Question: Is there a support group for green tea addicts?
If there is, then I need to be in it. Guys, I NEED HELP!!!!
I drink so much green tea in a day that sometimes I end up getting nauseous (this is usually when it hits me that it’s time to eat).
And, I am not trying to accomplish anything by drinking copious amounts of the beverage, I just love how it tastes, the bitter the better (too often, I catch myself wondering what exactly is wrong with me, you’re probably wondering the same thing aren’t you?)
I absolutely love green tea.
On normal days, I can take at least four large cups of green tea, much to the astonishment of those around me (mainly my mum, dad, brothers, John, cousins, farm assistants, and my friends in church – yes people, I carry green tea bags to church).
Oh, and get this, it’s always sugarless.
Hahaha, I love the look on people’s faces when they ask to taste my tea, and find that it’s sugarless. That look is… PRICELESS!!
I stopped sweetening my tea a few years ago, mainly because the scientists were and are still saying that we should reduce our consumption of sugar. I also stopped drinking soda for that exact same reason. I don’t actually know if I am healthier than the people who do consume these products, but, my body still works optimally (I believe), so I must be doing something right!
Anyway, back to green tea!
I started drinking green tea while in campus (I’d like to say 2nd year) because my research (extensively done by the way) had shown that it could help make my hair grow longer. It and neem (mwarubaini).
Side note: I have always been obsessed with long hair, ever since I was a young girl. I would pray every night for my hair to grow longer and for me to grow taller.
Why? Because I thought I would be prettier if I had longer hair and if I were taller (absurd, I know).
Suffice to say the height bit never quite worked out. I’m like 5.2″ now, so yeah, those prayers were never answered 😤😤😤.
Okay, now seriously, back to green tea.
Neem was way too bitter even for me, so I decided to go with the green tea, and boy oh boy, did I find a lifetime obsession.
I drank green tea religiously in one semester, and my hair actually grew! It grew! I was so estatic! And it was during the time I was transitioning from permed hair to natural. It looked wonderful!
So, yeah, it helped my hair grow back then. Just a little but it was noticeably thicker and longer.
Another awesome thing happened when I drank green tea that semester. I was a heavy smoker back then and green tea somehow helped quell the urges.
I was gobsmacked! Longer hair, less smoking, my life was seemingly on the right track.
You would expect that I would continue taking this miraculous beverage because of its visible benefits.
Nope! Not this girl! I honestly don’t even know why I stopped taking it, and my addictions continued to spiral out of control. My hair did not fare so well either.
But, I was young, dumb, and reckless back then, so it’s understandable. Not much has changed though, so no need to get your hopes up 🙃🙃🙃😏😏😏.
I cleared campus in 2014, and had spent the whole of 2015 in Meru so that I could get to know my biological father better. Or was it so that I could drink myself to death unencumbered?
I’m thinking it was both.
There was hardly any green tea consumption during this time, just a lot of booze, even more than in campus. By the way, my drinking escapades here were LEGENDARY…. they were crazy, but still the stuff of legends.
But, in 2016, when I moved back to Nairobi, I took up green tea again, and I swear weird things started to happen.
No, I didn’t and haven’t grown taller, if that’s what you were thinking (insert eye roll).
But, my hair, OH MY GOODNESS!! Let’s just say that my dreams have come true in terms of hair. I have luscious dreadlocks that are so long, and my mother (and nearly everyone I meet) is in constant awe (over my hair- not my height).
(I would show you a picture but Wahu didn’t raise a braggart 😋😋).
Other than the green tea, I think that having a great loctician has also played a seriously huge role in how healthy my hair is.
Another weird thing- I don’t smoke anymore. I have been cigarette free for close to two years now, which, to me, has been an amazing feat.
I quit smoking gradually, and naturally, and at first, I didn’t even notice that I wasn’t smoking anymore. The urges just dissipated by themselves without any intervention, medical or otherwise.
I can’t even believe that I used to smoke, let alone the fact that I had been addicted to cigarette smoking for years! It’s like that entire phase of my life has been erased. I honestly can’t even remember the taste or even the brands. It’s literally like I have never smoked a cigarette in my life!
I don’t know if there are chemicals in the green tea that can actually control your urges or if I just swapped one unhealthy addiction (cigarettes) for another healthier one (green tea), but whatever the case, I am so proud of myself for quitting this disastrous behaviour.
And then, there was the alcohol. This one was a bit harder to break, and took a longer time to overcome, but I can honestly and proudly claim that I no longer drink. Not a sip! Not even wine! And this is coming from a girl who used to be drunk from Monday to Monday less than two years ago.
Of course, leaving these time consuming habits has enabled me to focus on other areas of my life, especially my writing. I have been able to build a stable freelance writing career from scratch in the last two years, and even here, green tea has been extremely instrumental.
My ability to focus improves dramatically when I am sipping cups of my favourite tea while writing as opposed to when I am writing without consuming the tea.
Again, I don’t know why this happens, but it is an observation I have made countless of times.
Lastly, I have a strong conviction that green tea has altered my metabolism, and my ability to lose and gain weight.
Before I started taking green tea regularly, I was a very poor eater. The poorest eater of all poor eaters, and as a result, I was a very tiny girl. I just didn’t like eating, I found it boring and time consuming.
Nowadays, things have changed drastically!
I’m still petite, that’s for sure, but I am not as thin as I used to be. Why? I eat like a crazy person nowadays, because of my high metabolism thanks to all of the green tea I drink daily. I eat, drink green tea, and within a few hours, I need something else to bite.
Funny thing, my weight has not changed much even with my ever-growing appetite. I’m still 48 kgs, despite all of the food I eat. I know it seems small for a girl so close to 30 years, but I am actually very healthy and strong. I think I was just born to be small, and there is very little I can do about that.
So, that’s it;- my journey with green tea, and the changes I have noticed ever since I started consuming it.
I’m not saying that green tea is a miracle cure for everything under the sun, but, I am sure glad that I drink it!!
If you have a green tea story, feel free to share it with me in the comments.
❤️❤️❤️……
KUI'S WORLD 