YOUR TEA - MAGAZINE - ISSUE #1 by Your Tea

HEALTH | LIFESTYLE | BEAUTY

THE TEA EVERYONES TALKING ABOUT 14/28 DAY TINY TEATOX

more inside DEAR SKIN, Umm...Please explain? “The health of your skin, starts from within”

Your Health FROM THE

INSIDE OUT

YOUR DIY GUIDE TO A HE A LT HIER YOU created by naturalist specialist, DR. NAT KRINGOUDIS

Welcome HERE AT YOUR TEA , WE ARE MORE THA N JUS T A HERBAL TEA COMPAN Y We are passionate about health. About achieving it, and maintaining it. We’re talking health from the inside out; emotional, physical and spiritual health. It’s about connecting the dots within your body and ultimately, your body is the best in the business at telling you what dots are missing. You just need to listen to it. Whether your body is shouting at you or you’re already working alongside it – we provide herbal blends to suit your health journey.

OUR HERBAL TEA BLENDS At Your Tea, our blends are based upon Traditional Chinese Medicine principles. Why TCM? We strongly resonate with the unique health and lifestyle principles it stands for. In a nutshell, TCM encourages you to be proactive about your health, so you don’t have to be reactive about health problems.

BEYOND OUR BLENDS!

Despite having some ridiculously tasty and effective tea on offer – we provide copious amounts of qualified information for your benefit too. Ridding bloat,clearing skin, reducing weight, increasing energy – are just a few of the changes our blends generate within the body. However, knowing how and why these changes are made is equally as important. Why? Because here at Your Tea, we believe power is knowledge. And power to you, we say. 2

THE TEA EVERYONES TALKING ABOUT 14/28 DAY TINY TEATOX In Chinese Medicine, the digestive system is the pivot of health. Nourishing this will allow your body to achieve optimum physical, aesthetic and emotional health. Tiny TeaTox aims to restore your body back to its original health before modern day lifestyles, sugars, fats, stress, inactivity and emotions unravelled it.

WE BREAK IT DOWN FOR YOU This intricately balanced herbal blend will nourish and cleanse your digestive system, providing it the support it needs to replenish and restore back to its natural state. This cleanse will assist with reducing weight, easing bloating, increasing digestion functionality, improving skin clarity, increasing energy levels and alleviate issues associated with food intolerances. Formulated with Chinese medicine herbs and based upon Chinese medicinal principles, TinyTea is the only herbal cleanse on the market that does not produce a laxative effect. TinyTea has been created by qualified Chinese Medicine practitioners with considerable years of experience.

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We want to leave you inpsired and full of knowledge. I can’t wait to take you for a spin, so jump in...

DR.NATALIE KRINGOUDIS OUR AMBASSADOR, Dr. Nat Kringoudis explains how TinyTea performs changes in the body.

As you may know, our Tiny Teatox is a mixture of Chinese Medicine herbal ingredients. Chinese herbs are powerful and when combined together correctly like our blends, they really allow for huge physical and emotional changes internally. However, we can appreciate that Chinese Medicine can be a foreign concept to grasp, so we asked our lovely ambassador, Nat Kringoudis to translate our Eastern explanation of the Tiny Tea benefits into a western explanation.

TAKE HER WORD FOR IT Words from Dr. Nat Kringoudis

The ingredients of Tiny Teatox set to work in your body to maximize digestion and how your gut works. From a TCM view point, we refer to the ‘gut’ as the spleen and stomach. The relationship these two have with each other is what make the magic of digestion happens.

So the stomach is the ‘pit’ that food arrives into and the spleen is like the organ that assimilates foods, draws out the essentials, sends the nutrients around the body to nourish and heal and the bad out the bowel as waste. And when this is all happening smoothly, the body is happy – it assists in keeping our weight in check too – because if the bad is being sent out as waste, toxins can’t build up in our body. When this system of the body isn’t working properly one of the things we can see is weight gain as well as general fatigue, headaches and constipation or diarrhoea. This is because the gut struggles to perform its role – and when we aren’t digesting properly, the body isn’t receiving the nutrients it requires. This can make us crave all kinds of foods as a means to regain ‘balance’ and restore nutrients within the body. However, eating the wrong foods will only lead to further damage and weight gain! This is because your body produces adipose tissue (fat stores) as a way of protecting itself. In TCM terms this can be referred to as ‘damp’ – much like damp that can sit and become stagnant under your house. The fat traps in toxins which would otherwise be harmful to you, and literally tucks it out of harms way (your bottom, hips, thigh, stomach and upper arms). So the fat deposits we see are usually because the liver isn’t doing a good job of breaking down the toxins in the body because it can’t. And that all starts with your gut – because if your gut function is in all kinds of mayhem, it gets confused between what can be used as nutrients and what should be sent out as waste. You may have experienced times where you’ve had diarrhoea or your bowels have been all over the place – this is because your gut simply didn’t know what to do – and in this confusion, it simply sent it all out as waste. As the ingredients in your tea maximise the inner workings of your gut – meaning

they assist the spleen and stomach in this digestion process. C ertain ingredients help to move food through the body and encourage this assimilation in the gut. Because the gut likes to function at 37 degrees, tea is the perfect mode of transport – it means there is no effort in warming up the liquid, it gets straight to the organ and gets to work. Other ingredients assist in moving damp out of the body and assists in moving excess fluid out too – especially useful in cases of fluid retention. These specific ingredients are able to perform these functions as they benefit the bladder to help move damp out via the urine. There are a few other specific ingredients that perform supporting roles to these herbs in the tea blend – the synergy of herbs mean their benefits are multilayered. Other ingredients are able to direct their energy to the liver to cleanse and detoxify which goes to work in breaking up those fat stores as well as benefiting digestion. Cassia Seed is used for the same reason in a specific dose – because it acts on the liver to assist in cleansing and weight loss. Other herbs help to promote digestion by increasing digestive energy. All the herbs tie nicely together to create an environment within the gut that is well supported so that it can work like a well-oiled machine, effectively sifting out the rubbish from the nutrient rich. As you now understand, a poor working gut will lead to weight gain because it firstly can’t absorb nutrients which makes you overeat and put on the kilograms but also because it can’t sort out the ‘rubbish’ which can lead to toxic build up in fat stores. The good news is that Tiny Teatox formulations have taken all of this into consideration to ensure you are getting a safe and extremely effective Chinese medicine based treatment. And the benefits don’t just stop there – because the gut is the pivot of health, many of your other ailments will fade away too!

