Tea time / progress report
I’ve been on tea for a while now. I’m actually starting to like it. Being able to drink a cup at night, even late at night, and still sleep OK is wonderful.
But I was never a tea person and I could use some advice on the best ways of making it and what to drink. I’m limited to green tea as part of my dietary rehabbing so keep that in mind.
I miss coffee in that longing way that makes poets yearn for et and cetera. Nothing else is like coffee, especially not like the wonderfully robust and biting Columbian French Roast I’ve got in my refrigerator. (2 weeks since my last cup) But thanks to the calming effect of dragonwell with a few Jasmine Dragon Phoenix pearls thrown in, I continue to resist coffee.
I know it’s a hard kick but it doesn’t seem like it because I’m not eliminating the drug, just the delivery vehicle. Sort of like giving up whiskey by taking up wine. Or giving up McDonalds for Subway.
Giving up cigarettes was hard. Both times. Harder than giving up crank. Meth is like holding a gun to your head and eventually you either put down the gun or pull the trigger. It’s a very intense quit but once you’re off you’re off and anyone who goes back is choosing death. Life being one of the easier habits to kick — once kicked it stays kicked.
But what’s really hard is giving up caffeine and you will not see me do that until a doctor can prove to me I’m holding a gun to my head.
So anyhow, leave a comment if you got something for me or write 500 words of blank verse if you don’t. I’ve given up on the tea ball and am just pouring hot water on leaves and then straining them after they steep. (A minute first time, five minutes the second time)
Am I close? Don’t be shy about correcting me. Anything that would make the tea better sounds good to me. And I hope it’s OK that I’m drinking it out of a HALPAC cup.
-
For those wondering about the diet, I hit 294 today and I’m still not scrimping on eating. Today I had a large potato fried in butter with two eggs and a bit of cheese for breakfast. I eat lots of small meals and that was kind of heavy. A couple of hours later I had a banana. An hour after that a friend gifted me (at my request) with a piece of dog jerky. I’ve never eaten dog (puppy, really) and was curious. I still am. The jerky tasted like it had been burned before it was dried and I spat it out and then ate a cup of chicken fried rice to kill the taste. Mid afternoon I had an orange, and a few hours later I ate a small sirloin steak. For supper some homemade ground beef black bean jalapeño salsa on chips and probably some more of that after I finish this. (I love being told to heap the salsa on the chips but it does fill me up faster and keeps me from getting too many carbs.)
I don’t think “diet” is the right word for what I’m doing but five new holes in my year-old belt says otherwise. Bags of rice are getting lighter every week and I sleep well. I enjoy my remaining vices more, but am feeling less obsessive. I even threw about fifty links out today because I just didn’t feel like sorting them. I feel healthier for feeling that way, btw.
Physically, I’m pretty up and down but the aches and pains I get from working out are easier to deal with than were the aches and pains of inflamed joints and age which are now all but gone thanks to gluten-free living, vitamins and stretching exercises. I own a foam roller. A month ago I did not know that these things existed, or that you could charge so much for styrefoam.
Our government may not be improving very quickly, but I think our nation is on the road to wellness. Time to shed those Bush-Clinton-Bush-Reagan pounds as well. I doubt I’ll ever be as skinny (or as tall) as Obama, but I’d at least like to live long enough to see him replaced with a more progressive leader.
And if you have nothing to rehab from, well, I feel sorry for you. As Mark Twain said to his dying friend who didn’t smoke or drink, I have no advice for you.
My good friend Bill Waddington at TeaSource in St Anthony (or Highland Park) is full of good advice. We’re drinking a lot of tisanes from him, we like “Margaret’s Soother” the best. Go see him (or any of his helpful team).
The Highland Park store is where I bought the phoenix pearls and found out that yes, you can spend a lot of money on tea if you try.
I’m a blasphemer in the tea world, but it’s the stuff that got me off soda so I’m not going to listen to any guff. I have two teapots, stick water in them, and throw in a teabag for each. Yep, I brew the stuff in lukewarm water. I never could drink a hot beverage for some reason, so I never became a coffee or hot tea drinker. I drink a pot a day or more, but I’m not adding sugar (usually) or having someone add corn syrup.
Healthier is the goal for today, and it sounds like you are doing a good job of it. And if that stays a consistent goal, health will take care of itself. I wish you good luck and hard work.
Just a few thoughts on Obama’s health report and his smoking habit.
The president and I are almost the same age and have about the same cholesterol and blood pressure issues and we both smoke, me irregularly. Him, I am not so sure.
What does that all mean? Brilliant! His handlers are slowly getting the minority of Americans that didn’t trust or like the black man, to change their views. Even the most n*****r hating honkey, has a least one black friend, if not just in the closet.
He is really giving out the impression of being a regular guy. A vice or two, but hey, who don’t do sumthin’ wrong. Four years isn’t all that long of time since campaigning will begin by the end of the year, if not already. But it is becoming apparent that the Republican’s blew their wad first in this circle jerk.
Excellent, Mark. You are inspiration.
Try gunpowder green tea brewed just under boiling, steep five minutes. Add one triangle Persian saffron infused sugar triangle. Bliss…
Oops, forgot I was supposed to reply in the comments.
For the kidney- and UT-defensive properties of cranberry and for the blood glucose-regulating properties of cinnamon, my routine these days is to drink a combined brew of Wild Harvest Organic Cranberry Herbal tea with Celestial Seasonings Cinnamon Apple Spice tea. I get ‘em both at Cub; they’re each about 3$ for a box of 20 teabags.
I hear Trader Joe’s sells a cranberry green tea, which might fit your particular regimen a little better.
Anyway, what I do is put one bag of the Wild Harvest and one bag of the CS in a pot or a large size mug, add hot water, steep for 5 minutes. This produces a tea with a beautiful bright red color and besides the cranberry you will get the tang of hibiscus and rosehips and cloves and cardamom and more than a suggestion of cinnamon Red Hots, without any sweeteners of any kind.
I drink 2 or 3 cups a day. After the mandatory morning 20 oz of very strong Colombia Supremo, that is. Which I make in a french press these days. Formidable. Works for me, anyhoo.