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April 12, 2016 By Anusha Subramanian Leave a Comment

“100 KM trail walk was a personality altering, life changing experience for me”

Vandana with her team after the successful completion of her 2nd 100 Km trail walk in Nov 2015.

Nobody better than her can prove that small steps can have a big impact. From being a bookworm all her life to walking 100 km for charity was the biggest high in her life. And since then it has been long before she has been walking her way to health and fitness. As of now Vandana Trivedi has completed two trail walks, has a regular fitness regime, treks regularly and also is going for a seven-day climbing course to the Himalayas. While someone who is as active as Vandana would seem a perfect match for a GOQii device, she didn’t start wearing one until a year ago. Vandana’s story in her own words.

I metamorphosed just a couple of years ago from being extremely inactive to becoming active. I was introduced to GOQii by my friend Harpreet and I did my first 100 Km trail walk when she suggested we walk one for charity. Initially, GOQii for me was my gateway to this 100 Km charity walk in December 2014. To my utter amazement, I successfully completed the 100 Km. I just loved it—the atmosphere, people cheering for you, and crossing the finish line felt so great. I was so sore after that I could barely walk the next day, but I loved the way I felt.

That was the start of me believing that I can do much more than just gym training. The success of the 100 KM led to a clear shift in my overall confidence and I felt nothing was impossible. GOQii has brought about a major transformation in me, from the perspective of being fit and healthy.

Prior to GOQii, I was happily inactive. As a child, I would never like to step out of my home. Given a choice between playing a game in the outdoor and reading a book. I would choose the latter without a second thought. I would dread the PT (Physical Training) period in school for the simple reason that they would make you run and do exercises.

But then, all this changed for me for the better. 100 KM trail walk was a personality altering, life changing experience for me, and has been a means to prove to myself that someone who had nothing to do with fitness /physical activity as a child can end up being called an Ultra Marathoner if you want it badly enough.

During my first 100 Km trail walk, I saw immense value in one- to-one coaching. I also had this huge issue of acidity. While I was aware of my problem, for some reason the issue was not getting solved. My GOQii coach then recommended that I have plain lime juice 3 times a day. Lime is also acidic and when that gets into the body it becomes alkaline. That was a good advice I got from my coach and it has helped me immensely. I have gotten over my acidity problem. Now when I go for meetings I order a plain lime juice. I also got help in improving my nutrition and sleep.

Ever since I came on the GOQii platform, I have become a great advocate of GOQii. I lead a sales team in an asset management company. Rather than taking clients on foreign junkets as client engagement, I decided to follow the health route and gifted everyone a GOQii band. We engage with our clients through active Sundays. We do small things to keep them active and the feedback I have got from my clients is that it has made a significant difference to their lives. In fact 11 of them even participated in the 100 km trail walk in 2015. For me, this is like a payback to good health. My ambition is to get more people on GOQii platform.

Personally, I have become so active that today I climb 10 floors daily and three days a week I have a personal trainer with whom I work out. Two Saturdays a month I go trekking as I am part of a trekking group.

Without having something to work towards, you can’t plan or dream of what you’re going to accomplish. As my activities slowly and steadily increased I realized I wanted to aim for something big. I wanted to push myself further. So why not test my mettle with a climbing course in the Himalayas. I have signed up for a seven-day climbing course in Himachal and currently, I have been training for it. I will be leaving for my course soon. But, I would say, the goal doesn’t have to be huge, it can be to walk 10 km a week, start small but, stay focused.

What does Coach TejalGupte have to say about Vandana Trivedi?

Vandana has been my player since May 2015. She has always been a self-motivated and determined person. When she joined GOQii, I could see her as a person who knew the importance of workouts and balanced diet for good health and was leading a quite healthy lifestyle to achieve this. She has always been an adventurous person who loves trekking. According to her trekking is her motivation to stay fit and be regular with workouts. Her only major concern when she joined GOQii was stress and long term acidity. And hence, we started working on these goals immediately. Meditative yoga and deep breathing were incorporated to the routine to help knock off the stress and small frequents meal along with lemon water post lunch and dinner was basically targeted to help curb the acidity. She was very open to adding healthy changes in her existing routine and adapted to them very well. Along with this, we also focused on daily workouts, for which I also threw a couple of workout challenges to her. Then November 2015 she did her 2^nd 100 KM trail walk and successfully completed the walk in 39 hours.

