User Stories Archives

July 24, 2021 By GOQii Leave a Comment

Losing 22kg at 80 with GOQii! Col Ravi Minocha User Journey

As we age, we are often unable to do the things we could before. Mobility issues as a result of old age often become an excuse for older adults to not get active. But we’re here to tell you that age is just a number if you have the will, determination and proper guidance towards living an active and healthy lifestyle. Don’t believe us? Let our player, Retired Army Col Ravi Minocha, tell you how he lost weight and beat his mobility issues with sheer willpower and the right guidance from GOQii! Recently, he spoke to our Founder & CEO Vishal Gondal. You can watch their conversation here:

Life Before GOQii

“I was very active as an army officer. I was in the unit of Core of Electronics as a mechanical engineer. I retired from the army in 1994,” he says. “I always had a tendency to put on weight. After retirement, I joined the private sector and worked there for 10 years. In 2004, I stopped working and had developed arthritis issues in the knee due to which my mobility reduced.

Doctors suggested surgery as a solution, other than that, it was to pop some painkillers and go in for physiotherapy. I did not want to take pain killers and by now, my mobility had reduced a great deal. I could barely walk for 10 minutes. I reached a stage where I was shy of standing on a weighing scale as I had reached the weight of 99kg and had a waistline of about 48-49 inches. In June 2017, on my birthday, my daughter Latika gifted me a GOQii Tracker and what intrigued me was the coaching aspect.”

Making Steady Lifestyle Changes

Initially, Col Ravi Minocha struggled with losing weight and his son told him that he had to do something about controlling his weight. That’s when his health goal became to reduce weight. His ideal weight, as per his age and height was supposed to be around 76-77kg.

After getting onboard the GOQii Ecosystem, Col Ravi Minocha dedicatedly followed all the instructions given to him by his GOQii Coach. “My coach has been very accommodating,” he says. “She has only been motivating, never once discouraging. As for my bad habit of eating unhealthy, she directed me well towards healthy eating. We started small. I followed everything that my coach said religiously. I started enjoying the interactions with my coach. My coach had a lot to work on, including my unhealthy eating habits, my weight and also my mobility issues. So we started slowly.”

Within 3 months of being on GOQii, he started feeling the change and slowly his GOQii Coach revised the step count to 10K daily. His mobility issues persisted slightly even then but he realized it was getting better. The Coach also changed his eating habits by reducing his carb and sweets intake. He began eating millets, millet rotis – 8-10 meals in a week with millets, including salads. Controlled diet and exercises helped him improve his weight and with weight loss, his mobility improved.

Col Ravi Minocha Sees The Results of a Healthy Lifestyle

In 3 years, Col Ravi Minocha lost 22kg and his weight had reduced from 99kg to 77kg. His waist size has reduced from 49 inches to 38 inches now. Currently, he is working towards maintaining this weight which is ideal for his age and height. On an average, he completes around 12-13k steps.

In May, he took around 270km steps, which is equivalent to almost 7 marathons. He was quite chuffed looking at the data. He says that, “The GOQii App is very good and getting feedback is a very good thing.” Col Ravi Minocha has been renewing his subscription year after year and is extremely happy and thankful to his coach.

His daughter Latika stays in Singapore and is very happy to see her dad doing very well. She had gifted him a GOQii after her husband’s friend Jyotirmoy Saha, who also happens to be Vishal Gondal’s friend, suggested GOQii. She says, “What appealed to my dad was the personal coaching. We are all so proud of our dad and what he has achieved at his age. We all marvel at his will power and determination. Even now, he calls and says how many steps he has completed. He has become a great influencer for all of us, including my mom.”

What Does His Coach Falguni Bhojak Have To Say?

For Col Ravi Minocha, the goal we were working on was reducing his weight and tummy fat. But the main concern was his knee discomfort due to OA, because of which he had mobility issues. Due to his Arthritis issues, his mobility was restricted and he was not able to walk at a stretch for more than 10-15 minutes.

