Archives for December 2019

December 26, 2019 By Sunita Arora 1 Comment

Gond Ladoo: Your Much Needed Winter Essential

As winter knocks at your door, you might have noticed your Granny prepare Gond Ladoo. It is loved by both kids and adults alike. Gond Ladoo is the best warming food during winter and is quite a healthy snack especially in North India. It contains natural Gond (edible gum) which is extracted from the bark of trees.

Benefits of Gond Ladoo During Winter

It helps to keep the body warm in falling temperatures.
It prevents the body from cold, seasonal virus infections and keeps one safe from winter illnesses.
It helps improve eyesight.
It boosts immunity and improves stamina if prepared with Jaggery (Gud).
It is enriched with protein, fiber, calcium, and magnesium which makes bones and tissues strong.
Anti-inflammatory and good for arthritis as it lubricates the joints and provides relief for back & joint pain.
Due to high fiber it is effective in treating constipation.
It also improves sexual inadequacy or weakness in men.
Nourishing food for pregnant women as it helps in strengthening bones and prevents back pain after birth.
The combo of fat, fiber and protein is good for lactating mothers to meet the extra calories requirement and to speed up recovery. It increases milk production as well.
It is a wholesome, nourishing food for winter if someone lacks energy and feels tired.

Generally, Gond Ladoo is prepared with desi ghee, gond, coconut, lots of chunky nuts and dry fruits. Want to try it out if you haven’t already? Here’s the recipe!

What You Will Need:

Wheat Flour – 1 and ¼ cup
Gond (edible gum) – 4 tbsp
Dry Dates Powder – ¼ Cup
Jaggery Powder – ¼ Cup
Cardamom Powder – 1 tsp
Coconut Powder – 2 tbsp
Almond and Cashew Powder – 3-4 tbsp
Poppy Seeds (Khus Khus) – 1 tbsp
Dried Ginger Powder (optional) – ¼ tsp
White Pepper Powder (optional) – ¼ tsp
Desi Ghee (clarified butter) – 8-10 tbsp

How to Prepare

Take a Kadhai, add 2 tbsp of ghee and roast all the Gond till it gets puffed and becomes crispy. Take it aside and grind the Puffed Gond in a mixer.
Now add the dates powder Jaggery powder, cardamom powder, nut powder, poppy seeds, ginger powder, and white pepper powder and grind all together in a grinder.
In the same Kadhai, add 2 more tbsp of ghee and roast wheat flour on low flame till it turns golden brown and you get a nice aroma!
Add the previous mixture to the kadhai with wheat flour and mix well. Cook for 5-7 minutes more and add the remaining ghee.
The whole mixture should look wet. Take it off the gas.
Grease your palm with a few drops of ghee and start moulding them into a Ladoo shape. You can use a little more ghee while rolling them.
You can store these Gond Ladoos in an airtight container easily for a month and serve it anytime.

Please note that excessive intake may cause mild abdominal discomfort and increase your calorie intake as well. You must eat only one Ladoo in the morning or evening with warm milk.

If you have an allergy to any of the ingredients above, avoid eating this. If you’re unsure, please consult your doctor before you prepare.

We hope you enjoy this recipe and the winter season as well. For more healthy recipes, please tune in to live classes on GOQii Play.

December 24, 2019 By Kusum Soni Leave a Comment

Quick Tips to Reduce Joint Pains During Winter

Do you experience joint pains during winter? While common for some people, the exact nature of cold-induced joint pain is uncertain but we’ve noticed that the symptoms often worsen.

It could be that muscles, ligaments and joints just get stiffer with lower temperatures, as the human body will conserve more heat, more blood would be circulated to the heart and lungs. So when this happens, muscles and blood vessels in the arms, shoulders, knees and other joints will contract, leading to pain. Even muscles lose their range of motion.

Reasons for Joint Pains during Winter

The pain receptors become more sensitive during winter.
The drop in atmospheric pressure causes joint tissues to swell, building tension between joints, causing pain.
Increase in muscle spasms in colder temperatures also worsens the pain and stiffness in joints.
The cold causes fine blood capillaries in the joints and extremities, like fingers and toes, to shrink or contract, amplifying the pain.
Less sunlight during winters means lower vitamin D levels which leads to weakened bones and joints.

