About Megha Mahajan

Megha Mahajan has varied experience in the field of fitness, weight management and lifestyle management. She has a Masters in Foods and Nutrition. She believes that instead of trapping yourself with a strict diet, you must adopt a healthier lifestyle, which will only ensure optimal fitness throughout your life. As a lifestyle coach she partners you in achieving your goals in the best possible way. She opines that in order to manage weight, one needn’t feel deprived of his/her favorite food, one can actually eat everything BUT in moderation! Her mantra for fitness is ‘Strive for Fitness not Perfection’ - It's all about taking your first step towards achieving optimal health and lifestyle, after all, nothing feels better than living healthy.

May 9, 2023 By Megha Mahajan 4 Comments

Can Pranayama Techniques Cool Your Body During Summer?

Are you using lots of water, cool drinks, air-conditioning or beach parties to beat the heat this summer? Would you be interested to know about an easy and inexpensive way to chill instead? If yes, then read this article to learn three different breathing techniques to cool down your body. Yes! You read it right. All you need to do is breathe! Here’s how Pranayama techniques can cool your body during summer!

Pranayama Techniques To Cool Your Body

Try these breathing techniques and beat the heat naturally with Pranayama!

1. Increased Rate & Depth of Breathing

Preferably lie down in Shavasana and practice deep diaphragmatic breathing, allowing the belly to rise with each inhalation. Make sure to increase your breathing rate too. A modified version of doing it is panting like a dog. Just open your mouth and stick out your tongue as far as it can go, then start panting. Make sure that your stomach goes in or contracts immediately with each exhalation.

Why does it work?
We sweat a lot during the summers. The evaporation of sweat cools down our body. In the same ways, with an increased rate and depth of breathing, we exhale a lot more water vapour. It enhances the cooling effect of the body. Now you know why dogs don’t sweat? They stick out their tongue and release the heat. More breaths and less movement ensures the double advantage of cooling your pace.

2. Sheetali Pranayama

Stick your tongue out and roll it like a straw. Inhale air through this straw as if you were sipping in a cool beverage on a hot summer day. Exhale through the nose. Sheetkari pranayama is a modified version of Sheetali, which can be done if you are unable to roll your tongue. Here you have to open your mouth with clenched teeth to inhale through them and exhale through the nose.

Why does it work?
When we breathe in through the nose, the air gets warmed up on its path to the lungs to match the internal body temperature. While we breathe in through the mouth, this doesn’t happen. On the contrary, the air gets moistened when we inhale through the mouth, enhancing its cooling effects.

3. Left Nostril Breathing

Use your right-hand fingers to block the right nostril and breathe through the left nostril. An easier way to activate the left nostril breathing is to insert a cotton plug in the right ear.

Why does it work?
Our body temperature is maintained by the movement of air through the right and left channels. The right channel is associated with sun, heat and activity. Whereas the left channel is associated with the moon, cool and rest. It is like the accelerator and brake pedals of a car. Applying the brakes gently slows down and cools off the overheated car engines. Similarly, when we deliberately breathe in through the left nostril, the brakes get applied to activate the parasympathetic nervous system to produce a cooling and calming effect on the body.

And there it is! We hope these 3 pranayama techniques will help you cool your body during these hot summer days. Try them and let us know your experience in the comments below.

Get more summer tips here or you can also speak to an expert by subscribing to GOQii’s Personalised Health Coaching here.

#BeTheForce

March 2, 2023 By Megha Mahajan 2 Comments

Can’t Lose Weight? Try Intermittent Fasting!

It’s true that you can summit any mountain given you have the fortitude, mental strength and willpower. But more often than not, we come across weight loss struggles that no treadmill or fad diet in the world can solve. While you hack and plough your way through every routine your trainer throws at you with little or no results, your ideal weight seems that much farther from you. If you can’t lose weight, the answer doesn’t lie in pushing yourself to extremes. The answer, in fact, is quite simple. Two words: Intermittent Fasting!

What is Intermittent Fasting?

Intermittent fasting simply means fasting for 15-16 hours post your dinner before breaking the fast with breakfast. If you are currently fasting for 12 hours post-dinner, then gradually increase it to 13 hours the first week and then 14 for the following to reach up to 16 hours of fasting time.

If you feel hungry, wait it out. Drink a large glass of water and distract yourself with something non-food related. You can make this more effective for weight loss by keeping a gap of a minimum of 4 hours between each meal, ensuring you start each meal with protein-rich foods. So ideally, you can have a breakfast of nuts, fruits and cereals at 10am, followed by lunch at 2pm which includes beans/pulses with rice/roti and a fresh vegetable salad. You can opt for egg, meat or fish too. Dinner can be had around 6pm with a vegetable or chicken soup with bread sticks.

How Does It Help You Lose Weight?

When you follow Intermittent Fasting with a 4-4-16 hour gap, you give insulin time to leave your body. Without energy from food, the body turns to your fat cells and the free fatty acids stored inside them for energy resource.

How to Break the Fast?

