Hello, lovelies!

Wow, okay! So! Things got just a bit busy for me these past few weeks, I'm surprised I managed to squeeze some posts in between working and studying! But you know, I stayed positive through it all because I thought to myself, I can't be the only one going through this or has gone through this!

I ended up dropping one of my courses to take a bit of the stress of my shoulders, I feel so bad that I had to come to that decision, but it inspired me to write this post and it was what I felt to be the right decision!

Everyone, please always put your mental and physical well being first! I had gotten stressed in the first couple of weeks and had a breakdown because I was trying to deal with anything on my own. I am quite stubborn, haha.

Always seek out advice with school and anything else that might be causing you unnecessary stress or problems! There is so much support out there for you and many resources to help you cope. There is a very high chance someone has been in the same situation as you!

If it helps, write out a schedule or plan! That way you have something to refer to and follow, developing a routine that you will get used to and cope with! That way you can also see how you can dedicate an adequate amount of time to get everything you need done!

• Set goals and achieve all you need to do bit by bit!
• Plan how you will go about your tasks and where you will fit in the important things!
• Reflect on how you do and try to improve everyday!
• Find support in your classmates, peers or workmates! They will help you and if you work together, you will overcome obstacles together!

Remember if you do small meaningless things, it's harder to find time and room to complete the bigger tasks, but if you do the bigger ones first, the smaller ones will fall into place, as seen in the following video:

Has anything your life caused you stress? How did you cope and find balance? I am always here if you need to talk to someone or need advice!

Enjoy life!

Nina

Hello, my lovelies! ♥

So, for a while now, I have been trying to find a store that sells Oolong or Wu Long tea, and had no luck until I just went to a health store and found a pack in there. It was cheaper than buying online but I hope it'll have the same benefits listed here on Jing Tea. On there the tea is specifically a diet tea, while in the health store or on the package it didn't say much about using it for dieting.

The reason I wanted to try it? Well, I heard and read about it a few times on the internet and it seems to have wonderful slimming and detoxing benefits, as described on the website:

"Wu-Long Tea is an incredibly flavourful tea from the stems of 

the tea plants among the mineral rich mountains of Wu Yi in 

China. So it is also called Wu Yi Tea.

As seen in Oprah's magazine 'O', and other fine publications, 

Wu-Long tea is a powerful natural slimming solution available 

to the public today. It's unique combination of ingredients 

working synergistically for efficient weight reduction.

Experts agree regular consumption of Wu-Long tea may help 

contribute to a healthy body figure maintenance; Oprah Winfrey 

and Rachael Ray enjoy 3 times a day or more. This Chinese 

secret has been traditionally used for centuries as a way to 

skyrocket energy and combat obesity, but now this secret has 

been unearthed and brought to you. If you are finally ready to

start losing weight safely, healthily and effortlessly, then 

Wu-Long tea might be the answer to your prayers."

Sounds good to me. I drink a lot of green tea already, so why not?

Oolong Tea Benefits

• Weight Management: 

"The polyphenol compound found in oolong tea is very effective in controlling the metabolism of fat in the body. It activates certain enzymes, thereby enhancing the functions of fat cells in the body." - Organic Facts

• Removes harmful Free Radicals from the body

"The polyphenolic compound in oolong tea is also responsible for the removal of free radicals in our body, because it functions as an antioxidant and stimulates the behavior of other free radical compounds in the body. Therefore, consuming daily doses of oolong tea can help people from the potential harm that these free-moving cells often pose to the human body, including cancer, atherosclerosis, stroke, rheumatoid arthritis, neurodegeneration, and diabetes." - Organic Facts

It also:

• Controls Diabetes
• Contains anti-cancer properties
• Manages stress
• Increases mental performance and health
• Encourages healthy bones

All tea has some sort of benefit to drinking it, which is why I swapped drinking soft drink and most juices with tea/water. 

My Experience

I started drinking one bag a day on the 28th of December.  The box I bought had 25 tea bags so, I drank one cup a day. I also put the bag that I used to brew my cup of tea in another cup with more water just in case I could get more out of it, haha.

The tea was a bit bitter, it reminded me of when I just started drinking green tea and it was something completely new that the taste was something I had to get used to. I'm not sure if it's because of the brand or whatnot, since when my green tea was hard to endure, I realise dafter some time that it was because the brand was a little cheap, haha.

I got used to it pretty quickly and drank a cup every morning and ate healthily (except a few days where I was with friends =.=) I tried to be active but didn't exercise well, which I regret.

The result was, over the 20 or something days of drinking the tea, I only lost a little less than a kilogram. I was a little disappointed the results weren't more obvious but it might be from me not drinking the tea often enough or from not exercising. 

In the future, I would like to try drinking more than one cup a day and being more active, or try the specific diet tea in the website I mentioned earlier to see if there is a difference. Right now, I think I would have had the same experience still drinking green tea.

It also maybe have been because I've reached the point in my healthier lifestyle where weight loss is really slow unless I exercise more. It may have been more effective when I first started dieting.

❤

Has anyone else tried Oolong Tea or some other detox drink for weight loss? What was your experience?

Enjoy life!

Nina

Hello, friends!

Continuing on from my last post I want to share some easy ways I have started to exercise.

Now, I don't really like to exercise since as a high school student I am on my feet with a heavy bag most of the day. But I somehow decided I will start being more active and stretching a lot more since I really want to increase my flexibility. I also prefer to exercise in the comfort of my own home, so the exercise I choose to do is quite simple and doesn't require a gym.

1. Stretching

Stretching will increase flexibility and improves the motion of your joints, making you more balanced, which I know I need. It also reduces stress, increases circulation and improve your athletic performance. 