Remedies for Relief

Dress Warm: Keep yourselves, especially your feet warm. Wear two or three pairs of thin clothing instead of one pair of heavy warm clothes to conserve body heat.
Stay Active: Exercising is another way to get rid of all joint and muscle stiffness during winter time without overdoing it. Because this will improve blood circulation to your extremities and provide warmth and the necessary micronutrients to relieve pain.
Localized Heating: Use an electric heating pad, hot water bag or an electric blanket to keep yourself warm while resting or sleeping.
Warm baths: Swimming in a heated pool is great exercise and it soothes your joints. You can also get great relief from warm water or steam bath. Avoid piping hot water.
Vitamin D: is essential for bone health. Lack of it can cause body aches. This deficiency may be due to lack of exposure to sunlight. Spending some time under the sun is a great way to replenish Vitamin D and get rid of joint aches. Food sources for Vitamin D include fatty fish, cheese, egg yolk, milk, nuts and seeds, soya products, and legumes. To enable absorption of Vitamin D from food or sunlight, include magnesium rich foods like entire green leafy vegetables (which are abundant in winters), pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, almonds, walnuts, avocado and bananas etc.
Omega-3 Fatty Acids: are anti-inflammatory and highly beneficial in reducing inflammation in joints. So include avocados, flaxseeds, walnuts and fish in your diet. You’ll also find good omega-3 in flax seeds, walnuts, chia seeds, pumpkin seeds, and sunflower seeds as well.

A Quick Home Remedy

A mixture of turmeric, fenugreek/methi seeds and ginger has a positive impact on reducing joint pains and arthritis because of the anti-inflammatory properties.

Ingredients

Ginger powder – 20 gm
Methi seeds – 50 gm
Turmeric powder – 50 gm

How to have: Take half or one tablespoon in the morning, preferably on an empty stomach for wonderful results.

Enjoy winter while following the above tips, for joint pains during winter. If you face extreme discomfort in your joints, do consult a doctor for Bone and Joint health.

For more tips and remedies for winter, check out live sessions by experts on GOQii Play. Don’t forget to subscribe and leave your thoughts in the comments below!

#BeTheForce

December 23, 2019 By Roopa Tandur 1 Comment

Why Do We Gain Weight During Winter?

Have you noticed that you tend to gain weight during winter? While there are many factors at play here, is it true for everybody? If you’re one of those who gain weight during winter, it is best to know why it happens and take necessary measures to prevent it!

Let’s Analyse Why We Gain Weight During Winter

Less Water Intake: As we aren’t thirsty and neither do we sweat as much as we do during summer, we tend to drink very little water which makes us lethargic and fatigued. The usual signs like dry and flaky skin is an indicator that one is not having enough water. We use moisturisers instead and not increase water intake which gives more room for frequent infection and dehydration leading to headache and dry cough
Not Exercising Enough: With the pleasant winter chills, it is a little difficult to get off the couch or bed. This leads to fewer calories being burned and as a result, weight gain!
Increased Production of Melatonin: Less sunlight and shorter days affect our hormones and some people tend to produce more of the hormone melatonin which controls our sleep-wake cycle. This increased production of melatonin induces sleep when it is not the time to sleep, making one lazy, lacking motivation and energy. It also increases appetite and leads to eating more.
Increase in Metabolism: While this sounds great, it doesn’t really support your weight loss goals during winter. The sudden increase in metabolism will burn more calories to keep you warm but it will also make you hungrier.
Staying Indoors: makes us lazy and bored. When bored, we begin binge-watching followed by binge-eating comfort or fried food which is high in sugar and salt. It doesn’t take a genius to figure that this contributes to weight gain as well.

How Do We Prevent Gaining Weight This Season?

There is an effective way to break the vicious cycle of more sleep, less healthy food and little to no exercise! Here’s how you can avoid gaining weight during winter.

