Archives for October 2015

October 29, 2015 By Urvashi Sareen Leave a Comment

Importance of CARBOHYDRATE Counting?

What is carbohydrate counting?

Carbohydrate counting helps one keep track of the amount of sugar, known as carbohydrates that you eat. If you are detected with, it is important to learn about carbohydrates found in food. Keeping track of your carbohydrate intake will help you control your blood sugar levels.

What is a carbohydrate?

A carbohydrate is a food that is turned into sugar (glucose) when you digest it. Any carbohydrate food will raise your blood sugar. Complex carbohydrates raise sugar more slowly (it takes your body longer to digest and absorb these) while simple carbohydrates or sugars can raise your sugar level more quickly.

Where are carbohydrates found?

Carbohydrates are naturally found in many different foods.

CARBOHYDRATE

NOT A CARBOHYDRATE

BREAD
ROLLS
TORTILLA
RICE
PASTA
POTATO
CORN
DRIED BEANS
SODAS

FRUIT
FRUIT JUICE
MILK
YOGURT
CANDY
CAKE
COOKIES
ICE CREAM

BEEF
CHICKEN
FISH
LAMB
BUTTER
MAYONNAISE
CARROT
CUCUMBER
LETTUCE

CHEESE
EGGS
PORK
TURKEY
MARGARINE
OIL
CAULIFLOWER
GREEN BEANS
ZUCCHINI

Some carbohydrate foods may be used less often in your diet due to high potassium, sodium, or phosphorus content. Your coach will help you know which foods are best for you.

What is a serving size of carbohydrate?

A serving size of carbohydrate is the amount of food that will give you about 15 grams, or one serving, of carbohydrate. Serving sizes to reach 15 grams of carbohydrate vary between foods.

The following foods are examples of one carbohydrate choice:

1 slice of bread
1 cup of fresh fruit
½ cup of canned fruit
¾ cup dry cereal
¾ cup hot cereal
½ cup mashed potatoes
½ cup corn

½ cup of pasta
1/3 cupof rice
1 medium sugar cookie
1 small piece cake, no icing
½ cup non dairy creamer
4 oz. juice or regular soda
6 pieces of hard candy

1 Fruit = 1 Milk = 1 Starch = 1 Low Calorie Dessert

Carbohydrate Counting and Meal Planning

Important things to remember when counting carbohydrates:

Eat at the same time every day to keep blood sugars even.
Eat the same amounts of carbohydrate at each meal and snack.
Eat a meal or snack every 3-4 hours to keep blood sugars even.
Do not skip meals.

The amount of carbohydrate you need will depend on your weight and activity level. In general, 3 to 6 servings of carbohydrates are recommended at meals and 1 to 3 servings are recommended at each snack.

You can check food labels for the grams of carbohydrates and convert the grams into servings. For example:

15 grams = 1 serving
30 grams = 2 servings
45 grams = 3 servings

Ask your GOQii coach to help with your carbohydrate intake.

Breakfast:___________________# of Carbohydrate Servings

Morning Snack:__________________# of Carbohydrate Servings

Lunch:_________________# of Carbohydrate Servings

PM Snack:_________________# of Carbohydrate Servings

Dinner:__________________# of Carbohydrate Servings

Bedtime Snack:_________________# of Carbohydrate Servings

October 26, 2015 By Parwage Alam 2 Comments

Exercises for overweight and obese people

Everyone is busy in today’s life – with a packed schedules, calendars have no column for relaxation or time for doing anything good. This also translates into “No Time” for eating healthy food and for satisfying hunger we make do with all the JUNK food that is available. One of the reasons is that it is a ready to eat option. Ultimate result of eating junk food can get you one title- OBESE. With the effort and taste of 4-5 years when we reach the level of being OBESE, it is then that we realize something is going wrong with our body. We start visiting a doctor multiple times and also start searching for options that will help us to reduce our weight and get back to on track.

Losing weight is hard for anyone but, not impossible if one is willing to put in that extra effort, dedication and have patience. Exercise is the key to creating a physically, mentally, and emotionally healthier body. However, at the same time some of the moves may be too painful or nearly impossible for those carrying extra weight.

With the help of Junk food restaurants, the new generation of overweight and obese adults is a plenty. If we really want our children to have healthy future with proper fitness than childhood nutrition and exercise intervention needs to be implemented as soon as possible.

