Dussehra celebration is the symbol of the victory of good over evil. Lord Rama had defeated 10 – headed Ravana who had kept Goddess Sita in his hostage. On this auspicious day, even in today’s age – people build big figures of Ravana and burn them depicting Lord Rama’s victory. It is also believed that this way you kill the evil residing inside you.
On a holy day like Dussehra, let’s understand to cut down on 10 evil or unhealthy food habits that might affect your health.
1. Stop Not Drinking Enough Water
Our body is made up of 70% of water. This makes water an important tool in keeping the skin nourished, maintaining heart rate and blood pressure. By keeping our body hydrated, our heart can pump blood through the vessels and to the muscles smoothly, which also helps clean toxins from your body via your kidneys. It also helps keep you energized, active and healthy.
So, how much water should you be drinking? Since one size doesn’t fit all, the best way to know if you’re adequately hydrated is to monitor your urine colour: if it’s light yellow (the colour of lemonade), that means you’re drinking enough.
2. Stop Skipping Breakfast
‘Got Late! Let me skip my breakfast!’ Isn’t this our daily routine? Or do you think skipping breakfast can help you shed weight faster?
This is the biggest mistake you make every day.
The saying that you must eat your breakfast like a king isn’t without good reasoning. Breakfast can be called the most important meal of the day. If you skip on a proper one, you are negatively affecting your metabolism and your energy reserves. An ideal breakfast is a good mix of carbohydrates, proteins and fats.
Among all, breakfast provides you with the energy required to kick start your day, helps you burn fat, keeps blood sugar normal throughout the day, helps to fight daytime cravings, lower incidents of heart disease, keep your brains sharp and helps improve concentration and productivity.
Healthy Breakfast Ideas for Busy Mornings
3. Stop Following Quick Fix For Weight Loss
There are lots of weight-loss diets wrestling for your attention. FAD diet, IF diet, Keto Diet and so on, many would have shown the result to you to attend a friend’s wedding or so. But what happens after the past few days? It will result in weight regain and lead to nutritional deficiencies. There is no shortcut for weight loss, give your body time to lose weight slowly and effectively.
Plus, yo-yo dieting can have long-term effects on your health; studies have linked yo-yo dieting (repeatedly gaining and losing a significant amount of weight) to chronic issues like heart disease, stress, and high blood pressure. But if you do want to lose weight and keep it off for good, it’s about building your life around eating patterns that aren’t rooted in deprivation, even though extreme cleanses and quick fixes might sound more appealing. They just don’t work—10 Things to Know About Weight Loss
4. Stop Not Having Control Over Your Eating
It is always important to rightly judge your food portion to avoid gorging and regretting later. Another type of eating which we need to control would be emotional eating. We tend to look for delicious food to lower down our stress levels. During your stress period, delicious food can act as a silver lining to all the miseries in your life. But, that would not at all be a sustainable diet strategy.
The mood-food factor may be great at that time, but you may end up inviting a few extra pounds than required. In such cases, start by selecting a combination of junk and fresh foods and take up any of your favourite hobbies to reduce your stress levels.
5. Stop Eating Mainly Processed Foods
One of the major dietary changes that have taken place over the last 30 years has been a shift to consuming more processed foods. Along with processing comes an increase in added sodium, more saturated fat, more sugar, and less fiber.
The result? More cardiovascular disease, hypertension, cancer, and diabetes.
9 Foods and Drinks to Avoid If You Have High Blood Pressure
Do your body a favour, and try to eat “clean” more often, including foods high in fiber (which are linked to greater longevity) and other ingredients you purchase and prepare yourself. If you’re short on time, cook ahead in big batches, or splurge on ready-made salads and other fresh or frozen vegetables while watching the sodium and sugar contents on the label.
6. Stop Cheating With Your Night’s Sleep
The amount of sleep you get can affect your lifespan, and not just because a sleepy driver is at risk of a car accident. In epidemiological studies, sleeping too little (fewer than six hours) or substantially more (over nine hours) has been shown to put people at greater risk of death.
Quality of life is also on the line: A good night’s sleep can help you ward off stress, depression, and heart disease. You can learn to fall asleep more quickly and take measures that can help, like keeping your bedroom dark and distraction-free and having the temperature on the cool side. Meditation exercises can set the stage for a good night’s sleep, and an inexpensive noise machine can help with relaxing sounds.
If you’re still having trouble getting to sleep or staying asleep, try these 7 Best Foods To Help You Sleep.
7. Stop Relying on (or Blaming) Your Genes
Having parents, grandparents, or other family members live into their nineties and beyond might suggest that you will too, but don’t rely too heavily on that family history. Studies conducted on twins in Scandinavia suggest that genetics may be responsible for only about a third of your longevity potential.
This is good news for those of us without that exceptional ancestry. Environmental and lifestyle factors like diet, exercise, exposure to toxins, stress, regular medical tests, and even your social relationships play a role in how long you might live. Why focus on the genetics you can’t control when other factors can benefit from your attention?
13 tips towards health with reduced-fat
8. Stop Being a couch potato
It’s vacation time or the weekend and we stay glued to the TV, but often without thinking how harmful that habit can turn out to be in the long run. If you spend many hours in front of the TV seat, you are more prone to problems of the heart and eyes. Also, the habit can increase your risks of heart disease, stroke and even obesity. It makes you lazy and can affect your fat and sugar levels.
The Body Thrives on Movement. We are made to move.
Movement is critical for loading the bones and the muscles and for maintaining bone and muscle density. When we stop moving, we get stiff and lose muscle mass, range of motion, bone density, and balance—which can have disastrous consequences. You don’t need to be a fitness junkie or a superstar athlete to stay healthy, but you do need to keep moving.
9. Stop Midnight Snacking
During the nighttime, your body’s metabolism is at its slowest. The rate at which the food is digested and absorbed is very slow as compared to the daytime. And so, if you are a person who consumes lots of processed food which are high in salt, sugar or fat, then you are bound to add fat and weight to your body. It is advisable to keep a gap of 2 to 3 hours between your last meal of the day and bedtime.
Another reason is that late-night meals can cause indigestion that interferes with sleep. Plus, most of us aren’t eating carrots and apples late at night-we’re reaching for snack foods that aren’t necessarily the healthiest choices.
10. Stop Worrying Too Much
Anxiety, worry, and stress are all some of the most common and often undetected bad habits that affect your health without you even realizing it. Too much stress can lead to a variety of chronic conditions such as a suppressed immune system or insomnia.
Reducing worry and stress is, of course, easier said than done. But there are a few things to remember. Most of what we worry about is not necessarily true. If you’re caught in tumultuous worry, take a moment, breathe, and ask yourself if there’s any rationale to your worry. It’s also important to ask yourself whether your worry is productive in solving whatever potential problem you have. If this doesn’t help you, consider reaching out to a mental health professional for additional coping mechanisms.
There are many things you can resolve to do to “slow down” your biological clock and live longer, whether you’re in your 20s or 30s, all the way to your 60s, 70s, and beyond.
Research has shown it’s never too late to start healthy habits.
So this Dussehra, these are the evils that must be destroyed!
Happy Dusshera 😃
Leave a Reply