Choose Foods Wisely: Choose healthy, home-cooked meals such as soups. Opt for green tea. You can even add natural spices to your meals which are warm and benefit your health. Choose foods which can be paired with others or can be eaten any time of the day. Swap options like sauces available in markets to homemade hummus or dips.
Pick a Hobby: Concentrate on other things like hobbies, sports, painting or reading books. You can even clean your house if you’ve been postponing it. Do something that engages you instead of finding comfort in food.
Time Your Sleep: Maintain sleep timings which will set your circadian rhythm and help you stay active through the day or take power naps in the afternoon instead of sleeping for long hours
Exercise: Plan indoor activities and exercises like yoga, skipping, stair activities which will help you be active more regularly. In fact, you can tune in to GOQii Play and browse some indoor workouts by fitness experts or yoga and meditation by yoga specialists. You can even opt for making group plans which have less chances of failure. If you can’t find a group, join us for our GOQii Active Sunday which takes place every Sunday from 7am to 8am.

That’s all! Mind what you eat, sleep on time and exercise regularly to not gain weight during winter. We hope you found this article useful! Please leave your thoughts in the comments below.

#BeTheForce

December 21, 2019 By GOQii Leave a Comment

“If I Can Do It, So Can You!” – Namrata Shukla User Journey!

If anyone out here has struggled with excess weight, then being teased about it must have been an everyday occurrence. While most people consider it harmless to pass remarks, it can be really harmful to the mental wellbeing of the person these taunts are directed at. It can completely shatter their confidence and self-esteem. Our GOQii Player Namrata Shukla experienced the same when she was growing up.

Life before GOQii

Based out of Noida, Uttar Pradesh, Namrata Shukla is 33 and works as a project manager with Orange Business Services. As a child, she was overweight, mainly because it ran in her family and it was also due to poor eating habits. Due to her experience as a child, her confidence and self-esteem were low!

She had been trying to lose weight for what seemed like forever. She used to go for walks but struggled with consistency. Her sweet tooth also seemed impossible to control. Her water intake was low, she used to skip meals or eat very late whenever she was tied up with work. All this added to a list of problems and she couldn’t find a way to solve them.

Enter GOQii

Namrata Shukla was unable to find motivation or inspiration to climb up the ladder of good health no matter where she looked. Eventually, it was her cousin, who was also a GOQii Player and benefited greatly from it, introduced her to our ecosystem.

On her cousin’s advice, she joined GOQii on September 2017 and since then, there has been no looking back! Her GOQii Coach asked her to start with 20 minute walks for 6 days a week. She was also asked to increase her water intake to 2l and cut down on sugar. Instead of sugar in her tea, she switched to jaggery.

The following month, she started with Tabata workouts on alternate days of the week and alternate days of walking. She began eating one fruit a day and included salads – something she used to hate earlier but has to include at least a few days a week.

One of the very important habits that she changed was the time she took to complete her meals. Earlier, she would gulp her food down and finish it within 5 minutes. Now, she chews her food well and takes at least 10-15mins to finish her meals. She avoids skipping meals and is as consistent as possible with meal timings.

Her coach also introduced her to intermittent fasting which helped her reduce her weight tremendously!

Embracing Changes

Her weight used to be 72kg but she succeeded in bringing down her weight to 57kg by the end of 2018. This gave a tremendous boost to her self-esteem since she was able to carry most of the outfits which she couldn’t fit into before. She was greatly appreciated by family members, friends and colleagues who applauded her transformation and helped her feel more positive about herself.

What Does Namrata Shukla Think About Her Transformation and GOQii?

Namrata says it pains her to see her neighbours go for junk food just to save themselves the trouble of cooking a healthy meal, which she feels is not very difficult. She says people don’t want to look in the direction of health and fitness. Though she indulges her sweet tooth every once in a while, she is aware of what constitutes healthy food, healthy eating habits as well as a healthy lifestyle – things she had not given much thought to earlier.

Losing weight has given her a sense of achievement which was missing from her life before. Her message to people who are struggling with weight issues, unable to stick to health goals or commit themselves is, “If I can do it, so can you!”

Her boost in confidence and positivity is something she attributes to GOQii. Now, she is able to feel good when she looks at herself in the mirror. She wanted someone to push her and that’s where GOQii came in.

She says that her GOQii Coach has been proactive and motivated her a lot. Her Coach always brought her back on track when she lost focus, keeping her head in the game. Namrata Shukla is thankful to her Coach for bringing all the positive changes in her!

We know for sure that Namrata Shukla will continue on this path of good health and will Level Up further in the year 2020! Do you plan to do the same? Do you have an inspiring story to share? Send it here!

#BeTheForce