Then we started working on knee discomfort as in, started anti-inflammatory food, started knee exercises, walking with short breaks in between. I also looked into his diet and asked him to log his food every day so I could know what he was eating and how we could bring about changes in that. He started having lukewarm lemon water, more fruits and salads as well as green veggies. We introduced Millets in his diet and he started having millet roti and millet dosa.

He was so consistent and disciplined in updating logs from the time he joined! Even when he travelled to visit his daughter in Singapore, he kept updating his logs and kept updating me about his habits. Gradually, his mobility became better and he was completing 7-8 k steps by going to walk 2 times a day. Gradually we increased the time and now he can walk for an hour without breaks and discomfort.

He had some constipation problems in between, so we started including soaked black raisins to his diet and that helped. When his hemoglobin had shot down, we began including iron-rich food to ensure he remained healthy.

Col. Minocha is consistent with his habits and follows whatever is told to him. He is extremely disciplined in following his routine. Consistency and discipline have helped him achieve his health goals. Infact, on 29 June, he updated me that his weight is now down to 76.5kg.

As you can see from Col Ravi Minocha’s journey, it is never too late to make a positive shift to a healthier lifestyle. What’s stopping you? Subscribe for personalized coaching now: https://goqiiapp.page.link/bsr

For more inspiring stories, check out Healthy Reads.

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July 10, 2021 By GOQii Leave a Comment

Discipline Is The Key To A Healthier Lifestyle – Birendra Verma User Journey

One of the key pillars to achieving your goals is discipline. You may have the best coach, the best nutritionist or even someone motivating you at every step but without discipline and consistency, reaching your health goal will be close to impossible. That’s the thing about setting goals and having plans, they never work unless you do. If you maintain discipline, no goal is out of reach at any given age. Don’t believe us? Here’s the journey of our player Birendra Verma who made a positive lifestyle change by maintaining a disciplined lifestyle!

Life Before GOQii

Birendra Verma is a 60 year old working professional from Mumbai. Before joining GOQii, he never indulged in any physical activity. He led what most of us consider a pretty normal life revolving around work and home. He suffered from Diabetes for the last 10 years and in 2016, he weighed around 103kg. It was in 2016 itself that one of his two daughters decided to gift him a GOQii for Father’s Day, changing his life and health forever!

Making The Shift With GOQii

Upon signing up, Birendra Verma didn’t get any specific diet plan but there were a few modifications made to his lifestyle. His GOQii Coach, who at the time was Coach Kusum introduced him to Zumba – something he follows regularly even today. Later, when his Coach changed to Coach Shraddha, she suggested he walk daily. His current step count ranges from 10k-15k daily. Later, his new GOQii Coach Naina Sudarshan introduced him to breathing exercises, surya namaskar and planks. He initially began with 30 seconds and can now hold a plank for up to 2 minutes.

He says that as a disciplined person, it wasn’t too difficult for him to follow the instructions given to him by his Coaches. They helped him with his diet, understood his enthusiasm, provided him with regular exercises and motivated him every step of the way.

Thanks to the changes introduced by his coaches, within a year of joining GOQii, he had lost 20kgs and currently, as of 2021, he weighs 83kg. He credits this weight loss to his Coach’s suggestion to walk at least 10k steps a day and his own discipline in following through.

What Does Birendra Verma Think About GOQii?

He says that Coach Naina and Coach Shraddha helped him a lot in his journey with GOQii. Coach Naina pushed him a lot to achieve his goals and encouraged him with regular exercises as well as breathing exercises. Coach Shaddha reviewed his regular health checkups and took measures to help him maintain his health.

What Does His GOQii Coach Have To Say About His Journey?

Coach Naina says, “Having a player who is well aware of his own health is always motivating for me as a coach. Birendra Verma is one such player who is very disciplined, dedicated, and maintains consistency with whatever habits that were suggested by me for his health. Going through health conditions like diabetes and hypertension can be challenging as a busy working professional. A person will be at higher risk of getting frequent infections and inflammation with diabetes. Birendra has learnt to manage how to handle such situations without too much dependency on medications these days. His balanced diet, regular physical activities, good sleep routine and mainly knowing how to manage stress have helped him a lot. He is one of the most active and energetic players in his age group that I have seen so far. I am glad to be working with him as a coach to motivate him and guide him every day to maintain his health.”

