A Metallica lyric in their song Frantic says that “My style of life determines my style of death”. And while this isn’t the case all the time, the way you live can play a big role in the quality of life you have, as well as how long you live. Eating junk food, smoking, consuming alcohol, taking recreational drugs, abusing prescription drugs, having promiscuous or unprotected sex can all lead us wrong and significantly reduce the number of years of quality of life. They can lead to things like cancer, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and many other conditions you don’t want to have.

So why do we sometimes choose unhealthy lifestyles? There are many factors, but here are the main ones:

Too many options. Not that the decision to have a healthy lifestyle is as easy as choosing between Column A or Column B. The good things and the bad things are not purely black and white, and they are rarely clearly labelled. There are so many different options available to us that they fall into the gray area that can be quite dark when you are consciously trying to make good decisions for your life. To avoid the negative consequences of a poor lifestyle, you’ll want to do your best to choose the things you know are good for you. Try to avoid or eliminate all the things that you know for sure are not good for you. If you smoke, stop it. If you drink too much alcohol, stop. If you don’t exercise at all, start. Cutting out the most important stuff will make a substantial difference right away.

Too much information. With so many scientific studies showing that more and more things are bad for us, it’s tempting to throw in the towel and do as we please. There are things wrong with the meat we eat, the water we drink, the air we breathe, the clothes we wear, the car we drive, the pets we keep, and so on. It can all be overwhelming and can lead to feelings of futility and defeatism that can lead to unhealthy lifestyle choices.

Too many manufactured products. Today we don’t even know what we are consuming. Food contains so many chemicals and industrial byproducts that it makes it nearly impossible to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Even people who are seriously striving to live well find it difficult because there are not many purely natural organic products available at reasonable prices.

too much stress – When humans get stressed, they do things to try to relieve that stress. Common remedies for stress that contribute to an unhealthy lifestyle would be: eating to comfort yourself, smoking a cigarette to calm down, having a drink to calm down, or resorting to recreational drugs or casual sex to calm down.