Search Results for: food

March 26, 2020 By Navnee Garg 3 Comments

10 Ways to Turn Quarantine Time into Quality Time

It has been over a week of working from home, social distancing and self-isolation from the outer world! Is it getting boring for you? With another 21 days of lockdown in full effect, life might only get monotonous. Let’s break that routine. Let’s utilize this time to do something more fun, productive and refreshing!

Focusing on the positive, this lockdown might actually be a blessing in disguise for those who have been too busy with work to do anything else. With all the time you save by not traveling or not being able to invest in social gatherings, you can pursue a hobby you’ve always wanted to or do something fun!

10 Fun Things to do During Lockdown

Read a Book: Are you an avid reader who would finish a novel over weekends? If busy work hours and long travel hours stopped you from doing that, now is your time to shine! Get cozy in a corner, sip some nice green tea and immerse yourself in a book you’ve wanted to read. If you want to begin reading, try Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain or Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert.
Rearrange the Wardrobe: This is every mom’s dream come true! Clean the shelves, rearrange clothes and once this lockdown is over, you can even donate the ones you don’t need. Organize your cupboard now that you have the time.
Workout at Home: With the work from home mandate, closed gyms and lockdown, we’re spending more time sitting than being active. Now is the best time for home workouts. If you’re not motivated to workout, then you can join the 30 Day Quarantine Burn Challenge on GOQii and earn some exciting rewards while getting fit! All you need to do is tune in to workout videos on GOQii Play for 30 days. There’s more info in the GOQii App.
Learn a New Hobby: Each one of us has always wanted to learn something or the other which could be painting, dancing, boxing, playing an instrument, cooking or may be as small as a headstand. You have all the time to explore these wonderful creative activities now! Utilise this bonus time to enhance your creativity skills.
Grow Some Greens: Gardening is not only environment friendly but also a great stress buster. Go on and grow some organic vegetables to relish the nutrition at its best. If you want to begin growing your own microgreens, join Coach Arooshi Garg on GOQii Play as she has classes which are specific to growing microgreens!
Sanitize Your Home: It is not only the hands that need sanitizing but everything that you touch as well. Wear your gloves and reach on to every corner of the house that you usually miss on due to lack of time. You can use a dettol spray to kill the germs around.
Watch your Favourite Series: It’s time to catch up on the list of shows/movies you always wanted to watch. We do not suggest binge watching and eating as that can harm your health but planning your tasks everyday and having the entertainment slot for 30 minutes can be manageable.
Plan Virtual Meets: Family and friends are always important. Social distancing needs to be followed strictly but we still can connect with our people over the phone, video calls, skype, etc. Make the most of the technology we have.
Quality Time with Your Family: The busy routine of office and work at times keeps us away from family chit chats. Now you can sit together, talk to each other and recollect old memories. You have more time to spend with your spouse, eat food with your kids and play in the house with your siblings. If you have a pet, you can feed, groom and bathe him/her! This would boost your inner happiness for sure.
Mediate: Stress levels are definitely high with the fear of increasing cases in our country. Be patient and calm. Indulge in some nice deep breathing sessions before sleep or practice Pranayama. It will help you stay positive and take decisions responsibly during emergencies. Join meditation and yoga sessions on GOQii Play for a better experience!

These are just a few ways in which you can utilize and make the most of this 21 day lockdown! Do you have some other activities planned? How are you spending your days? Let us know in the comments below!

#BeTheForce

March 20, 2020 By Richa Sanghvi 2 Comments

What You Should Eat After a Workout

workout With the recent self-quarantine due to the coronavirus in full effect, most of us have been working out at home. We understand that exercise is important to keep ourselves fit, healthy and build immunity but one thing that we need to watch out for is what we eat after a workout. Eating the right food post workout is important for several reasons.

When you exercise your muscles use glycogen as a fuel to provide you optimum energy. This results in partial depletion of glycogen from your muscles. Some of the proteins in your muscles also get broken down and depleted, especially when you do strength training. After you workout, your muscles try to replenish these stores within 30-45 minutes of workout. That is the reason why you should eat after a workout so that muscle recovery happens quicker and less wear and tear of muscles occur. This ultimately leads to muscle growth, which is our main goal.

The Right Nutrition

Not only eating but also eating the right food is important. Proteins, as discussed above, get depleted. Thereby, eating the right amount of protein (0.3-05 gm/kg body weight) just after workout gives your body the amino acids required for muscle recovery and growth.

Glycogen is used as a fuel by body therefore eating carbohydrates (1.1 – 1.5 gm/kg body weight) within 30 minutes of workout helps in glycogen re-synthesis. A combination of both carbs and proteins helps in maximizing protein and glycogen synthesis.