ANTI-C TEA HONESTLY, AN ANTI CELLULITE MOVEMENT COULD BE STARTED WITH THE AMOUNT OF FEMALES THAT PUT UP WITH THE PESKY DIMPLES. LUCKILY, WE CREATED ANTI-C TEA WAY BACK, AS WE HAVE OUR PRIORITIES IN ORDER. It is fast becoming one of our most popular blends because people now understand that cellulite can only be rid from the inside/out. Lotions, potions and scrubs will not eradicate those bumps. Unfortunately those pesky little toxins are having a field day under your skin and scrubbing your derriere until red raw won’t make them budge. An internal cleanse is the answer – so that is what we created. ANTI-C TEA is designed to cleanse the liver, dry dampness/phlegm and increases digestive function. Luckily for you, we know how to get to the root of problems – a dimple free set of pins is possible!

NAT BREAKS IT DOWN FOR YOU What is cellulite anyway? You know your body is a very clever machine. While at times we can get frustrated with it’s flaws, reality is, those flaws are actually the messages and signals we’re being shown as to what’s possibly not working well on the inside. Cellulite is one of those pesky, annoying things we can often see develop. Did you know cellulite is actually a means of the body protecting itself? Celluliteand adipose tissue form to trap toxins in the body, to prevent them from leeching into our systems and causing total havoc. Pretty smart hey? So with this in mind we need to dig a little deeper and understand exactly what is going on.

hen your body is working well, you’re fueling it with nutritious food and drinking things like Your Tea to support digestive function, we are far less likely to gain weight. One of the reasons this happens is because fat will trap the toxins and tuck them away out of harm – if you are eating uncomplimentary foods, your body is doing its best to make sure they don’t do damage. This is why we gain weight around our lower abdomen and upper thighs – so it doesn’t impact our organs. Imagine what happens if we build fat up around our heart or our kidneys – they don’t work properly and would place huge stress on the body. The problem for me as a hormone expert is that fat stores can be difficult to control – because fat stores release oestrogen, and the more oestrogen we have, the more toxic it can become (in high levels), the more fat we continue to make! It’s a hormonal nightmare. It can also be mighty stubborn to shift – if the body isn’t producing adequate hormones (because the gut is sluggish and can’t assimilate your food properly), it will remain in overdrive and continue to produce fatty deposits. With this in mind, specific foods can increase cellulite. Those high in trans fats like fried and greasy foods are super darn hard to digest. Equally, cold and raw foods can set the healthiest of guts into disarray – again meaning the body doesn’t quite know how to best digest it. The gut will go into a frenzy in an attempt to protect itself and simply transport it to somewhere safe. From a Chinese medicine perspective, cellulite is excess damp in

the body – again because the spleen doesn’t know how to digest and deal with foods when it’s placed under load. For cellulite to be effectively dealt with, it needs to be addressed from the inside out. It means that diet and lifestyle must be addressed to effectively treat it. Warming and easily digested foods as I’ve spoken about many times before are effective as they place minimal load on the gut and it can not only readily utilize the nutrients, it has no trouble in doing so. This is why scrubs and creams won’t work -because the issue lies within. Maximising gut & liver function is key. Cleansing is so very important. The liver is the master controller in cleaning out the body – it does a great job under ‘ideal’ circumstances however with poor habits it too can take a beating and only for so long before the consequences can be felt. We repeatedly receive feedback that shares of weight loss and ridding of cellulite. Using detoxifying ingredients and those that boost the digestive system, we know that this helps the body to digest, it assists in cleansing and it helps remove those toxic stores whilst doing so. We understand (and now hope you do too) that healthy gut function really is the key to overall wellness and until we have that in check, our bodies will continue to present with unwanted symptoms like cellulite. Perhaps since having Your Tea you’ve noticed your skin improve and your cellulite diminish and you’ve been wondering why. You now know the key to overall wellness and the symptoms and signs are apparent. It’s not rocket science – it’s just plane simple logic. Get the inside happy and it’s so obvious on the outside, you’ll glow!

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THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY. THE Y ALL CAU SE A PHY SICAL RAMIFICATION ON THE BODY In knowing this, it’s sometimes crazy to think we let negative emotions to hang around like a bad, bad smell. Whether it be habit or being unaware to letting the stench linger - one thing is for certain… minimising negative emotions in your life is beyond vital for one’s health. In my 10 years of practice as a Chinese Medicine Doctor, if there’s one thing I’ve learnt it’s this; we are all subject to the same life stresses in varying degrees, be it health troubles, financial crisis, friendship breakdowns, family feuds and so on. Nobody is exempt. And for some reason, we have been conditioned to think that some people are ‘lucky’ that they don’t experience the same pressures as the rest of us. Guess what – it’s not the case. We are all in the same boat. We are all sharing this same planet. It’s not that people are exempt from negativity and stress, it’s the choices that they make around their triggers that count – and all of us can be of the same practice. To think that something magic will come along someday soon and take all of your issues away is something that might exist in fairytales but in the real world, it’s up to us individually to create our own magic. Sure some people might win the lottery or score the perfect job. Does this make them happy – not necessarily. Worry will affect the digestive system. We’re all conditioned to worry in times of hardship, and this is why we can often feel our appetite decrease or increase depending on our constitution.

