Weight Loss Tips - Tea, Earl Grey, Hot

In Star Trek Next Generation Jean-Luc Picard (French but inexplicably with a perfect English accent) was admirably played by Patrick Stewart.

I was once lucky enough to see Patrick at a conference; he was one of the speakers giving an inspirational talk. He held the stage as befits a Royal Shakespeare Company actor and commander of the USS Enterprise. (I didn’t think any one could better him, but the next keynote speaker did pretty well, too*).

But the thing I remember about Patrick Stewart in Star Trek was his taste in tea. I almost can’t ask for Earl Grey in a restaurant without asking for “Tea, Earl Grey, hot”.

So what has Earl Grey got to do with dieting and slimming? Earl Grey was a British Prime Minister who was responsible for the Great Reform Act of 1832, which began the process of electoral reform. But as well as reforming British politics he also reformed tea. He asked Richard Twining to make him an aromatic tea based on a tea given to him as a gift by a Chinese Mandarin. Twinings developed a tea flavoured with oil of bergamot and it later became know as Earl Grey tea.

Earl Grey is a classic, delicately perfumed tea that is best drunk without milk and sugar. If you drink Earl Grey instead of your usual cuppa you’ll save yourself a few calories over the course of the day. If you have the Earl Grey instead of cappuccino you could easily save yourself a few hundred calories! Cappuccino is one of the sources of hidden calories and, delicious though it is, can easily add unneeded calories to you diet.

And by making these small consistent changes you’ll have an easy reduction in your calorie intake. Small consistent steps are the best ways to weight loss and taking the milk out of your tea or the cream out of your coffee is an easy way of doing this. Think of it – 100 calories a day less is 10 pounds of fat per year less. And all you have to do is drink tea!

If Earl Grey doesn’t appeal (I know it’s not everyone’s cup of tea) try a herb tea or fruit tea. You can find these in the speciality tea section of the supermarket. You have these teas without milk or creamer so you save yourself those calories. Just make sure it’s a tea without added sugars or sweeteners. You can make the teas quite dilute so that they’ll help keep you hydrated in the summer. Lime tea is also a favourite of mine. By this I mean the tea from the flowers of the linden tree, sometimes sold as Tilia, not the citrus fruit lime. You can even get mixed packs of these herb teas so you can find your favourite.

And step-by-step you can make a change to help your figure and your health.

* He was the 42nd president of the United States of America – for non-Americans, that’s Bill Clinton!

(c) 2008 Liz Copeland

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