The Dx2 Podcast
Two sisters discuss what they are learning about having a balanced wheel of life that rolls along as smoothly as possible.
The Dx2 Podcast
Simple ways to Boost Your Immune System
We trace a simple backyard moment—a peach tree buckling under too much fruit—into a clear plan for immune resilience. Sleep, stress, gut health, movement, sunlight, and smart nutrition become daily and weekly habits you can actually keep.
• the wheel of life as a map for immune balance
• major immune stressors: poor sleep, chronic stress, processed foods, inactivity, toxins
• microplastics, hidden infections, and “high sugar season”
• core boosters: 7–9 hours sleep, stress resets, nutrient-dense meals, hydration with electrolytes
• gut support: probiotics from ferments, prebiotic fiber, less refined sugar
• moderate exercise and accessible options for limited mobility
• sunlight, vitamin D3 with K2, zinc, and clean supplementation
• herbal supports: garlic, elderberry, echinacea, green tea, mushrooms
• practical routines: morning lemon water and light, movement snacks, bedtime choreography
• weekly anchors: strength training, restorative sessions, nature time, social connection
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Welcome to the D Times 2 podcast, hosted by Sisters Denise and Deborah. We are all about finding balance in the various parts of life. Using the Wheel of Life as our guide, we explore how to keep each spoke rolling smoothly. We discuss health and wellness, education and spirituality, as well as mental and emotional growth. Join us for real conversations, practical tips, and a few laughs as we share stories, insights, and strategies to help you create a life that feels balanced, purposeful, and designed by you. Hey Deb. Hi Denise. Good to see you today. You too. Been doing anything fun lately? I'm gonna say not really fun, but I've been doing a little bit of yard maintenance. I was actually thinking about our wheel that we always talk about. Okay. As I was providing added support to our young peach tree. So the peach tree was planted four years ago. It's pretty young. And this year it is absolutely loaded with fruit. Wow, look at you. But it's overachieving. Oh, it is more loaded than it can bear. So its branches are all the way bent over, like almost touching the ground. And this tree is a good 12 feet or more tall. Oh my. So it's the branches are not strong enough to bear its fruit. So my husband and I were trying to provide support the best way we could on very short notice, trying to not have branches break, because one of them already did break off. So we anchored it with some bungee cords in the direction we thought it needed to go. And then I checked it the next day, and it looked as though it had been forced into a new position, and the branches with fruit on them were even lower than they were before. Really? Yeah. That's interesting. So I ended up taking the bungee cords off and picked some of the fruit, even though it wasn't ready yet. I thought I'll I'll just let it ripen up, but take some of the load off the branches. But I really kept thinking like that's like trying to focus on one area of the wheel and ignoring all the rest and overachieving and overdoing in an area while the rest of it suffers. Do you follow my analogy? I think that's a fantastic analogy. So I've been working in the yard, trying to help my tree, and all I could think about was the wheel of life. Yeah. That's that's true. We do uh sometimes focus more on one area and it gets loaded down and then some precious soul comes and tries to fix us. Twists us all out of balance and out of whack. And we just need to unload some of that and refocus in other areas. That's a perfect analogy. Yeah. I like it. It was really interesting to watch the tree and how it responded. That was awesome. Thanks for sharing. Yeah, you're welcome. Okay, what are we talking about today? Today we are focused on the health and wellness spoke of the wheel. And let's talk about immune system stressors. Okay. And then immune system boosters. Good. Get both sides of it. Yeah. I think especially, you know, there's different times of year where more people tend to get more sick. Their immune system tends to be more compromised. And so this has been on my mind a lot lately. Do you want to talk about some of the stressors? Sure. So one stressor that we probably all it's kind of universal. Chronic stress and poor sleep. Those are some pretty big stressors. I very rarely do I hear people say, Oh, I got so much good sleep last night. It's usually, oh, I tossed and turned and couldn't sleep. And then people always talk about how much stress they're under. So I think that was kind of universal. Yeah, I think that's definitely number one on the list. Both of those things can destroy your immune system. Yeah, both of the chronic stress and poor sleep also tend to drive cortisol. You can be stressed and get bad sleep and then start putting weight on around your belly, which makes you more stressed. Yes. Yes. Another area I think that can be a big stressor is poor nutrition and also like nutritional deficiencies. Well, so poor nutrition can be not getting, I'm gonna say, high-quality food. You might be getting enough food, but it could be processed or highly processed or not a well-balanced diet. So poor nutrition and nutrient deficiencies can come from having too much processed or ultra-processed food, eating too much fast food, or not getting a well-balanced diet. I find a lot of people get too little protein and way too many processed carbohydrates and not enough good carbohydrates like fruits and veggies, oats, beans, that kind of thing in their diet, which leads to vitamin deficiencies, mineral deficiencies, and overloading, like your peach tree, overloading on processed carbohydrates stresses your system. Yeah. Another stressor to the immune system is having a sedentary lifestyle or over-exercising. So sedentary lifestyle, we're not moving. Our body needs to move to be healthy. Motion is lotion in all of your body. So it's important to move. Like get up and walk around a little bit. If you're at a desk job, you can do that. And over-exercising. Exercise is good. When we over-exercise, we're spending too much of our body's resources in one area of the wheel, kind of like your peach tree.
