Archives for September 2016

September 30, 2016 By Ruta Satam 1 Comment

Joy of giving

Have you ever realized how elated you get when you give? Giving is indeed one of the best investments an individual can make towards achieving genuine happiness. True giving comes from the heart, with no expectation of reciprocation. It is manifested with kindness and generosity and there is no substitute for this ‘Good Karma’. It just makes you feel good.

This month we celebrate the festival of giving also popularly known as the “Joy of Giving” festival. The festival begins on Oct 2^nd– the birthday of our father of our nation MK Gandhi and continues till the 8^thof October. Being the season of giving, I call upon one and all to share love and spread happiness in the lives of those who are far away from these pleasures. Let’s share our happiness with those lesser privileged people who ask nothing but love.

There are various ways in which you can participate in this festival. You can participate by sharing your Old clothes with people who require the most. GOQii has partnered with Ratna Nidhi Charitable Trust for this drive.

With this drive we would be helping RNCT to distribute usable garments to the poorest of the poor of all ages. To ensure that it reaches out to more and more needy people, RNCT will further distribute the collection to grass root organizations and institutions working with the underprivileged group of society across the country.

How do we participate in this drive?

-Communicate the ‘Joy of Giving’ message in your office, society, family and friends

-Inform us if you are interested to organize this collection drive in your office or society

-If you have a collection that weighs more than 20 kg, a pick-up will be organized for the donation material

-Your garments will then be sorted as per age and gender, repaired if required, ironed, folded and packed

-The sorted collection will be sent to orphanages, Old age homes, institutions working with street children or tribal or women’s help centres

Let the goodness begin

To know more about the drive mail us your queries at ruta@goqii.com

It’s not how much we give, but how much love we put in to giving ~ Mother Teresa

September 28, 2016 By Gitanjali Bahl 3 Comments

Choose the right activity to stay fit

Who does not like to look good and fit? Everyone does. Off late you are also finding many who are conscious about wanting to be active. Many are obsessed with losing weight. All are aware that these changes will not occur overnight and hence exercising is very important.

Exercising regularly is one of the healthiest things you can do for yourself. It lowers your risk of serious health problems, including heart disease, diabetes, stroke and high blood pressure. It can also tone your figure and improve your sleep. Not only is exercise good for your body, it’s also good for your mind, mood and memory. Walking, doing household chores, climbing the stairs, playing a sport or dancing the night away are all good examples of being active.

Being physically active has other advantages such as easing depression, relieving stress and anxiety, enhancing one’s self esteem and improving one’s overall outlook towards life. You don’t have to spend long, boring hours in a gym to reap these benefits. Whatever your age, health limitations or fitness levels, you can develop an exercise program that’s fun and rewarding and fits well within your life parameters.

If you’re not ready to commit to a structured exercise program, think about physical activity as a lifestyle choice rather than a single task to check off your to-do list. Look at your daily routine and consider ways to sneak in an activity here and there. Even very small activities can add up over the course of a day.

Having said the above, making the right choice of exercise goes a long way in helping one be fit. Making some random choice of exercises can prove to become a deterrent towards you getting fit.

Let me sight few instances of wrong choice of exercises-

1) A person who is on the extreme heavy side ( Overweight) should ideally not op for running as an exercise as it requires to expend more energy and also running will put undue pressure on the joints which will lead to joint damage and injuries.

2) An osteoporotic man who is over 50 years old going to gym to lift weights. Though it is commendable that he is trying to stay active at his age but, lifting heavy weights despite osteoporosis is just straining the joints further.

Another important aspect to take care is never overdo it.

Research has shown that mild to moderate activity is enough to change your life for the better. You don’t have to sweat buckets or run a single step. Moderate activity means:

That you breathe a little heavier than normal, but are not out of breath. For example, you should be able to chat with your walking partner, but not easily sing a song.
That your body feels warmer as you move, but not overheated or very sweaty.

Therefore, making the right choice of exercise is a must.

The factors that are essential for choosing exercises:

-Purpose of exercise

-Age to perform exercises

-Weight

-Interest to exercise

-Medical condition if any

-Daily Routine to be able to spare time for exercise

-Daily Nutritional intake

Always, remember gym is not the only option for one to exercise and stay active. There are exercises that can be done at home, office or a park in the outdoors depending on your interest and purpose.