Some exercise which can be done by any OBESE person, without any harm:

WALKING– One of the best and basic workouts can be done by anyone, anywhere without spending a single penny, low-impact aerobic exercise. It may still be difficult to work for those who are morbidly obese, which is when baby steps need to be implemented with a walker, walking cane, or assistance. Slow walking burns extra calories for those carrying extra weight because they have to exert more energy than a normal-weight person.

Exercise Ball Workouts: For a person who is OBESE, it’s uncomfortable to do the exercise in front of others, so the best solution is Exercise Ball, which is really a great help to do different workouts at home. An exercise ball will help them to do the variety of strengthening, toning, stretching and balancing exercises with support. Exercise balls can be used for abdominal crunches by lying on your back, setting your ankles onto the ball, and lifting upward with your core and both arms behind your head.

You can do:

# “Bouncing On the Ball Workout” which Target: Works core, quads, glutes, and hamstrings

# “Inner-Thigh Squeeze Workout”, which Target – Target: Strengthens inner thighs and core

# “Half Squat” with the help of Exercise Ball and wall”, which target: Strengthens abs, glutes, and hamstrings

Once you get comfortable with the ball, try incorporating it into your everyday activities, such as sitting on it while you are at the computer, eating at the dinner table, or reading a book.

Aqua Aerobics:You can perform your exercise under water because while doing exercise in water, water makes you feel lighter by helping to support your body weight. It also lessens the impact on your joints. You can do swimming if you know. To get more information about this you can read my Blog “One-Stop Shop Workout – Swimming” : http://goqii.com/blog/one-stop-shop-workout-swimming/

Seated Stationary Bike: The seated or recumbent stationary bike is different than a normal upright exercise bike. It provides a backrest optimal for overweight or obese people who haven’t developed a strong enough abdominal core to hold them upright long enough. It also places less stress on your lower spine, which is a frequent problem for those with excess weight. Biking also engages different muscles than walking or running do. Alternating exercise days between biking and brisk walking will also give the body a dynamic bonus aerobic workout.

Group Exercise Classes:There are chances when you do any exercise, you will get demotivated and stop giving your effort to achieve your goals. So this is the best way to motivate yourself – Join Group Exercise classes with other people who all are having a common goal, in this way everyone will motivate each other to achieve the goal. Initially, it will be difficult to achieve your goal, but with the continuous motivation and effort you will achieve your goal.

Are you still reading, it’s time to show your effort? So let’s get up, set your goal and start working towards.

Note: Please consult your Doctor before applying the upper suggestion into your routine, as an individual’s body and medical condition vary.

October 19, 2015 By Ami Shah 80 Comments

Moringa: Its benefits and side effects

If I have to ask how many of you all know what moringa is? I am sure few hands would go up. However, if I ask you what drumstick is? Majority of the hands would rise. However, majority of them who I know doesn’t like drumstick much! To your surprise, Moringa is also called as drumstick leaves. Moringa is a plant that is native to the sub-Himalayan areas of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan. Traditionally, it has been used in Ayurveda for medicinal purpose.

While Moringa can be cooked and eaten as a tasty and juicy vegetable, it is also available in various forms like moringa leaves/ moringa powder and capsules. Moringa has lots of benefits that one should take note of.

The benefits of Moringa are:

It helps in stabilizing sugar.
Helps in regularizing cholesterol level.
It is a powerful antioxidant as it is packed with vitamin A and C
It controls blood pressure
Helps in detoxification
Boosts immunity
Acts as an anti-ageing factor
Improves digestive system

Moringa is a power house of minerals such as Iron, Calcium and Zinc. Let us look at each of these minerals and what they do

Iron alleviates anaemia.
Calcium is required for bone mineralisation.
Zinc: It plays a vital role in hair-growth, spermatogenesis, and skin health.

Dosage:It is important to know the dosage of Moringa. It is ideal to have 5-6 gms (1 tsp) daily up to three weeks. It can be taken along with water/juices or in salads too.

Side effects:

The taste is not too pleasant and tends to produce a gag reflex on many first time users.Moringa thickens the blood. This is of note to those on blood-thinning medication.The consumption of Moringaincludes nausea, diarrhoea and heartburn. Reduce the dose in this case

Moringa is not recommended for pregnant and lactating mothers. The chemicals found in the roots, flowers and the bark could cause a contraction to occur on the uterus.