SPEAKER_01:I love that analogy.
SPEAKER_00:So too much exercising. We need to do some, not too much. I don't need to spend two to three hours in the gym or something like that. That's weights. I will admit to being guilty of sometimes, well, I'm gonna say sometimes having a sedentary lifestyle, but not that often. I'm usually pretty conscious of having movement in my life. But I've definitely been an over-exerciser throughout my life when I was struggling with my weight. I thought if I just put in more time, if I just work out harder, and there were a lot of seasons of my life where I would exercise every day and sometimes twice a day. It just made it worse and worse. Where when I started to exercise less and rest my body more, I did better. That seems so counterintuitive. Completely. But stress is stress and it still causes a cortisol response in your body, which your body then uses to store fats because it thinks you're dying. So it creates inflammation. Yeah, it's a bad slide to be on. Yes. So appropriate amounts of exercise. Another area of immune system stress can be environmental toxins and pollutants, whether it be exhaust from cars or working in a job where you're exposed to chemicals. Like my husband handled diesel trucks for a while and he was always breathing and covered in diesel. That's not good. Or if like we live in kind of a farming community, a lot of times they'll spray pesticides and fertilizer, and there will be stuff in the air. Always. Yeah. So those things can really take a toll on the immune system. We've been hearing a lot about microplastics, yep, in the in our food and water, water bottles and things like that. Does that count as an environmental toxin? Absolutely. I actually was reading a study the other day about microplastics. I try not to go too deeply into that rabbit hole because you can really become obsessive. Or I could really become obsessive. But there was a stat that was that said just from drinking out of plastic water bottles, eating out of plastic food containers, or things that have been stored in plastic bags and using plastic cutting boards, people eat about the equivalent of a credit card's worth of plastic every month. Every month? Yes. Oh my gosh, that's a lot. And I thought, oh, I'm so glad I use glass bowls. I, you know, I do use some plastic here and there, but it's pretty sparing because I'm aware of how it breaks down into food. Whew, credit card. I'd rather use my credit card than eat my credit card. Exactly. Yeah. Okay. Well, how about the how about one more? Is there one more stressor we can talk about? Yeah, so I think something that has to be on the list would be things like chronic infections or medical conditions. So if you have an autoimmune condition or if you have something like type 2 diabetes, that's going to be a perpetual stress to your immune system. And then also if you have chronic underlying infections, that can really stress it. I found myself in that boat where I didn't really realize I had underlying dental infections because I go to the dentist, I get the exams done and the x-rays taken, but between visits, I developed quite an infection in my jaw, and I couldn't feel it because I had had root canals and all of the teeth in that area. So it was developing, but it didn't cause me any pain. So I didn't feel it and I didn't know it was there. And I think that more often than we think, people have something like that kind of going on behind the scenes, whether it's a low-grade infection that they're not aware of. And then obviously there's other bigger recurring ones that you do know about. Yeah, it's amazing how much infections or chronic medical conditions can affect your immune system. Your body is not isolated, it all works together, and so they feed off each other for good or bad. So what do we do about it? Nothing. False. Just kidding, just kidding. Yeah, let's give the good news now. Let's talk about some ways we can boost and enhance our immune systems. So one thing, like the first thing we talked about was chronic stress and lack of sleep. So numero uno on the list that can make the biggest difference if you just implemented this one thing is sleep. Getting seven to nine hours of high quality deep sleep. So the deep sleep comes earlier in your sleep cycle. So it's good to get to bed at a decent hour. You can work with your body's circadian rhythms and get that deep sleep when your body wants it. So between 10 and 3, 10 p.m. and 3 a.m. is your deep sleep is when you leave time. I was gonna say, why is the deep sleep? Because we see cycle through deep sleep, light sleep, REM sleep, and each of the phases is important, but the deep sleep is kind of the repair-recover segment of the Yes. So you heal when you sleep. If you're sick, it's okay to take a nap or a break or a lay down in the middle of the day. That's that's really good. But it's really important just in a on