We have a guest blogger for you today and we couldn’t be more excited about it.
Maria Uspenski is the founder of The Tea Spot, a leading producer of craft teas, based in Boulder, CO. The first time we met with Maria to co-create a line of detox teas, we quickly realized what a special human being we were with. MIT graduate, inventor, former ballet dancer, athlete, and author of Cancer Hates Tea, Maria’s passion for tea is infectious.
Maria is the The Tea Spot’s innovative force, having realized the powerful healing benefits of tea through her own personal journey with cancer. Her message is simple and powerful – tea in its freshest form is not only sustainable and delicious, it’s a powerful elixir with unmatched health benefits. Maria is a social entrepreneur, cancer fighter and certified tea and fitness nutrition expert, and we couldn’t be more excited to share her story with you today!
The Conscious vs. The Cleanse
By Maria Uspenski
Although I’ve been working on tea development with the founders of the Conscious Cleanse for the past 18 months, I’d never previously engaged in one of their cleanse sessions “full-on.” I’d read their book, of course, and followed a cleanse via email and calls vicariously, so to speak. But due to travel and professional obligations that involved FOOD, the conditions had never seemed ideal to get settled in enough to honestly follow through with the program.
And besides… who really wants to just jump in and volunteer to do a CLEANSE for two weeks anyway, right? It just didn’t seem social or practical, and besides – I’d read the book, I studied nutrition, I eat my veggies, I know how to eat… or so i thought.
As a cancer fighter, I’m fanatically passionate about keeping my body’s immune system in tip-top shape and have always looked to nutrition as a training tool for athletic and physical performance events. However, I’ve never considered nutrition as a tool for handling what I took to be environmental allergy-related conditions or my overall mood, which I’ve always thought was as good as it could get. Well, guess again.
The Conscious Cleanse allowed me to discover more about my body’s relationship with food than I’d ever dreamed possible. In less than a week, not only was I strutting around at a constantly euphoric energy level, but I’d ditched what I thought was a chronic sinus condition that had been with me for years.
You don’t need to fear this 2-week program. You don’t need to even get hungry. It’s far more ‘conscious’ than ‘cleanse.’
The downside? Yes, you’ll be shopping and cooking for an hour a day, and the first Purification Weekend almost took me DOWN. (PS: I didn’t follow instructions and pay attention to the program’s warnings about how to handle that weekend).
Below I’m sharing a recipe for a vegan Turmeric ‘latte,’ which ultimately helped me pull through that weekend like a star. It didn’t hurt that my local yoga studio had a supportive and inspirational book club meeting down the block that weekend as well!
Turmeric Tonic Latte
Yield: 1 serving
Ingredients:
- 2 rounded tsp (or one tea sachet) Organic Turmeric Tonic herbal tea
- 15 oz. boiling water
- 1 TB. coconut oil
- 1½ tsp. flax seed oil
Instructions:
Place 2 rounded teaspoons (or one tea sachet) of Organic Turmeric Tonic and 15 oz boiling water in steeping mug and steep for 8 minutes. Pour into high speed blender with coconut oil and flaxseed oil. Blend on high for 30 seconds. Open lid carefully, contents are hot! Pour back into empty steeping mug and enjoy!
