Vrushali Athavle, Author at GOQii

Vrushali comes from a Public health nutrition background. Masters in the field of Public Health Nutrition, she has worked with a leading international NGO as a nutrition consultant on various projects for addressing malnutrition in children, pre and post pregnancy diets and importance of diet for adolescent girls. She also speaks at several nutrition awareness programmes organized by the Government to educate the villagers as well as block, district and state level government officials. She is a certified Master trainer for “Infant Young Child Feeding Practices” and has conducted various sessions for pregnant & lactating women, care takers, hospital staff and adolescent girls through interactive, theoretical and role plays. She has been working to spread nutrition awareness among both the rural and urban population through various mediums like radio talk shows, street plays, school and college events and by counseling patients in hospitals. She strongly believes in the old saying “health is wealth”. “Being healthy for me is to be healthy both physically and mentally. I use my hobbies like listening to music and art (creativity) profoundly to be mentally fit and swimming and dancing to stay physically fit,” She ssays.

October 6, 2015 By Vrushali Athavle 2 Comments

How to push yourself to wake up early for morning workouts?

In one of my previous blogs “What time is the best time to exercise?” I explained the importance of morning workouts. I got a lot of queries saying “We totally agree that morning workouts are really effective, but the major issue is, how to push ourselves to wake up early for the workouts?

This concern from users set me thinking and I decided to write a blog addressing these issues and come up with ways to push yourself for morning exercise. I would say don’t give up on morning workout at all, if the only issue is how to wake up early.

Morning workouts boost’s up your metabolism and keeps it elevated for several hours, you psychologically feel healthy as you start your day in a healthy way, and fixed morning exercise schedule, ensures that you sleep too on time.

I remember an old saying which I would like to quote here. “For every lock there is a key, we just need to find out which is the correct key for the lock by some trials and errors”.

Here are few quick tips which you can try and find out for yourself which works for you:

Dress up yourself in sports outfit and sleep

This doesn’t really mean you need to wear your shoes, socks, athletic outfit and sleep but at least keep everything ready a night prior so that in the morning you don’t waste time looking out for the stuff. Instead of wasting time in finding your workout clothes like your trousers and t-shirt, water bottle, napkin, shoes and sock, spend those 15-20 mins in getting your sleep.

Make a fitness freak friend

If you forget to set up your alarm or you happen to shut off the alarm clock and sleep, your exercise buddy will make sure to wake you up. Schedule sessions with a friend who is dedicated and will make sure that you wake up for the session. You don’t need a friend to really wake you up but, the fact that he/she will be waiting for you for the session will make you feel responsible to reach for the workout.

Put your alarm clock far away

Instead of keeping the alarm clock next to your bed while sleeping, keep it far away. Increase the volume of the alarm and keep it in the next room. This will make sure that you get up from the bed to shut it off. Just imagine now, if you keep it on snooze, what would happen? How many times will you get up from bed and go to shut it off. It will be a workout in itself Lol! On a serious note, once you wake up and get out of the bed, your chances of waking up and going for the workout increases rather than just putting off the alarm from your bed. If your

alarm allows you to set up a song in it, it would be a great idea to play either a song which will make you dance on it’s moves or set up song from your workout playlist to help you get in to the mood for exercise.

Feel the morning beauty:

The National Sleep Foundation data says that “When your eye senses light, it sets off a chain reaction in your brain that leaves you feeling alert and energized”. This tip I use it for myself and my daughter too. Once I wake up I immediately walk to the balcony and breathe in the fresh air. The beautiful morning weather, cool breeze, chirping of the birds certainly wakes you up completely and gets you ready for the morning workouts. If it’s still dark when you wake up, make use of a light box that simulates natural light.

5.Get enough sleep the night before.