a regular day in your regular life to make sure that you prioritize sleep. Out of all of our suggestions, if you can do one, do that one. I literally beg people to do this in my in-office work with clients. Like, just get some sleep. Please get some sleep. And they have all sorts of reasons not to. But the bottom line is it really is number one. So number two ties really closely into that, which is managing your stress on a day-to-day basis. And there's different ways that you can do that. One of my favorite ways is through deep breathing. Um, also taking a walk outside in nature. Sometimes it's along a creek, sometimes it's just in my neighborhood, sometimes it's along the river, but outside fresh air, even if it's raining like it was last night. Just outside in nature. What are some of your favorite ways to manage my stress? Yeah. Honestly, a nap. Yeah. A nap does help me manage my stress. Also, doing some yoga, some quiet stillness things can help manage, help me manage my stress. Listening to good music. So you can change your stress by changing your state of being. So the last couple mornings I've been playing a song called There is Sunshine in My Soul Today. And I have to tell you, well, I've been singing it. And this morning I listened to probably four different versions of it from different artists. And it makes such a big difference in my day. And I know that when I boost myself early like that, that it does decrease my stress. It it does a lot of other good things for me, chemically and mentally and emotionally. But that's one thing that I do. Like if you're feeling stressed, put on some music you can jam to and dance. That will change the state of your body and your mind and help decrease stress. I'm gonna say it changes your vibration level, like your energy level at the foundational core of your body. So you can also do things like journaling. Sometimes you just need to spill it. And journaling is a good way to do that, or you can meditate or do active movement meditations. I call them activations. So I'm doing a meditation type thing while I am walking or stretching. So there's kind of two stress mediators together. Yeah, those are good. You can also change what you eat. Eat better to feel better. So eat nutrient-dense foods, good fruits and vegetables, those are in there. They have fruits and vegetables also have lots of vitamins and minerals in them that support all of the functions in your body. And the more colors, the better. Purples and blues do different things than reds and yellows. Like eat the rainbow. I was gonna say that old saying of eat the rainbow really matters for that, for getting the different nutrients and the vitamins, minerals, the micronutrients that can be in food. But we also need good quality sources of protein because protein gives your body the building blocks to build a strong body, to build a healthy immune system. And then also, I'm gonna say including good fats in your diet in the form of like nuts and seeds and good quality oils, those are crucial for extracting some of those nutrients from your food, like vitamin A, vitamin E, they're fat soluble. If you don't eat any fat, you won't extract those nutrients and get them. And your immune system and your nervous system, they need fat to function properly. So good fat olive oil, avocado oil. Yeah, those are good to cook in and eat. Drizzle on. Yeah, yeah. So those are those are some good things to do. So one thing that we have to include though with the nutrient dense diet is to limit sugar. For sure. Because sugar is one of the biggest stressors, I think, to the immune system. And you know, I I work with people all the time who talk about, oh, I'm sick, it's cold and flu season. And if you think about it, it's really high sugar season. So cold and flu season starts around Halloween, it continues through Thanksgiving, can tr continues through Christmas, like where we're eating candy and pies and treats and kind of goes through Valentine's Day. Yep. But also during that time, so there's lots of sugar, but there's also less fresh air. There's also less sunshine. But I think the sugar, too much sugar, really plays a role in taking a toll on people's immune systems. And you're talking about processed sugar, like like treats, not carbohydrates like fruits and vegetables. Processed sugar. Processed, refined. So if you think about sweets and treats, so treats include things like savory sugars, things like a potato chip or a French fry, or you know, those are more detrimental than just if it has a sweet flavor. So yeah, avoid the candies and cakes and cookies and sodas and hot chocolate and spiced cider or limit them. Yeah. Moderation. Yes. Yes. Very good. There's been some talk in the circles we travel in. I don't know if the general world, but different circles, I think. The circles we travel in, there's a lot of talk about your gut health. So that's the