Are you looking for a Coach like Naina Sudarshan to guide and motivate you? Sign up for personalized coaching here: https://goqiiapp.page.link/bsr

For more inspiring user journeys, check out Healthy Reads.

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June 26, 2021 By GOQii Leave a Comment

Consistency, Discipline & Dedication – Bharat Rao Shares 3 Secrets For Healthy Living!

Living a healthy life is all about maintaining balance. This includes exercise, nutrition, sleep and maintaining good mental & emotional health as well. If you’ve been hitting the gym or doing your daily walks or even eating the food you are supposed to without achieving results, there might be something that is amiss. That’s where having a coach who can guide and motivate you, really helps! To let you know how, here’s the journey of our Player Bharat Rao who went from being healthy to healthier, with help from his GOQii Coach.

Life Before GOQii

Bharat Rao works as a Senior Technical Lead in an IT Company. His work requires him to travel frequently. Till June 2019, his weight was 85kg but after a year, it shot up to 103kg. He did keep himself active despite his daily routine by playing badminton with a friend who eventually introduced him to GOQii.

Making The Shift

GOQii’s concept of Karma, personalized coaching and a tracker to monitor his step counts along with an integrated app really intrigued Bharat Rao. He decided that investing his time in GOQii would be worth his while.

After they got on call, his GOQii Coach included changes such as correcting his food habits, introducing more fruits and vegetables while reducing junk food, tea and coffee in take as well as putting a stop to late dinners. His workout included basic cardio and strength training at home. He was asked to avoid using his cellphone late at night in hopes to correct his sleep pattern.

Within the first month itself, Bharat Rao felt healthy! He was able to cope with the changes thanks to him being active before and was able to follow through with discipline. It got a bit challenging to incorporate these changes with his frequent traveling, but his GOQii Coach was able to help him adjust his schedule that included walking 6-7k steps a day, drinking cinnamon honey water in the morning before he began his journey. They were able to adjust eating habits too thanks to portion control. If regular walking didn’t cut it for him, he switched to GOQii Play in the mornings.

Staying Fit During Lockdown

With the outbreak of COVID-19 and the subsequent lockdown in 2020, he was quite worried about how he would keep up his routine. With some advice from his GOQii Coach, he began walking more indoors, meditating for 15 mins in the morning and 45 mins at night. He also began practicing yoga. He says, “Meditating in the morning and evening has actually helped me think positively, keeping all the negativity around the coronavirus and the economic situation at bay. I feel more grounded and peaceful even while sitting at home.”

At the end of 2020, his weight reduced to 85kg and he felt he was much healthier than before. He says that this journey was all about him repeating a routine over and over again, not giving up, staying disciplined and having good people push him further in a healthy way! He says that the 3 secrets to his transformation were consistency, discipline and dedication!

What Does Bharat Rao Think About GOQii?

Bharat Rao says that his coaches have constantly motivated him to be disciplined and consistent, sharing inputs from time to time about what he should eat, what exercises he should do and what he shouldn’t do. Most importantly, they have structured his routine for the days he travels. He is thankful to GOQii for helping him achieve his goal.

What Does Coach Sudrita Roy Choudhury Have To Say About Bharat’s Journey?

Bharat was very committed to his health goal when he came on board. He was always very sincere from the beginning and never missed his updates. Along with walking, we have also included yoga and core exercises to his routine. We have always discussed portion size which he has maintained and has got visible results! Deep breathing helped him reduce stress – one of the important parameters to maintain a healthy lifestyle. I am convinced he will reach his goal soon. He is very active and promptly maintains two way communication via chats and calls which motivates me as well.

