GOQii

Blog

Archives for March 2024

By 44 Comments

Water Fasting: The Healthiest Way to Detox!

Water FastingA couple of months ago, my aunt practiced a month-long water fast. In essence, she only drank water throughout the day. No food, no tea, no coffee, no milk and not even coconut or lime water. In short, it was nothing but just water! When I got to know of this, I was initially taken aback. I rushed to my aunt and asked if she was alright and what was the need to punish her body in this manner. To which my aunt replied, “I am doing this for religious purposes”.

Does Water Fasting Actually Help?

I am aware that fasting is an ancient, spiritual practice in many religions across the world. Also, fasting gives inner strength and confidence. But, like most of the traditional remedies, beliefs and practices have scientific reasoning and benefits attached. I was pretty sure water fasting would have some too. I researched on the benefits of ‘water only fast’ and was astonished to see multiple articles on the same that stated the various benefits of ‘Water Fasting’. Broadly, the benefits lie on the basic belief that the human body has self-healing abilities.

Water fasting gives improved energy and vigour. It removes mental blocks and gives clarity of mind. It also eliminates toxins from the body and can go a long way in preventing future illnesses. Water Fasting can improve immunity and has anti-aging benefits. The digestive system gets a break. All the energy that is used by our digestive system to break down foods, beverages, toxins, fats, and sugars, gets channeled to actual cleansing, detoxification, and repair of our vital organs, cells, and tissues. Many report a certain euphoria after a day or two of water fasting. You’ll likely feel a certain increase in energy as well, as you lose that slack, logy feeling.

After all the research and understanding about ‘Water Fasting’, I was naturally prompted to attempt water fasting for a day. I figured it wouldn’t hurt to give it a try just for a day and then post some tips from my personal experience which can be guidelines for others who wish to take this up for a day or two.

It was not easy for me or let me put it this way, if you have never attempted to do any kind of fast, this is going to be a little tough. Hence, I would like to share some tips and my personal experience which might inspire or support you to take up this challenge once in a week or probably a month.

Tips for Water Fasting

  • The right day to take up this fast would be to choose a day when you have lesser activities planned. If there are excessive activities, then they consume a lot of calories and that will make you hungry
  • Fasting should ideally start in the morning by drinking about two glasses of water which will clear your bowel movement
  • Simple pure water is the best. Boiled or cool water will also do. Drinking 1 ½ liters to 3 liters of plain water in one full day depending on individual capacity is good. You can drink more if you are up for it. I honestly did not count mine
  • Few bodily reactions which may seem scary but are considered normal and you all will experience as well if you are water fasting for the first time. Some of the signs are weakness, dizziness and nausea and these are common due to the sudden lack of food. I personally experienced a slight drop in blood pressure and headaches during the latter part of the day. The key to this is just lie down and relax whenever these symptoms become intense. The more difficult you find it, the more it means that your body has a lot of toxins to clean out
  • Towards mid-day, you will feel a sudden bout of hunger. Just have one or two glasses of water to dilute the gastric secretions. Then lie down and take rest. The hunger should go away in a short time
  • After having fasted, learning how to break a fast is important. As there is hardly any digestive activity during fasting, one should be very careful while breaking the fast. The best way to break a fast is with lime juice or orange juice which will make the stomach alkaline. It’s wiser to have few spices and no oily food during this time. Second meal of the day can be normal

All in all, I enjoyed my water-only fast of 24 hours. I look forward to doing this once every month. I recommend this to everyone to self-realize the benefits attached to this. If you can’t do 24 hours, start off with 12hrs and then build it up as you get better and used to it. As we always say, take gradual and small steps to reach your big goals sooner. So Good luck! Use nature and natural ways as your best medicine to prevent as well as treat your body.

For more tips on healthy living, check out Healthy Reads or speak to a GOQii Coach to get the right guidance and motivation by subscribing for Personalised Health Coaching here.

#BeTheForce

By 6 Comments

Celebrate a Skin-Friendly Holi With Natural Colors

Protect your skin on holi

Holi is the festival of colours in India that also marks the arrival of spring – a season of joy and hope. The festival is famous for its colours and how people apply them to each other’s face. I remember one horrendous incident a few years ago that left my face scarred due to an allergic reaction and I was on anti-allergens for over a month. The culprit was a toxic paste colour that my skin came in contact with. I, therefore, thought I should share some good ways to enjoy a safe and non-toxic Holi this year.

In the last couple of years, chemical colours are being used to celebrate Holi as they are cheaper than natural colours. Chemical colours can be very harmful to the health and skin of individuals as well as the environment.

Use of safe, natural and eco-friendly colours, can help to save our environment and conserve our biodiversity. Natural colours are obtained from skin friendly sources such as turmeric, flower extracts, sandalwood powder, mehndi (Henna), etc and are safe to use. 

