Archives for April 2018

April 10, 2018 By Palak Mittal Leave a Comment

Basic guide to stay healthy and fit

Getting-Fit-and-Healthy

In the light of the universal health coverage launched by the WHO, here are some of the basics that you can follow to stay healthy and fit:

eating healthy

Eating Healthy Is Important: What you eat, is who you are. Eating simple, cooked meals instead of packed or readymade food will keep you away from the unhealthy elements such as bad cholesterol and extra calories. Including a lot of vegetables and fruits and ensuring a balanced meal every day, is crucial for a healthy life. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day and should never be skipped. Skipping breakfast can make you crave for food, thus leading to consuming more calories than required. Starting your day with a power-packed breakfast is the first step towards a healthy life. As a bonus, your day turns out to be more productive as well.

active sunday picture Picture Source: Active Sunday

Exercising Regularly Is A Must: Exercise and food are like two sides of a coin, and if you want good health, you can ignore neither. A minimum of 30 minutes of physical activity three times a week is a must to keep your spirits high and body healthy.

no-smoking- 3. Get Rid Of Your Vices: Smoking causes significant harm to your lungs and can result in several lung diseases including Lung Cancer. Hence, quitting is a necessity for a healthy and disease-free life. Alcohol abuse is another problem that you need to get rid of, as it increases the risk of problems such as liver disease, high blood pressure and in the worst case stroke & heart failure.

stress

4.Stress Needs To Be Managed: In the 21st century where the world is highly competitive than ever, stress has become the new enemy of both mental and physical health. Everyone experiences the stress of some kind day in and out, therefore it is essential to learn how it can be managed. Yoga and meditation can help in relieving stress. Also, indulging in hobbies and sharing a laugh with your loved ones are great stress busters as well.

2014-06-30-sleep

Sleep Is Crucial: Your job may not allow you to follow the circadian rhythm. Never mind, but at least, you must allow yourself a sound sleep of 6-7 hours. Sleep is crucial for your body parts to rejuvenate themselves and prepare for another 16 hours of efficient work.

health check

6. Health Check-ups should be a priority:‘Prevention is better than cure’ and that is exactly the reason why regular health check-ups are most important. As they do not just help you stay up-to-date with your daily health issues, they will also alert you to any future health risks. These check-ups will also enable your doctor to plan your treatment better in case of any health issues. Some common tests that you can go for our blood pressure, cholesterol and glucose level, body mass index, dental check and cleaning, self-check for changes in breasts in women and others.

As an individual, take a pledge to follow these steps and start living a healthy & happy life.

April 9, 2018 By Trupti Hingad 1 Comment

The humble ‘Khichdi’

khichdi

My love for ‘Khichdi’, a mixture of cooked rice with lentils, vegetables with tempered spices dates back to my childhood days. It’s the preferred choice of mothers to feed their child Khichdi (minus the spices) as it’s the easiest to digest, well-balanced \food. Khichdi is a mixture of Carbohydrates, protein, Fibre and calcium.

History of Khichdi

Just to take you a little into the history of Khichdi, the wonderful dish traces its origin in the Indian subcontinent as early as 1350. ‘Khichdi’ was recently promoted globally by the government as India’s ‘Super Food” and Queen of all foods”. The government also plans to globally promote Khichdi as healthy, delicious and easy to make Superfood of India.

The Great World food India event held at the India Gate Lawns, New Delhi set a Guinness book world record of making the largest portion of Khichdi weighing 918kg. Chef Sanjeev Kapoor and well-known yoga and Ayurveda Guru Baba Ramdev were among the eminent personalities who took part in preparing the KHICHDI. The humble khichdi has travelled across borders—From Egypt to Britain.

Taste better and retains nutrients when cooked in an earthen pot

Khichdi tastes best when cooked in an earthen pot. Clay pot’s porous nature allows both mixture and heat to circulate through the food. This results in aromatic food, which is generally lost in other types of utensils. Clay is alkaline in nature and it interacts with acidity in the food, thereby neutralizing the pH balance and eventually making the food healthy. It is believed to provide the required minerals including calcium, magnesium, iron, phosphorus and sulphur that benefits health. Due to its heat resistance and slow cooking, the food retains all its nutrients and moisture, therefore you would not require extra oil or fat for providing moisture to your food. Apart from calming the body and detoxifying it, the ingredients in khichdi also have the perfect balance of the basic elements required to improve energy, immunity and digestion.

Health Benefits

Khichdi is the food of choice of Panchakarma, a form of Ayurvedic healing that helps in mind, body healing and detoxification. Wondering why white rice is part of the mix? During cleansing, the metabolism slows down and the digestive strength weakens, so any food you eat must be very easy to digest. You also need adequate proteins to keep the blood sugar stable and burn fat, which is where the lentils come in.