Eating protein as the first part of your meal, followed by complex carbohydrates, and finally any simple carbs allows proper utilisation of insulin. Eating in this order will help you get back into your Fat-Burning Zone much more quickly enabling you to lose weight effectively. This means you can begin your breakfast with some soaked nuts to grab on to proteins. You can opt for dairy or eggs depending on your food preferences too. Then include complex carbohydrates with fresh fiber rich fruits or vegetables followed by breakfast cereals that tend to be loaded with simple carbohydrates.

For optimal benefit, combine Intermittent Fasting with good quality sleep, proper stress management and moderate exercise routine.

Have you tried Intermittent Fasting before? A word of caution, please consult your doctor, nutritionist or dietician before attempting it. If you found this article helpful, let us know in the comments below!

Need more help on your weight loss journey? Check out Healthy Reads or sign up for GOQii Transform – a personalised weight management program. You can read more about it here: https://store.goqii.com/transform-weight-program

#BeTheForce

May 4, 2022 By Megha Mahajan 1 Comment

10 Dietary Changes That Can Help Manage Diabetes

Diabetes – the one word that makes your mind wander in so many directions! You find yourself asking questions like: Will this last for ever? Will I ever get better? How can I manage my diabetes? Well, these are smart questions that anyone should ask. And, yes, you can and will get better! You just need to make a few tweaks in your lifestyle and you should be fine.

While it may seem like an insurmountable hurdle or a wall that cannot be breached, there are thousands of diabetics with good testimonies. Aged people who have lived with diabetes so much so that they sometimes forget that they have diabetes. How can this be your testimony? Well, the pointers below show some of the things you can do to kickstart your own journey to overcome diabetes.

Of course it’s not going to be easy to let go of all your favorite meals. But, no one is saying you have to get rid of them all at once. You’ve just got to be smart about it. Do not make diabetes “complex”, make eating “complex” to keep diabetes “simple”. Just as in everything else, a lot of effort has to go into your overall lifestyle if you are to conquer diabetes. Just be conscious and you’ll make headway. To eliminate diabetes, take a step towards improving your eating habits and you’ll feel a lot better generally.

Some Dietary Changes To Help You Manage Diabetes

1. Eat Complex To Live Simple: Eating complex doesn’t mean you have to stop eating everything. It simply means you have to make your carbs complex over simple ones, as these are the best type of carbohydrates for diabetics. Complex carbohydrates digest slowly and maintain steady glucose levels in the body.

2. Make fiber an important part of your diet: Fiber refers to plant-based food that slows down the breaking of carbohydrates and keeps you full for longer periods of time. Yes, fiber can go a long way in improving your situation. You don’t have to go over and under in search of fiber rich foods. You can get your fiber fix by following these simple tips:

Do not sieve the flour
Eat whole fruits over a glass of juice
Choose whole grains and whole pulses
Eat more vegetables
Do not peel the edible portion of the fruit for example – apple, guava, pear, peaches
Make soups and salads your best friends

3. Choose healthier versions of your favorite food

Instead of these	Choose these
White bread	Brown bread
Normal roti	Bran roti/multigrain roti
Meat	Fish
Normal rice/parboiled rice	Brown rice
Sugary or flavored cornflakes	Plain cornflakes/oats
Sugar	Jaggery/honey
Mayonnaise veg sandwich	Hungcurd vegetable sandwich
Normal chocolate	Dark chocolate
Creamy cheesy dip	Salsa dip
Whole milk	Skimmed milk
Salted nuts	Unsalted nuts
Soda	Salted fresh lime
Potato sticks	Raw veggie sticks
Fried chicken	Grilled chicken
White pasta	Whole wheat pasta
Fruit juices	Whole fruits

It surely can be very difficult to do away with all your favorite meals. Instead of doing away totally, you can instead opt for close alternatives as shown above. Choose the healthier version of your favorite meals and you’ll thank yourself for it.

4. Say “NEVER AGAIN” to Trans-fat: Trans-fat is basically obtained chemically by the hydrogenation of oils. It will make your condition worse! To avoid trans-fats, avoid chips, cookies, pastries and margarine. Incorporate healthy fats by following these simple methods:

Introduce olive oil or rice bran over butter or ghee
Remove the skin from chicken before cooking it
Prefer healthy ways of cooking such as grilling, baking and roasting over frying
Enhance flavour of food by using more of herbs and spices instead of oil. It will not only give you good taste but also prevent you from consuming extra oil as well as provide you the benefits of antioxidants
Prefer fish over red meat as it is full of good fat
Eat fish 2 or 3 times week instead of red meat.
Use hung curd as dressing instead of mayonnaise
Prefer baked chips over fried ones

5. Choose Low-glycemic index foods: Glycemic Index refers to the rate at which a particular food raises our blood glucose levels. Foods with high GI spike our blood glucose level and vice-a-versa. Again, fiber is your hero! Fiber rich foods have lower glycemic index – another reason why you should take them.

