Diabetes patients have heard it before: you need to engage lifestyle, diet, and exercise changes to get your condition under control. What is often less often talked about or understood, however, are the small, everyday things that diabetes patients should avoid, such as sitting or exercising certain ways and indulging in common lifestyle quirks.

While diabetes patients do not need to restrict absolutely everything in their lives, there are a few common practices that they should avoid to prevent complications and pain.

#1. Regularly Sitting or Standing

Although sitting with one leg crossed over the other is a fairly common practice, it is not entirely innocuous. Sitting with one leg crossed can limit circulation in both legs, which could quickly become problematic for more advanced diabetics. Any posture, sitting or standing, that limits the circulatory system should be avoided, which can include locking your knees, standing in a single position for extended periods of time (at a standing desk, for instance), and sitting with your legs tucked underneath you.

#2. Sweetening With Honey or Maple Syrup

There is a common misconception that honey and maple syrup can be eaten with impunity. Sweetening is not, itself, the problem. Rather, sweetening with healthy items often leads men and women to feel as though a sweet treat is not an indulgence, but a health food, which is not necessarily the case.

Instead, stay clear of sweet things (aside from fruits) as much as possible to avoid over-ingesting sugar. Although they are not as heavily processed, honey and maple syrup are both quite high in terms of sugar content.

#3. Heavy Weight Lifting

A quick trip to the gym reveals the popularity of heavy lifting. Unfortunately for men and women with diabetes, heavy lifting can exacerbate problems related to diabetes, including circulation issues, neuropathy, and even retinopathy. If you are diabetic, consider lifting only smaller weights and working your way up slowly and gradually rather than leaping into deadlifting and other (similarly difficult) weightlifting exercises.

#4. Having Wine with Dinner

A glass of red wine with dinner is perfectly healthy, right? Yes…and no. Because diabetics’ bodies do not process sugar quickly or effectively, alcohol can be problematic since the body processes alcohol as sugar. This means that, despite an otherwise flawless diet, you might exceed your sugar limits by drinking wine each night. To keep yourself safe, either limit your intake to a weekly indulgence or make sure you drink no more than 5 ounces of wine per night.

People develop many habits in the name of health—and many such habits are extremely good for the average Joe. When diabetes is added to the mix, however, some healthy lifestyle can become downright dangerous, and are not recommended for people with diabetes.