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We often times do a number of things on a daily basis that impose little to no good to our body. On the contrary, there are a number of everyday habits that are bad for your health, and we are often not even aware of it.
It is possible that you will encounter or do a number of things on a daily basis that impose little to no benefits on your health, and does quite the opposite. But, for the most part, we are often not even aware that what we are doing is not good for the health.
Read: Healthy Habits to Stay Forever Young
In here, we are going to highlight some of the everyday habits that damage your health for the worse.
Daily Habits That Affect Your Health
It is not smoking that is doing bad for your body. For the most part, we often think of some habits as good but they end up doing worse than the actual bad habits would.
In order to get better clarity of things, we have sorted out some of the most important everyday habits that you should reconsider.
1. Sitting majority of the day
Majority of us across the world are inclined towards office jobs meaning that we tend to spend majority of the time sitting around, typing away.
While we don’t realize and think it as part of our daily routine, the same does have direct impacts on your health. If you are spending majority of the day sitting and even then taking the lift instead of the stairs for some workout, chances are that you aren’t doing yourself any favour.
Sedentary lifestyle is one of the most common reasons behind the enhanced risks of heart diseases and other cardiovascular diseases (R). Not to mention that this kind of a habit also contributes to weight gain, leading to obesity in the long run.
Read:5 Minute Workout Can Be The Answer To Better Brain Function, New Study Suggests
What can you do?
If you are doing a desk job, get up and walk around every hour for 5 minutes instead of sitting through the day
- Take the stairs instead of the lift
- Instead of having the lunch inside, walk around outside and have it there
2. Constant snacking
You must have heard experts say that instead of eating three big meals; eat smaller ones every now and then. And, while that is true and does help with your well being, being irrational with the snacking is one of the habits that can affect your health.
We blend our body in a way towards snacking (R) that we develop a habit of snacking even when we are not hungry. This is exactly where the problem arises. If you want are hungry and eating, chances are that the same wouldn’t impact your health but when it is done for the sake of it, that can impact your health.
Snacking without need often enhances the risks of developing chronic overeating, which leads to obesity and other diseases that you must have been trying to get rid of. If you also consistently snack on junk food, chances are that you are further enhancing the risks of diseases.
Read: How To Stop Our Love Affair With Junk Food and Aim at Healthier Foods
What can you do?
- Instead of snacking whenever, have a fixed schedule and eat only if you are hungry
- Always ensure to have healthy snacks handy with you instead of the unhealthy ones
3. Consistent lying
Lying is never considered a good habit but would you be surprised if we told that the same affects your health as well?
Several studies have found that lying does have negative impacts on the health, leading to risks of stress and constant guilt that can be witnessed with signs of headache and distress.
Even a conducted study (R) found that the subjects who refrained themselves from lying were found to have lesser signs of headache and the associated issues of sore throat and anxiety in the long run as well.
Read: 10 Ways To Stop Emotional Manipulation – Prevent Getting Controlled
What can you do?
- Stop lying
- It is true that there will be situations that call for lying as the only path; just try and confess later before things get out of hand for you and the other party involved
4. Refraining from sneezing
How often does it happen that you are in the middle of a meeting and you want to sneeze bad? But, given the situation around, you have to refrain or suppress your sneeze. While you might not feel the impacts of the same that specific time, it could have long term impacts.
When you try to suppress your sneeze (R), chances are that you are going to close your mouth or pinch your nose or do both of them at once. Doing so enhances the pressure towards your facial and cranial structure, causing ruptures, if the condition is too serious and the pressure is extremely high.
When you refrain from sneezing and the intracranial pressure rises, it can disrupt the normal blood flow to the brain, causing hefty impacts on your health in the long run.
It can also cause damage to the nervous tissues around, further impacting your overall health. This has been associated with headache, bursting of the blood vessels and even affects hearing as well.
Read: 15 Signs You’re Not Taking Care Of Yourself – It’s The Small Things!
What can you do?
- Don’t refrain yourself from sneezing
- If you are in an important situation, excuse yourself and step out instead of stopping your sneeze from coming out
5. Snoozing your alarm
When you have set an alarm for the morning, chances are that you are going to wake up to the blaring sound, won’t you? One of the most common everyday habits that is bad for your health is snoozing the alarm.
