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Search Results for: breathing techniques

April 7, 2022 By Prachi More 1 Comment

Thank You For Being Healthy: Stories That Inspired Us!

Thank you for being healthyBeing healthy is not a race, it’s a marathon. It requires constant effort, patience, dedication and determination. Paired with the right guidance, you can become an unstoppable force of good health. Now, if you’re thinking you’re too busy, too old or if “this isn’t for you” then you need to read about our Elite GOQii Players who have turned their life around with simple lifestyle changes. 

Col. Ravi Minocha 

For instance, if you’re worried about being too old to begin your health story, our GOQii Player Col. Ravi Minocha will tell you otherwise. His Health Story began at the age of 80. He made everyone believe in the power of discipline, dedication and consistency. Due to the Osteoarthritis which had affected his knees, his mobility was restricted and this led to weight gain. 

But with support from his family and his GOQii Coach, he started working on his lifestyle, making small changes at a time. He was regular in updating his logs, which only helped his GOQii Coach improve his food and water consumption in a detailed manner. From taking small frequent walks , having anti-inflammatory food to having only millet based meals and detox water, he had made multiple changes in his lifestyle. Who could believe that a man who could hardly walk for 10 minutes at a time is now clocking more than 10,000 steps every day? With his efforts he was bound to get results as he lost 22kg in the span of 3 years. Isn’t it amazing?  

Kamal Nath Thakur 

Many times, we come across people who feel that the routine which they are following is a perfect one until they speak to one of our coaches. Kamal Nath Thakur who is a badminton player, did not take much interest in personalized health coaching initially, till he was infected with COVID. 

He thought of discussing his lifestyle with his GOQii Coach to see if there are any loopholes in his lifestyle. He was astonished by the detailed food log analysis and guidelines given by his coach. She helped him with respect to portion size, food timing, combination of meals and inclusion of different food groups. Not only this, but the strengthening and stretching exercises suggested by the coach helped him find relief from an untreated leg pain. From clocking only 3-4k steps to crossing over 15k steps every day, including strengthening exercises in addition to cardio practices, and being mindful of food consumption, he has come a long way!  

Ashima Dalela 

Our physical, mental and emotional health are closely connected to one another. If any one component gets affected, it causes disharmony. Player Ashima Dalela, who was suffering from gastric issues, visited more than 15 doctors but it did not help her. It affected her emotional health as well in the form of Anxiety attacks. 

After a doctor’s suggestion, she started using a GOQii tracker and personalized health coaching services. After listening to her ailments and lifestyle carefully, her coach suggested food like lemon water, detox water, curd, rice, kanji, etc. which improved her gut health. Her coach complemented it with a workout regimen .It was not easy for her to adopt so many changes but she could crack all the habits set with the help of her GOQii Coach . 

Her consistent efforts paid off! She not only found relief from the gastric ailments, but also her anxiety attacks. With incorporating habits like having fiber, a designed workout schedule she could also tackle health issues like hemorrhoids, irregular cycle and gain healthy weight to achieve her ideal body weight. Now she is focusing on improving her skin tone and texture. It’s so motivating to see how she is ticking off various medical ailments and setting new health goals one after the other. We can learn from her that lifestyle improvement is a continuous journey, there cannot be a full stop to it.

These Players Made Significant Changes But What About You? 

These players made remarkable changes in their health with minor lifestyle tweaks. You can do the same by following some of these basic habits: 

  1. Nutrition: Be mindful about what you eat. Replace refined, sugary, processed and packed food with natural, wholesome food. Include whole grains, proteins, fibers and healthy fats in the right proportion to your meals. This will nourish your body with the right nutrients and protect it from the effect of empty calories. 
  2. Hydration: Keeping yourself well hydrated helps circulate nutrients to each and every cell of your body. It’s advisable to consume moderate amounts of water at regular intervals rather than consuming large quantities at big intervals. We should avoid replacing water with fruit juices and aerated drinks to avoid unhealthy calories. 
  3. Exercise: Our body is like a machine. If you won’t move, it will catch rust. We should aim for at least 30-40 minutes of workout 5-6 days a week. It can be cardio activities like walking, jogging, swimming and dancing or strengthening exercises. It’s equally important to keep yourself active throughout the day. Reduce bouts of sedentary periods, take small walks, stretch your arms & legs frequently to keep a check on proper circulation and fat burn.
  4. Stress: In today’s world, stress is a constant trigger. You need to remember that you cannot change your circumstances, but you can change yourself! You can make yourself capable of handling stress in a better way so that it doesn’t bother you. To manage stress effectively, you can practice deep breathing exercises and mediation. Not only this, but positive affirmations and positive visualizations help a lot in reducing the cortisol surge which you get with high stress. It also helps you feel relaxed and at peace.
  5. Sleep: Light emitting from devices acts as the biggest enemy to the quality and quantity of sleep we get. It directly affects the melatonin hormone. Keeping gadgets away for 30 minutes before bedtime, indulging in relaxing techniques like listening to soothing music, reading book or spending time with family, helps in getting a good night’s sleep 

