While it is common to hear that you should stay healthy, look after your health, don’t do this, and that, there will never be enough reminders to swear by for a healthier lifestyle. People should be reminded daily to look out for their lifestyle and keep learning about health and wellness. Of course, little guilty pleasures here and there aren’t bad. Then again, you need to listen to what your body needs and fulfill it.
To be quite frank, it’s not enough if you don’t have terrible habits like smoking or drinking—which is good, obviously—because it takes more than avoiding those to have a healthy body and mind. While smoking kills, there are still a lot of bad habits that you might be doing that can increase your risk of illnesses.
These terrible habits might one day result in an illness that appears on the MRI scan or some other laboratory tests, and you have no idea how it started. It could be because of the bad lifestyle habits that you’ve been ignoring.
Retaining a Sedentary Lifestyle
All people know that lack of physical exercise can increase the risk of mortality and different types of illnesses, such as hypertension, obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, or even cancer. You can also develop a mental disorder if you sit around all the time, like depression or anxiety.
You don’t have to get into a heavy workout routine right away, but you can start with a daily 15- to 30-minute walking. Either you want to kick it up a notch by running, or you can just retain your walking as a habit. Daily walking alone is already a healthy part of a lifestyle. Whatever gets you out of the couch or bed and gets you some exercise.
Not Drinking Enough Water
By this, either it means you’re not drinking enough water, or you’re drinking too much water. People all know about dehydration, but not many people know that overhydration is just as bad. We’ve all been taught to drink eight glasses of water every day, that drinking more water clears your skin or even helps in weight loss. But do you really believe that? There could be some myths about drinking water you might not know yet.
Proper hydration really depends on your age, health, and physical activity. If you drink too much water, you’re causing your body to lose balance in processing your nutrition intake. It can even throw off the nutrition you actually need.
Eating at an Emotional State
Stress eating is one physical symptom of, well, stress—too much stress at that. High cortisol levels can cause unnecessarily increased appetite then make someone overeat. It can worsen into unhealthy food cravings one day at a time. At this point, stress is associated with increased hunger hormones. You can already imagine what kind of diseases can lead to diabetes, high cholesterol levels, high blood pressure, obesity, etc.
Experts say, if you’re stressed at work or with anything, the best option is to take a walk instead of eating. Talk to someone you can trust and vent out to take the weight off your shoulders.
Eating Too Quickly
Eating too fast is a completely bad habit as well. When you stuff your face continuously at a single time, you don’t give your brain that chance to catch up with your digestive system. Because of this, your brain wouldn’t be able to tell you when you’re already full, and the high possibility is that you will continue eating even if you’re already full. If you have the habit of eating too fast, it can lead to being overweight.
Eating Mindlessly
While the last two items above are a part of a mindless diet, there’s more to that. Your body wouldn’t mind if you’d eat an order of French fries or popcorn now and then. As long as you don’t overeat junk food, you’re good. Letting it be a habit is what’s worrisome.
Psychologists say that the larger the plate or any food container you eat from, the more you mindlessly eat. So you would most probably eat more. Therefore, you should avoid eating from a large container.
Mindful eating is something that can be hard to do if you let it be hard for you.
The Bottom Line
Again, it’s bad to consume a guilty pleasure every once in a while. Perhaps, you can drink an occasional beer or wine, order a fast food combo, or treat yourself to a nice candy bar. But remember, making it a habit is what you must avoid to keep yourself healthy. Always listen to what your body tells you to do, whether to eat less of this or do more of that. Every person is different, and you should know how your body functions.
