Day 60: Green Tea With Mango (Loose Leaf)

Today I finally got back into my good pattern of getting up to a cup of green tea, doing my morning pages, going for a walk, and then starting my day.  It's amazing how long it took me to get back into it, but as I was going (and being tempted to berate myself and beat myself up for how I'd fallen off the regular-pattern-wagon), I realised that that's just a part of exercise. And discipline. And life. If you have a period of time where you've done really, really well - getting up early every day, eating healthy, walking or running, being disciplined with emails, achieving all kinds of things - there is always, always going to be a period where you just can't do it anymore.

And instead of attacking myself for what I haven't done, I'm seriously considering just letting that be part of the process.  Obviously lying around watching films all day is not something you want to just let happen whenever, but sometimes you get sick. Or are jet lagged. Or have put out 110% for the last six months and just can't do it anymore.  And falling back is part of the process.  It means you've been doing everything right.  It means you need a rest (and perhaps have been pushing too hard).  And it means you're human.

At the end of the day, I'm always going to get back on the wagon and go forward. I'm never going to just lie around being useless, because I hate that.  And this week I've already started to see increased enthusiasm and energy - and it could just be that all this renewal came from me being down for a little while.  Regardless, I'm back in the pattern.  And all is good.

Today's tea was Green Tea with Mango - but the loose leaf version that I got from Tea's Me Cafe.  Gosh, this tea is good. If I had to pick one tea as a favourite from the entire 60 days so far, it really might be this one.  (Okay, the Angels' Kiss is a very close second.)  It's light, refreshing, fruity but not overwhelmingly so, has just the right amount of green tea for flavour but not for bitterness, has a pale yellow colour and fresh fruity flavour that means I can drink cup after cup without any bad effects other than an inability to fall asleep at night! :)


I've also discovered that I can use my cafetiere (which I use for ground coffee) with my loose leaf tea as an infuser alternative.  I'm pretty impressed with myself.  I don't have a tea infuser or infused teapot or any of those fun things (hint, hint, anyone who's thinking of sending a gift for any reason), and I have tried a variety of options before I hit on this cafetiere idea. I tried putting the tea leaves in a teapot, and then straining them out as I poured.  It worked okay, but made a big mess.  I have a tea-spoon with holes that works well for a cup of tea, but not so much for a whole pot.  So here then is my answer.  I'm still learning how much tea to use (I always put in too much), and the lesson is: use very little!

Walk/run length: 40 minutes