You can stay Active

-By going for a simple walk

-Brisk walking

-Yoga

-Simple strength and Stretch exercises like push-ups, planks, abdomen exercises that can be done at home

-Aerobics

-Cycling and Hiking

-Play a sport such as Badminton, Tennis, or any other sport

-Play with your kids

-Dancing

-Martial Arts

-and Running

Once you know the purpose to stay active you can automatically choose the right exercise for yourself. Consider all the factors and accordingly make a choice. Preferably if you can get a professional advice before starting on any exercise regime.

September 27, 2016 By Leah Burkhart Leave a Comment

The Foods all Nutritionists agree are ‘Good For You’.

We all love reading about the latest trending super food. Whether its Acai berry, Maca powder, or cacao nibs…we wanna know what’s going to up our metabolism or give us that boost of energy we are absolutely itching to have again.

Well folks…let the drum roll begin. Because the REAL super food category of the hour is not some fancy-named upgraded coffee bean or a concoction of some super vitamin made in a lab somewhere.

It is…..

Plants. Specifically fruits and vegetables (Background applause!!!)

Wait….how come you’re leaving? Wait! No…seriously! they are SUPER good for you!

I know, I know. It’s WAY snazzier to imagine that the secret ingredient is some hidden oil or seed or fruit buried at the bottom of Indiana Jones’ cavern. We want the food to be a singular holy grail. But, that is just not the way of it.

No – I’m afraid your mother, and her mother before her and HER mother before HER knew what they were talking about when they said simply “eat your vegetables.”

We have the evidence to prove it. Here are just a FEW examples of the tangible benefits researchers have uncovered about eating more vegetables.

Those who eat more fruits and vegetables (at least 8 servings per day) are 30 percent less likely to have heart disease. (https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/what-should-you-eat/vegetables-and-fruits/)
Those who eat more fruits and vegetables (specifically 8 servings or more) report greater levels of happiness and emotional satisfaction. http://sciencenewsjournal.com/eat-fruit-veggies-happy/
Eating fruits and vegetables is associated with better weight loss and management outcomes:https://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/nutrition/pdf/rtp_practitioner_10_07.pdf
Eating a high concentration of fruits and vegetables are associated with a reduced risk of cancer:http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/causes-of-cancer/diet-and-cancer/how-healthy-eating-prevents-cancer
Those who eat as few as five servings of fruits and vegetables every day tend to live longer. http://nutritionfacts.org/2015/09/17/how-much-longer-do-fruit-and-vegetable-eaters-live/
Eating fruits and vegetables can even improve your sex life:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/knowmore-tv/8-ways-eating-fruit-juice_b_9872488.html

So if you’re looking for the newest, latest and greatest super-food, you really need no look toward the dark corners of the Bermuda triangle. It’s right in front of you at your local farmer’s market.

September 23, 2016 By Leah Burkhart Leave a Comment

Why is KEEPING the weight off more challenging than LOSING weight? (And What Can You Do To Keep the Weight YOU Have Lost Off For Good?)

When it comes to weight loss…the process is fairly simple. You need to eat less and move more. (Notice that I didn’t say doing so would be easy only that it was simple.) Countless studies have been done to promote this diet or that one. Eat Mediterranean. No! Paleo. No! Atkins. Wait…no! Vegan….

At the end of the day, however, regardless of which nutrition plan or strategy is employed, what all the results of any given diet indicate is this: as long as the person in question eats less overall in terms of their calorie intake AND exercises more, they will lose weight. That is true regardless of the diet/nutrition plan one chooses. http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa0804748

So what is the problem? That seems simple enough!

Well…The really challenging part isn’t actually taking the weight off. It’s KEEPING it off. In fact, many researchers insist that of those who lose weight, upwards of 95 percent of them gain the weight back plus extra. The most recently highlighted example of this was illustrated in May, 2016 when a number of contestants on The Biggest Loser were interviewed several years after their time on the show. All but one had gained a significant amount of their lost weight back. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/02/health/biggest-loser-weight-loss.html

If the pharmaceutical industry developed a drug that was 5% effective…they wouldn’t be able to get it in the market. So why should we bother to try and lose weight when doing so has a 95% failure rate? And if my heart is set on losing weight and keeping it off…Does this mean there is no hope?

The answers are nuanced and complex.