Make sure you get 7-8 hours of sound sleep. Many a times you wake and keep wondering for yourself “I slept early yesterday, don’t know why I still feel sleepy, should I complete my sleep or wake up?” The answer to this is, if you have completed 7 to 8 hours of sound sleep, just tell yourself that your body is ready for the workout. It’s just dedication and will power which is now pulling you back.

Due to hectic and stressful life, people want to spend the last few hours before hitting the bed either in watching television or surfing and chatting on laptops and mobiles. I understand these are few ways for relaxing yourself but the light emitted from these devices is actually hampering your sleep cycles keeping you awake for a longer time. Instead of this, read books, play with your kids, listen to light music or do some meditation or simple Yoga moves to relax your body and get better sleep.

To conclude, the best sleep routine would be “Keep your alarm in the next room near an open window so that you get up from the bed to shut the alarm. The open window will expose you to the beautiful morning weather which will open your eyes. Your snooze option will again make the alarm ring. If you set up a nice song, I am sure this time the alarm with your favourite song in it, will make you show some of your best moves and totally wake you up. Keep all the workout gears ready at night and place it just next to the alarm clock. This will further make sure you get geared up for the workout.

Try this and let me know if it worked for you or share if you have some other awesome ideas. I am waiting to hear!

June 1, 2015 By Vrushali Athavle 1 Comment

Protein is not just about quantity. It’s also about quality

Every weight loss or weight gain programme talks about PROTEINS. They are the building blocks for growth and repair of muscle tissues of tendons, organs and skin. Proteins are made out of smaller molecules called amino acids which are linked together like beads on a string.

Some of these amino acids can be produced by the body and are called non essential amino acids, while some cannot be produced by the body and we need to get them from our foods. These are called the essential amino acids.

The protein requirement of each individual varies based on their intensity of workouts, medical conditions, height and ideal body weight. Before, we jump into the calculation of protein requirement, let’s first check out how to select the best protein out of the 3 major sources of proteins namely 1) Animal sources (chicken, fish, eggs, milk & milk products), 2) Plant sources (legumes, nuts, seeds and cereals) and 3) various Supplementary protein powders available in the market as protein shakes. This blog basically has two sections.

1) Protein Selection and 2) Protein Calculation

Section 1: Protein selection

Two things we need to consider while selecting your proteins source:

Complete or incomplete proteins:

* Animal proteins are considered complete proteins as they contain all essential amino

acids required by our body.

*Plants sources are classified as incomplete proteins as they contain only few essential

amino acids.

* Supplementary powders have most of the essential amino acids.

Bioavailability of proteins.

Bio-availability represents the percentage of how much our bodies can make use of certain protein sources. Animal proteins have better bioavailability than plant proteins. Supplementary proteins have highest % of bioavailability. It is important to note here that at a go our body can absorb only 15 to 20 gms of protein.

Section 2: Protein Calculation:

Calculate your protein intake by this formula:

Person with sedentary lifestyle, Protein intake= Ideal body weight in kgs (multiply by) 0.8 gm
Person with moderate workout, Protein intake= Ideal body weight in kgs (multiply by) 1 gm
Person with moderate to intense workouts, Protein intake= Ideal body weight in kgs (multiply by) 1.5 gm

Note: Consult your trainer/nutritionist/doctor while calculating this protein amount as your medical conditions and intensity of workouts also need to be considered.

To consume this amount of protein, we would want to divide this intake of protein into 5-6 meals over the course of the day.

Managing this protein intake is a bit difficult for vegetarians. Even for individual who consume non-veg and take up heavy workouts, just the thought of eating six chicken breasts a day or eight egg whites in each meal can seem like a daunting task. An alternative to this is to ingest 1 or 2 scoops of protein powders in the form of a protein shake.

Conclusion: Protein is not just about quantity. It’s also about quality. Protein intake needs to be wisely planned. Good sources of protein include high quality proteins like egg, chicken, fish, skimmed milk and soy. Red meat, egg yolk and high fat milk products are rich in saturated fats and hence should be avoided. Whole pulses, sprouts and daals(lentils) should be consumed in combination with a cereal to make the amino acid profile complete. For eg: Roti with Daal/Rice with Rajma/Khichadi.

