There have been several posts in the blogosphere recently that have mentioned one of my favorite beverages. Kombucha! Correct pronunciation (as far as I know) = com-BOO-chah. Around the Overall Fitness household, it's just known as "bucha".
Since I make/brew my own and drink 4-6 oz of the stuff after nearly every meal, I thought I might join the trend and do a little post of my own.
First, with a little help from www.kombucha.org, here is what it is...
The Kombucha Culture, sometimes mistakenly referred to as a mushroom, is a symbiotic, probiotic colony of yeast and bacteria (the friendly type). Kombucha Tea is made by combining the culture, with a mixture of black tea, and sugar. The ingredients are allowed to "ferment", usually from 7-10 days. The resulting beverage contains dozens of elements, many of which are known to promote healing for a variety of conditions.
Now, with assistance from www.getkombucha.com, here's why I drink it...
Top 10 Noticeable Benefits of Drinking Kombucha Tea Daily
+ Prevents Acid Reflux
+ Assists With Weight Loss
+ Aids in Digestion of Heavy Meals
+ Strengthens Hair, Restores Hair
+ More Energy in the Morning
+ Helps With Sleep
+ Relives Constipation
+ Post Work Out Recovery Drink (Cardiovascular and Resistance Training)
+ Reduces Severity of Hangovers
+ Better Skin Complexion, Tighter Skin Tone
Not too shabby, eh?
Now to my brewing process. My ingredients are as follows:
- 3 quarts (96 oz) of fresh, filtered water
- 1 C sugar (I use cheap white sugar)
- 6 tea bags (any tea will do EXCEPT herbal teas)
- 1 Kombucha culture
- 1 C or so of previously brewed kombucha
Next, I brew the tea with 6 bags for 10 minutes (or longer).
Starting out...
After the tea has brewed it's time to add it to the jar where it will be fermenting for 7-10 days (or more if it's cooler in the house).
I pour one quart of water into the freshly brewed tea to cool it off. We now have 2 quarts of liquid.
The 3rd quart gets poured directly into the fermenting jar.
The 2 quarts of cooled tea then get added to the fermenting jar. I put a paper towel over the jar and secure it with a rubber band.
All set to hang out for a few days...
Flash forward to tonight and we're all set to bottle it up!
Bottled and ready for drinking...
WORKOUT - CHEST/ABS
2 supersets of the Week 8 Day 5 workout were chest related, followed by a superset of abs work
Superset 1: Incline DB Flye, Dips - Chest version (I had to do some assisted reps here...phew!)
Superset 2: DB Front Lateral Raises (palms up), Incline Push Ups (I got creative and used 2 chairs and ladder!)
Superset 3: Mountain Climbers w/ ankle weights, Reverse Ball Crunches
Total Time => 46:13
Comments:
I have to admit, I just did not have it in the home gym today. My strength was lacking; particularly on the dumbbell flyes. Good thing tomorrow is cardio work only.
Legs were not sore but stiff for sure. They got worked well.
I went with 8 LB weights on my ankles today while doing mountain climbers. Abs...done.
It was a good week in the home gym even though today was somewhat disappointing.
Strict form continues to be a point of focus.
DIET - PROTEIN DEPRIVATION
My post-workout meal this morning was delicious. I cooked up 2 eggs sunny-side up with half a red pepper and a few slices of red onion in a teaspoon or so of coconut oil. I put them on a piece of Ezekiel bread along side 2 oz of homemade grass fed beef meatloaf. The eggies were followed up by 2 of Polly's oaty cakes with a TBS of organic butter and 2 TBS of pure Ohio maple syrup.
Mid-morning snack was 3 carob energy cubes along with a handful of raw nut mix (cashews, almonds, walnuts, Brazil nuts).
Lunch was a fantastic cashew salad with cabbage cole slaw mix, red peppers, carrots, and scallions dressed with an almond butter, rice vinegar, lemon juice dressing. The recipe was from our favorite Ultra-Metabolism Cookbook by Dr. Mark Hyman. This salad is really, really good.
At snack time, I had a green bell pepper with lemony hummus.
Dinner was eggplant parm from Day 51 along with some roasted, organic spaghetti squash from the farmer's market. Delicious is an understatement. (~:
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