WEIGHT LOSS UPDATE: Ok to make matters worse with our weight loss contest, a wonderful woman I work with in Sales and Marketing just lost 10 lbs in 3 weeks using Jenny Craig. Meanwhile my friendly Vice Presidents (VP HR and VP S&M) have lost 2 and 5 pounds respectively in 14 weeks.

What is wrong with this picture?

I will tell you that by venting my frustration on our blog about the lack of progress, the VP Sales and Marketing seems to be much more serious about this endeavor. Maybe that is the piece of the puzzle I needed to better motivate them. He read what some people said on our facebook fan page and felt re-engerized, so thank you to you guys. You are obviously carrying more influence than I am, but it is all for the same good cause.

Keep up the comments…

Cindi Bigelow

Still working on those New Year’s Resolutions? With the first quarter coming to an end, don’t give up just yet — help is on the way, and is right there in your tea cup. We know that catechins, the major component of green tea extract, has several positive physiologic effects on the body. A new study however, shows that these antioxidant compounds from green tea also help promote fat loss. Green tea is a rich source of catechins, (a sub-class of flavonoids), long known for their antioxidant activity. Antioxidant properties play a beneficial role in our health — but this new study from the American Society of Nutrition underscores that tea catechins may help actually promote weight loss.

Published in The Journal of Nutrition, it was found that consuming green tea catechins (625mg/d) may enhance the exercise-induced loss of abdominal fat, and improve your triglyceride levels. An exercise routine in your weight loss/maintenance program is important, and the properties of green tea play an important role. In another study from Federal University of Santa Catarina, resistance training and weight-lifting increased the production of free radicals — sometimes beyond the body’s antioxidant defense capacity — causing oxidative stress. Results from the study suggest that tea offered significant protection against this oxidative damage, providing benefits before and after exercise.

The affirmative health properties of tea continue to make news, and predictions are that the US market for tea will double over the next five years with the growing interest in wellness. There are many new green tea flavored products on the market too, (including green colored, green tea-flavored Kit Kat candy bars, recently launched in Japan). But THAT won’t help with weight management, so best to just enjoy your daily tea routine and let that work for you, and those 2009 resolutions!

For many, the new year is a time for getting in shape. For over 40 years, Weight Watchers has been helping people get active and lose weight in a healthy way. Recently, it seems that they too have taken an interest in tea and its many benefits. In one section of their site, “The Skinny On…”, they offer some wonderful information about tea.

For starters, it helps to know the basic differences between tea. There are true teas like white and green, coming from the same ‘Camellia Sinensis’ plant, and herbal teas like chamomile, which is an infusion of herbs and tea in hot water. Of course, the possible health benefits of tea are in there as well. Oolong tea has been all the rage lately and has been linked to longevity, and in keeping with the goal of Weight Watchers, green tea has been linked to weight loss.

Another benefit of tea is that it has about half the caffeine as a cup of coffee, so it won’t keep you up at night. However, for some people, any caffeine at all is too much. Check out this great video by Cindi Bigelow, President, on how to decaffeinate your own tea:

The many possible benefits of tea are constantly being discovered. For even more potential New Year Tea-lutions, click here!

It should come as no surprise that Rachael Ray may lose her voice from time to time. After all, the recently turned 40-year-old celebrity has her own talk show. After a doctor’s visit she learned that she had damaged her vocal cords. What’s her cure? In addition to some other treatments, “she has been…downing herbal tea”.

Photo Courtesy of Usmagazine.com

However that’s not the only reason she drinks tea. She has used her talk show as a platform to rave about new research linking oolong tea to weight loss. She admitted to drinking oolong everyday in a successful effort to shed some pounds. According to the Journal of Nutrition, a study performed showed that “oolong tea stimulated energy expenditure and fat oxidation”. They do however note that these results were based on the chronic consumption of tea and a normal diet. Oolong tea has even been associated with possibly increasing longevity. Want to try for yourself? Get your own oolong today!