If required protein powders can be included. Natural source of protein is the best but, due to day to day constraints of making and eating them, you may need to add the protein supplement into your diet. Getting all your protein from powders is not the best idea, as it could potentially restrict your intake of vitamins and minerals from other foods. Selection of protein powder will be discussed in my next blog. Stay tuned!

April 21, 2015 By Vrushali Athavle 1 Comment

Body goes Nuts over Nuts

Here is your guide to Nut allergy: Dos and don’t’s

Nuts! Oh…they sure can cause trouble if you are allergic to them and growing number of adults and kids alike are allergic to them. I became more attentive to this problem when my 3 year old daughter experienced allergic reactions. The doctor identified the red rashes all over her body, as an allergic reaction to some food.

The doctor asked me to cut down on 8 foods namely eggs, milk, peanuts, tree nuts, fish, shell fish, wheat and soy which accounts for about 90% of all the reactions.

So what type of food allergies are we talking about? It could be peanuts for one or tree nuts. (almonds, walnuts, pecans, cashew, Pistachios, hazelnuts).

Nut allergy is one of the most common types of food allergy in both children and adults. This allergy tends to last an entire lifetime, although about nine percent of children with a tree nut allergy and 20 percent of children with a peanut allergy eventually outgrow their allergy. On stopping the consumption of peanuts, the rashes never turned up, thus confirmed the nut allergy in case of my daughter.

The first thing that comes to one’s mind about having an allergy is, you picture non-stop sneezing , running nose etc. But, unlike an allergic dust or spring flower that many have, a nut allergy can cause difficulty in breathing and other serious issues including skin rashes etc. and could prove fatal at times.

Before we proceed towards, the symptoms, precautionary measures to take and substitutes, let’s quickly check out what exactly is a food allergy.

What is food allergy?

It is very important to know what is food allergy? People are seldom aware that one could be allergic to some food and that dust and flower allergies are not the only allergies that people may have.

The job of our body’s immune system is to identify and destroy the germs (such as bacteria or viruses) that make you sick. A food allergy occurs when this immune system wrongly identifies a harmless food as an allergen i.e a threat and attacks it.

When you come into contact with something that you are allergic to (an allergen), a group of cells in your body, called mast cells, release a substance called histamine. Histamine causes the tiny blood vessels in the tissues of your body to leak fluid which causes the tissues to swell. This results in a number of different symptoms.

The Symptoms may vary for person to person. Here is a list for you to go through. Basically the symptoms are divided into two categories-:

Mild symptoms which can be cured by medication

Rashes, swelling of the extremities, redness and tenderness, hivesm nausea, stomach cramps, vomitting, diarrheo and breathing difficulty.

Quick action: Antihistamines such as diphenhydramine (Benadryl) or loratidine (Claritin) can help relieve rashes and hives. Cold, wet compresses can also help soothe irritated skin.

Anaphylaxis: Life threatening

Constriction and tightening of airways, a swollen throat or the sensation of a lump in your throat that makes it difficult to breathe, Shock with a severe drop in blood pressure, Rapid pulse, Dizziness, lightheadedness or loss of consciousness

Quick Action: Emergency treatment is critical for anaphylaxis. Untreated, anaphylaxis can cause a coma or even death.

KEEP YOURSELF ALERT !!

