Everyone gets so caught up with what the latest health trend is that the word ‘healthy’ starts to lose its meaning. We’ve picked a few ‘healthy’ habits that are actually doing more damage to our health than anything, take a look…
We all look forward to a weekend lie-in, but is it doing us more harm than good? It’s often a method we use to catch up on weekday sleep deficit, but this seemingly beneficial health routine isn’t actually doing us any favours at all. It’s known that an irregular sleeping pattern and this particular sleeping habit of sleeping in at the weekends can throw your body off schedule and can disrupt your regular circadian rhythm.
A cheat day is the modern term for overeating and or ‘binge’ eating. The idea of the cheat day is that you take a break from your diet and eat without worrying about your calorie count, fibre intake or empty calories. It’s a day you can use to enjoy all the foods you can’t eat while on a diet. This sounds great – right? But it seems to do us more harm long-term than we once thought… Leaving just one day to eat whatever you like can lead to over-indulgence, which can actually make restarting your diet the next day even harder than before!
Many of us rely on a glass of wine in the evenings or post-work beverage to un-wind; however, you may want to reconsider this tactic. Why? Alcohol used to tackle stress interrupts the general sleep cycle – you may feel like you’ve had the best sleep, but this unfortunately isn’t the case. Whilst it’s normal to fall asleep quickly after a drink, it’s apparent that you’re less likely to achieve a deeper sleep than if you were to fall asleep naturally.
The majority of people assume that just sticking to cardio at the gym will get you the best results – think again! Weight training is better for long-term fitness and body shape for a variety of reasons, plus you’re actually burning more calories through weight training than you are during cardio! Strength training can boost your metabolism for 36 hours – so even though you’re not burning as many calories in a weight session straight away, the amount of calories you burn over the next few days proves it’s more beneficial than cardio workouts…
You’d think that using antibacterial soap instead of usual suds is a lot cleaner… it turns out that this couldn’t be further from the truth – it’s said that antibacterial soap aids in the creation of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Some antibacterial soap bars contain the chemical called triclosan, which can promote skin allergies, the use of this kind of soap is also likely to disrupt your hormones… stick to the traditional soapsuds!
It’s a common myth that carbohydrates assist in weight gain and are somewhat unhealthy to eat – this isn’t the case. Carbohydrates are your bodies’ favourite source of energy, without carbs – the body turns to other energy stores. Instead of losing weight, the physiological effects of essentially starving the body from energy results in lethargy, skin break outs and less effective workouts – how are you going to weight-train if you’re half awake?!
Of course, taking vitamin supplements within moderation is great, but what happens to your body when you tend to overdo it? If taken too often, you can actually OD on vitamin supplements – for example: taking too much selenium could lead to hair loss, gastrointestinal upset and sometimes even mild nerve damage – so make sure to check the dose.
Making sure you’re sticking with the trusted health habits & avoiding the not-so-great behaviours is great for your overall well-being, but you aren’t to know what’s around the corner in terms of illnesses that are out of your control. Acquiring health insurance cover is a great way to ensure you’re going to receive the best care, if anything negatively affects your health.
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