Nutritional Benefits

Nutritionally speaking, khichdi and veggies make a balanced meal that reboots your digestive system after eating packaged and restaurant foods. And if you want to add some colour to your khichdi, try a palak khichdi. It’s one of the healthiest one-dish meal you’ll eat. For most, khichdi is the kind of food you eat when you are unwell as it is considered a bland dish. While, yes moong khichdi is an easy-to-digest meal when you have an upset tummy or fever but hey, that’s not what khichdi is all about. Every region in India has a unique variant of this dish.

There is Bengal’s khichuri; Haryanvi Kichri with Bajra and moong dal served with lassi; Bisi Bela Bhat in Karnataka; Hyderabad’s popular breakfast khichdi-kheema khatta are some of the popular khichdi varieties.

Varieties of Khichdi

Moong khichdi may not fit in your definition of tasty food, but in Surat, this is a much-loved meal. You’ll love their khichdi served with piping hot kadhi, a mixture made of curd and some add-ons like cooked vegetables. Khichdi is the ultimate comfort or soul food, however humble it may be.

Bajra ka khichdi is a popular dish in Rajasthan eaten during winter. Bajra along with ghee keeps your body warm and your skin soft and supple in the cold weather. You can whip up a lip-smacking bajra khichdi at home.

So let me share some amazing khichdi style with you

Daal Khicdhi—simplest and common one( rice, tur dal, spices, veggies, peanuts and desi ghee).

Bhogar Khichdi–(rice, moong dal, veggies, spices, and desi ghee)—This is BENGAL speciality.

Sprouted lentil khichdi–( rice, sprouted lentil, herbs spices, desi ghee)

Pongal (Tamil Nadu khichdi)-(rice, moong dal, desi ghee, Kaju, spices.

Barely khichdi-(barley, herbs, veggies, spices, desi ghee)

Khato-–Hyderabadi khichdi (rice, moong dal, veggies, desi ghee)

Mushroom pesto khichdi–( rice, mushroom, cheese, pasta, pine nut and desi ghee)

Corn Palak khichdi–( rice, moong dal, corn, spinach, spices, desi ghee)

Sabudana khichdi–( sabudana, peanuts, potatoes, and desi ghee) You can enjoy khichdi with curd, buttermilk, grilled fish and veggies.

So let’s cook some Khichdi in one meal today and sooth our soul.

April 7, 2018 By GOQii Editor Leave a Comment

“Be motivated, motivate others, learn and stay Fit”-Ruturaj

Ruturaj_Profile1

Fit is not a destination but, it should be a way of life.

My fitness journey started with training for my first 21 km Half Marathon. However, I was finding it difficult to change my routine because of the lifestyle I was leading. This is when I came across GOQii and as I started interacting with my personalized coach on the GOQii app. My coach motivated me and took the effort to push me to change my lifestyle, from controlling my diet, avoiding unhealthy food, eating right, eating on time, building a fitness routine, having pre & post workout meals, etc. Thanks to GOQii, I lost 7 Kgs in 4 Months. I am learning to play Squash on Weekends. All these changes have helped me immensely and I thoroughly enjoyed my routine with the help of GOQii. For me working out on Sunday’s is an ode to my coach who has put in so much effort to make me fit. Another big reason for waking up on a Sunday morning early and going for group work out session is because I love meeting new people, sharing my knowledge and getting some knowledge back to stay fit. Active Sunday for me is all about enthusiasm to learn new exercises and new things about nutrition and fitness. His message to all is be motivated, motivate others, learn, and stay Fit.

April 5, 2018 By Azra Faizan 5 Comments

Beat the heat with these 6 healthy summertime Coolers

“It was so hot!! That I had a coke to cool down….

“I just can’t do without chilled juice in this heat “

Yes, we are in the middle of April and it’s getting hotter by the day. As the heat wave increases, we have this constant feeling of being completely sapped out of our energy. This feeling lingers through the day making us lethargic and lazy.

When the temperature soars and sweat pours, we are unable to satisfy ourselves with just chilled water, and want something more? The reason being increased sweating leads to dehydration. Sweating depletes the electrolytes in the body, and hence plain water does not quench our thirst and the body craves rehydration through soft drinks and juices.The downside, however, is that these drinks and juices come with loads of sugar and chemicals.

Having carbonated beverages or powder based refreshment doesn’t actually serve the cause of dehydration. These hardly contain any electrolytes and contain high amounts of sugar, which we need only in a small amount, as glucose does help in carrying the electrolytes into the blood.

Here is the solution!! I have tried to put together a few of my favourite healthy and refreshing drinks, to enjoy all through summer, these beverages are still high in sugars, but do not contain any white sugar, they are made instead with natural and unrefined sugars like jaggery, honey, and naturally sweet fruits.

Jaggery Lemonade

Let me start with my all-time favourite, jaggery juice or lemonade made with jaggery

Some will say it’s the same as adding sugar, But NO !! Although the glucose content in both may be similar, jaggery is loaded with antioxidants and minerals like zinc, iron, and selenium. Mixed with water it has a cooling effect on the body in the summers, and also aids in digestion.