next one we want to talk about. Supporting your gut health. There are so many things from your mouth to the other end that help with your immune system. So many good bacteria that we need. People have been on antibiotics or they've eaten a poor diet, and so their microbiome is lacking. So some things we can do to strengthen our gut health and our microbiome are to consume probiotics. And it doesn't have to be a probiotic supplement you get. Some of those are higher quality than others. But you can have kefir. Kiefir's been used for thousands of years all over the world. That's one of the most effective, one of the most high probiotic containing foods there is. Yes, that's that one's good. Yogurt. With yogurt, you have to be kind of careful. The fresher the yogurt, the better. Look for fresh yogurt, or you can make your own. Super easy to do at home. Sauerkraut. As long as it's like traditionally made sauerkraut. Yes. So I through fermented sauerkraut. Yeah, I always say the the good probiotic foods will be in the refrigerated section of the store. It won't be the sauerkraut that's in the middle of the store that's just brined.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Because the the refrigeration slows the fermentation process, slows the perpetuation of the bacteria, of their multiplication, I guess. So then they don't explode. The things in the middle of the store that are not refrigerated are just brined. They've been cooked to process to make it shelf stable. Yeah. So something else you can do is, which we have done, we've done fermented vegetables. Those are super easy, and you can find those in the refrigerated section. Fermented pickles. There's a Bubbies is one of the brands. Bubbies I recommend all the time. They have pickles, they have sauerkraut. Yeah. And that I've seen those in the refrigerator section. Yeah. At the grocery store. Anyways, things that have been fermented. So you want to alcohol. Alcohol does not count. No. It's fermented, all right, but it has other problems. Yes. But you want to look for the words probiotic or live or fermented. Those usually will clue you into the fact that there are probiotics in a food. Yes. So one thing I just wanted to mention when you said you want to look for fresh, fresher yogurt, or I'm going to say kefir too, because the more the longer something's been refrigerated, the less active those active microbes that the bacteria that's in there become. They multiply and get really active at room temperature. So a lot of times if I am buying those things, I will bring them home, I will crack the lid, and I'll let them sit on the counter for a little bit. I might put a little bit of fruit in there to feed them and get them reactivated for 12 hours and then close it up and put it back in the fridge. It just gets all of those good bacteria moving again. It wakes them up. Yeah. Yeah, because yeah. That's a good idea. Yeah. Thanks for sharing that. So in addition to probiotics, prebiotics are necessary as well. And prebiotics you can find in onions and garlic and oats, beans, some fruits and vegetables. You can also get it in fiber. Yeah. So prebiotic fiber. So you want to think of fibrous foods. They will have prebiotic fiber. Almost every fibrous food will. So things like broccoli or like even raspberries, they have a lot of fiber in them. So do kiwis. And then those prebiotics that are in those foods feed the probiotics. Yeah. They work hand in hand. So it's important to get both. There's also postbiotics, but we won't talk about that today. No, not today. Those can help support your gut health. 70% of your immunity is in the gut, so that will be a good boost for you to implement some of those things. So one of the next areas that will help to, I'll say, boost or reinvigorate your immune system is to stay physically active and to get regular moderate or zone two exercise. If you know what zone two is, it's just keeping your heart rate within kind of a lower zone. You're not going for high aerobic activity, just moderate, moderate activity. Things like taking walks or going cycling or doing strength training, all of those things just done wisely, not over, like we talked about before, will help the immune system be stronger. So what if you are not able to move a whole lot? What's something that you can do to be quote unquote physically active? I guess it all depends on the level of ability that you have. Movement is life. I say movement is life. You say motion is lotion. Yeah. Both are true. They convey the same sentiment. But so if you're confined, like if you just are not very mobile, it's hard for you to walk around. Like I'm thinking of our dad right now. He doesn't have great balance, he can't be as active as he used to be, but he can sit on a stationary bike and he can ride the stationary bike. And he can do some hand weights where he can do bicep curls and shoulder presses, and he'll