Habits can either help you become healthier, more productive, save money, work on more beneficial relationships or they can keep you from being your best version. On average, according to science, it takes more than 2 months (66 days to be technical) before most people get used to a new behaviour. This goes across the board, which means there are some unhealthy habits that you didn’t know you’ve been doing which form parts of your daily, weekly or monthly routines. Naturally, the amount of time it takes for a new habit to form can widely vary, depending on the behaviour, the person, and their immediate environment.
Here are six sneaky habits that you may have been doing without realising that they are potentially unhealthy;
Skipping breakfast
Your metabolism needs a signal from your body to get things fired up for the day. Skipping this crucial first meal of the day can have significant consequences for your energy levels, blood sugar and also general body weight, your energy levels and even your blood sugar. Most people who have this habit are more vulnerable to overeating later in the day thanks to the starve now-binge later mentality.
As the saying goes, eat breakfast like a King, lunch like a Prince and dinner like a pauper. Endeavor to always have this first meal of the day, if you have to skip a meal, let it be dinner.
Binge drinking
Alcohol, though fun while partaking, can also be a poison. Men and women who regularly more than two or three drinks a day are at higher risk of liver damage and some serious cancers including cancers of the liver and mouth. They are also more liable to depression and high blood pressure. Women can also develop heart disease, brittle bones, and memory loss from excessive alcohol consumption. Endeavor to stick to healthy limits and drink more for enjoyment rather than to get drunk. Cutting back on booze improves your digestion, sleep patterns, blood sugar levels and increases your overall energy levels.
Watching TV right before bed
You have a higher chance of engaging in less physical, mental or emotionally healthy activity if you are spending your free weekends or evenings watching more than two hours of TV a day. You are more likely to eat more, have more sugary soft drinks and snack on high-fat or high-calorie foods. Studies have shown that it also speeds up your chances of memory loss. The artificial and often bright light that the TV emanates also stimulates the brain and can disrupt your melatonin levels, which are required for proper sleep.
Juice cleansers and fasts
Most people use some form of intermittent fasts and juicing solutions as dieting options. It has however been found that it more sustainable for you to eat small meals regularly than to starve yourself in any type of diet. When your body senses that you are starving it mobilises fatty acids from your liver so that when you resume normal eating they go back in quite quickly. So if you do this often, you could be exposing your body to greater health issues.
Putting the most important tasks last on your list
We often procrastinate on doing our most important work as long as we can. It usually requires more brain activity or more time, making it the toughest.
It is better to cultivate a new habit of working smarter rather than working faster. Give more time to the tricky projects. Ultimately it leads to more time saved and you feeling more relaxed hence you become more productive.
Self-diagnosing
We at times get the allure of using Dr. Internet. I mean it is faster, simpler and sometimes cheaper, right? After quickly typing in your symptoms you discover that your fever could really be…a tumour!!! Jokes aside, sharing symptoms with a certain disease does not necessarily mean you have it. Googling symptoms more often than not increases anxiety.
When painkillers and antibiotics are not taken properly, they often result in long term problems. Using drugs such as ibuprofen or aspirin for muscle pain or arthritis exposes you to the risk of ulcers, high blood pressure, gastrointestinal bleeding and heart attacks among other illnesses.