7 Toxic Lifestyle Habits I Avoid to Remain Insanely Happy and Productive
“We cannot achieve more in life than what we believe in our heart of hearts we deserve to have.”― James R. Ball
We first make our habits then our habits make us — John Dryden
There are many things in our day we do and most of the time we do things just out of habit until someone points it out or you just have epiphany moment.
It comes when we self-reflect.
Before the pandemic, I hardly realized or paid attention to my habits, however during the pandemic, I started staying at home more than usual and hardly went out to keep myself safe from covid-19.
I realized many things that were not productive or I am just killing my time without gaining anything in return.
When I discussed it with my friends, you know what, most of us are doing the same things but hardly even noticing it.
I started journal my habits that no more add any value to my lifestyle and overall physical and mental health.
If you know you also have unhealthy habits you need to break, you’re definitely not alone. In fact just identifying those habits is a great place to start.
Here are some of the small habits all of us could stand to unlearn or replace with more productive habits.
1. Checking my phone first thing in the morning
This is one of the worst habits I had and took me a lot of mind control not to look up to my phone as soon as I open up my eyes in the morning.
Everyday I used to spend at least an hour on the phone, going through emails, social media accounts and giving myself anxiety about FOMO and how many things I need to do in my day.
If you also check your phone first thing in the morning why not, keep the phone aside or far away from your bed before you sleep or invest in an alarm clock if you use alarms in your phone to wake up.
So that this is not the first thing you reach out to. It definitely needs time to overcome, but sure you can.
2. Eating unhealthy and processed food
This is my second most annoying habit I had. I used to eat endlessly without thinking or realizing.
I am guilty of eating a full box of pizza or a full chips bag in one sitting or just eating chocolate, cake, muffins without counting it in my day. It made me skip my proper meals and some days just ended eating in the middle of the night while watching Netflix or TV.
To stop binge eating, modify your grocery list and no longer add all the junk food when you go to buy groceries online or in store. This way, you can stop temptation, craving and start eating more healthy Food.
Start finding the more healthier replacements, instead of potato chips, why not try kale, beetroot chips. If you like eating bread, replace it with sourdough or sprouted bread.
Balance is the key, and I’d rather eat one piece of chocolate every other day than binge on chocolates at once.
3. Not keeping track of my money
If you are working and not managing your finances, it’s the time you start doing it. Seek help from Financial Consultants to manage savings, investments and taxes initially.
Start doing research and learn to understand different terms, investment plans. It will make you more aware and conscious while spending money and give you more confidence and security in life.
It is important and you will realize when you are much older and mature in life.
3. Doomscrolling social media
Throughout the day, replace doomscrolling with a podcast of your interest, allow time to read books or work on your personal project you have been thinking about for a long time.
The key is to keep your mind occupied with things that are adding values in your time. And my friend, time is precious.
4. High Alcohol Consumption
Alcohol is high in empty calories, and cocktails are high in sugar. According to Harvard Health, it also has other negative impacts such as
- High risk of heart attack
- Liver and Kidney disease
- High risk of depression, anxiety, and dementia
But humans are social beings, and I admit to loving beer and wine. To have the best of both worlds is again like the previous point, finding a balance.
5. Ignoring calls/messages from friends and family
Whenever your phone blinks or you hear a sound, you check your phone and see who is calling or texting but ignoring it and thinking you may return to calls/texts when you have time or may be when you are in the right head space. But that time never come.
So next time when someone calls you, pick up the phone or send a text that you are going to call at this time or day. Don’t leave people hanging.
6. Spending too much money doing online shopping
When you receive lots of promotional emails, text messages from your favorite brands, it’s hard to ignore them and the deals they offer.
OR you just buy things for the sake of sale, discounts or it’s just looking appealing to you. And you know deep down, you are not going to use it or just it’s an addition in your collection.
The best thing is to unsubscribe from promotional emails so that your mind will not wander off. If you add something in your cart, wait for 24 hours before you click on buy. Most likely there are 90% chances you are not going to buy it. It will help you to keep your spending on track.
7. Doing things just to fit in
We all do things we don’t necessarily need to do or do not fit to our personality or lifestyle.
If you don’t like drinking, drugs or smoking but you are just doing it because everyone else might think you are unsocial or weird. Sometimes you’re dressed up in a certain way, just it’s in trend or more fashionable.
To be honest, people do not care and pay attention as we might think they do.
Don’t put pressure on yourself or others when it comes to things that you do not approve of or you think people may not approve it.
Do share your thoughts in comments and any habit that you break free and how it has changed your life for good.
Be Bold
Be Courageous
Be Your Best
Did you know?
You can join Medium to read all my articles, here.
Maybe consider being a Medium subscriber?
Subscribe to my weekly (free) newsletter about health, personal development and well-being here https://drthefit.substack.com/
Check out my Medium Publication — JUST BE YOU to get free articles via email whenever I publish them.