Understanding how emotions will impact our body allows your TCM practitioner to better treat you and move towards wellness. From a Chinese Medicine perspective each of our organs absorb our emotions in different ways. This means that different feelings will impact the body and affect certain areas. For example, the emotion attached to the liver is anger, as is the emotion of the lung sadness. If there is residual sadness over a long period of time, one may experience chest infections or recurrent coughs for no real reason. It isn’t until the emotion is dealt with and we gain understanding of how to nurture our stresses in a positive way that the body can fully heal. It’s so important that we ourselves get clear on where our own life’s negativity is actually coming from. Did you know that only 3% of your thoughts are actually conscious? Our brain bounds

O along at a million miles an hour mostly on autopilot meaning you may be totally unaware of what you’re actually thinking. This means that for the most part, 97% of our what’s going on in our brain we aren’t actually privy to. Sure it’s in the background, but it isn’t until we bring it to the front of our minds that we can actually get clear on what’s really going on in there. It also means that if you have negative thoughts on repeat in your mind, it can be infiltrating your entire life – research clearly shows us that what we think about is what we create for ourselves. If we constantly have horrible thoughts about ourselves like “I’m not good enough, I don’t have enough money and I’m fat and ugly” we will only ever find evidence of this – because that’s the very tune we are playing out in our heads – much like having a Pharrell Williams song annoyingly on repeat in your mind.

“To think that something magic will come along someday soon and take all of your issues away is something that might exist in fairytales but in the real world, it’s up to us individually to create our own magic”

T I O NS

We can easily find ourselves constantly focused on the very things we dislike about our lives, only to actually be continuously creating that for ourselves unknowingly. So how do we remove the negative emotions and energy from our lives? How do we change the tune? There is actually only one person that can do this very thing – and that’s YOU! Those annoying people who consistently look like they’ve got their whole lives in order are no different to you – they’ve just worked out how to nurture their thoughts and feelings to create what they are most wanting in life and not the opposite as so many of us are.

One of the best ways of removing the negativity is to practice positive affirmations. We all find ourselves thinking nasty or unkind thoughts. It’s learning to ‘catch’ those thoughts and turn them into something fruitful rather than something that becomes toxic. So for example, when you find yourself having a ‘frumpy feeling’ day, focus on what you love about yourself rather than what you don’t. Using affirmations can be the savior. I have myself a set of affirmations on hand that I have created for these very moments when I need to change the track. An affirmation can be as simple as “I love and accept myself completely, no matter what” or “I am healthy

and thriving, constantly becoming a better version of myself.” It is in those times that we feel a little low we can whip our affirmations into action and pull ourselves out of the negative mind chatter. Simply drawing your attention to what you want to create, rather than what you don’t is the first step you can make toward removing negative energy from your life. Surrounding yourself with like-minded people, nourishing your body with a holistic approach to nutrition, movement and restare the icing on the cake. But most of all remembering that life is a journey, rather than health being an end point can keep things lighthearted, because after all, life is for the living – wasting it on what you don’t want is nothing short of useless. Be that person you want to be. You have all the power to take charge of your one big, beautiful crazy life.

HER TEA LET’S BE HONEST, LADIES DON’T ALWAYS HAVE IT EASY. WE DEAL WITH PMS, HORMONES, BLOATING, PLUCKING, TEMPERAMENTAL SKIN, CRAMPS…NEED WE GO ON? SOMETIMES WE JUST NEED TO BE CUT SOME SLACK. Introducing; ‘Her Tea’. It’s been cutting bodies some slack since 2013. Her Tea has been designed to level out the female body when it can be prone to the roller coaster ride of hormones, emotions and physical nuisances.

WAYS TO BEAT BLOATING

Bloating. Yuck. It is debilitating both physically and emotionally... It makes us cranky and lethargic. Yet, why does your stomach bloat? Your stomach bloats because it is trying to tell you something. It is saying “no, I can’t digest that – I’m done. Give me a break OR nourish me because I’m all worn out”.

Here are some tips below that may help offer instant relief of bloating for many of you. 1

Drink warm/hot water each day – around 1-2L

Sleep with a heat pack on your stomach each night after dinner.

Avoid raw vegetables and fruit: Cook/blanch/stew all vegetables and fruits.

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Cut out sugar - including energy drinks, muffins, muesli bars, coffee - an cut out alcohol! Walk every day, a 2-3km walk is amazing to get your system moving. Make sure it is brisk! Eat all meals warm/cooked - ie; stews, soups, toasties, hot pots - avoid salad sandwiches/cereals. Fill your body with lean protein, eggs, tofu, beans, green leafy vegetables, fish, nuts and seeds. Bread to be Rye or grain. Breakfast: hot oats with some nuts and seeds, or eggs with avocado - no cold yoghurts or cereals to start to the day! A cup of hot water with lemon every morning, add a pinch of fresh ginger too. Dinner: eat no later than 7pm and avoid large dinners (food gives you energy, energy is not needed when you’re soon to be sleeping!) Eat larger meals earlier in the day, smaller later in the day. Sleep: bed at 10pm, up at 6:30am - sleep is VITAL for healthy digestion.

BE GOOD TO YOUR BODY AND IT WILL BE GOOD TO YOU “Are you one of those people who exercise to no end without results? I want to tell you something today – it’s never going to work. In fact, it’s time to break up with the mentality that if only you exercised another 30 minutes or pushed yourself that much harder you’d see results. The effects of over-exercising can be darn straining on the body, so much so it sees it as stress. Long-term stress eventually leads to weight gain as it whacks out the balance of hormones, which sees an increase in oestrogen. And what releases oestrogen? Fat stores. So more fat stores, more oestrogen production equals more weight gain.

