Each week we'll be bringing you the step-by-step daily self care routines of some of the biggest names in wellness.
Jenya Di Pierro quit a lucrative job in banking to retrain as a herbal medicine practitioner. She's since become a big believer in the healing power of plants and, last year, took her newfound passion and set up one of the most talked about wellness centres in London, Cloud Twelve.
We caught up with the CEO to find out how she runs a business and fits those all-important wellness rituals in to her schedule.
The first thing I do in the morning is give a kiss and a hug to my husband, then go to the garden to do Pranayama breathing exercises. Pranayama is amazing for restoring physical and emotional balance and doing it barefoot gives an extra benefit of normalizing the body's biological rhythms, reducing inflammation and slowing down ageing process.
I start my day with a glass of warm water with a dash of lemon, turmeric and pepper, followed by a shot of probiotics. This mix flushes the main channels of detoxification – lymph, liver, kidneys and enhances metabolism. For breakfast I usually make a smoothie with berries, medicinal herbs (astragalus, milk thistle, burdock root) and superfoods (wheatgrass, maca, spirulina), followed by a homemade buckwheat toast with natural sugar jam and a cup of black coffee. I always rotate my herbs and superfoods, as diversity of nutrients is very important for gut health.
I usually do PT training twice a week and I love dancing. I am also a fan of outdoor sports, whenever my husband and I can get away, we go hiking, travel to the lakes to wake board or to the mountains to snow board.
My morning skincare regime is simple. After washing my face I apply Organic Pharmacy Herbal Toner, Organic Pharmacy Rose Plus Marine Collagen Complex or Comfort Zone Sublime Skin Cream. I finish with Heliocare sun protection oil-free gel.
A couple of times a week I do Fascial stretch self massage. It takes 15 minutes and does wonders to my wrinkles.
For lunch I usually have a salad and some kind of healthy vegan protein. I am addicted to Shepardless pie at Cloud Twelve Brasserie that has a soy mince base and sweet potato mash topped with rosemary and thyme - just irresistible.
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I am a herbalist and have created a range of botanical teas that I drink throughout the day at Cloud Twelve. For stress we have a Sereni-tea with passionflower, avena straw, lemon balm and rose, which boosts mood, lifts anxiety and has a calming effect on the body.
When I am exhausted I lay down on the Dolomites Quartz bed at our spa, relax and enjoy the healing power of stones. The quartz are warm and feel like sand on the beach and reset my energy levels in just 20 minutes.
I swear by herbal shots. Whether it’s an allergy, headache or cold, we have over 300 herbs in our herbal dispensary to support me and my team throughout the day.
Dinner at home is simple – any combination of steamed broccoli, hummus, cauliflower puree, gluten free tomato penne, courgetti or guacamole. We make a lot of blended recipes as they ease stomach’s workload and help speed up digestion, especially if we have to eat late.
I sleep really well, so I do not need to focus too much on sleep hygiene, however I always try to make sure we are in bed before 11:30 not to miss out on the peak in melatonin production. This sleep hormone is also a potent anti-oxidant and protects against DNA damage acting as a scavenger of free radicals, that is one of the reasons why sleep is so important for preventing signs of skin ageing.
I am a hot tub person, that’s what I miss the most about living in Japan, where I spent most of my adult life. At home I mainly take showers. I always plan to take a bath, but sadly there is never enough time..
I make my own herbal supplement mix, which changes depending on my health goals at the time. It can be any combination of digestive support, liver detox, stress relief, skin support or immunity boosting herbs, which I take in tincture form.
Recently I have been having regular vitamin infusions. Launching a start up takes a toll on your health and I need to make sure I overflood my body with nutrients in order to have top energy levels during this demanding time.
My regular beauty treatment is a Holistic Facelift that uses fascial stretching techniques mentioned above. As we age, fascia moves from its original position, pulling skin with it and creating wrinkles. This facelift works by applying gentle pressure to fascia to encourage the release and correction of fascial restrictions. The key is precision, this is what differentiate our facelift from other fascial stretching techniques. You need to know the exact direction of stretching in order to lift fascia to its original position and if you do this regularly, muscles will be trained to stay in the right place and you will get a long lasting effects, such as reduction in the appearance of lines and wrinkles, improved facial tone and tightness and redefined facial contour. We worked with remedial gymnastics therapist and author of Fascia Engineering Method, Svetlana Afanaseva to develop this facelift and it is exclusive to Cloud Twelve.
The most extreme thing I do is Homotoxicology, an alternative medicine therapy, which involves taking home bottles of diluted toxic substances that can give rise to symptoms and thus excretes homotoxins.
I regularly have acupuncture. Acupuncture activates the body’s meridians and directs energy to where it is needed the most; essentially it makes every process in the body and every herb or nutrient that we take more potent. I love how intuitive it is.
My favourite herb is Echinacea, which is best known for its effectiveness to combat colds, flu and many other bacterial, viral and fungal. It’s a great alternative to antibiotics especially for those who have developed resistance to them. Differently to antibiotics, Echinacea does not blindly attack bacteria; it increases activity of white blood cells in the body, which then differentiate between beneficial flora and pathogens.
I also love comfrey for trauma, it is called ‘knitbone’ in folklore for its ability to regenerate tissues and ‘knit the bones back together’.
Herbs are my big passion and I use them for pretty much everything: herbal shots to support various aspects of my health; botanical vinegars, which I use as salad dressings; herbal rinses for my hair, botanical teas and lattes. I also use herbs as first aid when I travel, and it’s quite handy that I can find many of them simply growing in a field (nettle, comfrey, yarrow).