One of the key factors to success is staying at the top of our game. There is too much at stake to risk our health and wellness over bad habits that we can easily overcome. When bad habits start to affect our bodies, it’s time to cut them out and overcome them. If you are finding yourself prone to any of the top nine bad habits for your body, now is the time to start changing your behaviors.
- Over-Exercising – We’ve been taught from a young age that exercising is the best medicine; however, while some exercise is good for you, too much can be damaging. Professional athletes understand the dangers of over-exercising better than anyone as they often push their bodies to the limit and experience injuries. We push ourselves to be better and outperform our previous attempts or our competitors, but overexertion can lead to injury and harm.
- Staying Up Late – Staying up late once in a while isn’t going to harm you, but doing so regularly can genuinely harm your body, especially if you are losing sleep by staying up past your regular bedtime. You can end up having cardiovascular disease and digestive issues if you don’t get enough sleep. You might also find yourself suffering from drowsiness, dizziness, and an inability to focus, as well as impaired judgment and reasoning when you are overtired.
- Sitting Too Much – One of the worst things you can do is to sit all the time. Sitting for long periods is not avoidable for everyone, especially people who work in offices. However, it’s essential to understand that sitting will harm your circulation, cardiovascular health, and contributes to obesity. The good news is you only need to exercise about 20 to 30 minutes a day for every four hours you sit to mitigate the damage. You can easily take a walk on your lunch break or walk for 40 minutes after work.
- Skipping Meals – When you’re busy and on the go, skipping meals seems like an easy solution to lose weight and save money; however, this habit can be worse for you than you think. You may develop issues with your blood sugar, not get enough vitamins and minerals, and you may not be your best at work or play without enough nutrition. If you’re struggling to get the recommended daily dose of vitamins and minerals you need, Gundry MD offers a an entire line of food that can help you stay on track.
- Emotional Eating – If you find that you eat due to being sad, happy, or feeling any other emotion, it’s good to stop this habit because it can lead to obesity – or even worse, eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia. Emotional eating can be overcome through therapy and counseling to learn better coping mechanisms for stress and emotional trauma.
- Not Hydrating – If you don’t drink at a minimum of eight glasses of fresh filtered water each day, you are probably walking around dehydrated. Pay attention to your urine output to monitor whether you are getting enough water throughout the day. Urine should be almost clear or a pale shade of yellow, and it should not smell bad either. Dark urine that has a strong odor is a strong indication that you need to drink more water. Water helps you process vitamins, minerals, and rid your body of toxins via your kidneys.
- Poor Posture – Bad posture, especially for people who sit all day at a desk or driving, can lead to significant health problems, including the back, hip, shoulders, and neck problems, chronic pain, and nerve issues. Chronic pain and tension can also lead to mental health problems, fatigue, and a decrease in productivity for workers.
- Binge Drinking –Most doctors agree that having a glass of wine each day is not bad for you. However, if you tend to overdo it when you drink, you may want to consider not drinking. Binge drinking – the act of drinking an excessive amount of alcohol in a short period – may cause you to make poor decisions while you’re drunk, or worse. Many people who binge drink end up experiencing alcohol poisoning, or find themselves with a full-blown addiction and have to enter treatment with somewhere like Sunshine Behvaioral Health Colorado Springs in order to overcome this.
- Smoking – Outside of sitting for more than four hours a day, smoking is the next thing on your list that is super-bad for your body. Smoking increases your blood pressure, puts chemicals into your system, and can cause cancer, stroke, and heart attack. Not to mention the adverse side effects that second-hand smoke has on those around you and the odor that smoking causes to linger on your clothing, hair, and skin. Smoking will also cause wrinkles, discoloration of your teeth, and lung problems such as COPD.
Ridding your life of habits that harm your body is a good choice. Don’t try to tackle every one of the bad habits at once, though. Instead, attack one bad habit at a time. Work on replacing that bad habit with a healthy habit over 30 to 90 days to ensure you’ve beat it before moving on to the next. If you’re still struggling to overcome them, don’t hesitate to seek out help from a professional. After all, there’s no shame in asking for help when you need it. And at the end of the day, your body – and mind – will be a lot healthier because of it.