A person with an allergy to one type of tree nut has a higher chance of being allergic to other types. Therefore, many experts advise patients with allergy to tree nuts to avoid all nuts. Here are few precautionary actions to need to take care of:

Avoid peanuts and tree nuts. This means we also need to avoid foods containing them like cookies, candies, ice creams, yogurts, sauces, Thai, Chinese and Indian dishes that often contain peanut and tree nut. One can have these without the nuts in them.
Read labels while you purchase foods from market. Keep at bay all the food products which say “may contain nuts” or “produced on shared equipment with nuts or peanuts”
Be very cautious in the kitchen while using the equipments. Knife, spoon or any vessel in which peanut or nut food preparation was used should be properly washed before using it again.
Inform about your allergy to everyone with whom you enjoy your food like your family, friends and colleagues so that they are careful while serving you food. When you visit a restaurant, be very careful to check the ingredient list or ask the manager about the foods served. Don’t feel shy and if they are not willing to share, better opt for some other restaurant. (Abroad restaurant menus do specify dishes that have nuts and warn anyone with nut allergy. But, in India we do have to ask and let the person know about your allergies)
Keep rescue medicines on you at all times — not in your locker, but in a pocket, purse, or bag that’s with you.
If your child is suffering from nuts allergy, inform this in their school.

Take care of your loved ones, by being extra careful of what they are eating. Make them happy by suggesting these alternatives such as sunflower seed butter or soy nut butter, hummus and nut free granola bars over peanuts and tree nuts.

Disclaimer: This blog is based on examples we have come across of people with Nut Allergy. To know if you’re allergic Please consult a doctor and do not go by your own judgement. An allergy test will confirm the allergies you have if any.

January 21, 2015 By Vrushali Athavle 1 Comment

What time is the best time to exercise?

Today, everybody is well aware of the importance of exercising. People want to come out of their sedentary and a very uncertain lifestyle routine due to constant travelling but, how and when to invest this 30 to 40 minute for exercise regime in such hectic schedules is a BIG QUESTION??

If you ask me, when is the best time to exercise, my answer would be in the MORNING, for several reasons such as

It boost’s your metabolism and keeps it elevated for several hours; meaning you are burning more calories all the day long
You psychologically feel healthy because you started your day in a healthy way which motivates you to make the remaining day healthy as well.
If you have a fixed exercise time in the morning, you are eventually motivated to develop the habit of sleeping on time to wake up on time.
Many a times it happens that people don’t find time to exercise. In such cases best thing to do is to sleep half an hour earlier at night then you usually sleep and wake up half an hour earlier in the morning and utilize that time to exercise. Research shows that people who exercise regularly have a higher quality of sleep and hence require less sleep.

But, friends this is not the end. If at all you miss exercising in the morning or many are not morning people and do not prefer to exercise in the morning, for them the next good time is in the evenings after office. Exercising in the evening can act as a stress reliever after a hectic day.

Due to erratic work schedules, keeping a fixed time for evening workouts can be difficult for some people and hence they end up missing the evening workout too. People end up saying Ohho, yet another day is over and I missed my workout once again. Can I go for a walk after my dinner? The answer is definitely YES but you have to take care that you keep a gap of 2 hours between your dinner and walk. The reason behind this is that, when you go for a walk immediately after your dinner, the blood flow is diverted towards your legs instead of stomach and then digestion is hampered which is not what we aim for.

A new interesting and fun part of exercise comes in when you have a large group working out with you. Start a healthy trend in your office. For some people, lunch time is the best time to exercise, especially in the office along with their colleagues. We do this at our workplace at GOQii . On the days, I am not able to exercise in the morning, I am not much worried as in the office we have developed this habit of working out together just before our lunch.

People who are still confused which time can be best, try to exercise in the morning for a few weeks, then try at noon and then evening. Find out for yourself which is the time you enjoyed the most and which time made you feel the best. Also consider the type of exercise and other daily commitments.

One day, you’ll reach a point where daily exercise comes as naturally as breathing. At that point, you may want variety. But, if you’re still at the point where exercise is hit or miss, scheduling it for the same time each day will help you make it a habit. Whether you choose morning, lunch time, or after work to exercise, make it part of your routine.

To conclude, any time is good time to be active , its just that you need to find out for yourself and be consistent till it becomes a habit for you.