First off – there absolutely IS hope. If you want to lose weight (be it because you want to have less pressure on your knees so that you can exercise longer, or because you want to feel more at-home in your own body, or because you recognize that doing so would likely help you achieve a more balanced blood sugar level) you can lose it AND keep it off.

First – It’s important to know what you’re up against.

When a person loses weight (and by that, I mean more than 5 – 10% of their initial weight) two things happen:
1. That individual’s metabolism slows down. It becomes less efficient at burning calories.
2. The produces more ghrelin (a hormone associated with hunger).
3. The combined effect of this is that the person in question needs to eat less even though they are, on average, hungrier. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/01/magazine/tara-parker-pope-fat-trap.html?_r=0
Once you lose weight, you will need to eat less than someone who is EXACTLY the same size but who never gained weight in the first place. That means if you are 150 pounds (after having lost 50 of those pounds) and your friend is 150 pounds (but she was pretty much always at that weight) YOU will have to eat up to 20 -30% less calories than your friend just to sustain that weight than she will.

Second – you need to know what YOU can do.

According to the National Weight Loss Control Registry (http://www.nwcr.ws/Research/default.htm) , those who have successfully lost weight AND have kept it off long-term (more than 5 years) did the following:
1. 78 Percent of them eat breakfast EVERY DAY
2. 75 percent of them weight themselves at least once per week
3. 62 percent of them watch less than 10 of television per week
4. 90 percent of them exercise at least 60 minutes every day. EVERY. SINGLE. DAY
5. In other words (and forgive me if this is sounding trite) But ….YOU NEED TO MAKE A LIFESTYLE CHANGE.
But here is the thing…making a lifestyle change requires more than will power. Will power is a part of the equation…sure. But we live in a world that is CONSTANTLY telling us to eat. Every day we are inundated with ads, messages, and temptations. There is a Starbucks at every corner. Not a Whole Foods store. Thus, in order to make these changes, you will need a set of skills. A good way to think about this is that it’s not about “will power” it’s about “skill power.” And just what kind of skills should you adopt? According to Sherri Pruitt and Joshua Kaplow in their book “Living Smart” – you can sustain your success if you:
1. S – Set a specific Goal. It should be specific, measureable, actionable and observable. For example, don’t say “I will plan on losing a pound per week.” I can’t observe you lose weight. Instead, say “I will make a plan to exercise 20 minutes for three days out of the week this week. It’s specific, I can measure the time you’re taking, it’s an action you can directly apply, and I can observe you do it.
2. M- Monitor your progress. If you want to lose weight, you’re going to have to keep track of how you’re doing. Weight yourself every day, and take an average at the end of the week. Think this will make you feel too neurotic about your weight? Nope. The more often you weigh yourself, the more likely you are to treat it just as “data.” http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/2016/01/03/weight-loss-scales-daily/77584478/
3. A – Arrange your environment for success. If you want to exercise every day, that’s going to be hard if your shoes are buried in the back of your closet in some as-of-yet-undetermined location. Get your workout clothes out and ready to go.
4. R – Recruit support. If your friends gain weight, you are 57% more likely to gain weight as well. If your friends lose weight? Same thing. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12237644 This is because our relationships have a powerful influence on us. You may be able to make drastic changes in your life…but you can’t sustain those changes unless you have support.
5. T – Treat yourself (but not with food). In Charles Duhigg’s book “the Power of Habit” was able to illustrate beautifully is that habits are much easier to form when you have a reward system. So if you set a goal to exercise every day for 20 minutes…how can you reward yourself afterward? A pat on the back? Some time on an app you love? A call with a friend? A sticker on your calendar? Whatever the case, you want to have something built in that makes you feel like your actions reap a benefit.

Conclusion: Losing weight is hard. KEEPING it off is even harder. That’s the bad news. The good news is that it is NOT impossible. Many people are successful in keeping the weight off. It’s just important to know what is required, and to have compassion for yourself when you start to feel overwhelmed. In order to stay healthy it’s MUCH more important to be “fit” (have energy, have a habit of exercise, eat fruits and vegetables)…than it is to be “thin.” And it’s entirely possible to be healthy at just about any size. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128267723. Even so, if you’re determined to lose weight, just remember… yes it’s hard work, but it can be done. You just should never have to do it alone!

(Want someone to help hold you accountable to your weight loss goals? Chat with a GOQii Coach!)