Serves 4

25 gm jaggery, crushed

1-inch piece ginger, grated

1 lemon

Water

Soaked Basil seeds (optional)

Soak crushed jaggery, add grated ginger in 4 glasses water, for 2 – 3 hours (I usually keep it in the fridge while soaking, so that it soaks and chills at the same time). After 2 hours, mix and dissolve any lumps of jaggery that might be present. Squeeze juice of a lemon in it, strain the mixture, add soaked basil seeds to have a further cooling effect, and serve.

2. Aam Panna (Raw mango cooler)

Raw Mango is an extremely healthy fruit, a godsend for the summer that is high in Vitamin C, prevents dehydration, sunstroke, reduces body heat, relieves diarrhoea and constipation and activates the liver too.

A traditional recipe, one of my favourites, since summer also brings seasonal raw mangoes with it.

Serves 4 – 6

1 Raw mango

Mint leaves

10 – 15 g of black jaggery.

Water – to dilute.

Boil the raw mango in a pressure cooker for 2 whistles. Retain the liquid. Peel the raw mango and scoop out all the pulp, discard the seed, and blend the pulp in a mixer with jaggery and mint leaves, strain and mix with the remaining liquid. At this point, the raw mango concentrate can be frozen into cubes and used as per requirement, 2 cubes in a glass of water. Or diluted with chilled water and served immediately.

3. Iced Green Tea with Ginger, Mint, and Honey

We already know how healthy a cup of green tea is, but what if you are not in the mood for anything hot? Let’s just make iced tea with green tea!!

Serves 6 to 8

6 cups water
1/4^th cup ginger, peeled and sliced
3 to 6 bags green tea (depending on how strong you like your tea)
1/2 cup mint leaves, tightly packed, plus extra to serve
1/4^th cup honey
1 lemon, divided

In a medium-sized pot, combine the water and ginger slices. Bring to a boil. Once the water boils, remove from heat and add the tea bags and mint leaves. Cover the pot and steep for about 15 minutes.

Strain the brewed tea; separating the liquid from the mint leaves and tea bags. Mix in the honey and juice from the half lemon into the tea. Transfer to a pitcher and cool at room temperature before refrigerating.

Slice the second half of the lemon. When ready to serve, add 1 to 2 lemon slices into each glass, along with a few mint leaves and ice cubes. Once the tea has cooled, pour it into the glasses and serve.

4. Muskmelon, Coconut and orange drink.

Coconut water is a very refreshing drink to beat the torching tropical summer thirst. Its liquid is packed with simple sugars, electrolytes, and minerals to replenish dehydration conditions inside the human body, combine it with a few fresh fruits and you have a designer tropical drink.

Serves 3 -4

2 cups or ½ a muskmelon, cubed

1 orange segmented

1 ½ cups coconut water (1 large tender coconut)

¼ tsp black salt

Mint leaves for garnishing.

Combine all the ingredients in a mixer, and blend until smooth, pour into glasses, and serve immediately garnished with mint leaves. We don’t strain this juice as we would like to have it with all the goodness of its fibres.

5. Kokum Juice.

Another gem to have in your kitchen in the summer, the benefits are endless and better explained here, but, most commercially available kokum syrups are loaded with sugar and preservatives, hence a fresh version would be more beneficial.

Serves 4 – 5

150 gms kokum
4 glasses of cold water
1 pinch salt
2 tsp black salt (pink salt)
1 tsp roasted cumin powder
15 – 20 g jaggery
½ tsp black pepper powder
mint leaves for garnishing

Soak kokum and jaggery in ½ a glass of hot water for 5 minutes. Blend it with blender, drain & keep aside. Mix all ingredients together in 4 glass of cold water and garnish with fresh mint leaves.

6. Fruity lemon fizz

For all those fizz lovers, don’t worry I haven’t forgotten about you. And YES!!! Fizz can be made healthy too.

Serves 1 – 2

1 Tbsp any mashed fruit (strawberry/peach/kiwi/cucumber/pineapple/sweet melon/watermelon)
2 Tbsp whole sliced fruit
3/4 cup sparkling club soda/sparkling mineral water
¼ cup mineral water

1 Tbsp lemon juice/orange juice
1 lemon slice/orange slice

Mint leaves
honey or stevia if needed.

You will need a good amount of fruit per glass since this will be what flavours your water. Adding frozen fruit can be very helpful because as the frozen fruit melts into the water it easily saturates the water with flavour. Frozen fruit also chills your beverage nicely. Another trick is to gently mash some of your fresh fruit to release the flavour.
Add your fruit, sweetener (if using), mint leaves, lemon juice and water to your serving glass. Stir/mash briskly and allow it to chill in the fridge until ready to serve, add chilled club soda to the glasses just before serving.

NOTE: I have tried to use natural sugars in my recipes, for diabetics, you can enjoy the same drinks with stevia instead of natural sugars if you are looking for optimum sugar control.

Overdoing anything, even if healthy will do no one good. Hence, the ideal serving size for these drinks would be 1 glass a day. Chilled to perfection!!

So Let’s enjoy every sip of these healthy coolers!!