EP 01: Strengthen Your Immune System Sister!

Stacee Lynn: Welcome to the thrive sister thrive podcast, where together we're going to explore many different things that we women over 40 can do to help ourselves really truly thrive. We're talking holistic wellness, mamma, body, mind, and soul. I'm your host, Stacee Lynn. And I am just super excited to take this journey with you.

Now, let me be real clear. I am not a medical professional, and I don't even consider myself an expert. I'm just a passionate chick who spent over 20 years learning about and practicing many different natural and holistic health modalities. The list is indeed very, very low. I know, firsthand that navigating health challenges and figuring out an aging body can sometimes be frustrating or even scary.

But I also know that usually we have more control over these things than we realize you see, I believe that we can actually change the game. Once we figure out a few things, like when we learn to embrace the strengthening and healing power of nature, and when we stop unknowingly, harming our bodies and when we understand and support our mind body connection, and also when we start supporting our own bodies, like the unique snowflakes that they are, that's been my personal experience anyway, and I'm absolutely positive.

It can happen for you too. So that's why I'm here to share everything I know with you and also to keep learning right alongside you. I am so glad you're here, sister. I think it's time we jump in. Well, Hey there. Welcome. Thank you so much for being here. I am so excited that you are. I'm so excited to be here too.

Thank you. Thank you for joining me today. Uh, before I get into things, I want to let you know that, um, I want every episode of this podcast to ideally be a two-way conversation as much as possible. I'd love to hear from you, your thoughts, ideas, um, after you listened to this episode, if you'd like to reach out, I'd love it.

So I'm going to give you two different ways to do that real quick. Before we jump into things, the first one is, um, Instagram is pretty much my social platform of choice. That's where I'm most active. And so you can always just pop over there. I'm at thrive, sister, thrive on Instagram and send me a direct message.

Um, you know, whether it's a text, I'd love it. If it was like a, you know, a video or an audio, um, direct message, that'd be super cool, but a text message is awesome too. So reach out to me over there. If you're on Instagram and if you're not big on Instagram, that's not your jam. Then just send me an email and just send it to hello at thrive.

Sister, thrive.com and I will get it. And I promise I'll read it and I will respond. It probably won't be a super lengthy response, just, you know, because life is busy, but I will respond. So. Um, let's get into it. And in this episode, uh, we are going to be exploring why, why I believe right now we should super focus on our immune system.

In other words, obviously we should always focus on building, you know, strengthening and supporting our immune system. But right now, boy, I think it's more important than ever. So we'll talk a bit about that and my thoughts on that. Um, I'm going to share my own personal, um, story, my own health crisis that, oh my God taught me so much about my immune system and, and really started this journey for me into learning.

So much about natural medicine and holistic health and all these things. It was years ago. It was, uh, it was life changing in numerous ways. And I will share that with you. I'm here also. I will then share some, some thoughts and tips and, and, uh, on things that we can do. I'll I just picked out three, there are many but things that we can do to strengthen our, our immune system and support.

If we already have a strong immune system, let's support it and keep it that way. So I'm going to share some things that I've learned and personally do that have made a big impact. And I think that they'd be worth you considering those as well. So before we get into that, though, I have to tell you about this thing that I have.

I've been sort of real interested in the last few days. So strangely is what is called remineralizing toothpaste. And basically all of the brands that I could find that offer that, that offer this remineralizing toothpaste or use that language. It's usually they're using some, like, what is it? Bentonite clay, I believe.

And, uh, or some other sort of clay. I think most of them use that clay and then some other additional, uh, minerals and whatnot in their paste, as well as some of them use coconut oil. Some of them use activated charcoal. Some of them, you, you know, for whitening, some of them use, um, colloidal, silver, uh, there's diff there's just a lot of different combinations, but most of those, they have that clay, the bentonite.

And apparently this combination of minerals, if you brush your teeth with it for, you know, any length of time and people just claim that they've had great dental, um, exams, that they, their teeth were no longer prone to cavities the way they had been in the past and all these things. And. You know, these toothpastes don't have some of the like SLS and, and things like that.

And it that the more mainstream toothpaste have that people are concerned about. So anyways, it's very interesting. I can't believe I went down a rabbit hole about toothpaste the last few days, but then I guess I can, because it's kind of fascinating and I can't believe, I didn't really know about this sooner.

So I'm just putting it on your radar. I'm not saying one way or the other what my, how I really feel about it yet. But when I, after I've tested, I'm testing three different ones right now. I will mention one out of the three it's called magic mud. I really like it. And as far as like, you know, it's not terrible in the mouth, it doesn't taste weird.

It leaves my mouth feeling nice. And, and we're like, one of the other ones left my mouth feeling super dry. And so anyways, there's, you know, until you try them, you don't know. Right. But the point is, is, um, the company magic. You can find them at mymagicmud.com. This is a woman owned business. And I really like what they're about.

I like her mission personally. They had a video of her talking on their website, which is always smart. And I just, you know, if you're at all interested in this type of a product, I would recommend checking them out. So, okay. That's enough of that. All right. So I want to talk about the, uh, why I feel like I wanted to make my very first episode, um, talking about our immune system and, uh, the idea of working on.

You know, continually working on daily, doing things to strengthen our immune system and support, support it. So like I said, if you already have you feel like you have a real strong immune system, that's wonderful. Don't just, don't take it from somebody who knows. Just don't take it as a, given that it will always stay that way with no effort, because as we, as life gets busier for us and as we age and all these things, we just have to give it more love, you know, to make it, to make it work the way it did all all by itself when we were younger and less busy and life was less crazy.

So, um, the th the reason I wanted to talk about it, though right now is because personally for me, um, You know, we here, obviously all of us here every day, w I'm recording this in January of 2021. Of course it makes sense. We are in the middle of a global pandemic and every day we hear on the, on the wa well, everywhere, not just on the news, I don't even watch the news that often.

Um, but I, I watch it enough to know what's going on and not as stitch more. Um, but yeah, but everywhere you turn, w we all hear about, uh, what we should do. I do. And I'm talking from the top down in terms of government, the government, the CDC, and, you know, you hear it all over the media and you hear it everywhere from all day, local health officials and stuff.

They tell us the things that we should do to protect ourselves from COVID right. They tell us to wear a mask. They tell us to social distance and they tell us to wash our hands. And that's great. What bothers me is that the single best thing we can do in addition to those things, and maybe I think higher up on the list with then even probably washing your hands, but even though that's, I still say wash your hands, but, um, is to, is to strengthen and protect our immune system.

And I have not personally, now, maybe you have, but I have not personally. And all the doctors and the scientists and the, you know, the public officials that I have heard, talk about protecting ourselves from COVID and protecting others. I've not heard a single one of them. And how many months has it been 10 or 11 mention anything about, you know, what, in addition to these things, you really.

Should focus on strengthening your immune system. And here's a few things that you can do every day that are pretty easy affordable. You know, that sort of thing to do that, to help your body stay strong or get strong if it's not strong. And my thought is what the F why are they not telling people this in addition to the other things, right?

It's it just, uh, it just, it baffles my mind to, because it is the single it's almost as if, I mean, the reality is, is when we understand how much control we actually have over our immune system and how much control our immune system has over. What happens with us in to us in terms of health? Um, it it's, it's mind boggling to think that, that those people who are telling us these things to protect ourselves are not wanting to empower people that way.

It's so empowering. And I'm going to get into my story and why I say this in a few minutes, but it's so empowering to people to give them something they can do other than wash their hands and wear a mask, which is great. You know, that's fine. Uh, but, and, and social distance, but my goodness. Yeah. Like, you know, help them get stronger.

So God forbid, you know, they do come into contact con you know, COVID, you know, come, they come into contact with COVID or any other, you know, illness, live, virus, bacteria, whatever that, you know, they can basically, their immune system has the ability to just, you know, freaking kick it in the nuts, frankly, you know, it's like it, they, they will be in such a better position.

All of us. Um, we are in such a better position when, when we have, um, paid that attention, it doesn't mean we'll never get sick. It doesn't mean we're Bulletproof, but my goodness does it make a difference for people? And honestly, if they had started telling people that every day from the beginning of this thing, I do believe with all of my heart, that there would be a lot less.

Sick people, not only sick people that, you know, don't have to go to the hospital, but there would be a lot less people that ended up having to go to the hospital and maybe even a lot less people who would have died. And so it's sad to me that that is not a topic of discussion every day, everywhere, along with all the other things that they instruct us to do.

So that is why I want it to be one of the voices. And I know that there are doctors, lifestyle doctors in particular, um, uh, that, that are talking about this stuff. I've heard some of them, one of my favorite and most trusted resources during this pandemic. I didn't even know of him before it, which is really strange that I did not.

