Act Now to Curb Bad Habits and Stay Youthful

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No-one wants to grow older, but we all know that ageing is inevitable. What’s worse is to age prematurely, looking older than you are and suffering the ailments of old age while you’re still relatively young. It’s always flattering when someone thinks you’re younger than you are, but if you look and feel older than your age it can be depressing and lower your self-esteem. When you’re young, old age seems a long way off, and indulging in a few bad habits doesn’t have any obvious lasting effects; what you can’t see is that everything you do to yourself will influence how well you age and how healthy your later years will be.

Diet and exercise

Your buttocks might be firm and your stomach taut and smooth for now, but if you don’t eat well and take enough exercise then by your middle years you’ll be starting to sag and droop, a classic sign of older age. Your body starts to head south from the moment you reach physical maturity; slowly at first, until you wake up one morning and find your belly hanging over your pants and your bingo wings flapping in the breeze. If you can’t seem to find the time or motivation to exercise and prepare healthy meals, you’ll be storing up health problems for the future and denying yourself the chance of living a full life into old age. You might not think it matters now, but your future self will not be happy with you!

Alcohol

Having the odd glass of wine or cocktail isn’t going to do you too much harm, but becoming dependent on alcohol can creep up on you without you realising. If you’ve got into the habit of heading for the drinks cabinet after work, or you find it hard to cope without having a glass of something every evening, you could be heading down the road to dependence and even alcoholism. Before the situation gets any worse, try cutting back on your consumption and making an effort to manage without the crutch of alcohol. If you find you can cope, you’ve caught it in time, but if you’re struggling, you are probably experiencing the effects of alcohol withdrawal. If so, you might need some professional help to reduce your dependency before it becomes a more serious issue.

Tobacco and recreational drugs

While it’s perfectly possible to have a drink now and then and not become hooked on alcohol, smoking and taking drugs are almost universally addictive behaviours, meaning that if you start you’ll find it extremely difficult to stop. If you’ve experimented with drugs, or you can’t quit the cigarettes, there are numerous sources of support to help you get over your addiction, and different treatment methods to try. Any reduction you can make in the number of cigarettes you smoke or pills you pop will be beneficial for your health, so even if quitting seems impossible right now, don’t give up on the idea of giving up.

The only way to prevent premature ageing is to kick the bad habits and take care of your mind and body, so don’t put it off if you want to keep looking young and healthy.

 

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