Here’s How You Can Create Safe, Non-toxic Colours

  1. Brown color: Brown is one color that is never spotted anywhere in the color markets during Holi. So go ahead and surprise your visitors with this different and amazing color! Acacia catechu (Kattha) – which is commonly consumed with betel leaves (pan) gives a brownish color when mixed with water.
    Other methods: Boil tea or coffee leaves in water. Cool it and use it.
  2. Saffron: Soak a few stalks of Saffron in 2 tablespoons of water. Leave for a few hours and grind them to make a fine paste. Dilute that with water as per the desired color strength.
    Other methods: The Flame of the Forest, commonly known as Tesu, Palash or Dhak, is the source of the wonderful, traditional color for Holi. For fragrant yellowish-orange colored water, the flowers are soaked overnight in water and can also be boiled.
  3. Green: Save a trip to the parlor by using green colored henna powder (Mehendi) this Holi. Either use it separately or mix it with an equal quantity of any suitable flour to get a lovely and natural green shade. Make sure to use pure henna that does not have Amla (Indian Gooseberries) mixed in it, as this would be brown in color. Dry henna will not leave color on your face and can be easily brushed off. When mixed with water, it will leave a slight color, thereby making it a fast color.
    Other methods: Dry and finely powder Gulmohur tree leaves or crush the tender leaves of the Wheat plant to obtain a natural green color for Holi. The color can also be obtained by mixing a fine paste of green leafy vegetables like spinach (Palak), Coriander (Dhaniya) or Mint (Pudina) in water.
  4. Blue: Dry Jacaranda flowers (Neeli Gulmohar/Jungle Badam) in the shade and grind them to obtain a beautiful blue powder.
    Other methods: The Blue Hibiscus, which is found in Kerala, can be dried and powdered just like the red hibiscus, or crush berries of Indigo plant and add water to it as per the desired colour strength.
  5. Yellow: Mix two teaspoons of Turmeric powder with twice the quantity of gram flour (besan). Turmeric and gram flour have magical qualities that are very good for the skin. Ordinary wheat flour (Atta), refined wheat flour (Maida), rice flour, ground nut powder, fuller`s earth (Multani Mitti) and even talcum powder can be used as substitutes for gram flour. Other methods: Flowers like Cassia Fistula (Amaltas), Marigold (Gainda), Yellow Chrysanthemums and Black Babul yield different shades of yellow. Dry the petals of these flowers in the shade and crush them to obtain a fine powder. Mix an appropriate quantity of the powder with gram flour or its substitutes and see your festival come alive without any harmful effects of chemically-loaded colors.
  6. Pink: Slice or grate one beetroot and soak it in 1 liter of water for a wonderful magenta. Boil or leave overnight for a deeper shade and dilute it before use.
    Other methods: Boil the peels of 10-15 pink onions in half a liter of water for a pinkish color. Remove the peels before using them to remove any unneeded smell. You can also soak pink Bauhinia variegate (Kachnar) flowers in water overnight or boil them for a bright pink color.
  7. Red: Red Sandal Wood Powder, which has a beautiful red color, is extremely beneficial for the skin and can be used in place of Red Gulal.
    Other methods: Dry red hibiscus flowers in shade, powder and add any flour to increase the bulk. For a bright orange-red, mix a pinch of lime powder with 2 spoons of turmeric powder and a few drops of water. Use the resulting paste only after diluting it with 10 litres of water. Peels of Red Pomegranate boiled in water, juice of tomatoes and carrots diluted with sufficient quantity of water to remove the stickiness also give a natural yet beautiful red color.
  8. Black: Last but not the least, comes black. Often derived from very dangerous sources like used batteries, this color may cause a lot of trouble later. However, for a safe black color, boil dried fruits of Indian Gooseberry (Amla) in an iron vessel and leave it overnight. Dilute with water and use.
    Other methods: Extract juice of black grapes and dilute with sufficient quantity of water to remove stickiness.