Several sleep experts have suggested saying that it has been found that snoozing your alarm has worse impacts on your health and your sleeping patterns than waking up on the first blare of the sound.
It is believed that you are more likely going to wake up tired and groggy when you snooze the alarm instead of getting up right away. Why that happens is because when we snooze and go back to sleep, it prepares our body for another sleep cycle(R), so disrupting it in the middle further aggravates your alertness.
In addition to that, it is also believed that listening to the alarm clock triggers (R) the cortisol release in our body, so when you hear the alarm blaring multiple times, the same ends up making us wake up with higher levels of stress in the morning.
What can you do?
- Prepare yourself to wake up as the alarm rings instead of hitting the snooze button
6. Washing hair too often
If you didn’t know, our scalp produces natural oils which have beneficial impacts on the hair growth and the nourishment of the hair.
But, when you wash your hair with shampoo on a daily basis(R), the same does have direct impacts in stripping the hair off of its natural oils, making the scalp dry and promote hair fall. It also makes the hair strands a lot brittle and fragile, making them fall off easily.
Read: 10 Body Parts You Are Not Washing Properly On A Daily Basis
What can you do?
Instead of washing hair daily, switch to a routine of every other day or 2-3 times in a week
7. Relying on extra sauce
We can’t deny the fact that sauces make our food taste better, be it the sweet or even the savoury ones. But, what we fail to realize is the fact that it is one of the daily habits that ruin your health.
Unless you are making the sauce at your own home with moderations, chances are that the store bought ones do no good to your body. Not only are they loaded with harmful fats and high levels of refined sugar(R), they are also high on sodium, which can impose negative impacts on the body in the long haul.
Eating a dash of sauce every now and then is quite okay but the moment you let it go out of hand and you do end up consuming more than you should, that is exactly where the problem rises from. The extra sauce can enhance the risks of obesity and other related diseases.
Read: Consumption Of Sugary Drinks Can Induce Cancer, New Study Suggests
What can you do?
- Make your own sauces at home
- Rely on little to no sauce in your food
8. Thinking about stressful events consistently
All of us have several events happening in their lives all at once. And it is possible that you will feel stressed with a situation that you are encountering but that doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to rehash things that have happened years back. That is probably where you are going wrong.
Holding on to things that have happened in the past is one of the most common habits that can affect your health.
Even a conducted study found that people who tend to have ruminating thoughts impose a higher risk of developing depressive symptoms in the long run. The more one things of a depressive episode that has happened in the past, the more are the chances are being depressed. It also spikes the risks of stress and anxiety as well.
What can you do?
- Understand that things that happened in the past are meant to stay there. Move on from that and plan things for the future instead
9. Being front of screens all day
Being how intertwined our lives are with technology, it is impossible for us to let go off of that and stare away from the screen. Be it for the guilty pleasure or even for work, staring into a screen is something that occupies majority of our time.
Not only is the blue light emission (R) bad for our health and our body clock, it has also been found that the screens also impair vision in the long run.
People who have a habit of being immersed in their screen 24×7 also tend to experience enhanced risks of obesity and other health hazards. This is thus one of the everyday habits that are bad for your health.
Being stuck inside the screen can also impact your social life, which is why taking a break every now and then is a necessity above anything else.
What can you do?
Take a break from the constant screen time and go out of the house or office and walk around and take some fresh air in
10. Overspending
So, you saw the tag of SALE blaring from across the street and you find your feet taking you into the store. One of the worst daily habits that affect your health is when you spend way too much into debt.
While you might feel amazing buying the things that caught your eye, looking at the credit card bills the next month won’t be a pleasant experience at all. This is the reason why it is important that you avoid overspending.
Never spend to an extent that leaves you in debt. Having debts looming over your head has direct impacts on your stress level and can spike up your anxiety as well.
These two factors not just affect your mental but physical well being as well, enhancing the risks associated with heart diseases and strokes.
Read: 20 Personal Development Goals For A Happier And Successful Life
What can you do?
- Plan your budget according to your needs and save enough to then splurge on luxury
11. Using phone before bed
Using phone before bed is one of the worst everyday habits that are bad for your health may damage your health.
