10 bad habits that your patient should change

When you consult, you have noticed that your patients are unable to follow medical recommendations because they live with very strong habits that prevent them from completing treatments as they should. For example, they are not able to abandon diets that are harmful to their health, loaded with bad fats, sugars and other carbohydrates that do not provide them with nutrition and facilitate the storage of fat. Or they cannot change sleep schedules or establish physical exercise routines. Experts say that many diseases can be avoided and even cured with a simple change in habits. It seems easy, but changing a person’s behavior is difficult and can take years to achieve. Specialists assure that 60% or more of our daily decisions are the product of habits, that is, they are habitual decisions and responses that practically occur automatically, they are not thought about. So if we changed those habits, our life would be very different, but most people are afraid of change, they don’t want to leave their comfort zone. Below we list the 10 most common bad habits that people have: 1. They believe in everything they are told. This bad habit, almost widespread, is so powerful that it has the capacity to jeopardize medical treatment or a quick cure for overweight and obesity problems. People mistakenly assume the recommendations of others to be true and that they have no medical or scientific basis. Recommend your patients to be cured by established methods and not with traditional and hearsay recipes. **2.  They act on impulses. ** Your patient should work on the habit of thinking and analyzing their actions and decisions before acting. For example, don’t eat on impulse, don’t diet on impulse, don’t react on impulse. Impulses bring problems and cause illnesses. * 3. They let themselves be carried away by their emotions. This point is related to the previous one. There are many people who do not act guided by the information they receive, but rather by their emotions. And it is information that guides good decision making and should be what motivates the person to act. 4. They are afraid of changes. Your patient should try to change their habits little by little. And resolve to continue it the next day and the next day and so on until you acquire the new habit. For example, stop drinking soft drinks that are harmful to your health and replace them with water or some tea or infusion that brings benefits to the body. 5. They do not follow routines. Acquiring the habit requires repetition, imposing a routine until you achieve the objective, that is, adopting the change, the new habit, which you can use, for example, in your goal of changing your eating habits or losing weight. 6. No rewards are set. To make it easier and more motivating to adopt the new habit, your patient should start by establishing prizes and rewards for him. That will help you get there faster. For example, in your purpose to lose weight or to modify your eating plans. You just have to make sure that “your treats” don’t go against the habits you are changing. 7. They lack willpower. This is an important condition to achieve the proposed changes. You should also start small. Having willpower to achieve small changes first and then bigger purposes. 8. They are not clear about their goals. Your patients should make a list of their good and bad habits. Write down how you plan to change those bad habits and get to work. You should put the list where you can see it daily so that you are aware of the changes. *9. They consume processed and junk food. They have the bad habit of eating “whatever”, either due to lack of time and laziness to choose more nutritious foods or because they are used to these products that are bad for the body. They should start changing their diet to be healthier and less sick. 10. They do not exercise, they do not meditate, they do not dream. Exercise not only shapes the body, but also eliminates anxiety, controls depression and helps the person achieve self-control. Whoever meditates, manages to adopt habits more easily. Changing these bad habits is possible, but it takes time and work. If you want advice on this and other topics, click here. We invite you to share with us the experiences you have had with your patients related to their illnesses or conditions caused or intensified by the bad habits they have.