even do squats, limited and controlled. But he can do those things and stay physically active. And the weights aren't heavy, like you can do two-pound weights or five-pound weights, just something to get your muscles active engaged. Yeah. So sunlight. Sunlight is a great disinfectant. It's the best disinfectant. So sunlight and going along with that is the vitamin D3. Which we absorb from the sun. Yes. Our body makes we also have to have fat to do that. So get your healthy fat. Yep. Getting some getting some sun. You really only need about 15 minutes of sun during late spring to early fall in the northern hemisphere. That's when the sun is strongest. In the wintertime, it's harder because it's cold and you don't want to go outside. The sun is at a different angle, so you don't get quite the same exposure. Yes. So you can take a high quality vitamin D3 supplement. I would encourage you probably take some zinc with that. And K2. And K2 to help with the absorption of that. But sunlight, if you can, is the very best. Yeah, that that when you get low in vitamin D3, it really makes you more prone to infections specifically. Yeah. So get some sunshine. Get some sunshine and supplement if you need it, but make sure you're doing a high quality supplement. Yeah. So the next thing is one of my favorite things to talk about. I think it should be far above number seven. But number seven is to stay hydrated. So water really does support your lymphatic system, which then helps you detoxify. Yes. Right? So the de the stimulation of the lymphatic system also helps to move your immune cells through your body. There's different types of white blood cells that are specific to the immune system that they move better when your lymphatic system is moving. And you have to have water in your system for that lymphatic system to work. Yes. So that's water plus electrolytes. Yes. Because those electrolytes, which are minerals, really help your body use the water better. So a lot of people just drink water, water, water, and then they deplete their electrolytes and they pee all the time and never get actually hydrated. Gotcha. So yeah, water, but also electrolytes. So what kind of electrolytes do you like or recommend, Deborah? That's actually a good question because there are so many that are easily available. They're absolute nonsense. They're full of trash. We don't name drop in the bad way, but I don't like when there's artificial color, artificial flavors, artificial junk, and then bad ratios of electrolytes. So my most recommended brand is Element, L-M-N-T. Okay. Um, it is really well formulated. It doesn't have added junk to it. The flavors are amazing. We actually even have a discount code for that. So if you go to drinkelement.com and use the code B Well with Deb, that's the letter B well with Deb, you can get a free sample pack with your order. Oh you can you try different orders, yeah. But they're great. That's my that's my most recommended. People get really good results with it. Cool. Thank you. We talked a little bit about alcohol before. Environmental exposure, yes. You want to limit alcohol or smoking or vaping when you're sick or when you might be indoors more. Those really do affect your immune system. They lower your your defenses dramatically. Yeah, they really compromise the system. That's taking an environmental toxin and just putting it right in your body. So try not to do that as much or at all if possible. There actually have been some studies come out that show no alcohol consumption is the best practice for your health, overall health. So and we all know the warnings about smoking. So and alcohol. And alcohol. We don't do either, but some people do just limit it. Yep. Take it easy. So one of my favorite ways to help the immune system is through herbal and natural immune supports. So things that have really documented evidence to help support the immune system are like garlic, actually, onions too. They're both very antibacterial. Echinacea. You're a big fan of elderberry, right? You grow elderberries? No. I wish. Yeah. You have to have two trees for that, and I don't have the space for that. Yeah. So elderberry and then green tea is very antioxidant and supportive of the immune system. And then things like medicinal mushrooms. Do you know what those are? I've heard of them. Okay. So the mushrooms like the shiitake and the mitake mushrooms. And then my favorite, the reishi mushrooms. Usually you don't find raisro raishi mushrooms like on the store shelves to eat. The other ones you can. You can buy shiitake mushrooms. Yes, you can. But oftentimes you'll find those things in a mushroom support, like herbal support. So you we talked about mushrooms and we talked about colostrum and things. Like what kind of a supplement do you like to take or do you recommend? So the ones that I use in my clinical setting, they're absolutely some of the best. They