6 Sneaky Ways You Might Be Accidentally Sabotaging Your Health

Most of us try our best to be healthy, but it can be a lot harder than we think.

That's especially true with there being so many ways that we may be secretly sabotaging our health without even knowing it. After all, the American diet doesn't exactly make it easy to eat healthily, and getting your exercise in can be just as challenging when you don't know any better. With that said, some sneaky ways you may be keeping yourself off track might include:

1. Downing Energy Drinks

Energy drinks tend to be packed with sugar, and even the ones marketed as "healthy" can include loads of slightly sketchy ingredients that you probably don't want to put in your body (like fake sugars and other chemicals that improve the flavor but can wreak havoc on your overall health).

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2. Falling for Health Fads

Diet, nutrition and fitness trends constantly come in and out of style, but there's a reason these rarely last. Whether it's a crash diet designed to target weight loss (an unhealthy decision in itself) or new "lifestyle" swap like going keto or intermittent fasting, most of these fads just aren't sustainable in the long run and can do damage to your physical and mental health in the meantime.

 

3. Over-Exercising

Exercise is amazing, no doubt about it. It releases endorphins that make you happy, gets your blood pumping and even improves your energy levels, but it can also become an obsessive behavior if you aren't careful. This is especially true if you place aesthetic benefits at the top of your reasons to work out, as you might start to feel like taking a "day off" from your regular routine will cause some detrimental effects. That's simply just not true, though, and in fact, our bodies need rest in order to build up the muscle that you've earned in the gym and keep you functioning as you should. So, get your daily exercise in, but be careful about not overdoing it and make sure you're doing it for the right reasons.

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4. Indulging in Fake Healthy Foods

Food and drink companies love to manipulate their customers with good marketing, making things that are secretly packed with bad ingredients seem healthy. The key thing is that even if these foods are healthy in moderation, most people don't pay attention to serving sizes or the actual ingredients listed on the package. Sometimes, it's better to have that single scoop of Ben & Jerry's instead of that whole pint of Halo Top—just listen to your body and know when to say yes or no.

 

5. Scrolling Before Bed

We're all guilty of scrolling our For You pages for a bit too long before bed once in a while, but this habit (or any screen time when it's time to log off your brain for the day) can actually wreak havoc on your sleep schedule. You might think that you've gotten your eight-ish hours of sleep because of the time you got into bed, but more than likely you spent a lot of that time on your phone or simply got less quality sleep because of how the blue light can affect your body.

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6. Your Go-To Starbucks Order

We all love the occasional sweet treat when we head to our favorite coffee shop, but if that indulgent Frappuccino, sugary iced latte, sweetened iced tea or other dessert-like beverage is less of a "treat" and more of your go-to order, then it's time to make a change. It's totally fine to indulge once in a while, but try skipping the extra pumps of syrup in your iced coffee most of the time when you need your kick of caffeine before class. Another pro-tip: Try avoiding coffee and other caffeinated drinks after 2 or 3 p.m. so that your sleep doesn't see the negative side effects.

 

While these are just some of the sneaky ways you might be sabotaging your health, there are also some easy ways you can actually improve your health!

Want to give them a go while wishing the bad habits listed above goodbye? We can help—just click HERE for some easy tips for eating healthier. And for a little extra help that can be used during the school year or any time, click HERE for some healthy habits to try.