It is not just the fact that you are imposing negative impacts on your sleeping pattern by imposing blue light emission; it is likely that you are also shortening the sleeping duration. If you were supposed to get around 8-9 hours of sleep in a day, chances are that you will get only around 6.
Studies (R) have found that the exposure of the artificial light during the night suppresses the release of melatonin in the body which has direct impacts on the sleeping cycle.
Lack of melatonin doesn’t just affect the sleeping cycle but also promotes the risks of depression, heart diseases and can even hamper your immune system in the long run.
Read: Effects Of Blue Light On Sleep – Here’s How You Can Correct Them
What can you do?
- Keep any kind of electronics away from the bed. Avoid using any such devices 30 minutes before going to bed.
12. Popping the pimples
If you see a pimple and have the utmost urge to pop it and just get it done with, it is possibly one of the worst daily habits that ruin your health. It could make you question how the same happens, so let us elaborate a little, shall we?
Popping the pimples can provide you with temporary relief from the pain but when you do so, you are not just making your skin to burst open, you are also spreading the infection to the surrounding areas.
When you pop a pimple, it makes the area an open site and even if you think that it is less likely to get infected, you never know what happens with the same. This is the reason why it is best suggested to avoid doing that.
Bursting a pimple also leaves behind acne scars which can further turn into a blemish.
Read: Home Remedies To Remove Pimples And Scars
What can you do?
- Use ointments to cure the acne and pimples. Avoid bursting the pimple, however strong the urge be
13. Wearing tight jeans
It is no doubt that wearing jeans is quite comfortable but if you are someone who tend to wear extremely tight jeans, chances are that the same will do no good to your body.
It is true that wearing tight jeans are extremely flattering to your body. But, the same does impose negative impacts on your health in the long run. Also it presses down on the abdominal cavity which can cause distress to your gut and in the long run, on your digestive process too.
Not just that, tight jeans also press down on your nerve endings, further complicating things when it comes to your health. It can also alter the normal blood flow, further impacting your body and health in the long run.
What can you do?
- Avoid wearing extremely right jeans
- Even if you are wearing them, ease the tightness every now and then by walking around and loosening the belt
14. Sleeping with your contacts in
One of the worst everyday habits that are bad for your health is sleeping with your contacts in.
Often times what happens is that we end up forgetting that we have our contacts in and end up sleeping with them inside our eyes. While you might not realize this now, it does impose negative impacts on your vision in the long run.
If you are wondering why that happens is all because of the fact that it blocks the tissue in your eyes, making it quite tough for your eyes to get the necessary amount of oxygen that is needed for better functioning.
Read: How To Stop Sleeping Too Much? 11 Ways to Stop Oversleeping
What can you do?
- Avoid sleeping with your contacts in. Once you reach home, switch to glasses and take off the lens from your eyes
15. Negative self talk
It is very easy to blame others and easier to blame ourselves. This is a scenario that is way too familiar. If you have been struggling to keep things in place for yourself, there are chances that you will consistently blame yourself for things that might have been going wrong.
In such cases, negative self take takes a front seat and that is exactly what you need to avoid doing. If you want better impacts on your health, it is important that you work on your self confidence.
It isn’t a cakewalk because self criticism is the worst form of self destruction. But, you can always take things one day at a time. It is quite important that you do focus on doing this that you know will impact your mental health better.
Read: 12 Positive Self Talk Practices – Know The Details And The Ways
What can you do?
- Work on your self confidence and learn that it’s okay to do mistakes and learn from them
16. Not getting quality sleep
It is easier said than done but your sleeping cycles and the quality of sleep does have direct impacts on your health.
If you want better impacts on your health, sleep does play a very crucial role in that process. It is very important to ensure that you find ways to improve your quality of sleep because that matters in the end.
Lack of sleep, rather, lack of quality sleep is one of the worst everyday habits that are bad for your health, mainly because it distorts the functions of the entire body in the long run.
Read: Effect of Sleep Disorders on Mental and Physical Health
What can you do?
- Practice some ways to get sleep at night
There are a number of everyday habits that are bad for your health and we have mentioned just a few for you to look into. If you have been struggling to keep things in place for your mental or physical well being, now is the time to work on it. Don’t let these habits take control of your life, instead, turn things the other way around.
