5 Unhealthy Signs That You Ignore

Most of us have a pretty nasty wakeup call moment that screams “YOU’RE UNHEALTHY”, and it changes our lives forever. There are usually unhealthy signs or signals which warn us but often we choose to ignore them.

Maybe it’s a cancer scare, or the threat of organs shutting down, or a heart attack, or some other catastrophe that we never saw coming. Medical emergencies like this have the nasty little habit of shaking us by the shoulders, waking us up, and telling us – in no uncertain terms – that we aren’t as indestructible as we thought we were.

And that realization can be crippling.

Worse than that though is the fact that almost all of these major medical emergencies – and anything negative that happens to our health – can be headed off at the pass, so to speak.

All we have to do is shut up and listen to our bodies, pay attention to the millions and millions of little signs it’s sending us to let us know that things aren’t running as smoothly as they should and make a handful of small adjustments to get back on the path to great health.

But we don’t listen to those little signals, do we?

Instead, we go right on chugging along, making the same disastrous decisions that cripple our health and wellbeing day after day.

What’s one cookie, one skipped workout, and one more beer going to do in the grand scheme of things, anyway, right?

Well, it might not be that one extra cookie or another workout missed, or one more brewski that finally does you in – but instead a lifetime of these kinds of decisions, never realizing the kind of impact that all of those negative choices have on you and your health.

Thankfully though, there’s always time to wake up and pay attention to your body and its signs that things aren’t quite on the up and up. If you’re reading this you’ve still got a pulse, and that means that there’s time – right now, today – to make healthier choices that will have you better than brand new in no time at all.

Let’s break down some of those unhealthy signals you should be listening to right now!

1. You wake up feeling wiped out

One of the biggest problems we are dealing with as a nation (and the rest of the world is struggling right alongside us, for the matter) is that we aren’t getting anywhere near enough sleep every night.

Most of us are sleeping less than 5 hours a night, squeezing in as many zzz’s as possible in our overloaded and overstimulated day. We lay in bed and watch TV, find ourselves glued to our smartphones and tablets, and generally fight sleep as best we can, right up until the Sandman shows up and knocks us out cold himself!

And even if – by some small miracle – we are able to smuggle in 8 hours of sleep one night, the odds are fantastic that it wasn’t eight SOLID hours or eight CONSECUTIVE hours of sleep.

No, no.

It’s more like two hours of sleep here before being woken up by some weird noise, two hours of sleep there because our bed is too lumpy, two hours of sleep over here because we’re too hot and then we’re too cold…the list goes on and on.

Fix your sleep pattern – and really start getting some solid sack time – and you’ll be able to clear up almost all of your health issues (literally) overnight. Your body needs sleep to rest, recover, and recuperate so that it can heal your body, and when you’re stealing sleep from yourself you end up paying the price.
And DO NOT watch TV in your bedroom. Play soft music and wind down before bed.

2. You feel creaky when you get out of bed

Look, almost all of us realize we’re not spring chickens anymore the first time we roll out of bed feeling worse physically than we did when we laid down to sleep.

“How can somebody get hurt SLEEPING?!”, most ask.

This is a two pronged issue, and you’ll want to do your very best to clean up this problem ASAP.

For starters, the odds are solid that you’re not drinking anywhere near as much water on a daily basis as you should be. Your body is dehydrated, it can’t function properly, and you can’t make the necessary repairs because you’re running low on this building block.

Secondly, you’re muscles probably aren’t getting the workout they used to when you were younger. Sports (and gym class) kept you in shape, kept you loose, and kept you strong. Now that you’re leading a more sedentary lifestyle your muscles have begun to atrophy.

Stretching and pounding a glass or three of water every morning will help you “grease up” a bit. You’ll feel back to your old self in no time if you stretch for two minutes every morning and start drinking plenty of water. Adding lemon in the AM helps cleanse the system as well.

3. Your pants don’t fit as well as they used to

Almost all of us are going to find out (in no uncertain terms) that our metabolism slows down dramatically right around the time we leave high school.

Believe me – the Freshman 15 is a very real thing.

But obesity is one of the biggest health epidemics facing our world today, and we need to take steps right now to correct course. If you’ve begun to notice that your clothes don’t fit you quite as nicely as they used to in the past, you’re likely packing a couple of extra pounds that you shouldn’t be.

Clean up your diet (before you do anything else) as it’s going to do the heavy lifting of your weight loss journey for you. A lot of people think you can exercise the weight away, but all the workouts in the world won’t amount to a hill of beans if you’re putting away pounds and pounds of pasta and sugar.

Move your body a lot more than you probably are as well. Not only will you melt a few pounds with some exercise, but you’ll also become a lot healthier to boot. There are big benefits to regular excise that you don’t want to sleep on.

4. Your urine isn’t crystal clear but looks a lot more like used motor oil

As we touched upon above, you need to make sure your body is as well hydrated as can be at all points in time.

Water is a fundamental building block of life, and you can go a lot longer without food than you’ll ever be able to go without water. If your urine isn’t crystal clear it means that the toxins your body is flushing out aren’t sufficiently diluted. That means your water reservoirs are running low.

Low hydration levels can cause illness, disease, and infections to run rampant throughout your body. Make sure you’re drinking plenty of water to push out clean urine around the clock – and we mean water, not just drinks that have water in them!

5. Your complexion isn’t crystal clear

The last real warning sign we want to touch on here that you’re probably ignoring is the one that has to do with the biggest organ in the human body – your skin!

For most folks, the dream of a perfectly clear complexion is exactly that – a dream. Most people are always going to have to deal with a blemish or two, a pimple or four, or a handful of other less than perfect skin issues.

But if your skin is constantly itchy, if your skin is always red and irritated, and if your skin is filled with bumps, bruises boils, or other blemishes you likely have something nasty going on underneath your skin.

Not only should you visit with a dermatologist ASAP, but you’ll also want to schedule a meeting with your primary care doc, too. They’ll be able to help clear up your underlying conditions AND clean up your skin!

What to do if you see unhealthy signs appear in your life?

If you experience any of these signs, it is important to speak to your doctor. Ignoring these signs can lead to serious health problems down the line. It is also important to maintain a healthy lifestyle by eating a balanced diet, exercising regularly, and getting enough rest.