Those who have unhealthy habits are likely to age much quicker than those who have a healthier lifestyle. For example, someone who has exercised all of their life will look better than someone who hasn’t exercised at all. The impact of lifestyle habits is massive on how you look and feel so it is important that you have the correct habits to ensure you maintain a healthy lifestyle and slow down the ageing process.
Let’s take a look at some of those unhealthy habits and see how you change your lifestyle so you start looking younger than you really are.
Constantly Eating Unhealthy Foods
It is no new revelation that eating unhealthy foods such as processed foods is not good for your health. So, consuming healthier foods that are more nutritious is bound to have a positive impact on your overall health, including how you look.
Something to take note of is that your dietary needs can be different to the person next to you. One diet doesn’t necessarily fit all. For example, some people will need to consume more Vitamin D compared to others because they work inside every day. That being said, there is a general diet rule that does fit all and that is to avoid consuming too much-processed foods and, have a well-balanced diet with protein, healthy fats, fibre, and complex carbohydrates. Whole foods are much better than processed because they add more nutritional value to your diet so consider this when picking foods for your food shop.
Something else you will need to remember is that you must eat at your usual eating time. Try to stay roughly to the same eating schedule so your body gets used to your eating times. Plus, it allows you to stick to the right foods that are good for you rather than putting frozen food in the oven because it is late at night.
Reduce Your Alcohol Intake
Everybody knows that too much alcohol isn’t good for you. Furthermore, it can lead to several diseases such as liver disease and cardiovascular diseases and others. But, something many people don’t know is that it can lead to premature ageing. Now, you might think there are some health benefits such as drinking red wine that provides you with anti-oxidants, however, the negatives outweigh the positives. Reducing your alcohol intake is a great thing to do and something that your future self will thank you for.
Anxiety and Stress
There are many things that we can deem to be stressful. This includes house problems, partner issues or even work. All of this can be very stressful and it is a natural emotion to go through. However, embracing stress is something we don’t encourage as this can also add to the ageing process. Furthermore, there is actually some science behind this emotion. Stress releases a hormone called cortisol which when this is elevated can affect your skin, gut health and even mental health.
Chronic stress will create free radicals in the body which will then damage your cells. This is something else that can lead to signs of early ageing. Luckily for us, stress is something we can avoid and reduce.
How to reduce stress
There are many ways in which you can reduce stress and some methods are better than others. Self-care is one of those methods for reducing stress and something that everybody should do. Self-care can also work in different ways such as a walk, reading, facial cleanse, a bath, cupping therapy or even a spa day. Whatever you see as relaxing and helps to reduce stress, consider doing this.
Breathing exercises are another great way to reduce stress. If you have never done a breathing exercise before then consider downloading an app such as Calm which will help with reducing stress.
Smoking Habits
Smoking can increase the way you age so if you do smoke, this is also something else that you need to avoid. Smoking can cause many issues including developing diseases, cancer and heart disease. Plus, it can also impact other things such as wrinkles, ageing spots and other signs of ageing.
There is no doubt that smoking is bad for you which is why many people are switching to vapes and e-cigarettes. However, these are not that great for you either due to the harmful chemicals that are contained in these products. That is why people either quit completely or use nicotine pouches to give them that nicotine craving. Nicotine pouch brands such as Velo or Killa Nicopods were established in Sweden before growing in popularity across the rest of Europe and the United States of America.
Spending Too Much Time In The Sun
Another issue that can speed up the ageing process is spending too much time in the sun. You will notice that those who have better weather tend to age much quicker than those who don’t. Now, we are not saying to avoid the sun completely because UV rays can offer a lot of benefits including vitamin D. Make sure to use sun sunscreen to protect your skin from burning.
Summary
As you can see, there are many things that can speed up the aging process which is why you should look to maintain a healthy lifestyle. A well-balanced diet and plenty of exercising will keep you looking young; however, if you include any of the habits above, you can expect yourself to be looking a lot older than what you are. So, cut out those unhealthy habits and look to have a healthier lifestyle to keep you looking young.