Um, but his name is Dr. David Katz, K a T Z. He has a YouTube channel. He's put out some really interesting. I think super thoughtful, um, commentary on his YouTube channel. Uh, he does one like once, once a week or twice a month or something, um, it all during COVID and he does COVID updates and. Uh, that he's not the only one there's been other doctors to Dr.

Michael Greger and so on and so forth. He's, he's, uh, from nutrition, facts.org. And, and, um, there's been many that I have heard talk about this as well, and it just lights my heart up every time I hear them, because I just know how powerful that is. If people can just wrap their heads around it and take up by the reins and do something with it.

And I do think that if they were to deliver that message, um, you know, they would have to simplify it, that you can't give people 8,000 things that they should go do. Some people a that's just too many people will become overwhelmed. B there are certain things that are too expensive for some people to be able to do.

And those are not the kinds of things you should be sharing with the general population you need to, you need to share the things that are accessible to everybody. Or at least pretty much everybody. And, uh, and there are those things, and those are the things I kinda wanted to, um, touch on here. And I wanted to do just be one of those voices that is trying to encourage people, trying to let people know how much power they actually have.

Um, you have a ton of power, a ton of, um, just incredible power when it comes to your immune system and, and how you are able to stay strong in the face of a lot of different types of, um, challenges, physical challenges and mental challenges for that matter. Um, so anyways, that is why I wanted to talk about this now it's because we are in COVID time.

I don't feel like it's being talked about nearly enough. I don't think people are being empowered the way that I would love to see them be empowered. And, uh, I know a lot of other, uh, Passionate people feel the same. And so I'm just lending my voice and I hope that this serves you and, um, and we'll get into, uh, a few, a few things that I think are, uh, would be great for you to consider focusing on if you don't already.

And I'm not going to say that they're new things, but I'm just going to kind of share my, my, um, two, 2 cents on them and provide you with some resources along the way that will hopefully be helpful to you. So, um, I want to tell you a bit about my backstory when it comes to all of this health and wellness stuff.

Um, I pretty much until I was about 30 years old, I, you know, could I was one of those people that could pretty much eat anything I wanted to and not gain weight. I was very, very fortunate and lucky that way. Of course that led to me eating a lot of junk food, you know, through my, through my, uh, teens and twenties.

Um, not being particularly careful around, uh, you know, as with typical teenagers and, and people in their twenties, right? You feel invincible and you're, you know, everything works pretty much the way it should for most folks. And, and you just don't think too much about diet and lifestyle and all that stuff, you know?

So I pretty much could just do what, what I wanted. I never was into, you know, hard drugs or anything like that. I was never, you know, I, but I did eat a lot of junk food, you know, I did have, I did do a little bit of social drinking and even smoking cigarettes at a little bit, never like, you know, never, um, never had a habit.

I, I refuse to develop a habit around that, but, um, and, and just, you know, just not getting enough sleep that was regular and just, you know, um, just, Hey, you know, just having a good time, basically. Right. And, and eating the things I wanted to, and I could get by with not much sleep and all the things, um, pretty typical stuff for people in their teenage years and twenties, at least in the U S I don't know about everywhere else, but, um, unfortunately, uh, when I got to be, uh, let's see.

I must've been right around, was it 30 or 31? Right around 30? Um, I, I just got really under the weather and I felt really, um, just out of, you know, kinda like things do, you know, kind of out of nowhere, I just, and I thought, you know what I have, I just felt terrible. I mean, just awful, like no energy, just none of it, none of it.

Um, and I, and I kind of, and mainly that was the thing. I was just exhausted, no energy. I didn't really have like a common, um, you know, S uh, cold things. You know, it was more like a BA I was just felt like I had a, maybe like a bad flu, but there wasn't like the coughing and all that. And I just couldn't figure out what was wrong.

And I, you know, thought, well, I'll rest up a little bit. I'll, you know, I'll kind of just lay low for a while and, and, and I'll feel better and it didn't happen and it didn't happen. And here I was, I, I was, you know, I had a young daughter. And I worked full time and I was just draggin'. You know, it took everything in me to, to just, um, get through, get through the day at work, let alone, come home and, and have to figure stuff out and, and take care of my daughter.

So I did it, but I don't, you know, you look back on these things and you're like, man, did I dig deeper? What, because, you know, you wonder where did I come up with the, the wherewithal, but you do, you know, you find a way. Um, and so I finally, after weeks of this, I w I went to, I remember I went to a doctor and I said, this is what I'm feeling.

You know, I'm feeling exhausted. I'm my, like, I feel kind of off, um, off balance. Like my head wasn't all clogged up. So I couldn't understand why I sort of had that feeling like I might be, had a clogged up head, you know, where it can affect your balance and things. Um, and I was just, uh, I, you know, I just, I couldn't even hardly describe it because it was just like this overall feeling horrible, but I wasn't coughing.

I didn't have a fever, all these things, you know, and I couldn't recall having recently had that stuff, which I, I, I may have, but by the time I went to the doctor, I didn't, and I wasn't even in the forefront of my mind, I was just like, I don't understand what's wrong. I don't understand why I'm so dizzy a lot of the time, um, kind of like, uh, I didn't even know what vertigo was at that point, but it was, it wasn't actual vertigo, but it was, well, maybe it was maybe it was like what you would consider a mild case of vertical, I guess it probably was actually.

And I was just, you know, overall feeling crappy. And I I'm like, I, I just need to, this has been going on for weeks. This is not normal. I've never had this before. Something's wrong and I need to figure it out. And this was just like a general family doctor, not a, not a doctor I'd been to for years or anything.

And you know, she pretty much didn't have much to say she did the, the usual exam room check. And she's just like, you know, that dah, dah, dah. And I can't remember what she said to me, but she didn't do it. Anything for me basically. And I went on my way. She's just basically tried to say, well, I don't think anything serious is wrong.

You know, you just need to take it easy for awhile or whatever. So off I went and then, you know, a few more weeks struggling through a few more weeks, just trying to find the energy to get through life daily, um, was challenging and, and I'm, and I finally said, you know, I need to go, I need to go to another dog.

And I went to another doctor, uh, and still no help. Like, you know, they took, they, they took, uh, I believe they even took blood at that point and like regular labs, it just checked all my regular, you know, the regular stuff they check. Um, and nothing came, nothing came back that, that, you know, it was kinda like, well, we're not seeing anything.

Basically. I kind of got the feeling and I've heard other people say this too. And I know it because I've seen it and I've experienced it and felt it myself. But when the doctors are looking at you, like. I don't think anything's really wrong with this person. You know, like I think maybe she's stressed or maybe she, you know, it's like, they don't really believe you.

I mean, they, they S they're not going to come out and say that, but yet the look on their face is just like, they don't, they don't fully believe that something is actually wrong with you. Um, and it's, it's awful, frankly. Um, have you ever had that happen? I mean, it is, it's, it's, it's really, it's really disheartening and infuriating.

Um, I hope you have not had that help. I hope you never have to have that happen if you've not. But, um, so finally, I, it, this, I must have went by the time I went to the third doctor who was actually, I think that was what happened is the second doctor said, you know what. I'm going to refer you to an internist and they can do some more expanded blood work and have a look.

And I thought, okay, that's good. At least that's something, you know, because this doctor was empty handed as well. So then I go to the internist. This was about, this must have been a couple months after this all sort of started. Um, and so I was just, by that time fit to be tied cause nothing had changed. I wasn't feeling any better.

Um, I wasn't feeling worse, but I felt so horrible to begin with that, you know? Um, and so, I mean, it was just like you wake up in bed in the morning and, and I would think, where am I going to find the energy to get through this day? You know? And you just drink, I just dragged myself out of bed and go through the motions.

You know, on top of just the overall being exhausted and just feeling blessed. You know, I, again would have these, like, I didn't know about inner ear problems and things like that at that point. And they couldn't want the doctors to check like for inner ear issues that might cause like off balance or vertigo, Disney, dizziness, whatever they weren't, they, these, these doctors, these regular like family doctors did to that I'd went to, they, they weren't seeing that, you know, I had a bunch of whatever fluid in my ears or whatever would cause pressure like that to make that happen.

But that's exhausting if you, I don't know if you've ever had that where your ears. Or even your sinuses are so like, something's going on to where it's messing with your balance and things. It's exhausting that in and of itself can be exhausting. Um, so I was dealing with that on top of the already just general feeling of exhaustion.

Um, and basically by the time I went to this internist had been about two months of all this and he did pull some blood and he did some initial checks right there, you know, uh, in his office. And then he sent some off, I believe, to, for further testing, but he did come out to me and at least finally, it's so weird when somebody tells you something's wrong with you and you breathe a sigh of relief because now you're just glad to know that they found something that makes some sense.

Right. Have you ever been in that situation? It is. Uh, it's oddly. It's weird. It's a real, you're like, I should be really upset right now. Cause they just told me this thing has happened to me or is wrong with me. And yet I'm feeling the sense of relief because finally I have some sort of an answer and that's where I was.

