When you are young, you tend to take your body for granted. No matter how hard you party or how many meals you skip, there seems to be enough energy left to be up and about bright and early. Going to bed early, eating at home instead of in restaurants all the time, ditching the high heels for sneakers and restraining the amount of alcohol consumed severely – these sound like a preacher from hell. You are young, you are fabulous and your body is up to whatever you put it through. That may be the story of today. Your twenties will pass in a blissful dream. But the moment you hit the big 3.0, be prepared for a rude reality check that will only go downhill as you grow older. Your habits of the past will catch up you with alarming speed and before you know it, diseases and ailments will rule your life. Life is not all about being young. You want to feel young and healthy even when you are not twenty anymore. The following habits are far too common with the people of today, irrespective of age. If you are guilty of one or more of them, then it is not too late to change. Better late than never, right? Read on to find out the extent to which you are damaging your body. Then resolve to make a better decision and stick to it.
10. Too Many Painkillers
How convenient is it to just pop a pill when an inconvenient headache or sprain threatens well laid plans. Taking an aspirin or a crocin seems such a simple way to get solve this problem. Once in a while it’s fine, but if you are making this into a regular habit then beware. You are sowing immense dangers for yourself. Since they provide instant relief, it’s easy to become addicted to them. When taken regularly over a long period of time, they increase your chances of heart diseases, high blood pressure, ulcers, internal bleeding and drug abuse. Switch to more holistic forms of healing. They will take longer, but you will be saving yourself great deal of risk.
9. Caffeine Addiction
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What initially begins as a habit to wake you up in the morning and give you a head start to the long day ahead of you, can turn into a deadly addiction that will cost you much of you are not careful. If you need more than two cups of coffee to get through the day, then you are an addict who needs help. The negative effects of long term caffeine addiction are insomnia, ulcer, muscle atrophy, dehydration, severe headaches and sapping of energy. Getting of coffee is akin to quitting cigarette. The pain and trouble is immense at first. But stick to it, you are the better off for it.
8. Slouching
Being in a poor posture for even an hour can give you crippling headaches. This is because slouching tires the neck muscles, which cannot support your head. Painful headaches occur as a result. Having a poor posture is very bad for the spine, and can eventually lead to osteoporosis, a weak back and many other orthopaedic ailments. Take a stand, literally, against this despicable habit. Take the trouble of sitting up straighter. You will look smart, suave and sophisticated and will have a strong supple back to carry you through life.
7. Letting Stress Get The Better of You
The biggest detractor of a strong immune system is a stressed mind and lifestyle. With reduced immunity, you are vulnerable to a host of diseases that grip your body and take root. Battling them becomes a lifelong preoccupation. Getting stressed and sad leads to depression, anxiety, low immunity, high blood pressure, diabetes, insomnia and ulcers. What’s more is that you will start acting out, being mean to the people you love and not being able to help it. You will feel like a monster you don’t even recognize. If the thought of frittering your life that way makes you sit up and take note, then do something about it today. Objectively realize how stress affects your life and mood and be strong enough to deflect it. Practice yoga and meditation, exercise and spending time with family and friends. Travel, do work you love and play. There are a host of ways to beat stress. Don’t let it poison you and your life.
6. Credit Card Debt
If you are not realistic about your finances, sliding into debt is inevitable. The shiny plastic card may initially be able to fulfil your every wish, but when debt starts to mount your body is the first thing that will take a beating. Stress related to finances cause depression, anxiety related disorders, sleeplessness, high blood pressure, intensive physical pain, drug addiction, indigestion and ulcers. You will feel helpless and frustrated, feeling that your life is spiralling out of control. Giving in to materialistic desires recklessly will open a doorway to a dark world from where exist is next to impossible. Think carefully before spending. Use your card as less as possible, paying in cash whenever possible. The hole in your pocket won’t grow large quite so alarmingly.
5. Being A Couch Potato
A recent study found that people who watch more television, more than two hours a day, were far more likely to develop type 2 diabetes than those who opted to do some physical activity instead. Many other research studies collaborate evidence that people who watch more TV, are far more likely to be obese and unhealthy than their more active contemporaries. Recognise the fact that if you are channel surfing, you don’t really want to watch TV. You are just royally bored. Instead of wasting precious hours of your life, do something productive. Try fun creative hobbies that challenge and stimulate your mind. Exercising is always a very healthy option. But if gymming bores you then opt for sports you enjoy. Try swimming, tennis, basketball, etc. Not only will community sports tear you away from the life draining TV, it will help you socialise and mix with others. Any day a more fun option than rotting away on the couch.
4. Dieting All the Time
Wanting to lose a couple of kilos before the wedding season is fine, but being insecure of your body and watching what you eat all the time will have severe negative consequences in your life. Some of these consequences are obviously physical. Instead of treating your body with the respect it deserves, you are constantly subjecting it to the latest internet fad. It is only a matter of time before it will rebel, subjecting you to blood sugar, high pressure, low levels of haemoglobin, weak heart and reduced life span. But more than that, the negative mental effects will be piercing. Rather than concentrating on having a full happy life, you are obsessed with counting calories, feeling hungry and miserable all the time and robbed of your natural energy and enthusiasm. Do yourself a favour. Eat healthy. Don’t eat less.
3. Skipping Breakfast
Between sleeping a couple of extra minutes and breakfast, sleep inevitably always wins. But skipping breakfast all the time is a grave disservice you are doing to your body. It slows down your metabolism tremendously. Your body will work twice as hard at storing calories, thereby making you not just fat but morbidly obese. You will feel weak and faint all day long. You will also overindulge at lunch, thereby increasing the weight problem even further. If you continued missing breakfast every day, then developing gastric ulcer is only a matter of time.
2. Drinking Soda
While going through boards on Pinterest, I came across one that promised you the most effective tip to clean toilets. It said that pouring cola down a commode will remove even the toughest stain. Can you imagine what it does the insides of your stomach? Studies have shown that regularly having soda increases chances of pancreatic cancer tenfold. It erodes away the lining of the stomach, decreases immunity and is extremely poor for hair, skin and teeth. What acid does to bathroom floors, soda does to your body. Hopefully this analogy is enough to deter you from grabbing that bottle of Pepsi at the next social gathering. Rather opt for shakes, fresh fruit juices and of course Water.
1. Smoking
If you are smoking, you are literally asking to get cancer. This view is held by all leading doctors of the world. Mouth cancer, throat cancer, bladder cancer, stomach cancer and liver cancer are strong possibilities. But if you smoke, then you are ninety per cent likely to develop lung cancer. Now if those are risks you feel comfortable with, then go ahead and gamble your life away. But do the lives of your family and friends mean so little to you, that you would subject them to same risks that you do yourself? Passive smoking is as harmful as smoking itself, leading not only to cancer but also dementia and other horrible ailments. Do the world a favour. Live and let live.