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
The Four Pillars That Keep You Young Longer
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We map out a simple plan for a long, capable life built on four pillars: sleep, stress management, movement, and nutrition. From sore Pilates muscles to cold plunges and trackers, we share how to stack daily habits that protect recovery, mood, and strength.
• why sleep quality drives recovery and daily energy
• how to use trackers to link habits to outcomes
• simple stress tools: boundaries, breathwork, cold exposure
• movement choices for each season and injury history
• strength, walking, yoga, and why consistency wins
• real food basics that fuel cells, joints, and focus
• designing for quality of life at 80 and beyond
• how the four pillars reinforce each other
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The TRUTH Framework Free download
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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 Debra. Hey Denise. Good to see you this morning. You too. How are you? Pretty good. Pretty good. How about you? I'm sore. I'm very, very sore. Pray tell, what did thou do to be sore? Okay, so today is Monday on Saturday, so two days ago, I decided to get my booty in action and start doing Pilates again. I used to do it religiously and I loved it and felt amazing when I did that. And then I went on a trip. And then when I got back, I just never started again. And that was trips. Probably a year and a half ago. I do other stuff, but I hadn't been doing Pilates. So I decided I love it. I'm going to start doing it again. And I felt like I had never lifted a weight or moved my body ever before. Like I felt so weak. And I'm active. You are active. But those muscles are especially in Pilates, they're deep muscles. Like I feel all of them. All of them. And it was so funny because I did that Saturday morning. And by Saturday night, I was telling my husband, I am gonna be sore. I'm gonna go soak in some magnesium, some Epsom salt. And I have soaked twice a day since well, twice that no, that night and then twice yesterday. And then I soaked again this morning before we met up. But I am so sore and I just thought I knew I was on the right track. I need to do more Pilates. Because it didn't used to feel like this. Yes. Isn't that true though? Like we don't exercise certain ways or move our body in a certain way, and we feel it when we do. Use it or lose it. For sure. Yeah. So I had I had there had definitely noticed decline in muscular definition. And even after just that one time, I'm like, oh, I can see a little bit more line there in my bicep. Like it's gonna be it's super effective. But anyway. It's gonna feel great as you keep doing it. Yeah. Less and less sore each time. It helps my body a lot. And I can do it with like the injuries and stuff I've had in the past. Yeah, Pilates is really good. I like it too. Yeah, I love it. So that's how I'm doing. I am sore, but I'm at recovering. Good. That's good. I'm in fact, I'm sore enough that I have been giving some thought to going to the river and cold plunging. I used to have a makeshift one in my garage, and I don't anymore. And I keep thinking, do I want to go to the river? No, just take a nice cold shower. Oh, you don't like the shower. I don't like the shower. Sometimes I run a cold bath and get in that for a few minutes, and that seems to be the trick. Yeah. It's like 50 degrees coming out of the ground, so it's not icy, but it's pretty cold. That's cold enough. Yeah, that's cold enough. Yeah. So anyway, that's how sore I am. I'm willing to go get in a very cold river to decrease inflammation and pain and some soreness. But it's good for me. I'll be fine. Good. It made me think about what I wanted to talk about today, though, which is longevity. Because you use it or you lose it. In all the ways. Right. So there are four core pillars to longevity. And if you have each pillar built nice and strong, you will have optimal longevity. You'll live healthily as you age and be able to do things like go on the ground and play with your grandkids or travel with your friends or whatever you want to do. That too. Yes. Yeah. So there are four core pillars. Yep. You said the first one is sleep. Sleep. I like sleep.
unknown:Yeah.