Did this story inspire you? Want more? Check out Healthy Reads! If you want to make a positive lifestyle change just like Bharat Rao has, sign up for personalized coaching to get a coach as awesome as Sudrita Roy Choudhury: https://goqiiapp.page.link/wssu

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June 12, 2021 By GOQii Leave a Comment

“I Will Be With GOQii Lifelong!” – Rabin Talukdar On His Health Journey

We’ve always advocated that making small, manageable lifestyle changes can lead to good health in the long run. Multiple health issues often stem from unhealthy eating habits, lack of physical activity and sleep. Managing these effectively can help you a lot! Here’s an interesting journey of our Player Rabin Talukdar who managed several lifestyle diseases by making a positive lifestyle change.

Life Before GOQii

Currently at the age of 40, Rabin Talukdar resides in Assam. He says that his health issues began organizing a Durga Puja celebration during 2019. His meal timings were off and he found himself munching on unhealthy food all the time. His stress was high and he began experiencing a burning sensation in his chest, dizziness and lack of sleep. Soon after, he consulted with a doctor for multiple issues like hyperacidity, fatty liver and high blood pressure. His doctor said that along with medication, lifestyle modification is what will give him faster relief and suggested he join GOQii.

Making a Lifestyle Change

Rabin Talukdar began his journey under the guidance of Coach Trupti Pandya and shared all his reports with her. After carefully examining his reports, she assured him that he can start off with small changes such as detox water, avoiding maida and other processed foods while eating more vegetables in the form of salads and curries. He started with ACV for 3 months which also helped him reduce weight. He began walking on the treadmill for 20 mins along with yoga and pranayama for 20 mins a day. He now finds himself involuntarily setting aside time for physical activity everyday no matter how busy his work schedule is.

Recovering from COVID-19

In 2020, he was infected with COVID-19 and was admitted for 10 days. Though he experienced no major symptoms, he felt extremely weak and his BP was fluctuating. He returned home and still felt too weak to move around the house. He says his coach helped him a lot with diet tips on how to recover slowly and regain his strength. She asked him to include nuts, dates, peanut butter, add multigrain and millets in his meals. She even made him consume turmeric milk which was something he had always detested. She also sent him inspirational messages everyday which helped him stay positive. His coach guided him through every step like when to start walking, how much to walk in a day and constantly advised him not to strain himself and rest as much as possible.

As a result of all the above lifestyle changes, Rabin’s acidity is completely under control and he doesn’t have to take medicines anymore. His weight has also reduced by 4kg in the last one year. He says, “Thanks to GOQii, I stopped all medicines. I am so happy with my coach that I have renewed my subscription for another 12 months. I will be with GOQii lifelong. In fact, the whole of India needs GOQii, especially during this time when people are getting infected and dying all around. Only a healthy body can fight these infections and my GOQii Coach helped me realize that.”

What Does Coach Trupti Have To Say About Rabin Talukdar

Player Rabin has always been very determined towards his health goal, which was to target weight loss in a healthier way and control his medical conditions. He had high BP: 140-90, Fatty liver: Grade 1, borderline high Creatinine: 2 & LOW (BUN) urea: 14, Low Vit. D: 5, dizziness while working out, gastric trouble, and severe acidity with chest burning sensation. He was taking 3 tablets a day. His stress levels were high due to his concern regarding his medical condition and disturbed quality of sleep with only 2 hrs sound sleep. He was 5kg overweight.

His sincerity, determination, dedication, and consistency helped him achieve his goals in a healthy manner and till March 2021, his overall medical condition is resolved and his medication has stopped as well.

His Vit. D is 24 now, BP is 120- 80, borderline creatinine to 1.3mg/dL normal range and urea issues now 17. The previous issue for fatty liver is resolved completely. He only takes Vit. E tablet and his liver ranges are normal. He lost 4kg and 1 inch waist size with zero gastric trouble and his stress levels are under control with 7 hrs sound sleep now. Energy levels have improved 80% and no dizziness after workouts!

He honestly updated and acknowledged me about his condition and progress logs from time to time… and the result is a big victory in a short span of time.

Does Rabin’s story inspire you to make a lifestyle change? Then download the GOQii App and subscribe to personalized coaching here: https://goqiiapp.page.link/wssu

To read more inspirational stories, check out Healthy Reads.

#BeTheForce