Fortunately, exercising like a teeny tot on red cordial isn’t the solution. In fact, over exertion makes you tired, and fatigue is one of the greatest reasons for over eating. When we are exhausted, we often misinterpret the signals our bodies are sending to us – we tend to eat more to make up the balance when in fact all our body is asking for is a rest. It’s time to get clever when it comes to exercise. We know that exercising the entire body rather than specific body parts works best – activities like surfing, yoga, jujitsu or Tai Kwando or bushwalking are great examples of entire body workouts. But take it a step further – make your day-to-day activities your way of movement. Think gardening, cleaning, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, walking to the next train stop and simply integrating movement into your everyday life. Not only does your body love this kind of activity, it’s effortless – because you have no choice in the matter really! It’s called living. And ease is key in this modern world. Imagine if generations before us saw how many of us exercised at the gym, on

stationary bikes staring at a TV. They’d think we were mad! They didn’t slog it out at the gym, they certainly weren’t overweight and they were toned and fit because they were constantly active but what’s more, their stress was completely different and not the kind that involved sitting at a computer or being caught in a traffic jam.

It’s about being healthily active, including movement in your day-to-day activity The key to all this is balance. Understanding how much movement your body needs to be healthy and to keep your digestive system and hormones firing along – this is the secret to keeping your weight in check. Less strain on the body means it’s free to work exactly as it has been designed to – to allow your digestive system to make nutrients to best fuel you, and with this means effortless maintenance of weight. It’s not about slogging it out at the gym. It’s about being healthily active, including movement in your day-to-day activity and applying diet and lifestyle principles that serve you each and every day. So next time that thought pops into your head that you need to slog it out to lose weight – think again and opt for some gentle movement and downtime. The results will surprise you!

h c a e r p e w t a h w g n i s i t c a Pr WE TAKE A UNIQUE APPROACH TO HEALTH AS MANY OF YOU KNOW. WE’RE ALL ABOUT PRO-ACTIVE HEALTH, NOT REACTIVE HEALTH. On a daily basis, we are overcome with emails from people with sensitive stomachs, sore stomachs, food intolerances, food allergies and overall mayhem internally. It pains us to read this all just as it pains them to endure it!We have some very basic philosophies for helping out a body that is in distress - as shown by signs of bloating, lethargy, stomach pain, intolerances’, poor skin, irregular mood and weight gain. We are tentative to engage in the ‘raw food’ debate - because it seems social media and the Western world is going crazy on this fad. However, coming from Nat - for those of you with a sensitive body - raw may not always be the answer for a body that is seriously unhappy. We let her explain further… As a Chinese Medicine Practitioner, I’m still

waiting to meet an amazingly healthy raw foodie. And before you get all cranky pants with me, please hear me out. Now I don’t doubt some people go better with more raw. But, there’s always a flip side – and it goes to show that in many instances we fail to listen to what our bodies really want and need.

Raw is great – but so is cooked! Allow me to explain to you from a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) perspective how the digestive system likes to work. Imagine if you will a pot of soup, sitting on a fire. In TCM, both the spleen and stomach are the organs responsible for digestion; they transform and transport to the body the essential elements of the food and drink we consume. The nutrients they draw from food are sent out around the body to do good - and the waste product are removed and sent out as waste. So going back to our pot again. To help you best understand, the stomach is the ‘pot’ and the spleen is the ‘fire.’ Therefore you may like to understand that digestion is a process that requires warm energy. Then lets add another layer to this – you may know that all foods have properties in how they behave energetically in the body. Those which are warming and invigorating (think meat proteins, some legumes, chili and alike) and those that are cold (like melons and berries) which can slow down such processes. For those who have a cold constitution, (you know these people, they’d sit on the radiator and would bear burn marks if they had to ) adding more cold to the pot can be disastrous and equally those who are hot, adding more heat isn’t necessarily ideal either

(it can lead to all kinds of issues like period pain or headaches). So you can quickly start to see, that what works for your cousins uncles baby sitter, won’t necessarily work for you. And just because Miranda Kerr thrives on juice, doesn’t necessarily mean you do too. Now I’m mad for a good green juice – but what you might not realize is that not only do I take notice of what works best for my body, I also factor in the seasons too. That means that warm foods are awesome in winter when its cold and you can generally tolerate more raw foods in summer. Adding nutrient packed juices into my diet is seasonal. What’s more, raw foods can be very heavy and over consumption can be linked to weight gain because once again, it puts the ‘fire’ out. From a Western sense, we may like to look at it like this. Our bodies digest food at 37 degrees. So when we consume raw and uncooked foods, not only does it have to go to work to digest, but it first has to get the temperature of the food up to 37 before it can effectively deal with it. For some people this is no problem. But for those with a sluggish metabolism this can be disastrous.

So you see – we love raw, and we love cooked! It is all about working out just what works for you and why. Once you know why, you can set about making the necessary changes to have your body thriving.

MOOD R A N G E A S YO U K N O W , H E R E AT YO U R T E A W E ’ R E A L L A B O U T B E I N G P R O A C T I V E W I T H Y O U R H E A LT H N O T R E A C T I V E

WHY

C AT C H A CO L D W H E N YOU CAN PREVENT IT?

WHY

F E E L D E S P E R AT E LY L O W O N E N E R G Y W H E N Y O U C A N B E F LY I N G T H R O U G H Y O U R D AY ?

WHY

S TAY AWA K E A L L N I G H T LO N G W H E N YOU CAN ENJOY A DEEP SLUMBER?

WHY

PUT UP WITH POOR SKIN, WHEN YOU CAN CHANGE IT?