And he has said, and this has boggled my mind. And still to this day, I'm not sure exactly how this happened, but because I was married at the time and you know, unless I got it through my daughter because you know, kids, kids can transfer things, but yet you, you know, they don't get sick. Um, so he came, he comes out to me and he says, well, you definitely have, you definitely have had mono recently.

Or he said, I don't believe you currently haven't but you definitely have had mono mononucleosis, which is a virus. You've definitely had it recently. I can see the antibodies in your blood. Um, and so he said that would describe, you know, basically what you're experiencing with just yeah. This exhaustion and all of this.

Um, and, and just this general feeling of not feeling well. And, you know, he said, you know, with the ear thing with the, the dizziness or the, he said that I think is probably more, this could be because of the virus, sometimes viruses will come through and they'll go into your, your inner ears and they will do some damage that remains after the virus leaves.

That could be what's happening. I'm going to refer, are you to a specialist? That was the next doctor I went to, but, um, to, to deal with that. And, um, so basically he's, he said to me, so when I, when I, when I said, okay, so I've had mono, or I said, do I still have it? He goes, I don't think you still have it. Um, and I said, yeah, And I didn't even know what the symptoms of mono were.

I didn't know. I had heard of it, but you know, that's, that's a virus we all hear about. Right. But, but most of us don't really know what that is. And I said, well, I don't really know what that means. I said, I haven't been like super, you know, had these like a horrific cough or like cold symptoms or whatever.

And he said, you know, mono is, he said, a lot of people don't understand mono, but basically he said, honestly, Most people get mono or come in contact with mono at some point in their life. But he said only about one in 10 people who actually contract it. So some people that they contract it, their immune system just boots it out right away.

It's it sees it, it just boots it away and they don't have any symptoms. Some people get, he said, most people get it like a regular cold or flu type thing, you know, where they're just, I mean, it's no different than any other cold or flu. And that may have been what happened to me. It just had happened, you know, several months prior.

And I didn't remember it because that part of it wasn't so bad. But he said for about one in 10 people, what it does is after the symptoms go away, it, it does such a number on their immune system. It basically just kind of destroys their immune system. Um, even if the symptoms they itself weren't.

Terrible. Um, the, the, the impact that it has, the, the, the damage, it leaves in its wake on the immune system can be worse than the symptoms were of having it to begin with. He said that only happens to roughly one in 10 people that have it. And usually those are the only people that ever know that they had mono.

Those are the only people that ever say I had mono because the other people never know they had mono, it came and went like a cold. And, and, and that was it. Um, and maybe a bad cold, but not enough for them to go to the doctor, get tested, find out they had mono is the people who go through what I went through, or even, you know, the people who are, you know, just flat out miserable for a long period of time that ended up going to the doctor to find out, oh, it's the ma it's mono, you know, um, typically.

That's what I that's, that's what I w you know, was, was faced with. And I said to him, I said, well, what do I do to start feeling better? Like, what you just told me, my immune system is probably more or less destroyed. And what, what do I do like to, to start feeling better? And he honestly said to me, there's not really anything you can do.

There's not really anything we can do for this. The immune system just has to rebuild itself. And then, you know, you'll be back to stuff. I said, okay, how long does that take? You know, I'm full of questions. I say, how long would that take? He said, it can take several years. It can take several years. And I looked, I mean, I about hit the floor.

I, I thought to feel like this, or even halfway like this for several years, are you freaking kidding me? You know, there's no effing way that I'm going to settle for that. You know, if there's anything I could do about it, but he didn't have any answers for me. He just said, you gotta let the immune system rebuild itself.

He didn't say there's things you can do to help that happen. There's things you can do to support your why, because he probably didn't know. He probably didn't know. And so I walked out of that office feeling. Oh, so many things, but I mean, a relief to know what had been going on with me, what was going on with me, be to find out that I am not going to be able to take some medication and feel better in a week or just rest for two weeks and feel brand new, but that I didn't have, it was just like, you know, you're going to feel crappy for a long time while your immune system rebuilds itself.

And that could take years. That was my takeaway. And so you can imagine, you can imagine, um, what I must have been feeling at that time. And here I am, again, it would have been bad enough to be just, you know, Uh, uh, a woman that just had no, no responsibilities other than her job, which was hard enough to get through that in a day.

But I was a mom, I am a mom, but I was a mother of a young child. At that point. She was in grade school. You know, there was a lot to be done every day. You, if you're a mom, you know what I'm saying? If you're not, you've seen it, you know what I'm saying? And so I just really had to figure it out. I was, um, I just was, I walked out of there so determined.

I was just, I just knew in my core, have you ever felt this where you just know, you just know in your core that there's something more, there has to be something more, there's something more that can be done. There's something more I can do. There's something there's, there's definitely an answer here. I just have to figure out what it is.

And I just knew that I just knew that and I had no. At this point, I had never, um, studied or read or heard about anything having to do with holistic health, natural medicine. None of it. That was a total, total stranger to all of that. I just, so for me, it was just instinctual survival, right? It's like, I, there's no effing way.

I'm going to feel like this for years and I'm going to figure this out. I know there has to be a way, so I'm going to tell you what I did, um, next, but I do want you to know that if you are, I just really want to get this across that if you are feeling like you're, if you are dealing with some sort of health, um, challenge that you've not been able to get answers for from your doctor or, you know, um, You know, your other resources that you would typically get answers from when it comes to your health, please don't give up on, you know, please don't place all of your trust in one resource.

Um, first of all, there are all kinds of doctors. There are all kinds of medical professionals, none of them have all the answers. Um, if you're dealing with a serious health challenge, I seriously think it's worth your while to talk to more than one doctor. Um, and until you, until you find one that you really, um, just feel like they got their finger on the pulse and they're willing to help you have where they can know that even they, as wonderful as they are, do not have all the answers.

So it's up to you to do the research, spend some time. Dig deep and find some energy to try to understand better a what's going on with you. So that be, you can kind of reverse engineer what maybe you can do about it. And I know we can't fix everything, but there's so much we can do to support our bodies and to, to be healthier and to, um, improve our quality of life.

You know? So, um, but a lot of it just starts with us educating ourselves first and being willing to do that and not just trusting that every doctor has all the answers or that our doctor is so wonderful and brilliant. They must have all the answers because even they don't, they're human just like you and me.

And so, you know, so, so I'm not against doctors by any means. I just don't believe that we should put, um, you know, everything that we believe and think and do in the hands of, of a doctor, you know, in, in the hands of doctors only, I think we need to, to, uh, to learn and to. It's so empowering. I'm promise you if you do that and, and you may have already done this and then, you know how empowering it is, but it is so empowering to realize that you do have control over certain things.

A lot of things, not all things, maybe, but a whole lot of things. So with that said, what I did at that point is, again, I didn't know, diddly. I did not know diddly about any of it. So I just thought, you know what, I'm going to haul my tired ass to the bookstore. And I went over to, I knew that whatever the answer was for me, it was not going to be conventional medicine related.

It was not gonna be Western conventional, Western medicine, um, ideas, philosophies, whatever, whatever I want. Whatever I was going to need, whatever was going to happen helped me was, was more in the realm of, you know, natural medicine and, uh, and that sort of thing. So I went into the bookstore, I think it was Barnes and noble at the time, um, or borders, one of those two.

And I went over to, I think they had alternative medicine section or something. I didn't even really know what I was looking for. I was just like, I'm going to show up in that part of the bookstore. I gotta find the right part of the bookstore first and then I'm going to, and so I go in and I ask him, they're like, okay.

So I go over to the alternative med, uh, healthcare medicine, whatever they called it section and just started reading through some of the titles of the books. And I just thought, you know, something's gonna grab me or make sense to me and sure enough, Um, and I think because at this time it was, uh, it was, well, it is a New York times bestselling book, but at the time I think it had just come out a couple years prior and was already a New York time bestseller.

So I think it was probably one of those front-facing books, you know, how they have, um, books displayed, you know, front facing, or then obviously, um, then they have a bunch on the shelf that aren't, but I think this was one of the front facing books. That's one of the reasons it's caught my attention. Plus I love the, I love the look of the man on the front of it.

And when I mentioned who he is, if you know who he is, you'll understand what I mean, but, um, is a book by Dr. Weil, w E I L I believe it's whale is how he pronounces it. And it was a book called it is a book called spontaneous healing. That's the title, spontaneous healing, and the subtitle reads how to discover and embrace your body's natural ability to maintain and heal itself.

And I was just like, whoa, you know what? And I was like, okay, this is what I'm thinking. Like, I didn't even really have it crystallized what I was thinking, but like that just spoke to me. I'm like, that's it, that's what I need to learn. That's what I need to know. And that's how I that's, you know, all of a sudden this hope like you just, I lit up with hope, right?

