Food & Lifestyle


If you follow me on Instagram you may have seen my Insta-stories and posts while I was away visiting the beautiful greek island of Santorini. 

I have written up my travel diary in three parts, Our Villa, Places to Eat and Places to See. This post is all about where we stayed, our beautiful Villa in a little village called Vouvolous, just outside the main town of Fira. 


Tomorrow I am off to Santorini for my sisters 'Hen Do Holiday' so I asked on twitter what my readers wanted to see me write about in terms of holiday packing. The winner was 'What's In My Hand Luggage" so here it is, a post on what I will be taking with me on to the plane.


Recently I was sent a sample package to review, which included a variety of products by UFIT, a high protein drink brand.  They aim to reach people that are looking for a healthier snack alternative for a healthy lifestyle and that is great for on the go.

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Recently I asked my lovely twitter followers to tell me what posts they would like to see on beautybakingbella and surprisingly health/lifestyle & fitness posts won over my food recipes (don't worry there are going to be more recipes coming up later this month.)

I recently took a beginners Cake Decorating Class which lasted for six weeks on a Tuesday evening. If you follow me on Instagram you may have seen some of the bits I made in class each week. If not then here is a little post sharing my cake decorating journey and how I got on in my classes.

Recently I decided to do a 14 day Teatox using BOOTEA. This was the first time I had ever done anything like this before, I've never even done a diet. Firstly, I chose BOOTEA because it is a brand I have seen and heard of a lot over the years so I decided that I would use their 14 Day Teatox for my first try. My decision to do a teatox was not to lose weight but to have a full cleanse and detox in my body. 

I eat healthy all the time (if you follow my Instagram and Instagram Stories you will know by how many food photos I post!) and I exercise 2-3 times a week, so I have a balanced and healthy lifestyle and eating habits. This is recommended before starting a teatox to see the best results and it is a good habit to get into, I feel amazing for it. Check out my My Top Tips For A Healthy Lifestyle post for some great tips and suggestions.


The BOOTEA 14 Day Teatox kit is £19.99, I got mine from Boots while doing a toiletry shop. I did wait a while before I started as I wanted to be 100% sure I wanted do the detox.

The kit came with two bags, one had 14 daytime teabags and the other had 7 bedtime teabags. The daytime teabags were to be drunk as soon as or just after waking and to be brewed in nearly boiling water for 3 minutes. The bedtime teabags were brewed the same but drank every other night starting on the first day of the teatox.

In case you are wondering what the teabags are, here is the list of ingredients of each teabag.

The daytime teabags:

Oolong tea
Yerba Mate
Ginger
Lemongrass
Fennel
Danelion Leaf
Siberian Ginseng
Nettle
Gotu

The bedtime teabags:

Peppermint
Fenugreek seeds
Psyllium Seeds
Liquorice
Burdock root
Hawthorn leaves
Dessicated Coconut

So here is how I got on..


WEEK 1

I drink a variety of herbal teas daily so knowing that I had to drink these every day was no issue for me. These teabags were slightly more pungent than my normal herbal teas and the night time ones tasted even more sour; but that was nothing a quarter teaspoon of honey couldn't sort out. I drank the daytime tea within the first half hour of waking every morning. After the first day I noticed that I looked less bloated (I usually get bloated when eating any carbs and some fruits) and even after meals my stomach didn't looked bloated at all.

The bedtime tea, at first was difficult to drink as the taste was very strong but I did get used to it after a few days.

On the second day I noticed upon waking that my stomach looked "flatter" and this actually continued on for the full 14 days of the teatox.

After 7 days I weighed myself and I had lost 2 lbs which surprised me as my aim wasn't to lose weight. My waistline also looked slimmer and overall I was very impressed with the results I was seeing.



WEEK 2

Continuing my teatox into the second week I was very positive at what my end result would be as I felt good and full of energy. However, on day 11 I started to notice some stomach cramping and mood changes. I developed regular stomach cramps like I've never experienced before (and I suffer from IBS!) I was feeling full really quickly when I ate and actually lost my appetite by day 12. On day 13 (sorry to be so graphic but I want to be honest here) I wasn't able to go to the toilet. Now, I usually drink at least 2 litres of water a day and eat very good and whole foods so this was not normal for me. I however continued to finish the final day 14 and it wasn't until the following day when I had not drank anymore tea that my stomach cramps had disappeared completely. A few days later I got my appetite back and felt normal again.

Overall I lost 4 lbs and physically saw a reduction in my waistline so this Teatox obviously works but at what cost?! After talking to a few friends and colleagues, who had also done this exact teatox, it surprised me that they too had the same symptoms of cramping, trapped wind and constipation towards the end of their teatox.

Now I'm wondering was it really worth me putting myself through those painful last few days just to lose a few pounds that I know I could do on my own with changing my food portions and more exercise?!

I personally WON'T be doing this BOOTEA teatox again but it hasn't put me off trying alternate styles or brands of teatox as maybe some of the ingredients in these teabags really didn't agree with my body.

Have you tried the BOOTEA teatox? What did you think? If you have any alternative teatox recommendations please leave them in the comments, thank you - Pinar


Love & Light


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