WHY

DEAL WITH A LOW SEX DRIVE, WHEN YOU CO U L D B E H AV I N G T H E N I G H T S O F YO U R L I F E . . . . (YES, PLURAL AND YES, WE’VE GOTTEN A LITTLE CHEEKY ON YOU)

INTRODUCING THE BLENDS! Suffice to say, we have introduced 8 wonderful new tea blends into our... Yo u r T e a f a m i l y ; • • • •

Happy Tea Sleep Tea Hangover Tea Sex Tea

• • • •

Skin Magic Tea Breastfriend Tea Energy Tea Antioxidant Tea

Any ailment you have, may be treated and alleviated from the comfort of your own home, naturally. Of course, each and every new blend as per usual, has been created using our team of qualified Chinese practitioners and explained in d e p t h b y o u r l ov e l y a m b a s s a d o r , D r. N at K r i n g o u d i s .

Life is to be lived to its fullest,

and we are here to make that happen...

PUTTING THE ‘O’ IN YOU SEX

FOR SOME OF YOU, IT MAY BE A FOREIGN CONCEPT OR ALTERNATELY, TOTALLY FAMILIAR (YET UTTERLY LABORIOUS!) WE CALL IT THE ‘ELUSIVE LIBIDO’. PESKY LITTLE BUGGER IT IS…

For those of you across sex, sex and more sex - this blog aint’ for you! However, feel free to help a fellow sister (or brother) out and pass along the information below. Below, Nat Kringoudis explains where on earth to find that libido of yours - because no one likes a game of hide and seek for too long do they?! Ever wondered if it’s actually possible to leave your libido behind? Like you’ve come back from two weeks in the Bahamas but for some reason, it wasn’t packed back in your suitcase? And of course, who actually asks the question “where has my sex drive gone?”. Lucky I like to stay true to form and debunk the myths nobody really wants to talk about. Let’s talk about sex baby! From a TCM viewpoint, the kidney energy plays a huge role in libido and the ‘urge.’ When the kidney function is lacking, most likely from a result of poor lifestyle choices, we can experience all kinds of whacky symptoms especially in the sex drive department. Of course from a physiological perspective, low hormones in general or hormone imbalance can rapidly lead to everything but climax. Hormones are the driving force and influence for all body

functions, especially sexual function. And of course nothing is a one-size fits all – taking out shares in your local oyster farm isn’t necessarily going to fire things up. It’s important to note that one of the main reasons I see poor libido in the clinic is the pill. The pill for many women lessens their libido (ironic really!) as it disrupts normal hormone function. Because of the hormone suppression that stops ovulation, there is a direct influence on sex drive. This can continue for women for up to 4 years after ceasing its use. Of course men too lose their libido. The hormone crazy teen can be swiftly kicked into hibernation. Cue the over worked, under paid man. Stress is a big libido crusher – it turns off all the switches and may leave a man feeling rather deflated. What’s a man to do? Now rather than leave you down and flaccid, it’s important to implement strategies alongside our formulas to get you back on the wagon. Diet and lifestyle is imperative to making your life sweeter – here are my top tips! Maximising the building blocks to make hormones all relies on a strong, well funtioning digestive system as we’ve discussed in so many of my blogs. If the digestive system can happily absorb nutrients from your food and drink, it can go on to make gangbuster hormones! So adding appropriate Your Tea blends – specifically ‘Tiny Tea’ will help move things along nicely. Also adding a quality multi vitamin and fish

oil is most important to rebalance essential vitamins and nutrients that stress and poor diet will indeed zap out, aiming for more home/play time as well as nutritionally getting in all the goods is a great start. Alcohol is another fire fizzer. Drinking in excess of 4 glasses per week can harm your libido (and hormones!) as alcohol plays havoc with male hormones and alters the way testosterone is produced and released in the body. Alcoholic beverages contain oestrogen-like compounds which are literally like ‘fake’ hormones that will set our real ones way off kilter. It has a similar effect on women, zapping their hormones and affecting their ovulation and menstruation also due to these same oestrogen mimicking properties. So if the wrong signals are being fired hormonally, it is bad news for the sex drive. Sleep deprivation will most undoubtedly lead to some loss in libido. Being in bed by 10pm is essential for happy hormones. Sleep is the elixir of health – and your body’s way of rejuvenation.It’s a simple way of rallying your health back on track. Having children can be challenging on the best of days – and so very often patients report a lower sex drive as the family grows, simply because there isn’t the same opportunity there once was pre kids. I don’t really have a specific solution here. Locking the kids outside in winter probably isn’t the best plan of attack, but find what works for you in your household and go with it. There are ways around it, but you need to have it to want more of it – and the less you have, the less you want. Fire up the engines and keep them idling!

THESE MAY GO WITHOUT SAYING... BUT ITS ALWAYS GOOD TO STATE THE OBVIOUS - JUST IN CASE Get off the couch and between the sheets! Be more intimate more often. Make time, even if you don’t think you have it, seriously how long does it really have to take? Probably not that long…And you know the age-old saying, the more you get the more you want! Get the goods in – food is nutrients, it provides our body with energy. If your diet is poor, making changes will absolutely boost your energy and libido. Foods rich in zinc, green leafy veggies, oily fish and good proteins are what you want most of. Leave refined foods at the door. Everyday exercise is equally important, so take a brisk walk in the morning to get the blood pumping. If your taking medications, seek alternatives, even simply enquire. Maybe there is an alternative that might be a great option and give you back your drive. Take a holiday, a break, a weekend off work – get yourself some down time – on the double! It’s amazing what some time off can do. If it really isn’t working – pop into your nearest natural practitioner to see if they have the goods for you – acupuncture, massage, herbal medicine – they all do wonderful things for libido and fertility”

Of course, we have a newly developed SEX TEA available for you to devour - you’re welcome! Jump onto yourtea.com to purchase.