I didn't even hadn't read the book yet. And I was lit up with hope and hope as you know, and I know, and we all know hope is powerful, powerful. And so if you can find, you know, if you can find that inspiration being, find something that gives you hope in, in really difficult situations, it is, it is everything, it's everything.

And so. I grabbed that book and I read the back of it and I thought, oh my God, I was so excited. Couldn't, you know, it was like, couldn't wait to read this book because I'm like, this is it. This is gonna, this is gonna help me figure this mess out. Cause I was so determined to figure it out. Um, and Dr. Well, by the way, he's an alternative medicine doctor.

Uh, he's very into integrative medicine. So it's like combining the different types of medicines from around the world, Western medicine, which he is, you know, uh, officially, I mean, he is an MD, but he, he also, um, he's, you know, it's bringing, it was it's at that time again, we're going back to the late nineties at this point.

I think he wrote the book in the mid 90's. But bringing in different aspects of medicine, alternative medicine and medicine from Eastern countries and that sort of thing altogether, he's all about like finding the best of all the things that work together. So that's integrative medicine, right? So that's the kind of doctor he is now at this point.

He's I think in his late seventies, he, uh, he for years had run a start. He opened and ran a medical center in Arizona, um, integrative medicine, uh, type medical center. And then he, I, I think that's still there. I don't think he's, he's not involved anymore. He's more semi-retired but he is like a professor and he's basically an educator now at, uh, one of the universities in Arizona.

So. Anyway, he's, he's a really impressive guy. He has back then the picture of him on this book, you know, this is a big picture of his face. And he had like this, you know, he was grained, you know, gray, big bushy beard and stuff, and, and, and super friendly face, almost like a Santa Claus face or something.

And it's just like, there's something about this. It's just drawing my, drawing me in whoever did his book, you know, the publishing house did a fantastic job, but it was really that title, that subtitled that got me excited. So I took that book home and I could not consume that book fast enough. I may have read it more than once.

And not only was he explaining about how the immune system works, um, you know, the things that, that we do through life that kind of mess it up. We can it make it more susceptible the things we can do to turn that around, to strengthen it. Um, and he told stories of people that had gone through. I think we were S health situations than me health crisis than I, I was going through at the time, even though that was bad.

I mean, it really, it, it was bad. Um, and it went on a long time, but, um, excuse me, but he, um, So he told stories of these people and their recovery and it was so inspiring. And then he gave real like, you know, concrete things that I could, it was just a jumping off point. I went on to read more things and learn more things and just really start soaking that up.

Um, I th so he talked about certain supplements that, you know, that support the immune system that I sh that I had, I'd never taken, taken supplements, maybe a few vitamins CS here and there or something, but nothing, you know, so supplements that could help rebuild my immune system and, and, and foods, and, you know, all these different things, but also.

You know, he had talked about alternative medicine, which was nothing I even knew about. So what did I do next? Um, in addition to starting with some of the supplements and some of these lifestyle things that he was was teaching about. Um, and by that way, that book is still available on Amazon. Um, and you could, it comes in a paper bag and they don't have it on audible.

Um, because it is an older book probably, but you can still get it. And again, it's called spontaneous healing. I'll link to it in the show notes, by the way, all resources that I mentioned on any podcast will, I will have links in the show notes and the show notes can be found, um, right inside your podcast player, in the description for this episode.

Um, most podcast players, at least, maybe not every one of them. And then also, um, over on my website, And there you will just, it was just thrive. Sister thrive.com forward slash and then the episode number. So like this is episode zero one. So it'd be thrivesisterthrive.com/01 always. Um, that will be where you can find all of the links to all these resources that I mentioned throughout all these shows.

Um, so, uh, anyway, yeah, I would highly recommend that book if you are brand new to learning about natural medicine, uh, and, and the body's ability to heal itself and wanting to just understand better how that works. That's a fantastic, fantastic resource. Um, so again, it's Dr. Weil a Weil, sorry. W E I L and it is a spontaneous healing.

That's the name of the book? Um, so anyways, what I did next was I. Look to see if there was what alternative doctors. Now, again, I'm taking you way back, girl. Um, we were not, you know, again, we couldn't just jump on the internet and everybody had a website that just wasn't happening yet. Um, so. I guess I must've got the phone book out and started looking for alternative, you know, doctors or alternative medical clinics or something.

I don't even remember that was so long ago, but I wanted to find somebody. I live dear near Seattle at the time I lived in Renton, which is probably about, I dunno, 40 minutes outside of Seattle. And I figured surely in Seattle, there has got to be some alternative medical doctors. I want to go see one because I need there.

I need that information. I need to know how they will approach this, to support all this other stuff I'm doing. So luckily I found, and now of course, all across the country, there are alternative medical doctors everywhere, pretty much in every small town. There's at least one, certainly in every city, there are many, many, many, um, and there's a lot of different kinds of alternative doctors.

But, um, if you, if you. Uh, alternative alternative medical center, alternative medical doctor or natural medicine, or any of those things in your area. You're going to come up with some people that are, um, the doctors that are really look at, uh, illnesses, healing from illnesses and preventing illness in very different ways than traditional medical doctors.

And I would encourage anybody. Who's never been to one, if you've never been to a naturopath or you've never been to, um, like, uh, like somebody who practice well, natural pass generally do practice Chinese herbal medicine. I'm going to talk about that in a minute, as well as other things, if you've never been to acupuncture.

Oh my goodness. Go. I so encourage you to set up an appointment and go see these people. Um, an acupuncturist would be great if you're having pain anywhere on your body or just stress, you know, it's, it, it just kind of helps your body, um, helps the energies in your body. Um, function better, which is incredible.

I've done it for back issues and things over the years. Sometimes it's helped me more than others. It really depends on the situation. People do it for arthritis and stress and all the things athletes do. Acupuncture. They've been pro athletes have been doing it for years. It's, it's incredibly healing for a lot of different conditions, but naturopaths are fantastic.

Um, interesting doctors to go see just for general health things and let alone or very specific health challenges. But if you have a regular doctor, um, that's great too, but you, you can have both. So that's just a little, that's my 2 cents worth on that. I say everybody. I think everybody should. If you have your regular doctor, whatever that looks like.

If it's a gynecologist or it's a family doctor, whatever, and then have your naturopath and you can run different things separately through each of them, or you can, you know, run, you know, visit them each once a year and run things through them. You will get such a more well-rounded, um, look and picture of what, what your body's dealing with, what is going through and different ways you can support it.

So, anyway, that's that? But, so what I did is I looked up and I, I was lucky because I found that in Seattle, there was a place called Bastyr, Bastyr clinic, and Bastyr is, um, it was the clinic for Bastyr, um, uh, university, which is, uh, outside of Seattle a ways, but it is one of the foremost.

Schools for natural medicine and, and, uh, you know, they, they have incredible programs there they've been around since I think the seventies maybe. And so Bastyr is very, like, very highly thought of, in the sort of, um, holistic health space for, for a lot of reasons. So anyway, they have have they, at that time, I don't know if they still do, but they had their clinic where their, their students that were in their final, like fifth year, um, would, would be supervised by.

You know, doctors that were licensed and everything to work as they worked in the clinic. And that was part of their final year of school. And again, it wasn't just the students, they always, you know, when they would come in to see you, they always, there was, there was an actual, you know, doctor naturopathic doctor that was licensed, uh, you know, and then they would have students working a student or students working with them.

But I, so I set up an appointment there. I did not have the foggiest idea what to expect. All I knew was, you know, how you just get that gut feeling? It's like, okay, I need to do that. That's something I definitely need to do. Uh, so that's what I did. And I went into this appointment and, and I starting to feel a little better by then.

Cause I think by the time I'd read the book and I'd started with some of the supplements and things like that, I still didn't feel great. This, I knew that I wasn't just going to feel better overnight that this was going to be a bit of a process, but I thought if I can get feeling better, like really a lot better in the next, you know, even like three to six months, that beats years and years.

Right. And if I am just kind of noticing an improvement, uh, you know, week over week, even if it's small improvements, at least I know I'm going in the right direction, I'm getting something done here. And I had started to feel a little bit. Um, but I'd got in, I think maybe two or three weeks or something after I had read this book, which seems unheard of these days because it takes, doesn't it just take forever to get into, uh, into a doctor's appointment.

My goodness. But anyways, um, so I went and I, I thought, well, this'll probably be a lot like a regular doctor's visit. I'll go into the room. The doctor will come in. Uh, maybe a nurse will come in, but then, you know, they'll, they'll take my temperature and they'll, you know, whatever feel around and, you know, listen to my heart and do the things that they do.

And, and then that's about as far as I got in my head with the whole thing and I could not have been more off. I don't know if you've ever been to a, if you've been to a naturopath or, um, and I do think some naturopaths definitely do that because some naturopaths also have, you know, they're an MD and a, and an, an, a naturopathic doctor.