all come from whole, real foods. So your body knows what they are, can use them. There's not a lot of waste. They come from optimal health systems. The ones for immune system that I recommend the most are number one, defense. Like it's your defender. It helps boost your white blood cell count. It's fantastic. Another one that I use quite often is the natural Z PAC. So instead of a Z PAC that you maybe are needing to go on because you need antibiotics, or in addition to that, using the natural Z PAC gets the same kind of results while it builds your gut. Rather than destroying everything. Let's take one break. Well, you talked about defense, uh supplement called defense. And we talked about elderberry, a good supplement. It has elderberry in it. It has colostrum in it. Yes, yeah. And and echinacea. We talked about all three of those. Defense has them all wrapped up in one capsule for you to just talk about it. Yeah, so there that's the thing. The capsules are the easy bundled ways to get it in where you don't have to get this and this and this and that. It's just easy done for you, and it really works. Awesome. And then we talked about the Z pack. Uh-huh. The natural Z-PAC. It has vitamin D, vitamin A, vitamin K1 and K2, all really good things for your immune system. It's it's a powerhouse. It is. It's antiviral and antibacterial both. And antifungal. And yes, and antifungal. Yes. So it has a ton of stuff in it. Very good, very good product. So oftentimes together with those, I will partner the product that or the supplement that's called acute. Acute is intended for inflammation. So whether it's from an acute injury or you have general systemic inflammation, it helps to decrease that. And it works really, really well with both the defense and the natural ZPAC as a supporting character. You've used that if you've got to do that. I have used acute. Yeah. And it works very well. It's one of my most favorite things. Like I personally take that one every day. So there's talk in the news about turmeric. And this has turmeric in it, cherry in it, has ginger in it, tons of anti-inflammatory stuff. Yeah, it's fantastic. So between clearing the inflammation and then boosting the immune stuff with the defense or the ZPAC, it really is really effective. So one other thing I want to mention real quick is whole C. So well-rounded, perfectly formulated vitamin C. Perfect. And we have a discount code for people, right? Yeah. So for the optimal health systems, you go to optimalhealthsystems.com and you can order whatever you need. So if you want other things too, but specifically the immune things, the discount code will work for everything. Uh the code is D times two, so DX2. And if you use it on a one-time order, it gets you a discount on that order. But if they use the discount code on a subscription order, it gives them a discount on all of the subscription orders. Oh, like recurring. Yeah, it's really good. And that's what I like it for people to do because you can control the script subscription however you want. Cool. Thank you. But any of those, any mix and match of those will work or help. Very good. And number 10, the last one of all, is healthy social connection. Laughter. Laughter is good medicine. Laughter is the best medicine. So good. We tend to do that more when we're interacting with others. Yes. Unless you're my husband, he cracks himself up all the time. So funny. Yeah. But positive really positive relationships really do have a good impact on our whole being. They get good chemicals going, they reduce the stress hormones. Yes. Like they it just good relationships can. And if you don't if you live alone or you can't get out, watch something funny. Read a funny book. It doesn't have to be with somebody, but good social connections really, really do make a big difference in your overall health, including your immune health. So those are some stressors and then some ways to boost them. How do we practically implement that on like a day-to-day basis or a weekly basis? On a day-to-day thing, I think it's it's good in the morning to hydrate. Hey man, sister. You've been sleeping all night, and maybe if you're older, you've gotten up to pee a couple times, you gotta hydrate in the morning when you get up. So eight ounces of warm water with a fresh lemon squeezed into it. You maybe a little dash of real salt in there, and you'll be surprised how good it tastes and how much you will want it more and more in the morning. It's a great way to start the morning. So you said a fresh lemon. I usually will squeeze squeeze a half lemon into eight ounces, but I usually do 16 ounces, so then I have a whole lemon. You can do 16 ounces and a whole lemon. The lemon, the amount of lemon is up to you. Fresh lemon is the best. Sometimes I don't have lemons, but I have lemon essential oil. And so I will put that in my water, my warm water sometimes. And that's