Debra:Sleep can be elusive, but if you can get we've talked about sleep. If you can get a good sleep routine and get between seven and nine hours of good sleep. An average of 63 hours per week. However, you need to make that up. Ideally it's nine hours a night, right? Because nine times seven is sixty-three. But almost nobody gets that. No. But get your sleep dialed in, get a good routine going. Supplement yourself if you have to. I have to, my hand is up. Yes. There are supplements I take. And we we did a whole episode on sleep specifically. So if you want an in-depth review on that, go listen to the sleep episode. Yeah, it was a good episode. We talked about all kinds of things we use and do. But sleep is important, right? Like the reason it's a pillar is because you spend a third of your life sleeping. Hopefully. Hopefully. Yep. And that's when you recover. Everything. You're supposed to be healing, you're supposed to be detoxing, your brain's supposed to be sorting things out. Like it's it's hugely important. So I can see how that would be a pillar for long for living a good long life. Yeah, there are have been studies that show that decline as you age is more to do with poor recovery than anything else. And that recovery happens when you're asleep. That's why I put it as number one. I like that. Also because I love it so much. It makes such a big difference for me. Yes, you wear trackers sometimes. You've got a an aura ring and a smartwatch that tracks your sleep and and my recovery and my stress levels. And when your sleep is terrible, your recovery is terrible and your stress levels are through the roof. Yes. So if you want to do a fun experiment on yourself, get something you can track your sleep with and your energy levels and your stress levels and your recovery and see how your sleep quality affects all of those things. Yeah, I wore those religiously for a while. Probably a year and a half or two years. And I really was comparing data between my aura ring and my smartwatch. It's a Garmin, Garmin watch. I don't love the Apple Watch for whatever reason. You know, the Apple Watch doesn't track recovery. And no? The Garmin does. Yeah, the Garmin does. It's more for your fitness, your body stuff, or the anyway. There's so many options available out there. But it was so interesting to me how for me the sleep really was the most important metric out of all of them because it made everything better or everything worse. Yeah, and that's not just a Deborah study, that's a real that's a real life study that they that they've spent a lot of money and time and effort studying. Did you know that on average people gain 15 pounds between Halloween and New Year's? Oh my gosh. Yeah, it's true. That's why headed into the season, I really recommend that people use the fat reduction package from Optimal Health. 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Okay, so number two is stress. Now, we're not talking about increasing your stress. We're talking about managing stress. Yes. So we're managing these things, like we're managing sleep and we're managing stress. So stress happens in all different kinds of ways. To everybody. Every day. You have food you eat, it stresses you out. You have something you drink, it stresses your body. You have things happen in your daily life at home or at work or at school, and it causes stress. On the road. Mm-hmm. Yeah. In the grocery store, like stress happens every day. So it's important to learn how to manage it. How do you manage your stress? What's a way that you do that, Deborah? Well, literally, my number one way is to sleep. Number two way is to know my limits and respect them. So there are some things I just say no to, whether it's I'm not going to have that piece of cake because I know it's going to drive my cortisol, which is my stress response hormone, through the roof, or I'll just have a little bit. Or for a while, I was saying no to Pilates and strength training like I should or prefer because my body didn't have the reserves and walking was best for me. So I said no to other things that I love to do in order to recover to a point where I can now do more. Good. So saying no is a really good thing. And you don't when people, when you say no to people, you don't really have to give an explanation. No, it's no is a complete sentence. It is. You don't have to give an excuse as to why you're not doing something or going somewhere or participating in something. It's just you can say no, thank you, with a smile and be gracious. And it's really okay. I did that to you this morning. You sure did. And no offense was taken. Thank you for thinking it. Well, and you told me no this morning too, for different things. But if you don't know, you I mean you ask, right? You ask a question because you don't know what the answer is going to be. A no is as good as a yes, you just need to know. And for you, you need to know it's okay to say no. Yeah, a lot of people don't realize that. And then their stress levels are high because they're trying to please everybody and not say no. Or take on too many things. Which can all be very good things. But if your bucket is low or empty, it's stressful and just causes way more problems. Yep. Okay, so saying no is a good way to manage your stress. I also breathe and I've talked about this. I'm gonna say on probably half of our episodes I've done, we've done because breathing helps reset the nervous system and just bring things down to a manageable level. So breathing, deliberate breathing, whether it's box breathing or Wim Hof breathing, directional, like there's different ways you can do it, but just breathing, belly breathing, it all helps settle the nervous system, which which drops that stress response in me, but it's also proven through a multitude of studies. Extreme it's it's extremely proven. That's not even a real way to put that, but it's very well