Maintaining your health throughout the holiday season can seem impossible these days. When Thanksgiving week begins, I know that the following 6 weeks will likely be the toughest of the year. During these trying weeks filled with wintery weather, family pressures, packed work and social schedules, long insufferable travel, and over eating and drinking it is a struggle to simply survive without hitting the proverbial wall.
For me, this last leg of the year annually produces a massive breakout (heightened stress and added sugar intake), a need for an emergency Z Pack (the head and sinus cold due to planes, trains, coatless party outfits, and chilly weather) and an all out Christmas breakdown (including dropping to the floor in hysterical tears and loosing all greater perspective on the meaning behind the holidays entirely).
So with late nights, little sleep, and lengthy travel already a part of your current day to day headache how can we all ward off the impending expiration date of our adrenaline?
I think I might have finally found the answer…
This holiday-inspired tea infusion is laced with essential oil tinctures and herbs to help cleanse, heal, detoxify, and recharge your system – all while you sleep!
So after years of going out strong and crashing, miserably making my way to the 25th and New Years Eve, just how did this recipe and powerful remedy come about?
Since my last post I have been traveling, eating, and NOT sleeping non-stop. From Vegas, to South Carolina, to London and Paris- I cooked an entire Thanksgiving feast from scratch in 16hrs, only to pack up and head out again the next day, and the 36hrs straight I finally had home in NYC were unfortunately spent in the hospital under going a back procedure. So it goes without saying that my system has been in over overdrive!
And when this overworked and underpaid lady arrived on a best friend’s doorstep on a early London morning, she must have looked as I know she felt: more like a Super MORON than a Supper Model.
Thankfully my wonderful expat girlfriend seemed to know the exact trick to getting me good and ready for the worldwind week in Europe that lie ahead: her French herbal l’infusion.
Curled up on her coach in a near fetal position, I hazily watched as she brewed a warm blend of thyme leaf tea infused with many drops of this French digestible essential oil mixture. Served super hot (in an Hermes mug, bien sur) the infusion felt like an IV drip of the magic cure-all: just what the doctor ordered and this Supper Model desperately needed.
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| London’s Louis Duck… ever the “practically perfect in every way” hostess |
It induced a long nap and after taking a Vitamin E Eucalyptus Epsom salt bath that I swear by (recipe to come on TSM) I was revived, ready to hit the town, and keep up with our ambitious schedule…
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| Expat Ladies out in London |
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| TSM hits Loulou’s of London for an all night extravaganza |
I drank the infusion for 3 evenings straight to kill any signs of fatigue and revive my immune system, and recalibrate my digestion. I firmly believe that this action avoided a massive round of antibiotics, or a visit to a Paris l’hopital…
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| TSM and Co. outside Scott’s : the best restaurant in London by my standards! |
And so upon returning to the states I took my jet-lagged self to the local whole foods and got to work creating the perfect blend of herbal essential oils and spices to recover and ready myself for the long holiday weeks still ahead.
L’Infusion
(Serves 2 large tea cups)
Ingredients:
2 sprigs fresh mint leaves
2-3 tablespoons dried Thyme
3 cloves (cracked or crushed)
1 lemon wedge or orange rind
2 cups boiled filtered, bottled, or mineral water
5 drops each Liquid Herbal Extract of:
Peppermint
Cinnamon Bark
Echinacea
Lavender
Tumeric
Cayenne
Method:
1. Bring the filtered water to a boil on the stove, while placing the mint leaves, cloves, lemon/orange rind, and dried thyme in a loose tea strainer or serving tea pot.
2. Place 5 drops of each herbal extract or tincture into each tea cup.
3. When the water has boiled turnoff the stove and pour the water in the serving pot, making sure to cover ad soak the herbs and spices. Cover ad let INFUSE for 3-5 minutes.
4. Pour the infused hot tea into each cup being sure to use a strainer if your teapot is not fitted for loose tea. Stir gently to combine the extracts and herbal tea and sip gently but hastily as it is best to drink the infusion when it is as warm as possible. This aids digestion and absorption. Et voila! You’ll be fighting off all the negative stressors and strains of germs while sleep soundly. Yes this also is an excellent sleep aid during these hectic and stressful weeks.
*Tinctures and Herbal Extracts can be found at any Wellness Section of Whole Foods, or a local well-stocked Health and Wellness store. Order online at: www.newwayherbs.com or find one of my favorite brands, Gaia Herbs, on www.centerfornaturalhealing.com