As a GOQii Expert, I request you to emphasize on healthy living by paying gratitude to your body. Yes, work and responsibilities are an important part of our life, but you can do justice to them only when you are Physically, Mentally and Emotionally fit! So if you want to begin your Health Story, sign up for personalized health coaching with GOQii and take the first step: https://goqiiapp.page.link/bsr

If you’ve been living a healthy life, taking charge of your health goals, trying to make changes to your lifestyle or are just taking the first step in your Health Story, we want to say, Thank You For Being Healthy!

Keep Going and #BeTheForce 

January 22, 2022 By GOQii Leave a Comment

Losing 12kg & Overcoming A Sedentary Lifestyle – J Ravichandran Writes His Health Story!

J Ravichandran

Does being sedentary after retirement sound familiar to you? Could be you, a loved one or someone you know. J Ravichandran, a 63 year old retired CA from Chennai, experienced the same. As a CA, his work involved a lot of traveling – which kept him active. While he did not have any major illnesses, he was on the heavier side, having reached a stage of being overweight. 

“I have always been on the heavier side. My parents have also been on the heavy side. But, after retirement I started gaining more weight,” says Ravichandran. His weight reached 86kg in June 2020 at 5.3 inches of height. Apart from gaining weight, he also developed other health issues such as aches and pains.

While things seemed grim, J Ravichandran was able to turn his life around. How? Let’s find out! 

Life Before GOQii 

Retirement and a sedentary lifestyle went hand in hand for J Ravichandran. Furthermore, with the COVID-19 Lockdown in March 2020, he was unable to go out, which meant that he had stopped walking. He put on more weight during this time. He also suffered from constipation and arthritis. 

He had no control on his eating habits, he used to drink socially and as a result of being sedentary, he suffered from improper and poor quality sleep. 

Getting Onboard The GOQii Ecosystem 

His main goal was to lose weight and he also wanted to manage his indigestion problem, arthritis pain and constipation. He had problems while walking due to being overweight. He even had problems sitting and getting up. That’s when he decided something needs to be done or else living like this would get quite difficult for him. 

He joined a local gym but that didn’t help him much. He tried walking inside the confines of his home but again, it did not give him any result. Then, the lockdown hit and everything stopped. All this collectively took a toll on him. 

In July 2020, he came across GOQii and its fitness tracker from one of his friends and without much thought, he purchased it. He got a 3 month personal health coaching subscription free with his device. He wanted a coach who could understand the South Indian diet and he was assigned to coach Jannath. He was able to build a very good rapport with the coach as they shared the same regional language.  

Initially, he thought that the coach would help only with his diet but he was quite impressed with the holistic approach that entailed diet, workout, stress and sleep management. He followed all the changes that the coach brought in for his betterment. 

These changes included: 

  • Morning start with detox water
  • Drinking Apple Cider Vinegar 
  • Consuming Methi seeds soaked in water as well as lime water
  • Introduction of mid meal snacks 
  • Portion control 

His GOQii Coach also suggested intermittent fasting. 

When he started in July 2020, he was 84.8kg and by October 2021, he had lost 12kg. Since then, his weight has remained at 73. He has reduced inches on his waist as well.

J Ravichandran has been regularly updating his logs on the app and keeps his coach informed. He credits changes in his lifestyle to GOQii and his GOQii Coach. He regularly completes 10K steps and thanks to being active, with weight reduction, his knee pain has also reduced.

Overall Benefits

“I am now more disciplined and log all details everyday. These logs are continuously monitored and I get regular feedback from the coach. That helps as it gives you an idea of where you stand in terms of your health,” says Ravichandran. Ravinchaindran has now introduced his wife to GOQii as well. 

“Consistency is key to good health”, Ravichandran concludes.

What Does Coach Jannath Have To Say About J Ravichandran? 

Mr. J Ravichandran came on board in July 2020. When he joined GOQii he was 84.8kg and he had constipation and arthritis too. He also had sleep disturbance to some extent. 