Tips For a Skin-Friendly Holi

  • Cover up: Nothing can beat covering the maximum part of your body with full sleeved clothes and trousers. But the old remedy of using Mustard Oil, Coconut Oil, Olive Oil or Vaseline over your entire body on the morning of Holi does wonders in removing the colours easily
  • No warm water: Do not use warm water for bathing/removing colours. This can lead to the fastening of colours. Instead, always opt for cold water to wash the colours off. You should also try to remove the dry colour powder with dry hands rather than using water as it spreads even more after water application.
  • Stay Hydrated: Drink lots and lots of water as skin tends to get dehydrated with the use of chemicals. You can try other refreshing water-based drinks too. For instance, a virgin mint mojito, or fresh lime and buttermilk, to beat the heat out of your body!
  • Hair Care: Before you use a shampoo, rinse your hair with water to allow the additional colours to wash off. It is extremely vital to condition your hair to prevent any hair damage. Make a simple hair pack by soaking a few Fenugreek (Methi) seeds in four tablespoons of curd. Apply this pack or egg yolk on your scalp and wash your hair with a good shampoo after 30 minutes. You can also apply a mixture of honey and olive oil for deep conditioning.
  • Face: Do not scrub the colour off with soap. Opt for a mild cleanser and follow it up with lots of moisturizing cream. If you feel any skin irritation during the process of taking off the colours then take 2 tbsps. of calamine powder and mix it with a few drops of honey and rosewater to make a paste. Apply this on your face and once it has dried up, wash it off with water and apply a moisturizer. You can also take off the colour with a mixture of Gram Flour (besan) and Milk. If you are unable to do anything else, simply apply a generous amount of Multani-Mitti on the entire face and body to revive your skin.
  • Natural body scrub: You can use a homemade scrub by mixing the following ingredients: 2 tbsp. Wheat Bran, 1 tbsp. Sandalwood Powder, 1 tbsp. Rice Flour, along with some Poppy Seeds (khus-khus), few drops of Honey and a mashed tomato. Scrub your body with this to clear off the colours and to bounce back to your fair and glowing skin. You can also rub a piece of papaya on coloured areas of the face and body to get rid of the colours. There is another good body scrub you can use to wash off colours. Mix curd, gram flour, orange peel powder along with little turmeric, a few drops of lemon and 1 tbsp. of olive oil. This will help clean your skin.  

Post Holi Skincare Regime

For the next two weeks, apply a Multani Mitti face pack every alternate day to ensure that your skin remains soft and supple. Do not go for any skin treatments like waxing, threading, facials, or apply any other external medication on the skin for 2-3 days after Holi. Your skin is very sensitive after Holi. These treatments may cause an adverse reaction.

Safe, Natural Holi

We hope these tips help you. For more, check out Healthy Reads or ask a GOQii Coach by subscribing for Personalised Health Coaching here.

#BeTheForce 

By 5 Comments

Wonder Grain: Rice and its benefits

rice

Rice is the most primitive and staple food in many cultures around the world. Many cuisines have the inclusion of rice to make their meals fuller and tastier. Apart from all this it is an important cereal crop that feeds more than half of the world’s population.

Right from its origin it has been an easy to grow, cook and digestive food grain for everyone. Majority of the cuisines include rice as a main course in many different forms.

But, strangely in the current times most avoid rice as it is considered bad when it comes to health. This is only a myth. If we go back in time rice was one of the most used food item in meals and people consuming it were more healthy, fit and thin as compared to today’s condition of where we find more cases of obesity, big waist size, big belly, cholesterol, blood pressure, etc.

Rice is a complex carbohydrate and contains essential amino acids (methionine) that helps in mobilizing the fat from liver and when combined with legume or pulses it becomes a complete protein to provide good muscle growth. Thus, it’s a blessing for vegetarians. Rice when combined with some protein or fiber rich food becomes slow absorbing and hence there is no issue of sudden rise in the blood glucose with it. Diabetics out there,put it back on your plate and relish your taste buds all over again.

Also would like to take this opportunity to clear the myth that “Rice is fatty”, the fact is that Rice is high on carbohydrates and when taken in wrong quantity, combination and timing then it can lead to fat gain, as a result of excess carbohydrates, which the body could not burn.

Listing out some great advantages of this wonder grain:

  • It is an excellent source of Vitamins and Minerals like Niacin, Vitamin D, Calcium, Fiber, Iron, Thiamine and Riboflavin. Thus, it helps in metabolism, immunity and better functioning of organs.
  • Gives you instant energy
  • Light on your stomach to digest thus best to have when sick
  • Best food for high blood pressure.
  • Aids in Digestion
  • Gluten, Sodium & Cholesterol free.
  • Rice abounds in resistant starch, which reaches the bowels in an undigested form. This type of starch stimulates the growth of useful bacteria that help with normal bowel movements.
  • Insoluble rice is very useful in reducing the effects of conditions like Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), and diarrhea.
  • The starch water from rice is utilised as medication for various skin infections.
  • Rice being high on various vitamins, phyto nutrients and carbohydrates, it becomes the best source of post workout meal for endurance athletes. To replenish their glycogen, help in relieving cramps and overall calming effect to the body. One reason have it in your dinner menu.

Too much of anything is not good, so do eat your rice but at timings & combinations which will help you burn it all.

Best time: Morning, Lunch, Post workout, Sick, Dinner (Combine it with a protein or fiber rich food to get the best taste and results).