nice. Yeah, that's helpful. I oftentimes will buy bags of lemons, juice them all, and freeze them into ice cube trays. Oh look at you. And then put one of the ice cubes in hot water, and then I have warm lemon water once that ice cube melts. I was thinking ahead. So well, it just because I yeah, uh it works. Yeah, it works for me. So there's different ways to do it. That's good food prep. So one of my favorite things in the morning is to get the sun exposure. So open the wines, step outside, 10 to 15 minutes of getting some sun in the morning to boost the vitamin D and to get kind of in sync with the circadian rhythm. Oh, you could combine those two. You could have your warm cup of lemon water on the porch or on the back, or just open your door and sit in the sunshine and drink your warm lemon water in the sunshine. You could do that. I usually drink and then I do sun exposure while I get movement. So I'll do some stretching while I'm out there. I'll take a short walk and get the sunlight and the movement together. Good. You can stack them. That's a good practice. Something you can do anytime during the day is a short break. Get up from your desk if you're working and walk to the water fountain or go to the restroom, even if you don't have to go, you probably could go. So just get up and and walk for a minute. Or take a an exercise snack and do 10 squats. Just do some kind of movement. Yeah. I've done it where I'll do a couple sun salutations and just get everything moving and then I'll sit back down and get back to work. Yeah. We all have some kind of device where you can set a timer. Yeah. So that you get remember to get up and just move a little bit. I thought you were gonna say a limit timer so you don't get too engrossed in your either way. Your movement snack. Yes. So mindful breathing also can be done anytime and should be done at least once during the day, where you just pause, breathe, do a stress check-in, and you can do a couple of deep breaths or a couple of minutes of deep breathing. So we were talking about stacking. I know when I used to work in the hospital, I would get up from my desk, I would walk to the forest restroom because I had to take a potty break. We called it a bio break. And while I was doing that, I would do some of that deep breathing. So again, I stacked them together because sometimes time is short. Yes, right? We've got to have it stack. Yeah. What about in the evening? That's any time during the day. Are there any things in the evening we can do to help? So I think it's important to include some kind of a winding down or a slowing down routine. I call it sleep or bedtime choreography. Some people call it sleep hygiene. I just that to me sounds too sterile. It does. I want to dance my way through life. So I'll do something like some light stretching. I'll usually have a soothing drink. So sometimes it's an herbal tea like sleepy time or my favorite stress relief tea from yogi tea. Um, or I'll take drink some adaptogen mixture that helps to settle my body down. And then I try to get off the screens. It's a good idea. Yeah. Let your brain wind down, not just your body. Have a conversation with somebody instead of on your screen if you live with somebody. I was gonna say you guys pass in the night, you and your husband, but like some people have a spouse going to bed. Maybe you bore your spouse with your day while you're going to bed. It's better than being on your phone. Yeah. I talked to you make it sound like I don't we just he's gone at night when I'm going to bed most of the time. So your nighttime choreography is not with him. He's not with it. Yeah, it doesn't include him most of the time. But it does sometimes include a phone call with a sibling. Like, I'll have a conversation. Yeah, that's good. And then sleep, we've talked a lot about sleep. Sleeping in a cold or cool room will help you sleep better. That's dark. It needs to be dark. Yeah. Cut out as much light as you can. I personally wear a sleep mask, so it's completely dark. So if you live in a city or something and there's lots of lights outside and you can't quite get it all, you can buy a sleep mask. They're pretty cheap. Or you can get blackout curtains. Those are easy as well. Yeah, see, I'm a huge fan of the sleep masks, but I usually only wear them when I'm not at home because my bedroom is in the basement, so it's already darker. We have blinds and we have blackout curtains. So it's like a cave. You've got your cave going. But anywhere else I put my mask on and it really makes a difference. Nice. And then also no heavy meals for at least two hours before you go to bed. Yeah. Your body really wants a reset from food before you go to bed. And we've talked about meals, nutrient-dense food, lots of colorful food. It's a day-to-day practice. Every day you can help your immune system. The colorful food, nutrient-dense, the gut support. So eating some of