- Make It Yourself Lavender Heart-Shaped Bath Bombs!
- 20 Things You Never Knew About “Down There”
- 12 Best Foods For Those Suffering From Arthritis Pain
- 12 Personal Hygiene Mistakes Almost Everyone Makes (Mom Never Told You About #4!)
- 15 Medicinal Plants And Herbs From The Cherokee People
- 12 Mind-Blowing Benefits Of Drinking Coconut Water During Pregnancy
- 12 Outstanding Winter Foods That Won’t Fatten You Up Like A Christmas Turkey
13 Everyday Habits that Make You Age Faster
Photo credit: bigstock
When you look in the mirror in the morning, do you feel like you are aging faster than your years? If you don’t like what you are seeing in the mirror, then perhaps it’s time to re-evaluate some of your daily habits and routines. The food we eat, even the way in which we sleep, can add years to our faces as well as shorten our lifespans. Check out our list of the most common age-accelerating routines and habits and how you can actually reverse it.
1. Slouching
When you slouch over in front of a keyboard for hours it can cause your spine to make an unattractive, even potentially harmful hunched over type of posture over time. Our spines naturally have a well-balanced “S” shaped curve that helps to support our bodies. Slouching over moves the spine away from its natural position, stressing the muscles, disks, and bones. Pain, fatigue, even possible spinal degeneration can form. Try to practice good posture during the day. Remember that your ear, shoulder, and hip should make a straight line when you are sitting.
2. You Constantly Multi-task
If that to-do list gets longer, not shorter, by the day, then your overly hectic life may be overly taxing your body. Although multi-tasking is lauded in the media as something to strive for, but you rarely get anything done faster, you just make more stress for yourself. It would be much better for your body to concentrate on one task at a time and finish it before moving onto the next.
3. You Cut Out All Fat from Your Diet
In order to maintain a healthy and youthful appearance, you need a little fat. Healthy omega-3 fatty acids, found in fish and nuts, keep your skin soft, supple, and slightly plumped up, so you look younger, not corpse-like. Also, plumper skin prevents wrinkles as well as filling them out a bit. Try eating fish at least twice a week. Find out other mistakes people make trying to get healthy.
4. You Are Always Ready for Dessert
Even if you want to dismiss the excess weight sugar causes, your love of sweets may be adding years to your face. Molecules of sugar stick to the protein fibers in cells. This process is known as glycation, and causes those dark circles under your eyes, loss of skin tone, puffiness, wrinkles, as well as an increase in pore size. Pass up the dessert cart if you want to keep that youthful glow on your face.
5. You Use a Straw
There are many of you that like drinking colored beverages through a straw to avoid staining your teeth but in the same way squinting causes wrinkles to form at the eyes, pursing your lips causes premature wrinkles around the lips. This is also true of smokers. Use a glass to avoid puckering up and causing wrinkles. You can always whiten your teeth.
6. You Skimp on Sleep
Besides the legendary dark circles and bags under the eyes, not getting enough sleep has been linked to an overall shorter life, according to sleep studies. You need at least 7 hours of sleep daily. If you show symptoms of sleep deprivation, such as attention problems, lack of energy, mental fogginess, then go to bed earlier.
Continue to Page 2
Photo credit: bigstock
7. You like Your House Toasty Warm
When the weather outside is frightful, it might be tempting to turn up the heat in the house but regardless of whether you stoke up the fireplace or crank up the thermostat on the heater, both will dry out the air. Dry air can lead to dry skin, which, over time, has very aging effects. Use a humidifier indoors to help counteract the effects of dry air. Between a 40 to 60 percent humidity level is ideal. If for some reason you can’t use a humidifier, even just placing a bowl of cold water in the room can help increase the humidity.
8. You Love a TV Marathon
Although it’s hard to resist a marathon session of the Walking Dead or King of Thrones but literally watching hour after hour of television can actually cut your life short. A study done with more than 11,000 adults showed that for every hour of television, adults cut their life by as much as 22 minutes. People who spend more than 6 hours a day watching television cut a full 5 years off of their lifespan, compared to those who watched less TV. It’s not so much the program as it is about the sitting. Get up at least every 30 minutes to walk and stretch.
9. You Sleep on Your Stomach
When you sleep on your stomach, or for some people, on their side, with your face smashed into your pillow, it makes wrinkles on your skin. The collagen and tissue in your face becomes weaker with age, so when you squish your face into that pillow, those crease lines can become permanent. Try to sleep on your back or buy a satin pillowcase to help keep your skin as smooth and wrinkle free as possible. Read more about sleeping positions that can hurt r help your health.
10. You Don’t Use Eye Cream
Even those who like a no-fuss skin care routine should use a good quality eye cream to keep those wrinkles away. The skin around your eyes is very thin and, therefore, shows wrinkles and aging faster. Keeping the skin surrounding your eyes moist can make you look years younger. Look for an eye cream that contains Retin A, hyaluronic acid, and vitamin C. These ingredients promote the formation of collagen and elastin.
11. You Spend Most of Your Day Sitting
The dangers of a sedentary life are well known. People who spend the majority of their days with their butts glued to a chair are at a higher risk for all sorts of diseases; everything from heart disease to cancer. Getting regular exercise can help you prevent these diseases as well as prolonging your life. Studies show that people who exercised at least 150 minutes per week lived more than 10 years longer than couch potatoes. Find out more why sitting ruin our immune system.
12. You Only Use Sunscreen on Vacation
You may not think that just a few minutes in the sun, such as dashing to your mailbox, or driving, could do much damage to your skin but it certainly does. The number one cause of premature skin aging is due to the ultraviolet rays of the sun. Don’t kid yourself either; those UV rays reach your skin even if it’s cloudy, snowing, or raining. Wear sunblock every single day, especially on your face, if you want to keep that youthful glow.
13. You Love Makeup
We don’t mean using that metallic blue eye shadow from the70’s, we mean using excessive makeup ages you in other, less obvious ways. Oil based makeup clogs your pores and can cause pimples. Also, most makeup products dry out or irritate the skin, which will cause premature wrinkles and lines over time. Everyone wants to look pretty, but use a minimal amount of makeup for everyday situations.
Sources:
