Most of us have probably heard of the old saying, “Old habits die hard.” That’s absolutely true for most us. Adjusting your habits is a procedure that includes a variety of steps. For those improvements to be part of your daily routine, it will take some time and you’ll face some obstacles along the way.
Your lifestyle decisions are far more important, for maintaining a healthy well-being, than what your genes can offer. When it comes to enhancing your well-being, it’s still a great idea to develop new practices.
Here are some lifestyle improvements that you should avoid to live a happier and more enjoyable life tomorrow and the other days to come.
Don’t Forget to Have Enough Sleep
It may seem evident but having sufficient sleep regularly will make you feel better about yourself, your more focused, and make you appear younger and healthier. Feeling irritable and not performing at your best are some of the well-known consequences of sleep deprivation. But did you know that it can also have a serious implication on your physical health?
A night without sleep, or even not getting the recommended 7-9 hours of sleep per night, won’t affect your health, but it will make you feel exhausted and grumpy the next day. Moreover, after a few sleepless nights, the effects of your mental health become much more severe. Your thinking ability is going to be affected which makes it impossible for you to focus and make decisions. You’re going to start feeling tired and you might even fall asleep throughout the day. With these consequences, you’re increasing the chances for injuries and accidents to happen.
Manage Your Stress Level
From time to time, everyone experiences stress. Stress is a common physical and emotional response to life’s encounters. Stress can be triggered by various events, such as responsibilities from work, the death of a loved one, a pandemic evolved, and more.
When your stress remains longer than expected, it triggers chronic stress which can cause severe health issues and affect your overall well-being. Some of the symptoms of chronic stress are anxiety, depression, headaches, insomnia, and irritability.
It’s Time to Exercise More
If you want to be a better version of yourself, you should try to move more. Engaging more on physical activities can have positive effects through a range of physical and mental health consequences. To enhance anything from digestion to stress levels, doing more physical activities can help.
Physical exercise promotes a solid and balanced body and can improve mental health by reducing signs of stress, anxiety, discomfort, and isolation. Physical exercise can also enhance concentration, stamina, performance, sleep, and health.
Keep on Nourishing Yourself
You might feel full from eating, but are the foods that you’d eaten nutritious? Being well-fed and well-nourished are two different things. So, instead of eating processed foods, you should nourish yourself with fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts, and whole grains, to improve your well-being.
Nourishing oneself doesn’t only mean eating healthy foods, it also means loving and taking care of yourself. You can practice self-care by building your sense of belonging, going out to see your friends, do something that you enjoy doing every day, and more.
Reduce Alcohol Intake
Although there are health risks associated with alcohol, for some individuals, mild alcohol intake is acceptable and considered healthy. Some of the short-term effects of alcohol consumption include memory loss, vomiting, dizziness, loss of coordination, lack of judgment, and more.
Over time, heavy daily alcohol consumption can damage the body in the long run. The consequences include increasing the risk of stroke, causing dementia, increasing blood pressure which can lead to heart damage and/or heart attacks, develop liver cancer, increase the risk for liver cirrhosis, develop stomach ulcers, and more.
Don’t Use Nicotine Products
Although nicotine possesses some positive effects, it is still beaten by the negative effects it brings. This substance dilates the blood vessels and decreases the flow of oxygen. As a consequence, nicotine postpones wound treatment and speeds up the aging of the skin.
While both vape and cigarettes contain nicotine, some people say that vaping is safer than cigarettes. But, until now, there aren’t still any thorough studies about how vape is safer than cigarettes. There are lots of discovered long-term consequences of smoking compared to vaping. Though, vaping generates sufficient short-term results which makes it slightly safer than smoking.
Eating Refined Sugar
Who said sugar isn’t harmful to the body? Analysis of how sugar affects the body at the cellular level has demonstrated that it is harmful. Glycation, the harmful mechanism where sugar molecules in the blood bind themselves to our body’s proteins and create advanced glycation end products or AGEs.
Advanced Glycation End-products (AGEs) weakens the existing collagen, the most generous protein in your body which makes the skin flexible. Sad to say, the AGEs can also impact the quality and form of new collagen formed by our bodies.
*Information in this article is not medical advice and may not be factually accurate. It is intended for entertainment purposes only. Consult with a physician before attempting any tips in this blog post and to get the most up to date factual data about any procedure or treatment.