FERTILITY TEA THIS WONDER BLEND DESIGNED SOLELY BY OUR AMBASSADOR, DR. NAT KRINGOUDIS. Knowing that many women in this day and age battle with reproductive issues ranging from PCOS, Endometriosis, difficulty conceiving, troubles hormones, painful period and PMS â&#x20AC;&#x201C; we knew Nat could create a blend to assist in treating these problems. Nat, having specialized in natural fertility as a TCM practitioner, formulated Fertility Tea, using her years of experience and knowledge. The end product has truly changed the lives of many women â&#x20AC;&#x201C; as we are often told from not just happy customers, but customers who have been relieved, emotional and grateful to have found an effective solution.

ENDOMETRIOSIS EXPLAINED. A common issue for so many women these days. If you resonate with the words below, Fertility Tea may be a blessing for your body. “I suffered from excruciating period pain. I would arrive at my period each month and be oh so sick. If there wasn’t a box of painkillers in sight I would freak out. I experienced hot and cold flushes, excessive sweating, I would vomit, I’d have diarrhea, oh, and did I mention excruciating period pain? I officially hated my period in my early 20’s. I now know, these were all signs of endometriosis and now in hindsight I see my body’s very clever way of telling me I needed to fix things. Now I forgive anybody for thinking that taking a trip to the GP and being prescribed the pill for endometriosis will fix all your woes because this (besides surgery) is really all there is to offer. However, it isn’t an actual solution. It is simply like putting one massive band aid over the uterus and leaving it there until it’s time to have babies. It isn’t a long-term solution. Truth be told, it isn’t until it’s time to make babies that you may find the problem is far bigger than initially thought – because your hormones have literally been in limbo for as long as you’ve been taking it, without a cycle or a rhythm. To add to this, once you decide to have a baby and decide to fix the problem – that takes time too. Chinese Medicine is so specific in diagnosis and treatment that there doesn’t need to be a definite conclusion of PCOS or Endometriosis or other gynecological problems – because even if we line up 10 women with endometriosis, the actual treatment wouldn’t necessarily be the same. This is why TCM works. It recognises that each woman is an individual and to get fertility to optimal levels, her unique make up needs to be totally considered. However, specific to any of these conditions, is first and foremost seeking out the correct diet and lifestyle changes that will assist in propelling your body to wellness. This is appropriate to every woman – not just those with endometriosis. Highly processed and sugary foods cause inflammation within the body and contribute considerably to endometriosis, just as consuming very cold foods that lead to the body’s digestive system (and other systems) almost seizing up. These factors absolutely worsen the symptoms of endometriosis. We’ve learnt time and time again here just how imperative it is that your digestive system is working well so it can go on to fuel the rest of your body. I often find that endometriosis is a lifestyle problem. You see, there isn’t a single condition on earth that responds well to poor lifestyle, no exercise, high stress and poor

environmental factors. Your reproductive health isn’t any different. Of course genetics also play a role in our constitution, and something we can’t change, but we can always improve our living situation to greatly benefit our bodies. Here is modern medicines biggest downfall when it comes to hormonal disturbances - it blames the menstrual cycle for many issues a woman may experience and assumes if we simply ‘switch it off’ all our problems will dissipate. If you are using the pill for menstrual irregularities, PMS, terrible periods, PCOS or Endometriosis it’s important to realise that your problem hasn’t gone away. It’s under there somewhere.

“I suffered from excruciating period pain. I would arrive at my period each month and be oh so sick. If there wasn’t a box of painkillers in sight I would freak out.” The only time I might say that the pill can be useful in this situation is to give you some space to think about what you are going to do to fix the problem – it can give you a few months to gather your thoughts and get on top to get a game plan in action. I designed fertility tea to support women’s overall hormone wellness – this isn’t limited to making babies, but extends through to all gynecological conditions as it helps to nourish and increase blood flow to the uterus. With increased nutrients to the uterus the body can go into treatment mode. Depending on the severity of endometriosis, the results will range from lessened period pain and cramping right through to repair and dissipation of the endometriosis. Your body is a clever unit. When it has what it needs it will absolutely heal and recover from all kinds of conditions including endometriosis. It’s a matter of supplying it with the right tools and environment to do so. Of course, alongside fertility tea, good diet and lifestyle is key and applying the principles of our ebook ‘Creating a Healthier You’ - is a great place to start in propelling your body toward not only improved reproductive/genealogical function, butalso all round wellness.

MAN TEA THIS POWERFUL BLEND HAS TAKEN THE WORLD OF FITNESS BY STORM. WHEN WE WERE CREATING MAN TEA, WE HAD THE KEY PURPOSE IN MIND FOR THE TEA TO FACILITATE GREATER MUSCLE DEFINITION, GROWTH OF LEAN MUSCLE MASS, INCREASED STRENGTH AND A REDUCTION IN EXCESS FATS. Well, well – that was certainly achieved and the end result is dynamite. Man Tea, is now a regular feature in many work out regimes for both men and women. Whilst the original aim for the herbs are being achieved, we are finding Man Tea is serving more than just those purposes.

