Everybody knows that health should be a personal priority. However, not everyone really takes action towards healthy living. It’s difficult; everybody’s busy, it can be expensive.
A sudden lifestyle change is usually not sustainable. So why not start with the little things? You take for granted many small actions and habits that you have. It’s time that you pay more attention to them. Here are some seemingly harmless everyday things that you do which are harmful in the long run.
Washing Your Hands in Hot Water
You might feel good washing your hands with hot water. You feel like they become immaculately clean after washing them. However, hot temperatures are not suitable for the skin.
It strips away the skin’s natural oils. This leads to the skin being more prone to drying. There are two kinds of bacteria that breed in the skin: good ones and bad ones. Hot temperatures strip away the good ones and make the skin a breeding ground for the bad ones.
Another reason you should stop washing your hands in hot water is love for the planet. A study shows that washing your hands in hot water unnecessarily wastes energy. If you put 800 billion times that Americans wash their hands in hot water, it could produce the same greenhouse gases emission as 1,250,000 cars. This energy use is useless, especially because hot water does not do any more good at cleaning than cold water.
Washing your hands with room temperature water and soap is enough.
Putting Your Wallet in Your Back Pocket
Chairs are made with flat and even surfaces for sitting. There is a reason for this. Sitting on uneven surfaces is bad for your low back and hips. It can also cause pain in the upper back and shoulders. The nerves on your legs and lower back are not exempted as well. That’s the extent of injury you may get from simply forgetting to take out your wallet before you sit.
Doctors call it the fat wallet syndrome. It only takes five seconds or less to take your wallet before you sit. That’s just five seconds to help you avoid significant consequences. It’s not that much of an effort.
Sitting All Day
How many times have you heard that a sedentary lifestyle is the root of many illnesses? It’s time for you to take that seriously.
There is a study on this published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. It lists all the adverse effects of sitting all day. Sitting, whether at home, at work, or in the car, leads to serious adverse health effects. Some of them are cancer and heart diseases that may eventually lead to death.
You can avoid this by becoming more active. If your work requires you to be sitting at a desk all day, get up every now and then. Do some stretching or take a walk around the office. At home, cleaning and doing some chores can help.
There is one way to make sitting healthy—investing in an electric full-body massage chair with multiple functions. This is exempted because this is actually considered self-care.
Having Only One Cutting Board
Using the same cutting board for meat and vegetables is harmful. You can spread traces of salmonella all over food items and your kitchen space. To be safe, you should have two cutting boards in your kitchen. One is for meat, poultry, and seafood. The other one is for vegetables. Make sure to also clean your hands and tools before preparing food.
Holding in Emotions
You are probably guilty of trying to push aside your emotions because you need to finish something else. You think that the other thing is more important than processing your feelings. However, this practice is counterproductive.
Keeping negative emotions bottled in can raise your level of stress. Having high levels of cortisol and adrenaline (both are stress hormones) could lead to the weakening of your immune system.
It would be best if you found a way to release negative emotions. Talk to a trusted friend or try to write things down in a journal. Letting it out helps you become more stable. Don’t hesitate to consult a mental health professional if you need to.
These suggestions sound simple and easy. However, it will take some serious effort to let go of the little habits completely. You have been doing them unconsciously for so long, so it will take some time to forget them. Conscious decisions will help, though. Thus, keep practicing them every chance you get.
