aid digestion. I personally like to drink 2 cups of mint tea per day, whether I'm cleansing or not, it's that good. There are many different types of mint tea available, but my advice is to go for the tea that has no additives. Mint tea that's also mixed with a little green tea is particularly tasty, and you get the benefits of both teas in one cup.

Oolong Tea

Oolong roughly translates as 'Black dragon', and it's a delicious tea that can help to boost your metabolism. The faster your metabolism works, the faster you will burn fat. What's more is Oolong tea is also great for calming the nerves, which makes it even more worthwhile if you tend to get anxious or stressed.

Red Clover Tea

I usually have to head to a Chinese store to source this tea, but some health food stores may sell this wonderfully tasty tea. High in antioxidants, and used in Chinese medicine in order to rid the liver and blood of toxins, Red Clover tea is also ideal to drink when you have a blocked nose as it naturally helps to clear the nose and lungs of phlegm.

Rooibos Tea

Also known as 'Redbush tea', this wonderfully flavored, caffeine-free tea can help to lower stress hormones, and reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes. Drunk with or without milk, rooibos tastes better when it's left to stew for about 5 minutes.

White Tea

In addition to being a very rich source of antioxidants, white tea can also help to breakdown fat. This makes white tea an idea tea to drink, what's more is it's one of the least processed teas you can find, and that's never a bad thing.

Where To Source The Tea

Your local supermarket is likely to source some of the teas you're thinking of using as part of your 14 day tea cleanse program. Typically, supermarkets stretch to Green teas, and perhaps a Rooibos or Oolong tea. You'll be hard pressed to find more 'Exotic' teas in a supermarket, so you will have to look elsewhere.

Health food stores in your local town will have a wider range of teas, and they may even be prepared to order some in for you, if you're considering buying in bulk. Alternatively, there are quite a few online health food stores and specialist tea sellers, so you should be able to source your tea there.

Some Chinese supermarkets and Chinese pharmacists also stock a wide range of teas, so if you have one nearby, it's well worth a trip, and the prices can be pretty good too.

Key Ingredients

When you're embarking on a tea cleansing program, you need to make sure that you're going about it the right way. In theory, you could drink any type of tea you wanted, and assume that you're on a cleansing plan. The trouble with doing this is you could be missing out on some vital opportunities to rid your body of a lot of toxins.

Before you go ahead and start the plan, you should ideally have a lot of tea in stock. You don't need to have 16 different types of teas, but I recommend you should have at least 3. One of the most important aspects of this plan is that you drink tea that has some key ingredients. These ingredients are basically any tea or anything that has been added to the tea that contains antioxidant properties. The more antioxidant properties the tea has, the more successful your cleanse will be.

Let's take a look at some of the key ingredients you will find in your teas:

Flavonoids

Flavonoids are an incredibly important part of any black tea that you drink. This is because they can help to reduce the restriction of blood vessels, and can therefore improve blood flow. Flavonoids also work as an antioxidant too, and it's even thought that they may have slight anti-histamine properties too.

Polyphenols

Polyphenols are an antioxidant that helps to find those free-radicals that can potentially damage your cells. The good news is that there are ten times as many polyphenols in green and black tea, than there are in any fruit or vegetables you eat.

As you can see, tea can potentially be very good for you, especially green or black teas. Try to drink a lot of green or black tea as your cleanse will be a lot more successful.