You can read more about Vandana’s experience of her First 100 Km Trail Walk here

http://goqii.com/blog/5-lessons-learnt-from-100-km-trail-walk/

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March 23, 2016 By Anusha Subramanian Leave a Comment

“GOQii’s approach to fitness is very motivating,workable and enriching that I easily managed to trek to Everest Base Camp

Enroute to EBC_ Walking the long bridges. Photo Courtesy – Roland Amon

He is a filmmaker and started his own production house. Since then Life has been hectic for this young lad. He does indulge in travelling and exploring. He realized that as he was not going to stay young, which needed him to be fitter both mentally and physically…..so here is what Ridhesh Sejpal did…… his story in his own words.

I am a filmmaker and the Co-founder of Wise Guy Ent, which is where I started my entrepreneurial journey. Having my own production company makes my schedules generally hectic. To add to that I also travel for work and otherwise. These aspects give me limited time to do any kind of workout. Although, I would make it a point to wake up early and hit the gym as often as I can.

But, at times when I am shooting or travelling, I would miss out on my gym training. During work / shoots, my sleep pattern would go haywire. On the nutrition front, I had the My fitness pal app and I followed it religiously for 3 months and also lost about 9-10 kgs, but after that, I was just aware.

I realized that I am not going to stay younger and it was all the more important for me to get fitter both mentally and physically. I wanted to be active on a daily basis and hence started looking out for a fitness tracker that could track my fitness progress. I came across “GOQii”. I researched to find out it was an Indian brand. I liked the idea of a personalized coach, who would keep track of your fitness, nutrition and overall health. I decided to go for it and got my GOQii band in August 2015. My health goal when I got the GOQii band was fitness for Everest Base Camp (EBC). I wanted to be extremely fit for the EBC trek that I was doing in November 2015.

Ruksar, being my coach did not give me goals but habits to follow. Since I am a vegetarian, she gave me tips on how to increase my protein intake in my regular diet. Her suggestions were also all practically doable. Nothing was impossible.

I had never trekked earlier in my life, therefore, I did some research and there were 3 things I wanted to concentrate on – to increase lung capacity, concentrate on strengthening my leg muscles and build stamina. I also joined a Les Mills & Cross Fit training classes for 3 months and made it a point to go religiously. My trek to EBC was challenging, terrific and breathtaking all at the same time! No words or pictures can elucidate to what I saw, felt and experienced up there in the Khumbu valley in Nepal!

Mission Accompalished – Ridesh standing 2nd from right with his friends at EBC summit. Photo Courtesy – Roland Amon

I want to sincerely thank my coach Ruksar with all one’s heart for being a superb coach throughout. Pushing me daily and sticking to the basics. She helped me complete the trek successfully. Thanks to her coaching and my efforts, my lungs could endure the lack of oxygen and my muscles could survive the physical torture pretty well. We did it!

During the trek, I also kept her diet sheet in my mind. My Coach’s “GPRS” (G Stands for Grilled, P stands for Poached, R stands for Roasted and S stands for Steam) rule, stuck with me and. I consciously followed it while I ate and I still do.

My takeaway from this experience was the solutions and advice my coach gave me. They were all practical and something which I can follow routinely all throughout my life. I feel GOQii’s approach to fitness is very motivating and workable / enriching. I have been able to inspire my family and friends, to the extent that a few family members and friends have now got the band already. My next big goal for 2016 is to run the Marathon.

What does Coach Ruksar Nathani have to say about Ridesh?

His primary goal was to loose belly fat, be fit and stay healthy apart from fitness for EBC trek. He was doing well with his activities so we started working on his food habits, introduced mid-meals, warm lemon water and salads and also worked on stress by setting a goal for breathing exercise. Ridesh religiously followed all the short term goals and as a result, there was inch loss at belly and was happy about eating well and was fitter and healthier than before.

I was informed 15 days before his EBC so I did a little research and summarized everything for him which included:
1. Obstacles that he will be facing
2. Ways to tackle those
3. Daily food options to be eaten before the trek for proper nutrition as there was intense exercise going on for building stamina and strengthening.
4. Food sources high in chlorophyll and food to be avoided that will deplete oxygen.
5. Food to be carried during the trek.
6. Food options when and where to eat while on a trek.