Like they have, you know, multiple licenses and things like that. So they, they may do things a little different, but so I do think some still do things very traditionally in that way, but where I went, they were like purists, you know, they were like really, uh, took the, um, The very traditional methods of assessing the body.

Let's put it that way. So I walk in and I sit down on just a regular chair and, uh, when the doctor comes in, I can't, I believe, I can't remember, was he a man or a woman doesn't matter, but they had like three students with them. So right off the bat, I was like, wow, that's a lot. You know, so I didn't say that, but that's what I was thinking.

And so I, and the doctor immediately, I think maybe could see the look on my face and I was new there. So they knew I'd never been there before. And, and, you know, I was pretty young, so he probably figured she's never been to any naturopathic doctor, but. And so, uh, he was like, well, this is what's going on.

These are students. This is how we do things here and kind of explain the whole deal. And I was like, okay. You know, I don't know. I don't think I was terribly excited about the concept of having that many people in the room while I had an exam. I didn't even know what the exam was going to entail. Right.

But, um, so anyhow, long story short, they, one of them, one of the students grabbed my, grabbed my wrist. Like they, they just reached over and they grabbed my wrist and lifted my arm up and they were holding onto my wrist and they looked very like. Like had this real thoughtful look on their face. Like they were really paying attention to something and I'm thinking, what are they doing?

You know? And then I realized, oh, they must be filling for my pulse. Okay. Cause it was near my wrist. Right. So I thought, okay, they're feeling my pulse. That's interesting, but okay. I get it. But then they like moved in. They did the same thing somewhere else on my arm. I believe it was. And then on my neck and I thought, what is happening right now?

Because they weren't telling me what they were doing. But then I think I asked him, cause I, again, I'm always full of lots of questions. And I said, what's happening? And they're like, oh, we feel your pulse in about like three different locations, three or four different locations on your body that tells us different things about what's going on.

And you know, where your pulse is stronger or weaker and stuff. And that has something to do with your inner cause. You know, we have like different, our energy in our body runs in different patterns. There's different. And I'm going to get into some episodes on all of that. I've learned an awful lot about energy medicine, which is fascinating in and of itself.

Um, but this was, this was what that was, and I didn't know it. So they were looking to see, you know, the energy behind my pulse and certain parts of my body that was telling them something. Then I thought, okay, that's, that's interesting. And this was definitely the most non-intrusive doctor's appointment I've ever had in my life.

It was really fascinating. But then they say, okay, stick out your tongue. And I thought, all right, well, that's, you know, normally wants to get your tongue and then they take a light and they look back there. Right. And, and then that's it. That is not what they were doing. They were sketching. They had like this little sketch pad.

And they had that had like a sketch of a tongue and they were shading it. They're looking at my, my mouth. And then they were sketching on this tablet, like on this, this diagram of this tongue and they were sketching some things and then they look in my mouth and then they'd sketch some more. And, and I'm thinking, what the hell is going on?

You know, like they're not even, like, I was used to like them looking back. They're like, they look at your tonsils with the light and maybe put a stick in your mouth and then you're done, but that's not what was happening. It was like, you know, it was crazy. And so. Okay. And then, you know, and so then, you know, they're, they're, they asked like a ton of questions, which was so comforting to me because how often do you go to the doctors and they asked you about five standard questions and then they're like, okay, is there anything else you want to tell me?

Or is there anything? And you're like, um, I guess not, you know, like it doesn't come to mind at the time. Of course, then you leave. And you're like, oh, I should've told them this. Or I should've asked about that. But these people asked a ton of questions, like, and I found that very comforting and really, um, I think I was in there for like a good hour and.

It's not like, you know, they, they, they really just needed a lot of information and they could tell by whatever was happening on my tongue, as well as the pulses and some other things, they just got a really good feel for whatever it was they needed to know to try to help. You know, I, of course I told them all the things from my regular, you know, the other doctors that I'd been to the test results, you know, what the internist said about the mono and the immune system and all these things gave them all that information as well.

They also, because they're very into integrative medicine there, they wanted to, you know, like I gave them the name and number of that office instead of cause they like to, you know, ideally have all the information from all your doctors together. It's just paints some more complete picture. Um, long story short, what they, uh, but I left there with that day.

What's something I never would've thought I left a doctor's office with, but they, you know, they use a lot of different methods to treat patients and acupuncture is one of them. Of course. Um, but another one that is common, at least for situations where you you've got immune system issues, whether it's auto-immune or, or anything is they're gonna, they, they do, they use Chinese herbal medicine, um, to treat those sorts of things a lot of times, or sometimes that's just one piece of the puzzle, but for me, that was like, well, we're going to bring you back in a couple of weeks and follow up.

But in the meantime, We want you to, we're going to give you this mixture of, uh, uh, herbs and, you know, plants basically, and it's gonna make a tea and it's very, very strong and very, very powerful and good for your immune system. And it should start to help it gain some steam again, you know? Um, so we're gonna give you this tea and we're going to start with that.

They didn't, I don't think they said anything else other than, you know, as far as anything they were going to give me. And so I, they said, go out, we have a dispensary here, our own dispensary, so they know what to make for you. They're going to have it made up for you in about 10 minutes. And I'm in my, I guess I'm just picturing, like what we now think of as dry, loose leaf tea.

Right. That's kinda what I'm thinking. Okay. They're just like, they'll have the instructions. You're going to take this tea. I think it was twice a day at that point. Um, it's very strong. You may need to put a little bit of sweetener in it, like honey or something. Um, but we think that it will, will start to help you out in the way we need you to come back.

And I thought, okay, if that's what we're doing, then I'm, I'm, I'm down with it. So I wait and they call my name to go pick up my tea and they give me this fairly sizeable paper bag, you know, bigger than like a lunch sacks, but maybe close to that size, but bigger. And I was an, and it was just a paper bag and I couldn't see what was in it.

I just like should there, like, there was a thing stapled the outside, like the instructions and, you know, here's here you go. So I paid for it and off I went and luckily at that point, because it was a student clinic and all these things, you know, they had like sliding scales and stuff. Cause again, I, you know, I was, I worked full time, but, and I, you know, I was a mom and I had insurance, but the insurance did not use to cover that sort of stuff.

Didn't cover naturopathic visits. A lot of them do now. Some of them still don't I think. But, um, so I had to, they, they worked with you on a sliding scale based on your income and stuff, which was great. So anyways, I took my sack of tea and I, when I got out to the car, you know, I had to look at it. But again, in my mind, I think I'm picturing like loose leaf tea, even though I didn't drink loose leaf tea back then, but that's just kind of what I'd conjured up.

And I, why do I open the bag, the paper bag? And I look in there not only is the smell incredibly overwhelming, it smells like I just put my face in a dirt pile pretty much. Um, and it comes wafting out, but I look in there and it is full of, and I am not exaggerating here. Stuff that looks like I went out into my backyard and collected up things that look like little pieces of bark sticks.

Um, uh, like not dry, not dry, like leave so much, but it was mostly like sticks and things that would resemble, um, they weren't pine cones, but might resemble something like that. And, and, uh, uh, mainly a lot of stick, like looking things and bark, like looking things. Oh. And some things that look like and probably were dried up mushrooms.

And I, it was just a variety of things. I was like, oh my God, you know, this is supposed to be turned into tea. And, and I thought, it looks like it went into my backyard and just raked up a bunch of stuff and threw it into a bag. There was no grass in there. But, um, so anyways, I just, and this smells horrible.

I have to imagine this is just going to taste like hell basically. So I thought, you know what? I don't care at this point, if they think this is going to help. Who am I to say, it's not, it's not going to hurt me other than it's going to taste terrible. And at that point, you know, I had been so miserable for so long.

I was like, I will, I will do it. You know, that, that is fine. I'm down. So I go home and I put that you had to boil a big pot of water on the stove. Um, and then dumped some of this stuff in there once it got boiling and let it boil like 10 or 15 minutes. And can I just tell you. My house did not smell real good during that phase of things, because that stuff was so strong smelling, even with the fan on the stove turned on and all that.

And, you know, you could smell it at the other end of the house, but it did dissipate after a few hours. But the point is, and as I was doing this, you know, every day for a little while and, uh, and, and I went to take, I thought I better try the first time I drank it. I thought I better try to drink this without anything in it, just so I don't know if it is a good, I mean, really?

Is this going to taste better with sweetener in it? That seems hard to believe. So I took us relatively small swig of it and it took everything in me not to spit it right out, um, and swallow it. And I just thought, oh my God, like, literally it, it must be what it is like to eat dirt. I've never ate dirt. Uh, but I can only imagine that must be what it tastes like.

It was the color of dirt, you know, it looked like a cup of coffee, really. Um, but it certainly didn't taste that way. So anyways, then I decided, well, shoot, I mean, I guess I could try to put some honey in it. I don't eat honey now, but I didn't eat any back then. And I thought, well, let me go ahead. And you know, it can't make it worse.