proven. How about that? I was actually gonna talk to you about that, the breeding, the wim hof, especially. Like I do cold plunge. You talked about that for your Pilates in the river. I breathe deep when I do that. So part of the Wim Hof method is the breath work and then going into the cold. Because the cold is a stress. Yes. But when you breathe before you go in, your body handles that stress better, and you're training yourself how to manage stress on a daily basis. So my suggestion in addition to the breathing is expose yourself to small stressors on purpose that are controlled, that you can train your body how to respond to stress so that not everything's an emergency. That will help you manage your stress. Nice. Thank you. You're welcome. You ready to move on to pillar number three? Yes. Pillar number three is movement. One of our favorite ones. We talk about this all the time too. Motion is lotion, movement is life. Right now it's cold outside. So for us. For us. For we lucky folks. So in the summertime, we we've talked about this a lot. We play pickleball, the two of us. That's our movement. And we hike, we yard work, we paddleboard, like we're active. So that's how we manage our movement in the summer and the fall, as long as we can. Yes. So in the winter, you manage your movement by going for walks. I walk on my treadmill in my house. There you go. But I also stretch. I also I'm a fan of yoga. So it's light, gentle. Okay, there's different types of yoga. The one I'm talking about is restorative yoga. I don't, I haven't been doing as much like power yoga or that kind of thing, but all of it is movement. So we're talking about longevity, movement for longevity. So if people stop moving, their bodies stop working. I think of it as seizing up. You stop lubricating the joints. Yes. So your muscles move, your legs, your joints move, and it all creates movement in the fluids in your body. Have you ever watched old people? Yeah. Creaky, creaky. I thought you were gonna say getting up from sitting down. Yes. So that too. Like they get up and it takes them, this is an exaggeration, but five minutes to get out of a chair because they've been sitting there for hours. Our grandpa was like that. He would sit in his chair and watch TV. And have people bring stuff to him so he didn't have to get up. Yep. And like he just he moved slowly. And then I look at there's a a bodybuilder. She's I think she's like 80 years old. Uh-huh. And she moves as good as me in my 50s. Like she she's active, she's doing things. So you want longevity, it's really important that you get movement in. So find something you like. If you don't like yoga, don't do yoga. Right. But for me, like the one consistent thing for me always is walking. I can always take a walk, whether it's on the treadmill or outside, or if it's up a mountain or on a trail or at the mall. Like I can go walk. And I will deliberately walk. And then I will shop if I'm doing it at the mall. Take a lap first, and then yeah. Whatever you like to do, do that. Just something. You prefer. I mean, you're walk- you walk, but you prefer strength training. And that is also movement. It's move and strengthening at the same time. I love dance. Some dance I can do all the time, some dance I can't do all the time. I've been a big fan of Zumba for a long time. And like sometimes I have injuries that just aren't conducive to that. But when I can, I love to do it. Depends on where you are and what you can do. But use what you have or you will lose what you have. Yes. Do you want to live a long, healthy life? Move. One of the most toxic things that people do is color their hair. And my hand is up. I am guilty of this. I love to play with my hair color. I have for years. And now I love to cover my grays. The best non-toxic hair color that I have found is polar hair care. It is easy, it applies like a shampoo. You only have to leave it on for 10 minutes. It lasts for about six weeks, and it doesn't have any of the harsh chemicals and all the nasty stuff in it. Plus, it's infused with Rishi, macadamia, jojoba oil. So it leaves my hair feeling better and not dried out and abused. Use the code Deborah 6334. That's my name, D-E-B-R-A 6334. So if you go to polarhaircare.com slash Deborah 6334, you'll get an awesome discount off your order. Okay, what's number four? Pillar number four is nutrition. Nutrition is what feeds the cells in the body. I'm gonna say it also can feed the soul. It feeds the mind because things will make you work better or not work as well. So nutrition, quality of nutrition, the food that you eat, the drinks that you drink, any supplementation that you take matters. Quality and also quantity. You need to eat enough to fuel yourself, not necessarily deprive yourself. You need to have fuel to do to move the body. If you don't put gas in the car, the gas, the car's not going to go anywhere. So some people tell me, you know, they are only eat one meal a day. And I'm like, okay, your poor body. Like it's okay here and there, but on a general rule, your body likes to know there's good food coming that has the nutrient nutrients it wants. And we've talked about nutrients. We've talked about fats, we've talked about protein, we've talked about carbohydrates. Those are all of the macronutrients, and the quality of those matter. You literally are what you eat, what you put in and on your body that literally makes up every cell in your body. So if you want to live a long, healthy life, I'm gonna say a long quality life. Yeah, because we're talking about optimal longevity. Eat things that nourish you. You can't live off of French fries and hamburgers your whole life and expect to have a good, healthy life. You just can't do that. So feed your body. You might feel like you're getting away with it for a while, though. Oh, yes. But the time will come. The time will come. Like we've done, I think