Another question that often comes to me from my clients is which rice to have? Will give you more info on types of rice in the next blog. For now, opt for the white rice, husk removed and hand polished. As all of this retains the necessary nutrients in the white rice. We hope this article helps you. For further information or guidance, reach out to our certified experts by subscribing to GOQii’s Personalised Health Coaching here.

#BeTheForce 

By 1 Comment

Eat Smart To Live Smart: Mastering Portion Control

the-food-pyramidWhat do you know of portion size and serving size? Often we read a label saying the portion/serving size as “x” amount. But, we are seldom aware of the difference between portion and serving size? You may ask, are they really different? Yes of course! And as a consumer you should be aware of the difference between the two as it may help you in choosing your food items consciously.

What is a serving size?

A serving size is average amounts that assists us in eating or helps us to decide how much to eat or identify how many calories and nutrients are present in that particular amount of food that we eat. For example we buy a packet of noodles weighing 100grams. If you carefully read the label it may say that the serving size is 75 grams only and the nutritive values for the serving will also be provided.

What is a portion size?

Portion size cannot be defined universally. It is the amount we take on our plate. It may vary according to the food we eat at different times. Thus, to continue the example given previously the serving size may be 75 grams but, you cannot really store 25 grams for the next time. So you have the whole pack for yourself. This would be the portion you choose to take on your plate.

Now eating portion size instead of serving size is not entirely wrong. Quite often it may occur that you eat several servings in one portion itself. In fact when we eat out in restaurants their portions may even exceed the servings that are recommended by the food pyramid. Further, new marketing strategies add up. The introduction of large size portions at cheaper price and meal combos or value meals has actually decreased the value of healthy, nutritious and fresh food in the consumer minds.

There are so many fast food chains that offer more food for a very slight increase in cost. Not only in restaurants but also in super markets we choose to buy bulk or opt for various offers like buy one get one free. This is a very natural consumer tendency but buying and further eating products in larger quantities itself is a major reason for gaining weight. It is the easily available large portion sizes that make you eat high fat, sugar, and thereby high calories.

Today, the portion sizes have grown so much that there is enough food for more than two people in a single plate. In fact we opt for restaurants where the dish is big enough. This kind of portion size increase is also taking place at home and is known as portion distortion. The food guide pyramid allows us to understand the different foods that we need to eat based on their nutritive value and also the proportions in which we should consume these on a regular basis.

Based on the food guide pyramid and serving size we can achieve portion control on the foods we eat. Portion control helps us to understand the nutritive value of the portion of the food, thereby how much of it should be consumed. Thus, in order to obtain a balance in the healthy and unhealthy foods that we eat it is extremely important to practice portion control in our daily routine. It helps us to control the quantity as well as the quality.

To conclude here are few tips for a better portion control in our daily life

** While choosing and eating food: Prepare and eat food at home. We tend to eat more portions in restaurants.

** Pack snack items in individual servings.

** Use a small dish which will give less space for food.

** Read labels to understand what a serving looks like. Read the number of serving per packet. Don’t start eating directly from the box. Try serving one serving per plate.

** When eating out, avoid eating supersized meals and other deals that promote overeating

** At restaurants share your meals, if not at least get the extra meal packed instead of finishing it there itself. Split your main dish with your friend. Don’t order separately.

** Prepare daily meals just for the number of people available.

** Don’t cook in bulk especially in case of sweets.

By mastering portion control and making mindful food choices, you can pave the way for a healthier lifestyle and enhance your overall well-being. Remember, it’s not just about what you eat, but also how much. So, eat smart, live smart, and enjoy a balanced and nutritious diet every day. For additional tips on diet and nutrition, explore Healthy Reads or connect with a certified expert through GOQii’s Personalised Health Coaching here. Start your journey toward a healthier life today!

#BeTheForce

Mayur Sutar’s Journey to a Healthier Life

At 26, Mayur Sutar was deeply entrenched in the corporate whirlwind. His days were a blur of quick, unsatisfying meals, fitful sleep, and relentless deadlines. This vicious cycle was draining him, fueling a constant state of fatigue and frustration. Health had become a forgotten chapter in the book of his life. In every story, however, […]

Transforming Health and Life: Dhiren Matani’s Inspirational Journey to Wellness

In the face of persistent health challenges, Dhiren Matani, (43), an entrepreneur from Mumbai, embarked on a journey of resilience and transformation. Battling weight issues and a heart condition for some years, he refused to succumb to the daunting odds. Through sheer determination, he took control of his health at the right time by adopting […]

What’s Your Excuse?

In a world filled with excuses, Shubham’s story stands as a testament to the power of perseverance, passion, and an unwavering commitment to one’s dreams. His journey is a reminder that circumstances may create hurdles, but they can never define the limits of one’s potential. In the bustling suburbs of Mumbai, amidst the challenges of […]