Don’t shy away from including some fat in your meal as well. A little bit of it will not harm your recovery. In fact, fat is required by your body to absorb all the fat soluble vitamins.

Last but not the least, you should keep yourself hydrated always. As drinking enough water will help in better recovery and next day’s performance.

What Should You Eat After a Workout?

Brown bread and Peanut butter
Egg whites and toast
Chocolate milkshake (Avoid sugar if you are aiming at weight loss)
Chicken, brown rice and veggies
Quinoa with plenty of veggies or like a salad
Sweet potato
Cornflakes and milk
Banana milkshake
Fruit smoothie – Fruit of your favourite choice + Yogurt
Salad containing seeds like chia, sunflower and flax seeds

Don’t let social isolation or self-quarantine hamper your routine! Try these foods after a good home workout to strengthen your body and your immunity. If you need guidance for home workouts or more tips to build your immunity, tune in to LIVE classes on GOQii Play.

Let’s get stronger and #BeTheForce against COVID-19 together.

March 15, 2020 By Anusha Subramanian Leave a Comment

GOQii app launches ‘Contact Tracking’ feature

To help users self-track potential virus carriers to contain the spread of COVID19

Last week in Pune when the couple and their child were tested positive, immediately, the health authorities tried and traced back all those people with whom the couple and child came in contact. Tracing helped them detect two positive cases from Mumbai including the cab driver who drove them from Mumbai airport to Pune. A statement then from the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme of the Public Health Department, Maharashtra then said an “aggressive contact tracing activity” is in progress on a war footing after two Dubai returnees from Pune were found positive for coronavirus.

The last time, I remember reading and hearing about contact tracing was during the wild outbreak of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in West Africa. The early rollout of all measures alongside contact tracing efforts in Liberia was considered to have played a major role in the rapid decline of the country’s cases in September 2014.

In the current scenario, Coronavirus (COVID-19) has been declared a pandemic by the WHO. The virus is fast spreading and it is imperative to act quickly, cautiously and focus on prevention given that there is no cure yet. In the wake of coronavirus and the call by PM Modi to caution and not panic, GOQii, as a preventive healthcare platform has launched a first of its kind ‘Contact Tracking’ features, to help users track every movement, activity and also track those who have been in close contact with them and this app feature will effectively help in social distancing as is recommended by the WHO.

This app will help especially in cases of a positive detection, where users can immediately backtrack every movement and individuals that one has come in contact with, in the last few days. This will ensure prevention, quick detection of virus carriers and thus curtail the spread of the virus.

But, before we understand why such an app feature could be important for individuals and public health workers and institutions, it is important to understand What is Contact Tracing and why is it important during an outbreak is important?

Several international research and also the WHO describes that Contact tracing is an important strategy in epidemiology and refers to the identification and diagnosis of those individuals who have come in contact with an infected person. It ultimately aims to reduce the time span required to detect and treat a case of infectious disease and hence significantly minimizes the risk of transmission to the subsequent susceptible individuals. In-fact, contact tracing continues to remain an important measure, as it aids the epidemiologist in containing the infection.

Contact tracing is closely linked with case detection and investigation processes so that subsequent symptomatic patients can be effectively managed.

Contact tracing can feel like drudgery, but in an outbreak, it’s vital to public health. During this current COVID-19 outbreak, contact tracing will help make possible early diagnosis and getting care to people who need it. The information it uncovers also helps public health authorities contain epidemics.

Given this scenario, GOQii felt ‘self-tracking’ is also essential and should be followed to track one’s daily routine. Thus, it has specially updated the app to help users self-track, to the level of keeping a tab on every person one must have come in contact with, like cab sharing apps like Uber, Lyft, Ola, E-commerce and food delivery services like Amazon, Flipkart, Swiggy and Zomato. One can record the person’s name, contact number as well as photographs of course with their permission.

COVID19 Tracking related App Features

Track Body Temperature, Weight, Heart Rate, Blood Sugar and other vitals.
Symptoms like Cough, Cold, Difficulty in breathing etc
Food and activity log with location
Log contacts – time spent with people at various occasions
Uber, Lyft, Ola rides with driver details
Food delivery and other delivery services, name and phone number of delivery persons

You can download the app from Android Store and iOS Store

GOQii app follows the privacy policy. The data logged by the user is private to the user. The privacy settings in the app let the users decide whether they want to share their logs publicly, with just their friends or keep them visible only to themselves.