we mentioned this one time before. When I was in high school, I would come home from school and have two Snickers and a Pepsi. Not the greatest. Not at all. No. And I could never. I would have weighed a thousand pounds. And my mother said, enjoy it while you can. So I didn't know she said that to you. She she did enjoy that. Snack while you can. And I stopped doing it because I realized it was not very good for me. No. It's important to eat good food. It's important to set a good example. If you have other members in your other people in your house that you live with or even roommates, like it's important to demonstrate what good eating looks like. And I'm gonna say it's changed over the years. Like they used to say butter is bad for you, and carbs are really good for you, and fat is really bad for you. But we know that all of those things are necessary. If it grows in the ground, it was designed on purpose. If it's a if it's an animal that you can eat, fish, pork, chicken, beef, buffalo, elk, deer, like they're all good for you. They eat things. Oh turkey. They all come, they all eat what comes from the ground. Yeah, eat good stuff. Use what's available, just eat good stuff. Don't eat ultra-processed, refined, fake food. Because the real food will communicate properly with your cells and with your neurons, and things will work right. And then you'll have energy and stamina and lubrication for your joints so you're not creaking out of the chair and then trying to walk, and it takes you a while to get going because you're full of bad stuff. Seizing up. We don't want our engines seizing. No. So put good good fuel in the tank and keep it running. It always needs to like if you think about the car, you don't just leave it parked and expect it to stay in good condition. You gotta drive it around the block every once in a while, move the tires, recharge the battery. Yep. Right? So take yourself around the block sometimes too. A good around the block. Yeah. How did you think I met? Yeah, the look on your face like I'm punishing. No, just get moving. But within your parameters of what you can do. And remembering that what is it? Motion is lotion. You that's what you say. Motion is lotion, and I say movement is life. Both are true. They are. Yeah. So the four core pillars of longevity sleep. Stress. Management. Oh, yes. These are all management things. Sleep management. Movement. And nutrition. Quality and a quantity. They both matter. They both matter. Yeah. Keep them in mind. And you'll live a long, productive life instead of a long, miserable, I can't do anything life. Yeah, that's no fun. No. It makes you feel like not being around anymore, which makes everything worse. Quality of life matters, and that's what we're talking about when we talk about optimal longevity. So how long do you want to live, Deb? You ever thought about that? Wow. So I haven't really like I want to live as long as I healthily can. Tom always says he's gonna live till he's 100. And I say, I don't know that I want to live that long. And he says, perfect, because I think you should go before I do. He thinks I'll be too sad. And I'm like, what, you don't love me? Anyway, I would like to live until I'm at least 80, but I don't know. However, whenever it's my time, it's my time. Make the years count in the meantime and make them as healthy as I can. How about you? That was a weird question. Well, because my kids and I have joked about it. Mom, you're gonna live till you're a hundred. I was like, all right, sure, no problem. We just saw um the leader of our church died and he was 101. Yeah. Still totally there mentally. Yeah. Which I think is really important. It is. That's my thing. Like if my like I I wanna be sharp and productive and all of the like healthy. Yeah, functioning. Functioning properly. So my goal is a hundred and you and Tom. And my and my my goal may be not not really a hundred, but I want to live my life so that if I'm alive at a hundred, I have a good life, and that I'm not just a miserable hundred-year-old, because then I wouldn't want to be a hundred at all. Yeah. So quality matters a lot. So that's how kind of how I look at my life. Like if I'm gonna live to a hundred, what do I need to do to make it there and be sharp and healthy? That's a good way to put it. Yeah. I want to live healthy till the end and skid into home plate, having used it all up. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Plate hard, lived well, all those good things. Yeah. I think that's it.
unknown:Yeah.
Debra:We've covered it, right? Longevity. Yeah. So some of those things we talked about in other episodes, like we said, the nutrition we talked about at length in the carbohydrates episode, the protein episode, the fats episode. So if you want more depth and detail there, go listen to those other episodes. Same thing with sleep. We did a whole episode on sleep. And then we've talked about stress management a few times. And we talked about movement. So look back through past episodes and if you want more detail on those. But this is putting it all together. With a purpose, the long life. Yes. So if there's anything in here that you found useful or helpful or that you think somebody else might find helpful, share it with them. Like us on our on the podcast platform that you listen to. And even bonus points if you leave us a review. Oh, we'd love a review. That helps us be found by other people, and we're really trying to help other people. And in our show notes, we have free resources. We have free downloads. We have products that we love that will get you a discount if you use our codes. Good resources in the show notes. So check those out. And then until next time, keep your wheel rolling smoothly. Yeah. We'll see ya. 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 expert before making big decisions. Until next time, keep your wheel rolling strong.