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March 16, 2016 By Twinkle Thakkar 2 Comments

Psychology of good health: It’s all in your Mind!

Eat right, be active, sleep well seem to be the ultimate health mantra these days. Yet, when we look around we find people having the most nutritious diet and doing the right mix of cardio and strength training exercises along with well-balanced polarities of activity and rest; and yet end up falling ill or having some or the other lifestyle disease thereby reducing their life span eventually.

Most people then end up blaming their genes, lower immunity levels or toxic environment in general as the main cause for all the diseases. One rarely looks within to find the cause. The issue is largely about the way one thinks and feels. Yes, our ‘Beliefs create our Biology’!!!

Does this seem complicated to you? Let me explain this with the analogy of a car.

Good food is like quality fuel. The exercise we do to build stamina and muscles is akin to the strong car tyres or the car body. And sound sleep is like the idle engine or off road time of the car. Just as diet, exercise and sleep are essential for our health and well-being in the same way for a quality car to perform well requires fuel and maintenance. Just as the car requires a good driver to manoeuvre it, our body too requires a good functional brain and nervous system to run it smoothly.

NERVOUS SYSTEM

I am sure everyone is wondering why we are taking you back to your school days telling you about the nervous system but, it is essential to understand how a good nervous system goes a long way in keeping one healthy and happy.

It is very important to understand the way the autonomic nervous system (ANS) in our body works.ANS regulates the pulse, blood pressure and our breathing apart from being responsible for controlling the functions of internal organs and glands which secretes hormones. It is also involved in our ability to experience emotions.

ANS is made up of these 2 different branches…

Sympathetic Nervous System–it prepares the body for any action – increased blood flow to the muscles and other responses known as “fight-or-flight (just like the gas pedal in a car).
Parasympathetic Nervous System – it functions when the body is at rest and helps the body store energy for future use. (just like the brakes in a car)

For smooth functioning both these components of ANS operate in sync, example during exercise the sympathetic increases heart rate whereas after exercise the parasympathetic helps to slow down the heart rate.

However emotions like anger, anxiety or worry can cause the signals going to these two parts of the ANS to get out of sync with each other. (It’s like we have our foot on accelerator and other on brake pedal at the same time which causes jerky rides and burns more fuel) This disharmony can lead to stress, wear and tear of our body and depletes its energy.

DIGESTIVE SYSTEM

Continuing with the car analogy; the car definitely will not run longer if the fuel line is leaking or ruptured. Same way if the nutrients are not properly absorbed from the food we eat then even the most nutritious food will not make us healthy. This is exactly what happens when we are stressed. The brain is unable to distinguish between physical threat and mental tension. Body’s reaction to both is either flight or fight. The body prepares itself for flight or fight by supplying extra blood to our limbs and less to the visceral organs. This extra stimulation and inadequate blood flow causes improper digestion of even the most nutritious food.

IMMUNE SYSTEM

Immunity levels also decreases when we face stress for prolonged period of time. During such times the focus is to fight the external enemy or situation and not the virus attacking the body within. At most times it so happens that we keep thinking about a negative event of the past and feel stressed out both emotionally and physically. We unknowingly are making ourselves less immune because of our inability to correctly distinguish between the actual and virtual threat.

Thus, to end with the car analogy – the car can function only when it is run by a good driver who operates the accelerator and brakes in proper sync. The car surely requires good fuel, strong tyres along with enough engine idle time for a smooth drive; but most of all it requires is a good driver.

In the same way humans also need a sound mind which can distinguish between actual stressful situations and the trivial ones. It’s only then, we can keep ourselves calm and sleep well, eat right and move more for perfect health and longevity.

To achieve complete wellbeing we require a sound mind in a sound body.

This fact was very well exemplified by the oldest documented living person – a French woman Jeanne Clament who lived for almost 123 years without suffering any ill effects of her smoking habit of 100 years. As it’s said “Thought is more important than lifestyle”!!!

March 15, 2016 By Harshita Mehrotra Leave a Comment

“Give yourself just half hour in a day to be active”

She is a doctor by profession but, strangely never found time for herself to be active and healthy. But, the GOQii band and her coach changed everything for her in 18 months. Here is Dr. Harshita Mehrotra’s success story in her own words.