MAN TEA... THE NITTY GRITTY OF HOW IT WORKS WITHIN THE BODY

Man Tea is calming stomachs worldwide. Why? One of the downfalls of drinking copious amounts of protein drinks, pre/post workout drinks and consuming high protein foods to aid muscle growth – is that it can unsettle the digestive system. Ironically, when the digestive system is upset, it is unable to provide optimal support for muscle growth and energy. Ultimately, one’s efforts in loading their bodies with protein can quickly become a win/lose scenario. Our Man Tea has been settling stomachs with the warming benefits of the herbs –allowing our MT drinker’s aesthetic goals to become a reality. One of our favourite blends is the Man Tea and we get a lot of people inquiring about it’s actions and benefits because it works so well it’s almost too good to be true! Reports of heightened energy, muscle growth and speedy recovery grace the Your Tea inbox frequently – so it’s a good time to share just why this little gem takes such good care of our men (and women too!). The Man Tea blend is full of ingredients with high antioxidant properties that help to assist in cleaning up the body right down to a cellular level. This is mostly noted as speedy recovery post workouts and because antioxidants are all about making your body work better, they treat inflammation which allows for greater muscle growth. The green tea found in this blend assists in boosting these benefits and adds another layer – not only is it busting with antioxidants but it helps to maintain muscle mass. It certainly is a wonder ingredient and a welcome effect to many who find it difficult to maintain strength. It may be useful to mention that whilst single herbal ingredients perform specific actions, it is also the synergy of the herbs together than increase therapeutic value. So for example, combining green tea with ginseng boosts the muscle growth action because the two support each other and bring out specific characteristics of each of the ingredients. What’s more, this combination also helps the body better metabolise and utilise protein – meaning stronger, bigger guns! Let’s not forget, we need to maximize your digestive ability for these effects to take place. If the gut function is sluggish or your gut is damaged, your body can’t adequately absorb the nutrients found in your food and drink. This is when we see symptoms of irregular bowels, bloating and fatigue. Thankfully we’ve taken this into consideration when creating all of our teas – and specifically the Man Tea goes to work on your gut too. This makes it extremely effective and reports tell us men are feeling fantastic with no bloating,

improved bowel function and all round wellbeing. Metabolism is also important to consider. Using ingredients that increase metabolism means that fat is burnt more efficiently and muscle growth is maximized. Music to any hard training mans ears! Muscles (just like all parts of your body) require specific nutrients to be fed and fuelled. We know protein is key for muscle growth – but as you see, it’s just one component. These other boxes must be ticked by way of nutrients via your vitamins and minerals.

It’s all about making your body work smarter, not harder. To make the formula even better, there are other herbal elements that assist in natural hormone production – meaning that they go to work in your body to promote your own hormones to work more effectively. Of course, we would never use anything synthetic – it’s all about making your body work smarter – not harder. So you see – our blend is very clever. By benefiting your gut, we can increase absorption for your body to readily convert this to energy, which in turn boosts your ability to train. It means that you grow stronger more rapidly and that your recovery is quicker – so you can train harder. All achieved without nasty ingredients, all working to support your overall health. It’s a winner! And may I just add that women can safely take this formula too without running the risk of growing a beard or chest hairs. It’s the gentle adaptive properties of this tea that make it appropriate for everybody with a heartbeat – simply because it makes your own bodies inner workings function better. So women won’t grow man arms or chunky legs – they will simply be more toned and able to train harder. It’s just another way you can be sure we’ve got your back (and muscles).

GROW LEAN, STRONG MUSCLE NATURALLY Building muscles the natural way is completely viable and when done correctly, the results are too! Dr. Nat Kringdous explains... Naturally, men are better at increasing and maintaining muscle. Of course, it’s not as if women don’t have muscles, in fact some women’s builds are leaner and more defined than her male partner but on the whole, men unsurprisingly are more muscly by nature. The crux of the reason being that men are naturally higher in testosterone – the hormone that is responsible for not only sexual function but equally dedicated toward muscle mass, bone density and facial hair. If we understand that foods can influence how our hormones play out, it becomes apparent that eating to support hormone health is key. Certain foods now days contain known phytoestrogens and equally environmental pollutants (xenooestrogens) can influence the natural state of our hormone balance. For men, consuming large amount of oestrogen influencing food can be a disaster and have dire effects on overall wellness. In any case it’s important to understand why our bodies need certain foods and why others you can pass the plate along. Food is medicine, it’s nourishment and it’s our healer.

Today I’m sharing my top in’s and out’s when it comes to foods to pump up the guns and move toward a leaner you

AVOID FOODS THAT AFFECT OESTROGEN

FAT – THE ULTIMATE SHREDDER

These foods include soy, whole grains, flaxseed and alcohol. These foods contain properties call phytoestrogen that mimic our bodies own oestrogen, meaning hormone balance is affected. It doesn’t mean that these foods shouldn’t be eaten, it means that understanding how much your body needs is key.

Coconut butter/oil is my all time favorite secret to a leaner you. It helps to boost the metabolism and sets the thyroid into action. You can’t over eat it – your body just wont let you. On average I’d say around 4-6 tablespoons per day.

BE MINDFUL OF GMO FOODS.

GREENS

Foods that have been genetically modified can be particularly difficult to digest. They can place unnecessary toxic load on the digestive system making them tiresome to break down and the effect may be weight gain. Foods such as corn and soy are highly modified and should be avoided long term.

Keeping the body alkalized with increased protein content means that greens are your best friend. In fact, filling up your plate with greens of all varieties will help to keep your body nutritionally satisfied meaning you won’t crave foods that don’t serve you or your muscles.

HYDRATE FOR WEIGHT LOSS Muscles thrive with hydration. In fact 70% of our bodies are water and our muscles rely on water to work properly. Our Man Tea not only hydrates but helps to build and maintain good muscle mass. You can drink Man Tea and reap the benefits – it’s two fold!

It’s important to remember that a well balanced diet is key for wellbeing. Cutting out major food groups can be disastrous especially without special care. Using these simple guidelines will allow you to move toward a leaner, stronger body with more energy, quicker recovery meaning more time doing the things you love most!

DON’T OVER DO THE PROTEIN The body can really only absorb up to 100gm of protein per sitting – and this figure will vary from person to person. It’s important to not overdo it on the protein front. Be mindful that eating your body weight in protein each and every day won’t necessarily see your body leaner, but more likely larger all round! Unless you’re a body builder you’d be looking at consuming up to 250gm of protein per day.

SKIN HEALTH For those who are blessed with gorgeous glowing skin... We applaud you, because your body is happy with you interanally. Is your skin temperamental? To this we can suggest your body is a little annoyed with you internally. Never fear, you can easily make ammends. Why? Because the health of your skin starts from within. Your skin health is a direct reflection of your internal health - something that Dr. Nat Kringoudis drums home to us daily.