That's not possible. So I put that in. It didn't make it better. Let's put it that way. It did not make it worse, but it certainly did not make it better either. So, um, I just, I plugged my nose and tried to drink it. I let it cool down enough that I could just drink it fast. And it was tortured to drink that stuff.

And multiple times a day for, I think I, again, it was a couple of weeks till I went back for my appointment and I did start to feel again, I was taking some supplements by that time. I think I was doing a little bit better with some. So the food and stuff that I was eating and, uh, and the other things that I was learning from the book I had read.

So, and this, and I did notice a little bit of, of change also with taking this stuff too. So I was starting to feel a little more energy, a little bit better. Um, I do believe it was helping me. I, I did go back and see them. I went back to see them several times over the course of the following few months, and it was incredibly helpful.

It made me feel so much better to know that I was working with doctors or doctor and, and, and students that were assumed to be doctors. Um, that actually understood what my body was going through, what I was going through and could properly support me. Um, they were, they were qualified to support me in that particular situation.

And that's why I say if, if even if you have a regular doctor, if there are situations that you will likely go through in life, if you haven't already health situations, that a naturopath will be of more support to you, they're just more. They're more qualified to be of support you in those particular situations.

So that's why having both in your, in your, um, circle is a super, super, super good idea. So anyways, I'm going to wrap this up because I want to get to, to some, some tips and thoughts on, on some things that you can do if you're not already doing them to support and strengthen your immune system. But, um, basically I did, as I learned more, which I did, I didn't just stop at that one book.

I, I read it, read other things and I listened to other things and I was just all about, I need to understand what's going on. So then I can figure out what I can do to try to fix it. That's how I think about things. Let me try and understand what's happening. Let me, let me do what I can to fix it there.

Uh, and so that's, that's what I did. And I would say it was probably over the course of instead of years before I was going to feel normal. Uh, it was, I would say probably over that first six months after I saw the internist and was given that information, uh, probably that first six months I did, I really did manage to get feeling a whole heck of a lot better, a gradually over that six months, by the end of that six months, I would say I was feeling probably it's hard to remember now, cause it's a long time ago, but I would say probably about 75% there, you know, back to normal.

And then I, uh, for the next up to, you know, another six months or a year, I really just, um, had a real awareness of when I was getting run down or whatever. And then I would, you know, get more rest or eat better or, or, you know, whatever, do some stuff to support my body even more. Uh, and, and so I, I would say by the end of a year, from what I initially saw the internist, I was probably back to back to normal.

You know, as young people do, I thought, well, I'm good now I'm back to normal. I've got it figured out. I'm good. I can just return to my old ways and no worries. Like, I'll be fine. And then I started to get myself run down a little bit more. I didn't, I did not go back to what I had experienced before, because I had kind of rebuilt my immune system, but, you know, going back to not sleeping enough, eating too much junk food, so on and so forth.

Um, uh, and any number of other, you know, things that people do on a daily basis. That aren't great for us, uh, that I, I just, you know, I, there were times where I kind of would get dropped on my rear end for, for a, you know, a few days or whatever, like, wow. Okay. I need to. Be good because this clearly I can't get away with the kind of stuff I used to get away with.

Uh, and, and, and, and just continue to feel great. Like I I've got to do better regularly. And, and that was, but that was my, um, and so I did. And so I, you know, I have learned over the years how to, what I need to do for my body and how to support. And I still learning because our bodies changed right. As we age, it changes and you go through, you go through perimenopause and menopause and these things change.

And so you're figuring out new things. Um, and so it's, it's just a constant journey. I'm always learning. I'll always be learning. And, uh, and I encourage you to do the same because not only is it fascinating, but it's empowering and, uh, and that's so, so, you know, that's, that's such a great thing to, to. It's just great to know that you have a lot, you can do, even regardless of your genetics and all these things, you know, there's so much science around now.

Uh, people are not even if they are predisposed to something genetically it's generally almost always lifestyle factors that, that flipped a switch on her office. Uh, genetic diseases and things that we, we, uh, kind of come to fruition for us, even though the code is there, you know, like the, it has to be switched on, or it can be switched.

It has to be switched on, uh, to, to play at, you know, for us to experience, um, that act, that disease or that illness. Uh, so they are learning that, you know, generally speaking what turns those switches on a lot of times is, is lifestyle stuff. So there's, so there's a lot we can do to keep ourselves healthy, regardless of kind of what our families may have gone through.

And we feel though, and even maybe know that we're genetically predisposed to, uh, there's no guarantees in life about anything, but boy, if we can, if we can tilt the, if we can tilt the scales in our favor, boy, it's worth it. Right. So, so anyways, that is my story. That is what I went through that taught me so much about.

The immune system, my immune system in particular and kind of how it works, the things that hurt, hurt it, damage it, the things that help it and build it stronger. And, um, it, it just, you know, some it's just something that it was a powerful, it made it, it made a lasting impression on me and it was something that over the years, I have really been drawn to anything that I've been drawn to.

Any information that I feel is, um, well, credible, first of all, I had to, because there's a lot information out there that's not credible. Um, but there's credible, but that is, is, is talking about the idea of. Um, holistic health and all the different things that play into our health and wellness, because there's so, so many, which is why this podcast is, you know, dedicated to exploring a lot of those different things.

In every episode, I'll pretty much pick sort of one topic, one specific thing, and we'll explore that together. So, um, I am not saying that I have all the answers. I would never say that I am just trying to share my experience, my, um, my ideas. And I just always want to encourage you to do your homework, to do, to, to be curious, to believe that there are.

Answers a lot of times that are just not right in front of us, but that still are out there that it's worth seeking those answers a lot of times, even though it can take some time, uh, it can be so worth it. So anyways, on that note, let's see here. I wanted to just talk, um, I'm gonna, I picked three things that I just wanted to touch on because obviously I want you to build your immune system as you know, to be a strong and durable and healthy and vibrant as possible.

And maybe it already is. And if it is that's wonderful and you just want to keep, keep that going. Because like I said, you know, it, our body's changed a lot over the years, so we got to always be, we always got to be treating it right. And figuring out what that means at that in the moment, because it, it does change.

The first thing I believe everyone can do that will help more than you probably think. And I think we kind of know it, like we've heard it 8 million times, but knowing it and actually like understanding it at a deeper level is two different things. And so that is to eat a whole lot, way more than you probably do unless you eat a ton already, but most people don't vegetables and fruit now, really, you want to eat as many whole plant foods as possible because they just are full of nutrients that support your immune system, vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals, all that stuff, uh, uh, antioxidants, all of it.

So, so powerful for your immune system. So my first thing is, is eat as many whole plant foods. As you can make yourself eat. Okay. And you are going to find, there are just as massive, massive, massive amounts of science and information out there about what are the most powerful foods in terms of the amount of vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients, antioxidants, plants, that that's where all that stuff is that.

Um, so if you want to build your immune system strong, eat lots and lots. Even if you don't eat all plants, just eat lots and lots of plants, especially vegetables and fruits. Um, because those are the highest, uh, in nutrients. So you definitely want to go hard on the veggies and the fruits. And that means like at least, you know, two or three servings of fruit a day, if you can.

And well, of course you can, but two or three, two or three servings fruit a day, I don't always get that many in, I always get at least one, but, you know, I usually try to get at least two and, and then as, uh, as many servings as possible of a variety of different vegetables and you definitely want a variety, you don't want to eat just one or two all day, every day.

That's not going to give you a really good nutrient profile. So eat the rainbow, as they say, eat as many colors because those colors represent different phytochemicals, antioxidants and all of that. So eat as many of those different colors of things as you can, when you go to the grocery store, uh, you know, put, put a bunch of colors, uh, from the produce section into your basket and you'll be okay.

So that is one easy thing that we can put on our list to focus on is to eat lots and lots of fruits and vegetables and secondary to that other whole plant foods. Okay. Um, to hydrate that's number two, that's my number two tip is to just hydrate super well. And, and that means, well, primarily with water, uh, tea obviously is, you know, pretty much falls into that same category, but, um, but, but to, to really hydrate because do you know that basically our blood is mostly made up of water?

Probably most of us know that. Um, but also did you know that, that our blood. Is what moves the nutrients around our body, right? When we eat and then we digest gets into our blood and that blood moves all those nutrients to all the parts of our body that needed it also pushes toxins out of our body, which is also super important.

But if we are dehydrated, our blood obviously doesn't have as high a water content. It does not work as well. It, it doesn't, it can't as efficiently, effectively, I should say, move those things and the toxins out and the new T nutrients around to where they're needed. So we need our blood. To be have enough water in it at all times to be able to work properly and do its job to support us so super important to hydrate.

Now, what does that mean? There's a lot of confusion around, well, how much water should I drink and water, you can put fruit in it or, you know, that sort of thing. You can do different things like that. Um, but basically, you know, if you don't like plain water, there's, there's, there's ways you can jazz it up a little bit, but basically, um, from everything.

