It’s like fighting the battle everyday with yourself when you have these 5 bad health habits.
Confession goes first:
I am a mother lode of bad health habits. I do my best to struggle with them, and sometimes I win.
But let’s face it:
We’ve all been there: school, career, social life, active pastime, working on relationships with closest ones – it’s no surprise we often forget about health. Or, at least put it to the wayside.
Sleep? Healthy food? Taking care of skin?
Never heard of it.
I’ve listed my top five bad health habits which, I believe, most girls are guilty of, and shares several tips on quitting them. Let’s do our best to win this battle!
1) Non-stop snacking and eating on the go
My #1 enemy is related to eating: junk food, eating on the go, snacking non-stop (especially when reading a magazine or surfing Facebook), and other stuff of this kind.
The paradox is, I go to a gym and know everything about healthy nutrition and dangers that unhealthy ingredients bring – heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, metabolism and digestion problems, poor memory, and even depression – but anyway it’s a HUGE problem for me to beat this habit and start eating right!
Why?
That’s all about satisfaction signals our brain gets: a certain combination of ingredients and the taste we feel in a mouth while eating excite the brain and make it crave for more. To outwit it, I use several tricks:
- No bad food at home. It’s hard to resist the temptation of non-stop eating but, at least, you’ll eat healthy products instead of junk food.
- Nuts and fruits as snacks. I try to avoid having them near my laptop when I surf the net. The necessity of getting up and going to the kitchen for snacks brakes me a bit.
- More water. The need of chewing something is always with me, so I use a bottle of water to dull that edge of “hunger.” By the way, it’s a great trick to deal with another bad health habit that is not drinking enough water.
Read 9 Surprising Benefits Of Bad Habits: The Lazy Person’s Guide
2) No taking off makeup before going to bed
Yeah, I know all that stuff about premature aging, clogging pores, and eye irritation but… I simply forgot washing the face on evenings!
To beat this habit I’ve developed another one: a ritual to start taking a shower with lavation (for that, I put a makeup remover on a shelf just before my eyes!)
Another trick that helps is observing all those mascara stains on towels and pillows and thinking of the need to do laundry every day… Well, you know. Laziness can do good sometimes.
3) No care about posture when at the computer
As a result, I have spine problems and constant back pain now, which has made another bad health habit come to life: overusing medicines that kill the pain.
Alternative strategies to relieve back pain become my savior: physical exercises for a spine, yoga, enough sleeping, and taking vitamins rather than aspirin or ibuprofen, causing stomach irritation.
To struggle with poor posturing at the comp, I’ve bought an orthopedic pillow for a chair to support my back. When at home, I also practice such a trick as putting a book on my head to control a posture.
Read 5 Life Changing Habits That Will Build Your Self- Esteem
4) Wearing the wrong shoes
Big fans of high heels, most girls still fail to choose them the right way.
My case: I tried shoes in a shop, caring about nothing but size. Results? Corns, swells, tired legs, problems with knees and blood flow.
My core mistake in wearing high heels was the failure to grasp the fact they (heels) were NOT for long-term wear. It’s bad for health to spend hours in heels, so you need to give feet breaks: try flats, especially when at work or driving a car; and buy comfortable slippers to allow your legs to relax at home.
My another trick to save legs is going barefoot on grass, water, or grand whenever appropriate: it improves blood circulation, strengthens muscles, and lowers stress.
High heels are beautiful, but we better save them for special occasions.
5) No sunscreen
Who doesn’t know those awful things happening to our skin and overall health under the sun? Wrinkles, sunspots, burns, cancer.
Anyway, wearing sunscreen on a daily basis wasn’t for me: first, I do love how my skin looks tanned; and second, I spend too much time indoors (yeah, another bad health habit of mine) so why bother?
However, it’s not all that simple.
The sun “works” even when it’s cold or cloudy and when you’re indoors, increasing risks of cancer. So, it seemed I had to think of wearing sunscreen daily. As in the case with a makeup remover, sunscreen is on a shelf before my eyes in a shower so I couldn’t forget about it.
After all, as Mary Schmich of the Chicago Tribune wrote, “you will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they’ve faded.
But trust me, in 20 years, you’ll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can’t grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked.”
Yes, it’s not that easy for people to understand the significance of small behavioral changes for well-being, but they are what shapes our lives in the long run. Don’t concentrate on your bad habits but organize daily rituals the way they would help you adopt good habits instead.
And you’ll be surprised to see positive changes full soon.
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