Some Low GI Sources include whole nuts , whole cereals, cherries, oatmeal, apple, vermicelli, whole dals, prunes, plain yoghurt, soymilk, whole milk, peaches, channa dal and peanuts.

6. Eat small but frequently: The logic here is, heavy meals spike our glucose levels. So small frequent meals will keep our metabolism high, while maintaining glucose levels.

7. Walking and Exercise are your best friends: Exercise is important as it helps to maintain your Ideal Body Weight which is very important for diabetics. Exercising helps your weight loss efforts, and is especially important in maintaining an ideal body weight.

8. Limit only high caloric fruits: Except for some fruits like mango, banana and chikoo, one can eat any fruit but in prescribed amounts only.

9. Use functional foods in the diet: These foods provide “extra benefits” to your diet. Apart from nutrition, it provides you a number of benefits. Functional foods are full of antioxidants, unsaturated fatty acids and are also rich in fiber. Some of them include mustard seeds, flax seeds, fenugreek seeds, curry leaves, cinnamon, cloves and chia seeds.

10. Before sleeping ask yourself the following questions:

Am I taking too much of alcohol? If the answer is no, then you are okay
Am I taking medication properly? If yes, give yourself a pat on the back
My feet are clean? No? Then rush to the bathroom!
Am I feeling stressed? If your answer is yes? Chill with music and take deep breaths. Remember nothing comes at the cost of your health and ensure you feel some relief.
Have I checked my weight?
Did I walk for 45 minutes today? If yes, you’ve done well. Feel good about it because you are on track to manage diabetes
Now, time for sleep… Proper timing is essential. Get good sleep.

You can manage diabetes by living healthy. Eating in moderation and eating healthy can go a long way in giving you really good results!

We hope this article helps you manage diabetes effectively. For more help to manage diabetes, get the right guidance and motivation by certified experts, join the GOQii Diabetes Care program. It’s India’s only diabetes program that is driven by Smart Science and Personal Coaching to improve Fasting Blood Sugar (FBS), Postprandial Blood Sugar (PP), reduce HbA1c levels and let you win gold! You can subscribe here: https://store.goqii.com/diabetescare.

To read more on how to manage Diabetes, check out Healthy Reads.

Let’s #DefeatDiabetes and #BeTheForce!

May 17, 2021 By Megha Mahajan 1 Comment

How To Safely Isolate Yourself At Home

With COVID-19 still spreading like wildfire and the resulting shortage of medical facilities, people have opted to self-isolate at home. Although hospitals and doctors are best to help you recover fully, here are some tips which will help you safely isolate yourself at home with your family.

Who Needs Home Isolation?

Home isolation is for someone who has tested positive or is suspected to be positive. The purpose here is to recover fully and stop the contagion. Home isolation is not an option for patients who are infected and above 65 years of age or have other comorbidities. They need to be hospitalised in isolated wards.

What Essentials Will You Need?

Apart from the basic necessities of water, food, clothing and shelter, a COVID patient needs much more during isolation. A quick list will include:

Thermometer – to keep a regular check on body temperature
Oximeter – to ensure that your reading is above 90-95%, or else you may need supplemental oxygen.
Exhaust or a table fan, working like an exhaust to draw in the fresh air and recycle the virus-laden room air.
You will also need your doctor prescribed medications and a smartphone to stay connected with the doctor and your community.

How Can You Safely Isolate Yourself?

There are a few rules to safely isolate yourself at home with your family in the adjacent room:

Recovery happens best during rest. Hence make sure to follow the circadian rhythm and have a good night’s sleep. Wake up and soak in the sunshine to get your dose of vitamin D from your room window.
Breathe deeply, do pranayama or follow the Win Hoffman breathing method to strengthen your respiratory system. Sleeping on your stomach allows your lungs to expand fully on the backside. So practice it daily for a few minutes.
Drink 2-3 litres of water to flush out the toxins from your body. Include a herbal Kadha in small quantities too. If possible, add lemon juice to it to get in Vitamin C to combat the virus.
Eat a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables to load up on antioxidants to fight off the inflammation. Feed the gut bacteria a healthy dose of probiotics to strengthen the immune system. Avoid non-vegetarian food and alcohol during the isolation.
Exercise, if you have the strength, to supply oxygen to every cell of your body. Confined within your room, you may just get enough space to do yoga or spot walking.

When Should You End Isolation?

Generally, 14-17 days are more than enough for home isolation. You need to make sure that you do not have any fever for at least three days before ending the isolation period. Also, it is important to get tested once again to check if you’ve fully recovered.

Staying isolated at home is a challenging task not just for you but your family too. They feel helpless as they are unable to care for you. And you might feel bogged down with solitary confinement. Nevertheless, you must ensure to follow proper sanitation methods and clean your room.

We hope this article helps you. For more, check out Healthy Reads or tune in to LIVE sessions by experts on GOQii Play.

To get more expert advice on dealing with post-COVID recovery or general health issues, subscribe to GOQii and get in touch with your personal coach now: https://goqiiapp.page.link/wssu

Stay home, stay safe and #BeTheForce