Smoking and drinking

Well it’s obvious that these two have to go as long as wellbeing is concerned. Anyone that is to do a diet plan must give up smoking and drinking. A great way to help your efforts in the gym is to give up some detrimental habits such as smoking and drinking alcohol. Smoking damages the lungs and dramatically increases the risk of lung cancer along with other diseases. Excessive drinking has also been shown to causes major diseases.
These two habits are definitely not worth having around.


Nicotine

Nicotine may also increase your basal metabolic rate slightly. This means that you burn more calories than you usually would when you are just sitting around. However, losing weight by smoking doesn't give you any of the health benefits that you'd get if you were losing weight by exercising -- it actually does the opposite! Over the long haul, nicotine can increase the level of the "bad" cholesterol, LDL, that damages your arteries. This makes it more likely that you could have a heart attack or a stroke.
Smokers who want to quit smoking may use nicotine patch to relieve themselves from the withdrawal symptoms. Nicotine patch only has one-third of nicotine usually found in cigarette smoke
Nicotine patch is available in three dosages: 21mg, 14mg, and 7mg. Its objective is to reduce the consumption level of nicotine gradually over time, usually in a period of 12 weeks.
Recently, an Austrian research concluded that regular exercise can help smokers using nicotine patch to quit smoking. In the study which involves 68 subjects, 80% of the participants who exercise remained smoke free at the end of three months compared to 52% who didn't exercise.
However, some researches believe that strenuous exercise can lead to nicotine toxicity. When you exercise, your skin temperature increases, your blood vessels expand, and your circulation improves. This will double the absorption of nicotine from the patch into the blood stream. As a result, you may suffer from a heart attack.

Alcohol

Alcohol, although having no nutritional value, also has seven calories per gram so excess consumption can lead to weight gain as well.
Alcohol is also diuretic so large amounts can put a lot of extra stress on your kidneys. During diuretic action, ant diuretic hormones are secreted. This can result in heightened water retention and no one who exercises wants that to happen.
If you must consume alcohol, do so in moderation and never consume alcohol right before exercise as this will impair your balance, coordination and judgment. Remember this, if you've taken the time to make the effort to improve your physical conditioning and your overall health, why take major steps backwards and impede you improvements by excess consumption of alcohol?