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It’s easy to develop bad habits without really noticing it. If you take life day-by-day, then you might think of many of your behaviors on a day-by-day basis, too. Very few people zoom out and look at the big picture of their behaviors. If you try to live in the moment, then thinking of your life as the sum of many parts isn’t very fun. You just want to take today as it comes. Unfortunately, your body keeps score, even if you don’t. It doesn’t see 100 separate days of poor eating choices or bad sleep as isolated issues. Your body recognizes and responds to patterns, and suddenly the behaviors you didn’t see as a problem have caused a big concern. Only when we see our doctors are we forced to reflect on some of our habits. And only when we realize telling the truth would make us sound bad do we realize…oops…maybe we’ve been slipping up.
As many as four out of five Americans withhold information from their doctors that is critical to their overall wellbeing, says Community Healthcare System. But avoiding a lecture in the moment doesn’t help one avoid the real physical problems that can occur when certain behaviors aren’t adjusted. If you don’t want to tell your doctor the truth, that is your prerogative, but here are major things most people lie to their doctors about, and why that’s a problem.
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How much you exercise
If you’re like many Americans, your goals of going to the gym daily quickly dwindle down to once or twice a week. Then it becomes just power walks around the neighborhood. Maybe one workout class a month with friends. But you report your goal to the doctor, and not the reality. While exercising is time-consuming and not always fun, Mayo Clinic reports that adults should aim for at least 30 minutes of moderate exercise daily. That can also be broken down to 150 minutes of moderate aerobic exercise a week or 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic exercise per week, with strength training mixed in a couple times a week. Even if you hate the gym, there are other ways to love exercise, which MADAMENOIRE covers here.
