Granite Girl: Life in the Cloud – Things We Think Are Beneficial but Aren’t

I am a beauty product junkie and a total sucker for upgrading my purchase to get a “free” sample, but I found out that I may be doing my skin more harm than good. Dermatologists say that certain beauty products may take weeks or even months before you start seeing results, so hang in there. They also suggest that you find one body lotion or facial moisturizer that you like and that works and sticking with it is the secret to great skin. Constantly changing skin products can also lead to irritated skin and cause adult rosacea, which is when your skin gets all red and blotchy and that just opens a whole new can of worms.

I am a shoe freak and spend the money to get the shoes, but when I’m in a hurry, flip flops are my go-to, but I found out that they’re fine only every once in a while. Turns out as easy as flip flops may be, wearing something with no arch support like flip flops all the time can lead to back problems, knee problems, and stress fractures in your feet. Flip flops also make certain muscles in your feet work a little harder than they should and that can cause tendinitis. Flip flops also expose your feet to bacteria and skin diseases like warts and athlete’s foot. Ew.

Water quality tests show that there can be some pretty funky stuff in water, but tap water is also loaded with nutrients and minerals that our body needs, like fluoride. Fluoride helps protect the enamel on your teeth and if you only drink bottled water, dentists say you could be on the road to tooth decay. If your tap water is really that gross, try a Brita water pitcher. It filters out the impurities of your tap water, but doesn’t remove the fluoride.

I hate cleaning, so I was all over this one. I always thought that if a product is stronger, I don’t have to clean as often. Turns out, I was wrong. It’s better to use a normal strength cleaning product, but just clean more often. (Darn.) A lot of the extra strength industrial super cleaners are just overkill and some have been shown to cause asthma and cancer.

I started on a new healthy eating plan recently and that came along with supplements. I looked into it and taking vitamins on a regular basis (especially now that cold and flu season is not far away) can be a very healthy thing to do, and in normal amounts is just fine. Your body takes in only what it needs and flushes the rest out, but if you’re constantly popping vitamins, minerals and supplements, you may be doing some damage. For example, too much Vitamin A can weaken your bones, too much Vitamin C can give whacky glucose readings for diabetics and too much Vitamin B6 is dangerous for everyone as that can cause nerve damage.