GOQii’s Founder & CEO Vishal Gondal believes that the GOQii COVID-19 related App features will help with contact tracing and remote quarantine management. We are hoping that we could play a major role in helping people take all precautions as well as help the government and health authorities, to be able to contain COVID19. We hope our combined efforts will rapidly lead to a better epidemiological understanding of COVID-19. Our goal is to improve the outcomes of the global community—as more people become infected”. “GOQii will do all within its ambit to implement caution as a clarion call by the PM. PM Modi’s efforts are being praised worldwide “as India is ahead of the curve to contain the virus,” Gondal added.

Healthcare authorities and professionals can leverage GOQii’s cutting-edge wearable, artificial intelligence & coaching ecosystem to accelerate COVID-19 surveillance and interventions. GOQii is supportive and open to helping all Government bodies in a step towards prevention and adequate health management.

Apart from tracking daily activity, GOQii app will also enable users to track symptoms related to coronavirus and distinguishing symptoms including headache, cough, cold, flu and difficulty in breathing etc. Keeping your immunity intact is important in such a crisis situation. Users can have free access for 3 months to GOQii Play live for workouts and access to updates from experts while working out in the confines of your home to avoid social contact.

March 7, 2020 By GOQii 1 Comment

Faith, Patience and Persistence – Kumarswamy Remala User Journey

What motivates you to push past your limits and achieve your goals? What drives you to stay active mile after mile? Is it determination? Is it a poster you read that charged you up? There may be many reasons such as building confidence, wanting to be there for your family and friends, the desire to live longer and healthier – but as we all know, motivation runs out as quickly as it comes. Determination without the right guidance is meaningless. But with the right guidance, faith in your coach, patience and persistence, anything is achievable. Don’t believe us? Ask our player Kumarswamy Remala.

Life Before GOQii

Kumarswamy Remala is a 33 year old working professional from Bangalore. Since childhood, he has been a complete foodie. However, to balance it out, he used to be very active. Cricket and badminton were his favorite in college. He even kept himself active intermittently after joining a workplace. In December 2015, he suffered a back injury which put a halt to all his physical activities for a while.

To add to this, he worked in rotational shifts which moved from morning shifts to late night shifts. This worsened his eating habits as pizzas, junk food and alcohol became a staple. His sweet tooth along with a penchant for trying different recipes added to his weight gain. He went from 80kg to slowly accumulating another 20-24kg over a period of time.

Motivation to Change and Joining GOQii

His health began taking a turn for the worse. He knew he had to change but the real motivation came through when his child was born in 2017. Kumarswamy Remala realized that he could not hold his child for a long time due to his back pain or even play with him due to his weight issues. This made him feel quite unhappy about himself and he finally decided to do something about it. He did not want to miss giving a 100% to his child. It was in 2019, approximately 6 months ago that one of his colleagues introduced him to GOQii.

Kumarswamy Remala Turns His Lifestyle Around!

After coming onboard GOQii, he began to strictly adhere to the habits set by his coach. His changes included:

Reducing rice intake. Although difficult, he managed to switch to less rice and began eating more salads for both meals. His plate now is 60% veggies!
Reduce the intake of sweets and consume natural sugars like dates, dark chocolate, etc.
Begin consuming plant protein powder supplements post-workout and chia seeds water to control the in-between hunger pangs.
Finish dinner before 9 during his night shift and just eat a fruit or muesli with milk if he feels hungry at night.
Drink ACV water in the morning to boost metabolism.
Get active for at least 5 days a week by working out in a gym.

Making the Shift!

Currently, Kumarswamy Remala weights 84kg. That’s a reduction of 16kg in a span of 6 months with GOQii. He says he feels really good about himself for having achieved his goal. He is able to concentrate on work better than before. In fact, he has begun pursuing his passion for badminton again as and when time permits and also enjoys spending time with his family like he couldn’t before!

He is thankful to his GOQii Coach for the inputs shared on portion control, suggestions and tips on how to eat healthy during his night shift and for sharing healthy recipes which appease the chef in him. He interacts with his coach regularly and logs his activities without fail every day. He purchases a lot of products from the GOQii Health Store, in fact, he purchases half his groceries from here. He has subscribed to GOQii Play coaches like Tufail Qureshi, Ronak Gajjar and Bhumika Uniyal for a mix of fitness and yoga.

In closing, he says that it is easy to manage your health when you have somebody guiding you at every step. He says this job is done extremely well by GOQii and all you need to do is have faith in your Coach, patience for results and be persistent in your efforts to achieve your goals!

We hope this story inspires you to get off that couch, Level Up and Get Active! Do leave your thoughts in the comments below.