And I, I'm not, I don't, you know, I don't know. I think this is up for debate, but everything I've sort of read and sort of what the rule I follow for myself, uh, that as far as how much water and it's gonna, I mean, this is going to change a bit for people. Cause our chemistry is different for each one of us a little bit.

And you know, so we ha there's different nuances here, but really, yeah. Um, if you take your body weight, say it's 150 pounds, just because that's an easy number to work with. And you divide that number either by one third or one half, that's going to give you a number. So by 1, 1 50 at one third of one 50 is 50, right?

So that would be 50 ounces of water. And if you were to divide that by half, so one 50 in half, a 75, that'd be 75 ounces of water. So you're taking your body weight and you're dividing it by a third or by half. And whatever that number is, that's the number of ounces of water. That's an approximate, but that's a good number to work work with either one of those, somewhere in that range.

Um, that's, that's what I do personally. It seems to work well for me again, there are going to be people because of medications they're on or their activity level or whatever that is going to be a little higher or lower, but from everything I've ever been able to find in terms of information that I thought would be, that was credible, at least, um, it was in that range because it doesn't make sense that you tell people to drink the same amount of water, right?

Tell everybody to drink eight, eight glasses of water a day or eight ounces of water, eight, eight ounce glasses of water. It makes no sense, right? It makes no sense. Cause we're all at different height and weight and age and you know, all these things. Uh, so at least this calculation has a little bit of a.

An adjustment in there for if nothing else, the size of our body. Now, granted, like I said, you know, there's going to be other things that affect it, but start there if you're, if you're way under that or way over that I would probably, my personal recommendation would be to sort of reign it into that sort of range and try that out for, you know, two, three days and see how that goes for you.

You would definitely at least want to be drinking, uh, unless you have some kind of health condition where you can't or medication where you can't, and I don't even know what that would be at this point, but I would say at least you want to be on the low end of that at the very least. If you're not drinking at least that much water, there's a pretty good chance.

You're dehydrated to some levels. So, um, so, so if you're not, if you're not drinking enough water or like I said, I think unsweetened tea, like, you know, herbal tea or whatever is probably good and fit into that as well. Cause some people prefer to drink it that way. Be sure you do that because when you're drinking all the other things.

Um, you know, it's, it's not, uh, it's, it doesn't really, some of those things hydrate you. Like if you drink plant milks, for example, they are water based like a soy milk is water is soy beans in water. Um, almond milk is almonds soaked in water, and then, you know, blended. I mean, there is water in those things, whether you want to count that or not, that's, you know, obviously that's up to you to me.

I don't count. It seems like a gray area, but you know, still it, at least it's a fairly healthy hydration. Certainly I would not count sodas and super like sweetened drinks and things into that because those, those like all that sugar and stuff really kind of outweighs the benefits of drinking, the whatever water is in the drink.

Right. So, anyhow, um, so there we go. We've got eat lots of veggies and fruits and uh, some additional whole plant foods, um, fit some of those into your diet, regardless of whatever else you eat. Um, hydrate, lots of water. Uh, and then also. Uh, another big one is to just have an awareness of your stress level.

Uh, sometimes we are so blatantly unaware of how we are really feeling in our bodies, in our minds about the things, uh, going on in life. So to try to have a work on having a real awareness of, of your stress level and, and doing some things to decrease that, to, to rid that, to bring that level down, uh, you know, to, to really have an awareness around it.

And everyday do have some things that you do to reign that in, or knock that down because. We're going to, I'll get into this in another episode. Cause it's a, it's a topic all on its own. But certainly I think all of us know that when we are stressed all the time or we're just really stressed even periodically, like that does not great things to our bodies.

Um, and it makes it especially affects our immune systems in a huge way. Uh, and so we do not, we, we need to manage our stress work by managing our stress and having awareness around that, uh, w well, every day, every day, uh, to, to, to support our immune system. And so some ideas I have for you on that, some things that I like to do and that I found to be really helpful, um, is the first one is you've heard them, you've heard people say, you know, move your body.

And that is so true, but here, I'm going to break it down a little bit more. So when we're stressed, obviously, Our bodies hold tension. Right? I think all of us know that we get tense in our shoulders. We get whatever tense in our back, you know, there's tension somewhere, uh, in our head, headaches, you know, all that stuff.

So sometimes we get, we get, we feel it, sometimes we don't. But the thing is, is if we're, if we've been straight, it is always there. Even if you can't feel it, it's somewhere that's, that's that tension is in your back. So when you move your body, whether it's walking, going outside and taking a walk, whether it is.

Um, you know, exercising obviously, which I know a lot of us, aren't great at fitting that in every day, but, but that certainly helps when you're moving your body. It's moving the energy that underlies everything and it is, it pushes that, you know, that tension just releases out. It just pushes that tension out.

And man, does it feel good? And so one thing I like to do, if I'm not. Doing some form of exercise. Yoga is my preferred exercise lately. I've been great about it. Haven't been great about doing it regularly, but the one thing I do is I like to dance. So when nobody's around, my husband's gone, I have the house to myself.

My dog thinks I'm nuts. I'm sure. But you know, I will crank up. Music, even if it's just for one song, doesn't have to be like, I don't have time to be dancing a bunch or whatever, but if I put on one song and for one minute or two minutes, I just move, I dance. I put my arms up. I like, you know, kick my legs around and see what kind of goofy, stupid dance moves I can do to make myself laugh.

You know, just like have fun. Like, this is my moment of fun. I'm going to move my body. I'm going to like, just have a good time. And if you're not a big dancer, then you don't, don't turn on the music, just like flail your arms up and around and, you know, kick your legs out and, you know, go in the bathroom and do it.

If you're at work or, you know, you got people all around you all the time. Like when you go to the bathroom to go to the bathroom, Take an extra minute and just be in there and move that body, honey, like, you know, just flailing your arms around and you will be surprised and breathe. Always do some nice, like in, through the nose, out through the mouth, breathing, breathing, you know, here and there as you're.

Yeah, I mean, you're going to breathe, but you know what I mean? Get some nice breaths in there periodically to, to really help move that energy around. You will release tension in your body when you do. You don't have to be exercising, although that a great thing to do, and you don't have to be out walking, which is also a great thing to do, but you can just be moving your body stretch, like stretching that will help release tension, do some nice stretches.

Oh God, it feels so good. Doesn't it. And then, you know, just, uh, just, just find a way to, to move your body in ways that you don't move it throughout the rest of the day. That's the trick. You don't just like, you know, you, we all move our bodies sort of in the same way, every day, more or less. So you need to move it in some different directions to really get things moving, but just do that.

It will be good for your brain. Good for your spirit. Good for good for the rest of your body. Good for your immune system. So that's one way you can, uh, stress another way is to just do some belly breathing. Which is really, it's amazing to me when I figured this out. And I hadn't even, I've now since like went search to see if other people are talking about this.

And some people do mostly like yoga people and stuff, but, um, his belly breathing is powerful to relate just to bring like just to, to bring energy and yet release stress or tension in the body. So w when you're just sitting, you can just do it sitting. You can do it anywhere, anytime, which is really nice.

And you just, you know, take a deep breath in through your nose and really slow deep breath. But when you do it, push your belly out. You know, and so I think so often we were like, especially as women, right? We're trying to pull our belly in, or we don't really want to be looking like we have a Buddha belly, but I'm telling you for the sake of this exercise, it's worth it.

Push your tummy out and breathe in deep through your mouth or through your nose. Sorry. And it wasn't your mouth. If your nose is stuffed up or whatever, but then breathe deep into your belly, hold it, like push your belly out as much as you can without hurting yourself and then hold it for a couple seconds to three seconds and then just slowly blow the air out.

You don't have to do it loud. Like if you're around other people, you can do it silently, but through your mouth, um, if you by yourself or whatever, and you want to make it really, you know, vocal, you can do that too. Whatever feels good, but do that, do that and do it a couple of times, at least do it once.

Even sometimes if you just do it once that you will feel. This sense of grounding or calmness or whatever, just off of that. But sometimes you need to do it a couple, two or three times, but that is a really good, easy one that you can do anywhere. I don't care if you're in your car or you're in a business meeting, you're on a zoom call.

You're, you know, in a room with 50 other people or you're by yourself, you can do that one where you can't always just get up and dance around. Right. You can't just always get up and dance and stretch if you're on a zoom call for work or whatever, but you know what I mean? Um, those are ones that you can do in the bathroom if you literally have nowhere else to do them.

All right. So we've got that. Another one that I like to do, especially if I've been on the computer for hours is when I go to the, usually I'll do this. When I go to the bathroom. I mean, this is probably too much information, but if I'm sitting on the toilet and I just decided to take an extra few minutes just to chill, um, I, if you, but you can do this anywhere, obviously, uh, that you have a moment of peace to yourself.

