Eight Diet and Exercise Mistakes That Age You

Sun Sentinel—March 19, 2015

Eating too much sugar certainly isn’t wise for your waistline, but overindulging in dessert can also add years to your face.

Conversely, foods with little-to-no nutritional benefits, like sugar-packed doughnuts, can actually damage the collagen and elastin that keep skin firm and youthful.

Find out if you’re making one of these 8 common diet and exercise mistakes — and learn what to do instead:

You don’t take a break.

When your exercise routine is so intense that you’re tired all the time but can’t sleep at night, you’re setting yourself up for overuse injuries — not to mention dark circles and bags under your eyes from those sleepless nights. Other clues that you’re working out too much include extreme muscle soreness that persists for several days, unintended weight loss, an increased resting heart rate, interruptions in your menstrual cycle, or decreased appetite. “Plan your rest as well as you plan exercise,” says Polly de Mille, RN, a registered clinical exercise physiologist at Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan. “If there is no balance between breakdown and recovery, then the muscle is in a state of chronic inflammation, and what may start as a simple case of soreness after a hard workout can turn into an actual overuse injury.”

Read the full story at sun-sentinel.com.