Dr. Nat Kringoudis You may have wondered just how the food you eat can actually affect the skin on your face. I want to share with you how it is all very much connected. Because we here at Your Tea want you to not only experience health on a new level, we want you to understand just why it’s so important to break things down and specifically understand exactly how your body works, so that you can make well educated decisions that better your life. We’ve spoken about digestion and gut function before, and we had many of you eager to learn more about just why specific ailments have miraculously cleared up since introducing Your Tea to your regime. We’re delighted with this ‘effect’ of Your Tea we must say, but it’s no surprise to us all things considered. Reports of less period pain, more energy and clearer skin are just some of the wonderful feedback we’ve received – and we love hearing this because we know how awesome the benefits of our tea’s are, but when you’re doing back flips in excitement that your body is loving every minute of the experience, we can’t help get excited too! Your skin is your largest organ and the most exposed yet often most neglected. It provides a protective barrier from the surrounding environment to your organs.

Just like all organs, it likes to be well fed and nourished and this process actually begins with the gut and digestive system. When the spleen and stomach (gut) can assimilate the food and drink you consume easily (when the gut is in good health), it can go on to nourish and fuel every part of you.

“We want you to understand just why it is so important to break things down and specifically understand exactly how your body works” It requires that intricate digestive process to convert nutrients, which go on to deliver the fundamentals to nourish your skin. But when digestion isn’t working well, we can very quickly see conditions arise and one of the most common is bad skin – be it acne, eczema, psoriasis or general dryness because the gut isn’t performing this role. Several things happen when the gut can’t support this.

Firstly – some of the food and drink we

eat simply can’t be broken down easily by a sluggish, poor functioning, deficient gut and as a direct result, the body goes into overdrive in attempt to detoxify and rid of the matter that is causing havoc. A good example of this is dairy. Dairy causes a variety of reactions especially via the skin. This is basically your bodies best way to swiftly eliminate something it can’t deal with

for many people breaking down the lactose of cows milk is just too much for the gut to handle. This can also be why we see diarrhea as another quick mode of transport ‘out’ in people who are lactose intolerant – because the body wants it out! Eczema and acne are two very common conditions flared up with dairy. Secondly – eating poor quality food, overloading with sugar or alcohol or not drinking enough water can place great strain on the organs, meaning they can’t function at their optimal level. Again as a result, the body attempts to push out the culprit via the skin in order to function better. Studies have confirmed increased acne and skin associated problems in people who have poor gut health and poor gut bacteria present. Stress and poor gut health is also a bad

combination and have been linked to troubled skin too. Whatever way you look at it, anything that places your digestion under arrest can lead to problems. Of course we can look at it also from a hormone perspective whereby when our gut can’t absorb nutrients from our food to make hormones, we can see pimples especially along the jaw-line and neck. Pimples found on the chin and around the mouth are definitely intolerance related (hello Fertility Tea!) The combination of the right diet principles, adequate fluid intake and an active lifestyle are the cornerstone to managing and healing acne. So to have good skin, you must have a healthy gut, which is exactly what the Tiny Teatox achieves. The special blend of herbal ingredients maximize digestive power, to ensure that your body is well supported from tip to toe. This is also why we see so many other conditions clear up and why weight loss is readily experienced using this blend – because when the gut is fuelling the body, it has everything we require. When we don’t over eat, our skin looks amazing and we run with a full tank. Perhaps you’ve been wondering if you’d benefit from Your Tea and you’re yet to experience its benefits. I’m confident to say, you’d be amazed that by adding something so simple, you can feel so healthy!” The topic of skin health - how to achieve it and how to discover its intricacies - can be explained in our ‘Making Skin Magic’ E-Book. We were getting myriads of questions from people wanting to improve their skin - this ebook was the answer to every question one could ask. The magical E-Book written by Dr. Nat Kringoudis contains in-depth advice, tips and recipes to understand just what you can do to improve your skin health now and for the long term.

You can find the entire ‘Making Skin Magic’ E-Book online directly from www.yourtea.com 25

RECIPE #1

Yoghurt

with stewed fruit

YOGHURT WITH STEWED FRUIT Fruit is super easy to stew, and easy to digest!

INGREDIENTS 1/4 Cup of water 1 Apple 1/4 Rhubarb 1 Pear Handful of Prunes 1/2 Cup of Granola METHOD • Simply remove the peel or rind, roughly chop • Add 1/4 of water • Stew until soft You can stew almost anything, and use a combination of fruits to spice things up. I love stewed apples. Rhubarb is delicious too, especially when pear is added, as the sweet and sour flavours combine well. You can also warm up prunes for a delectable treat.

• Add some granola and yoghurt, and you have a treat worth sharing! SERVES

RECIPE #2

Veggie Burgers

with tomato and feta

VEGGIE BURGERS WITH TOMATO AND FETA The good old veggie burger gets a bad wrap - being the clique ‘vegeterian meal’ . Thing is - its darn delicous dish and can be adapted to use whatever you have lingering in your fridge. I used what I had in mine, and topped it off with some tomato and fetta (because it too was lingering in my fridge, screaming to be eaten).

INGREDIENTS 1 Onion 2 Potatoes (Grated and any liquid squeezed out) 1 Carrot 2 Eggs 2 Slices of gluten free bread (crusts removed) 3 Tbs Rice flour Handful of Chopped Parsley Salt and pepper to taste 1 Tomato sliced Goats cheese METHOD • Grate or chop veggies in a food processor and combine in a bowl • Add remaining ingredients, ensuring the bread is completely soggy and mixed through well - it should have a batter like consistency once this is achieved • Heat oil in pan. Once ready, spoon in desired size batter and cook both sides • Top with tomato, fetta and drizzle with oil • Serve with a green salad SERVES