those probiotic foods and prebiotic foods. And then including some of the immune-helping herbs and spices, like the garlic and onions, ginger, turmeric. Yeah, those things help. And then green tea, if you're into it, really can help with that. Awesome. How about for a weekly, like, because we talked before about exercise. I don't necessarily exercise every day. I'll take a walk every day, but I don't like strength train or for most people, it's not recommended to strength train every day. Uh three to four days a week is good. It does a lot for your muscles, your bone structure, and for your immune system. So not a lot. Three to four days is of really any on-purpose exercise is good. I like to also include a day of active recovery. So if it's yoga, like something different than what I do on the normal day-to-day. I for me, it's usually some sort of yoga or Pilates where I'm not working super hard. It's not like power yoga. It's restorative yoga. Yeah. Restorative exercise. Yes. What about spending time with family? That's another one. Social connections. Family are friends. At least once, at least once a week connects with people. Generally not going to happen every day. For some people it might, but try to schedule it in weekly so that you can laugh and have some positive interactions and just I'm going to say share in those feel-good hormones that that come out when you're with people you like to be around. And then getting time in nature, some way, shape, or form. Sometimes that's hard. Like what if you live in the city and there's not nature close by? Sometimes there are parks. Obviously, it always depends on where you are. So there have been times I've been in the city. I will go up to the rooftop. I will go and look up at the sky because that's nature. I might not be seeing a lot of greenery, but I'm not seeing cityscape. Or sometimes you're in the dead of winter and it's freezing and there's snow everywhere, it makes it a little harder. True. So I sit by my plants. Indoor plants are a bonus. They do a lot of good things for our house. I mean, to me, that's nature, and I'll look out the windows and like look at the snow on the trees and the icicles hanging and nice. That kind of thing. We and we talked about breath work and journaling as a stress reset. So get those, get your stresses out. Try not to dwell on them. Don't we don't need to go over and over and over them. That's actually not good for your mental, emotional state, or your immune system. So get them out, get a just let it go. Or breath work. We've talked about breath work a little bit, deep breath, like breathe to make your belly button stick out. That's deep breath breathing. So you know, once or twice a week does help. It does. You could also do like once a week where you do a digital detox for the evening. So no screens, put your phone down, put your tablet down, don't watch TV, don't go to the movies, go outside or play some games, or you know, something that's away from a screen and with different stimulus and kind of have a pattern interrupt, changes the stress levels on the body and then helps the immune system. Throw some music on and dance. Yeah, you could do that. So those are some good stress resets. Let's recap real quick. Let's recap about some of the boosting things we can do. What do you have? First thing, sleep. Number one. At least seven to nine hours every night. To hydrate. Yeah. Not just drink water. Hydrate. And then get adequate servings of fruits and veggies. So usually somewhere between five and seven servings. Daily movement. Just get up and walk around. Just move. Do stress check-ins and some breathing or meditation of some sort. And again, limit alcohol, smoking, vaping, limit that stuff because it does affect you negatively. As well as any other chemical, environmental exposures that you may be around, try to limit those. And then getting your sunlight, your vitamin D3. And last of all, social connection. Make sure you are talking to people. So hopefully these things are have caused you to think. Consider some different ways to improve your immune system on a daily or weekly basis. And remember that it's not cold and flu season. No. It's high sugar season. Yes. So maybe evaluate what you're eating and how much you're moving and all the things we talked about. Pick something. Pick something. One or two things to implement and work on it. Yeah. Awesome. Thank you. We'll see you next time. Thanks for listening to the D Times 2 podcast with Denise and Deborah. We hope you enjoyed today's episode. Be sure to subscribe and share it with someone who's ready to roll toward a more balanced life. Your support means the world to us. And just a quick note we're sharing our own experiences and ideas, not professional advice. Always do your own research and talk to a qualified professional before making big decisions. Until next time, keep your wheel rolling strong.