To conclude, by now I am sure you must have got an idea about how strong and beneficial moringa is! Next time, don’t say ‘NO’ to drumstick veggies and make it a part of your daily routine.

October 9, 2015 By TAARIKA ARYA 1 Comment

An “ATTITUDE” of “GRATITUDE”

I vividly remember myself humming these few lines back in school:

“Thank you for the world so sweet,

Thank you for the food we eat,

Thank you for the birds that sing,

Thank you GOD for everything.”

WAIT a second! This is not a religious blog but, simply about being thankful for the good in our lives focusing on the positives rather than the negatives. Seeing the cup of life as “half full” than as “half empty”.

Sadly, I could not continue saying those 4 lines as I grew up. But why should I not feel grateful about things that are around me or happen to me now?

This thought stuck my mind a month back and since then I became serious about being “grateful” in life and making it a lifelong habit. Of course, it was going to be something beyond these few lines considering the amount of experience I’ve had or the number of things that I should be grateful for. Best thing about it was that it was doable and it required no inventory.

Just 5 min of your day, but in turn provides great rewards in happiness, healthy, mind-fullness, career, personality, deeper relationships. The benefits are endless but, doing so takes a bit of practice (talk about HABITS !) .

Speaking about its benefits on Health & Well-Being (since that’s my forte), here are some of the ways it affects us:

HAPPINESS:

Experts say that practicing gratitude can increase health and happiness levels by about 25% ! And we all know that to achieve optimum health we need a healthy body, but we also need a healthy mind. Like muscle building, your mind also takes a while to build up and get strong. For this essentially practicing gratitude certainly helps.

POSITIVE ATTITUDE:

Gratitude also turns what we have in to enough, shrinking away our worries, negativity, comparisons. You end up with a more positive outlook towards your goals and your life.

SLEEP :

It improves sleep quality, time required to fall asleep and increases sleep duration. Just thinking about a few things we should be grateful for induces melatonin (sleep-inducing hormone) and knocks us out. Gratitude and positive emotion in general are among the strongest relaxants known to man. A safe and free sleep aid!

INCREASES LONGEVITY:

Indirectly of course. Gratitude is strongly related to a positive emotion and we all know that the optimists live a few years longer than the pessimists! So, gratitude —-> positive emotion —-> extra months / years on earth!

STRESS:

Gratitude reduces feelings of envy, makes our memories happier and lets us experience good feelings. All of this helps us bounce back from stress. Whenever I am under this funk , feel down or demotivated, all I do it’s : grab my journal and start counting my blessings !

YOU ARE MORE LIKELY TO EXERCISE !

While there is no strong evidence that supports this, it should not surprise you if being grateful for your health would increase the tendency to want to protect it by exercising more. (Start practicing and let me know if it works for you! )

In a nutshell: Gratitude is no one-stop-shop , but it is a massively under utilised tool for improving the quality of life . You will be amazed to realise that all the goodness we take for granted.

Now you should be asking me, HOW can I bring more gratitude in my life???

Well, while there are many ways to practice this, one way that I follow and find the most practical is: Maintaining a gratitude journal.

All it requires is noting 1 or more things ( I write 3 everyday ) you are grateful for on a daily basis . No fancy notebook or App required. The real work goes on in your head. But if using a tool is helpful, go for it.

Here are a few handful of apps / websites that specialise in Gratitude:

Thankfulfor.com ( http://thankfulfor.com/) , Gratittude Journal for Iphone , Gratitude Plus for Ipad , Treater for IOS and Android .

I have picked up a few examples from my journal to give you an idea about how can you start:

I am grateful for being able to sleep on a clean white bed sheet.
I am grateful for the comfortable shoes I am wearing right now.
I am blessed to have access to technology.
I am lucky have my own bedroom space.
I am grateful for a day off!
I really enjoyed the lunch today.

Start off with small and simple things and gradually get deeper and complex. All of this takes less than 5 mins a day. It’s that simple! Trust me, once you start, you will want to go on and on and start falling short of space!

Keep a few things in mind, before you made a decision to go ahead:

Be genuine, No false praises, Be as specific as possible, Try to actually “feel” that feeling of gratitude.

So do you have 5 minutes to change your life forever ?

Thought so!

Go ahead and let’s make GRATITUDE PRACTICE a daily habit!

(WARNING: This exercise is super powerful and can make you feel really good. You might also find yourself smiling while filling up your journal.)