I am a surgeon and currently posted in Port Blair. But, during my residency training to be a surgeon I was based in Delhi. Residency can be very taxing and stressful. I was so involved in my studies and work that I never paid attention to my own health as I never made time for myself. It’s ironic that I was studying medicine and I myself was not up to mark with my health goals.

I used to be frequently working night shifts in the hospital and I got addicted to caffeine leading me to have several cups of Coffee through the day. Add to this habit, I also had a very sweet tooth so it used to be pastries with Coffee invariably. I just could not resist them. I was also suffering from PCOD and GRD (Gastro Reflux Disorder) which are lifestyle diseases. And above all, I had no form of exercise at all.

I knew it was time for me to do something about this and get on the health path as soon as possible. I was sure that whatever changes I made to my life needed to be sustainable over the long-term. After all, what would be the point of working really hard to get active and healthy, only to go back to old times and face all the problems again?

Before:

Unstructured schedules of a medical student
No focus on her own health – Incorrect food, no exercise routine

In November 2014, I was suggested that I join a gym or do something to get active. I had joined a gym earlier but due to my odd things as a resident, I frequently skipped it. I came across GOQii band and I decided to go for it. The moment I got it I had made up my mind I am going to get active. I was also happy that I got a personal coach who would be having a hawk’s eye on me.

My dear coach Neha More asked me all about what I did, how I ate, what I ate, if I was active daily, how much did I sleep and when did I sleep etc. I had no positive answers to give her but, I told her my health goal was clear – I wanted to get active and be active every day. Neha helped me a lot towards achieving my goal.

We did not do anything drastic. Slowly and steadily she made me change my habits. She would say “ok, you are not having enough water – so drink water and not coffee.” She got me to reduce my caffeine and sugar intake. Alongside, she also made sure I was walking or had some kind of physical activity. Prior to getting a GOQii, I was leading quite a sedentary life. Then just by jogging around also gave me some leg pain but as I got regular, the pain also disappeared.

After:

Daily fitness routine – Run and core exercises every morning
Introduced Interval Training to build stamina
Healthier meals – given up sugar, white carbs, and snacking on junk food, having an early dinner and not skipping breakfast
Change in mood, energy levels, and dress size

I have now moved out of Delhi and practice in a hospital in Port Blair so cannot be a part of Delhi active Sundays anymore. But, I make it a point to spend at least 30 minutes with myself. Currently, I do a step count of anywhere between 7000 to 10000 steps daily. I also go for a 1.5 to 2 km run every day.

Having a personal coach has really helped. Some days when I am really stressed out and tell her I am stressed she would tell me to do some meditation and breathing exercise. She would ask me to focus on the positives and these helped me.

My life has been transformed as a result of being active on a daily basis. Even the voice in my head has changed. The voice that used to be harsh and self-critical is now kinder and much more compassionate. I have learned to treat myself and others with me too who are struggling to be active and healthy.

I have also had the opportunity to inspire others to take steps to become more physically active, too. I just tell them to give you 30 minutes daily to get active and that would be all.

While it’s not just about getting active and healthy, GOQii also gives you an opportunity to do good through their Karma initiative. I have so far donated 5000 karma points till date. I donated this towards improving healthcare access for women, improving access to healthcare to poor and victims of Tamilnadu floods. Karma initiative is a great idea and makes me feel that I am contributing to the welfare of society.

It’s been over a year-and-a-half since I started on this journey. Today, I can proudly say that I have gained so much more. I have gained a healthy life and hope for the future. By the end of this year, I want to run a marathon.

What does Coach Neha More have to say about Dr. Harshita?

Dr. Harshita is a surgeon and very dedicated. When she was working in a hospital in night shifts she used to have lot of coffee and pastries. She had a sweet tooth or should I say rather sweet teeth and no time to be physically active.

We had been working on her sweet cravings, coffee intake then later running, interval jog and strengthening exercises too.

She started with exercises like strengthening, Interval jog and run and it has now become her routine and she ensures to keep herself active through the day if she misses on her daily exercises.

She incorporated healthy foods and understood the effects of ‘Mindful Eating’ while having meals which had great impact on her sweet cravings and portion control. She started consuming more water, lemon water after having sweets and coffee to maintain hydration level. We also worked on balancing the nutrient intake than restricting the specific food items to develop a healthy meal routine. All in all she is well on her path to ‘Good Health’ and be the force.