2. Basic Workouts

I like to do a few basic workouts at home to compliment my healthy diet and get my heart pumping.

I start with a warm up video by blogilates who does really good home workout videos that range from low intensity to high. This warm up is great and she has also done a more recent one I like to sometimes which is a little more intense.

I really like to do these videos since right now I want to work a lot on my legs and overall cardio:

I found this exercise a while ago when Girls' Generation member went on a show called Star King to show her leg workout but now KStyleTV did a whole video on this workout with her trainer (since the Star King clip video on YouTube was low quality as it was years ago), I was really happy to find this!)

This was originally on blogilates' channel but it's not available anymore, if it does again, please support as it's a great video for legs! It's hard at first but squats are very beneficial :)

3. Walk more and make more choices in your daily schedule to increase fitness

Go for a 30 minute walk, take the stairs instead of the elevator, park further from school or work and walk (or walk there from home if you can), anything at all! Every counts, on the days where I don't want to do intense workouts, a walk a long the beach is really relaxing!

As long as you make better habits and find a balance, it will definitely pay off into the future!

Of course, I am no expert, I just wanted to share a few ideas and some new things to consider!

Remember, enjoy life!

Nina

Hello, my fruit loops! 

Sorry for the corny title but I hope I can post as many things as I can to help people worry less. This week is some tips for dieting that has worked for me! Now, I'm obviously not professional but since these are simple things, I want to encourage everyone to try them out or incorporate them into their lifestyle if you are looking to change your lifestyle bit by bit.

I was a bit unsure on how to approach this blog post but I hope that this will be an encouragement to others in some way since some small changes can make a difference, I don't think a lot of people realize that. Now, when I say diet I mean changes to a diet to make it healthier for your body inside and out! In today's society the concept of diet can have so many different meanings for many different reasons. 

The thing is, making changes to become healthier is just as much of a mental change as well as a physical one, it takes time! If you change things bit by bit you will find yourself getting used to a healthier lifestyle bit by bit. Remember to eat healthier, not less! 
Good luck!

❤ 

I found out about this app through Wengie, another blogger, and  also strongly recommend using an app that has been my best friend with making better choices and weight loss! You input your own weight/height/goals etc and it calculates how much you should be eating each day in order to healthily lose weight.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/

It has also recently added improvements to the app that tell you nutritional value of the food you are eating and reminds you of your goals: a really good encouragement!

1. Drink More Water (and drink tea when you can!)

This tip pops up almost EVERYWHERE! Drinking lots of water used to make me sick so I would drink so much cordial and other drinks instead which is just extra sugar in my system that I don't really need. I am also obsessed with tea and always had black tea with milk and sugar.

I decided that bit by bit I would drink more water until I could completely swap out cordial and other drinks for water. I also started drinking more and more green tea as it has SO many health benefits as well as speeds up the metabolism for weight loss :)

Drinking water helps your skin and your body to function properly, after all our bodies are mostly water. Also, sometimes when you think you are hungry, you are actually thirsty. So drinking water before meals or when you are hungry allows you to know how hungry you are and to control how much you eat.

2. Watch what you eat: eat foods that fill you for longer and eat less bad foods.

Another big I have tried to do is swap out a lot of what I eat with fruits and vegetables, and eating whole meal bread and rice if I am having something like that with my meals. Swapping out a bag of chips or a chocolate bar for a fruit salad or a handful of nuts can really make a difference.

Try to eat less junk food and fast food, plan out your meals and make them beforehand can help control what you eat. Trust me, I know, it's hard to avoid eating chocolate and all that all the time. But every once in a while doesn't hurt, otherwise you will go insane and eat a lot of junk to make up for it. That's not good. So it can be done in moderation.

After all, you have maybe 4 meals a day, times that by 7 and that's 28 meals a week. Having one or two a week that aren't as good is not so bad if it is unavoidable.

3. Watch portion sizes

Eating smaller meals throughout the day is something that is always recommended and it does help :) 

I used to come home from school and eat leftover food in the fridge (which is like one extra big meal) and then have dinner not long after. I stopped doing this because it was unnecessary ad just had a cup of tea with some snacks instead.

I also started using a smaller plate and putting salad on first so that it would take up most of my plate.  

4. Eat till you are 80% full

This is something else that has popped up everywhere but it has a good point. 

Chew your meals slower (about 8 times), since it takes your brain 20 minutes to realize your stomach is full.

By being completely full or overly full you put strain on your stomach and stretch it out, you need to leave room for digestion fluids, water and gas, if not then your stomach needs to expand. If you constantly do this, each time your stomach will expand, leaving more room to be filled the next time you eat. The result will be gaining unnecessary weight.

Even if you have a fast metabolism and don't gain any weight, your stomach will expand and create a stretched out belly (I now realize I had this problem).  You also won't absorb the nutrients as well.

If you start off with a little amount of food and water and are still hungry, you can have a little more if needed rather than having a big portion straight away and feeling like you have to finish it all.

❤ 

Some other tips that might help:

Make sure to finish eating a few hours before you sleep so that your good is settled before. I read somewhere some KPOP idols didn't eat after 7pm or so, and I try to do that. I'm not sure if it works.

Always eat something in the morning, even if it is something small. 

EXERCISE. Even if it is a little bit like walking or taking the stairs or stretching! I will be doing a separate post next time for exercise ideas and easy ways to be active.

❤

If you are looking to lose weight, do it for yourself and to be healthier! On the way to a healthier lifestyle, love your body and yourself always! Don't be discouraged if you don't see change immediately: your organs lose the excess fat before your body does. Don't eat less in order to see results quicker. 

Enjoy life, and good luck! If anyone has more tips, leave them in the comments below!

Nina