For some of us, it's a probably, especially mothers with little kids going to the bathroom is about the only time they have that time. But you take your hands and put them in front of your face, kind of cup them just a little bit and then put your, the palms of your hands over your eyes and close your eyes.

And we don't even have close your eyes, but usually I would close my eyes. And that way, basically, as you just, um, and then you, you, your fingers then are pointing straight upwards towards the sky, but they're laying across your forehead, right? From your eyebrows going up towards the top of your head. And so you've got your hands or your palms cupped over your eyes, and then your fingers laying across your forehead.

I am telling you, I did not know I've been doing that for a while. I'll do it because my eyes get feeling strange sometimes, you know, being on the computer and stuff, and that is. Providing that total darkness for my eyes is so incredibly relaxing, but then I learned, oh yeah. Well, there's something that, that does for the chemicals in your brain as well.

And I'm thinking, okay, well, that's good. You know, so I do that. I've been doing that for a while. And then recently I learned that another reason it feels so calming, cause it just feels so calming. Especially if you take a nice breath in, you know, a nice deep breath, nice deep, slow breath in and out. It's just so relaxing and it happens so instantly.

And you only have to sit there like whatever, 30 seconds, a minute, sit there as long as you want. But I recently learned that a reason, not only, um, covering your eyes like that and closing your eyes and, and giving your, your brain that little break in terms of all the, you know, processing all the stuff visually and whatever, especially if you've been on the computer because that's a whole other thing.

But, um, there are neurovascular points in our. So when you're laying your fingers on your forehead, that to provide, that's providing the that's, that's laying across those, those neurovascular points. And that is a stress that, that is releasing stress. That's a calming sort of calming, um, calms that fight flight freeze response.

So that's a calming technique. Use an energy medicine a lot. So here it is the simplest thing you can do again, if you literally have nowhere else to do it or no other time to do it, when you go to the bathroom, there's no reason you can't do it. You're sitting there and just put your hands, like I said, and trust me, it is a really good one.

So that's another little pointer I have for you, my friend. Um, and the last one I'll mention, and then I'm going to wrap up episode up because it's, I don't know how long have I been talking? It's been a while now. Yeah. By the way some of these episodes will be really short. Some will be longer. I'm just going to talk forever, whatever amount of time I need to talk to accomplish what I want to accomplish.

And that'll be that. So some episodes might be 10 or 20 minutes and some will be longer. And some, most of them will probably be, I don't know, around a half hour to an hour somewhere there. So the last thing I wanted to mention on the de-stressing front is, uh, about meditating and it's to meditate. That is an incredible.

A way to reduce stress and not only reduce stress that you're currently feeling, but really if you do it regularly and I'm going to expand on this just a little bit, it makes you less reactive and stressed in stressful situation. So that's really an amazing thing to be able to, and it gets your, your brain and your body to a place that you, you just get less stressed in general.

A lot of times you just stop getting kind of stressed out or anxious over things that you might normally do. So, so it's really, it's incredible. And I know you've probably heard about meditation. It's all the top. People have been talking about it a lot for a long time, or at least a few years. There's very good reason for that.

trust me. If you have not done it, or if you've done it and you didn't get much out of it, I really, really encourage you. Excuse me, to. To revisit it. And even if that means you just start out slow, like with one of the apps like Headspace or there's any number of other apps in the app store for mindfulness and meditation guided meditation or mindfulness.

Um, I start there that there's a Headspace is a popular one. Calm is another app that's very popular. Um, if, if you want to really take a look at sort of the more purest form of self, of not guided meditation, as much as learning how just to do it by yourself, to just, you know, do it on your own without, uh, listening to some app or something, then there are people you can, the person I learned to do that from there are others, but is Emily Fletcher of Ziva meditation.

She's incredible and incredible meditation teacher. Uh, and she is, I, I'm not going to get into. It at least in this episode, kind of the ins and outs of my personal experience with meditation. But I will say that if you want to jump over to my website, I do have a page there where I talk about the five or six minute video, where I talk about how I learned about meditation or how I learned about her, what my experience has been.

I did go through. Online course, but she has a ton of free, totally free, wonderful information, videos and posts, and all these things about meditation. A lot of videos, free content around getting you started with meditation and it is powerful, so powerful. So if you have any interest in, in learning a little bit more about that, just pop on over to my website.

Um, it's at thriveSisterthrive.com/meditate. You want to go to that page? And there is a link over to right there. It links over to her free self care center. But also there's that little video. I mentioned that of me it's five or six minutes explaining sort of what my experience has been with meditation, but I will tell you, this is powerful.

It's important. And it is huge in de-stressing and it's it's, um, it's incredibly helpful. It's relaxing. I enjoy it. I look forward to it. I believe anybody who learns how to do it the right way will and, um, the right way is not the way you probably think it is not about sitting still for massive amounts of time, not having a thought go through your head and, you know, um, being some sort of like, you've got to like really sit.

Nothing in your head for, you know, 20 minutes. It is not that. So anyways, I just really encourage you to check that out because they, again, there is a ton of science around how meditation and even mindfulness exercises, which technically are different, but are also powerful, um, how beneficial it is to our immune system.

So that is my last tip for today on, on different ways that you can destress. So let me just run through these real quick, just as a reminder, um, we talked about the three different things to focus on. If you're not already, that can help you build and strengthen your immune system as well as just supported.

If it's already in pretty good shape, number one, eat lots and lots and lots of, of, uh, vegetables and fruits. Lots of different colors eat the rainbow. Right. And if you can throw in some other whole plant foods, whether it's beans or nuts or seeds, or, uh, you know, other types of whole grains do that too.

Cause those are also very good. Um, so that's. Number two is hydrate drink, drink enough, water drink, definitely drink enough water. And I gave you the formula for that. And then number three is to work on de-stressing and preventing stress, uh, managing stress. So, and, and, uh, I talked about some different ideas for that.

As you can just dance, move your body, some kind of way, exercise, walk, dance. One of my favorites, uh, stretch. Those are all super good ways to do that. Another way, belly breathing, do some belly breathing exercises, or do the hands on your face exercise that I mentioned or, and meditation, another incredible, powerful way to support your immune system and to just de-stress and feel, just feel better in general.

It's really wonderful. So I hope that that information serves you well, you know, is there any, is there something in there that really hit for you? Is there something that you feel like. Those different things that you really want to focus on more that you could, um, try incorporating if you never have, I'd love to hear what they are.

If you want to share it, I am just, I'm cheering you on. I know that you have it within you to do incredible things. And one of those incredible things is to support your body and really have a whole lot to do with your. Your health and your wellness body, mind, and spirit. So, um, I am here for you on that, and I hope that some of the resources I mentioned will be helpful to you.

Again, the show notes, I will put links to the book that I mentioned. Um, also, I should tell you that I will put a link to, I created a guide called foods for thriving guide, which might be helpful to you about whole plant foods. You're welcome to that. It's free. I will put that link in the show notes and thank you so much for being here.

I am so excited that you are, and I just look forward to showing up and being here for a long time to come. And I would say. You like this content, definitely subscribe to this show, subscribe to the podcast so that you don't miss anything. Cause I will be putting out an episode, uh, at least one a week on Saturdays.

It will be up every Saturday morning and, uh, I will be likely adding a second episode per week real soon. So be sure to subscribe to the show, if you like this content you're interested in learning more. And also if you know of someone in your life, a friend or family member that would benefit from this episode, please share it with them.

That that would be so nice of you. It's just a thoughtful, considerate, caring thing to do for someone you love. And I would appreciate it too. So win-win um, so be sure to do that and you can just share it by going to. Well, you can either just tell them and if they listen to podcasts, they'll know how to find it.

Or you can go ahead and snap a picture, share it on your Instagram account, or you can in your stories. Or you could just go to the show notes page on my website, thrivesisterthrive.com/01, and just send them a link to that page. They can listen to do it right there on that page if they're not into podcast players and things.

So anyway, thank you again so much and I will be back with you real soon. Take care. Well, that's it for this episode, a quick reminder, if you'd like to reach out to me directly with feedback, ideas or questions, I'd absolutely love that there are two ways you can do it. You can either head over to Instagram.

I'm at thrive. Sister thrive, all one word over there, and you can send me a direct message or you can email me at hello at thrive. Sister thrive.com. Also, if you'd like to share your thoughts about this podcast publicly, that would be incredible. The very best place to do that is on the apple podcast app or in iTunes.

If you need some instruction on how that works, just head over to thrive. Sister thrive.com forward slash review, and the steps are outlined there. It's it's really quite easy. All right, I am going to get out of here for now. I hope you come back and hang out with me again real soon, but until then, please know that I am sending you so much.

I hope you take really, really good care of yourself and be sure to always let that beautiful light of your shine. Bright. Okay. Sister I'll chat to you soon.