What are your bad habits costing you?
Fitness Freedom: The
Cost of Bad Health Habits
From candy jars on your co-worker’s desk to happy hour cocktails, missed
workouts and lack of sleep due to juggling stressful situations, bad health
habits are easy to come by. Each one in its own instance isn’t so bad, but when
they pile on top of each other, you quickly can find yourself in a vicious
cycle of unhealthy habits. The problem with bad health habits is that they’re
easy to include into your lifestyle, but hard to move away from when you
realize how much they’re costing your health and wellness.
“People have a hard time distinguishing between their perception of living
with healthy habits and the reality of their lifestyle choices,” explains
TayneePearson, personal trainer at
Fitness Together Brecksville. “When there’s a
large gap between perception and reality, that’s when your lifestyle habits can
end up costing you.”
To help put the cost of bad habits into perspective, Pearson provided her
insight for the following top four bad health habits that she sees many people
struggling with.
Diet and Exercise
Most people understand the importance of eating healthy and exercising, but Pearson finds that many believe they’re a
lot more active and eating better than they really are. Larger portions, hidden
ingredients in processed foods or when eating out at a restaurant, and not
properly calculating the actual impact of your activity level to your overall
health can be some of the leading causes to a poor diet and exercise plan.
Another common cause that Taynee sees on a regular basis is that people aren’t
honest with themselves or others when it comes to admitting the amount and
types of foods they eat regularly, as well as how often they actually skip
workouts.
“Many people keep diluting themselves by believing that they’re really
eating healthier and exercising more than they really are,” shares Pearson.
“It’s important to impress on people that they’re only fooling themselves when
they’re caught up in their own false perceptions.”
To get real about what you eat and how active you are, Pearson suggests
incorporating food journaling and activity tracking into your routine. Even if
you just track yourself for a short amount of time like a week, you can unveil
the reality of what you eat and how much you exercise.
Alcohol
Although there are various studies and media stories about the benefits of
some alcohols like red wine, Pearson tells her clients not to fool themselves
into believing that drinking is actually good for you. Alcohol isn’t a health food
so you have to be honest with yourself if you choose to drink a glass of wine
or a bottle of beer.
If you do enjoy a cocktail every now and again, Taynee advises against
drinking at night right before heading to bed. Instead, drinking alcohol after
you exercise – like having a beer after you’ve ran a race – will cost you less
in the long run because your body’s metabolism is at its highest levels. It
will be able to burn off the extra calories quicker in a situation like this,
rather than if you’re lounging on the couch having a glass of wine after
sitting all day at your desk job. In any situation, though, moderation is
always key.
“When you drink at night, you’re compounding the increased caloric and sugar
intake, as well as interrupting your sleep patterns,” explains Pearson.
“Alcohol may not impact your ability to go to sleep, but it will have a
negative effect on the duration and quality of your sleep. All of this can
negatively impact your health and fitness goals.”
Sleep
Everybody thinks they can go without sleep, but really you’re only doing
damage to your mental and physical health when you don’t get enough
rest. The effects can be quite damaging to your long-term
health and fitness, but you don’t always see them right away. One week of bad
sleep can impact you drastically at the cellular level and it’s never really
possible to make up for lost rest, says Pearson.
“There’s a linear relationship between the amount of sleep a person gets and
their overall health and fitness levels,” explains Pearson. “The less you
sleep, the higher your BMI, the increase in poor insulin control and the
increase in cortisol levels. It can negatively impact your hormones and have
bad effects on your health.”
Stress
In our constant, always-on-the-go society, many people suffer from the
negative effects of stress without even realizing it. Lack of sleep, a constant
feeling of uneasiness and even physical ailments like stomachaches and
headaches are common stress indicators. To help manage the daily stressors in
your life, Taynee suggests regular physical activity as a healthy outlet, as
well as taking time out for yourself away from technology, and removing the
elements in your life that may be triggering your stress. Because, when you’re
stressed, your health and fitness levels can definitely be compromised.
“If you’re having trouble losing weight or meeting your fitness goals, you
have to figure out what habits are factoring into your problem,” says Pearson.
“All of these habits tend to never stand alone. They feed upon one another,
creating a vicious cycle of bad habits.”
Guilty pleasures and bad habits can be found around every corner in life. To
minimize their impact on your health and fitness, focus on eliminating each bad
habit you currently indulge in one at a time. You’ll not only start feeling
better about making better life choices, but your body’s health will appreciate
your new healthy perception and lifestyle.
“If you don’t make the time and effort now to make healthy choices, it’s
going to cost you in the long run in the form of poor health, doctor bills and
not living as long as you’d like,” warns Pearson. “If you spend the time,
effort and money now to eat healthy, exercise and adopt good habits, then
you’re setting yourself up to live a richer and longer life. It’s either do it
now, or pay the price later.”
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All of that sounds great, but we have come to learn that the majority of our clients prefer to work out in a private setting, instead of in front of a group of people. Kickboxing is primarily offered in a class which isn't the most comfortable option for everybody. Now for the first time at FT Brecksville, we offer Private Kickboxing Sessions! Although any of our trainers are capable of conducting these sessions, I would recommend scheduling your first one with Steven Madden because he has the most martial arts in his background out of our team.