From the first intro call itself, Ravichandran was eagerly waiting to start his journey. This made my work a little easier. After understating his lifestyle, I made some healthy changes like introducing detox water, salads and fruits in his diet along with some knee workouts for arthritis. 

When I made these changes in his diet and workout, he was able to manage his constipation and digestion problems too. He also was able to manage his knee pain with exercise. 

I got Mr. J Ravichandran started with intermittent fasting twice weekly, and it worked very well. He reached 81.1kg on September 1, 2020. Slowly, we introduced breathing exercises and other techniques to improve his sleep quality. It definitely worked well with his sleep quality improving by 70 to 80%. 

I made a few healthy changes in his diet as per his food logs in the app. Finally, he reached 72.5kg in the month of October 2021. In total, he lost 12.5kg in one year. Mr. J Ravichandran’s journey proves that small changes in lifestyle can yield the best results! 

Does this story inspire you to make a change? Do you want to shift to a healthier lifestyle? Then subscribe for GOQii’s personalized health coaching and start your #HealthStory now: https://goqiiapp.page.link/bsr

For more inspiring stories, check out Healthy Reads. 

#BeTheForce  

December 10, 2021 By GOQii Leave a Comment

Reimagining Corporate Wellness after COVID-19

corporate wellnessThe impact of COVID-19 and the measures taken by organizations to contain it were unprecedented. Work from home, following guidelines, and a hybrid working model were few of the changes that we saw in our work life. With offices slowly opening up, additional measures need to be taken to ensure that employees are safe and healthy. 

Reimagining Corporate Wellness 

Here are some measures corporations can take to ensure that their employees are happy and healthy! 

  1. Access to On and Off-site Fitness: After spending over a year working from home, everyone needs to move! The couch potato lifestyle doesn’t cut it. Having an effective program or access to activities that incentivise movement in the form of walking, yoga and exercise can greatly benefit the health of everyone in the organization. 
  2. Challenges: There’s no better way to improve team spirit and camaraderie than issuing challenges that help employees bond after spending months working in isolation. 
  3. Promoting Healthy Eating: Proper nutrition plays a big role in building immunity. Good health begins from the gut. Knowing what to eat, the timing, portion sizes, healthy snacking options, etc. can go a long way in improving health and avoiding unwanted sickness. 
  4. Focus On Mental Health: Introducing meditation techniques can help employees beat stress, anxiety and help them clear their heads and focus better on their assigned tasks. Given the stress of work and the looming pandemic, mindfulness practices like deep breathing can help a person relax and be more present. 

How Can The GOQii Corporate Challenge Help? 

The GOQii Corporate Challenge, a 60 day inter-corporate challenge, where corporations can get their employees to participate on an individual, team and corporate level, can significantly improve employee health, engagement, team spirit and performance at work! 

The challenge consists of a 30 day steps challenge, daily social media spot challenges and also includes daily fitness sessions starting with yoga, health talks and workout sessions that can help improve the overall health of an individual.

What’s In It For A Corporation? 

  • Remote Fitness: As places are still not completely open, it can be difficult to take your employees off-site for team building activities. More so, the cost to the company reduces as you might have to hire external trainers, book a venue, et al. GOQii has the tech and resources to take this entire module from on-site to online where your employees can train with certified experts, take guidance for nutrition, sleep, stress management and more in real time. 
  • Incentivizing Participation: By participating in the GOQii Corporate Challenge, 1 in 4 players stands a chance to win exciting prizes such as hotel stays, luxury watches, smart phones, gadgets and exclusive merchandise that can incentivize employee engagement. 
  • Healthy Employees: With various activities that promote healthy habits, you can be sure that your employees will be healthier. It increases individual accountability which in turn reflects on their work and productivity.  

You can register your corporation and get on board starting 13th December. Let’s improve and reimagine corporate wellness together! For more information and to sign up, check: https://gcc.goqii.com/ 

#BeTheForce 

April 16, 2021 By Srini Leave a Comment

Sleep Series: The Relentless Rivalry of REM and NREM

REN and NREMWhen we sleep, we go through a few stages. Prominent among them are REM and NREM. It is observed that for some non-specific reason, there is significant movement of the eyeball in all directions rapidly during REM sleep BUT does NOT send any visual signals to the brain. Hence, the name Rapid Eye Movement ( REM) sleep and the opposite – Non REM sleep. Some also say that they are “deep sleep” vs “shallow sleep” which I am not a great fan of. I believe they are simply various stages of sleep.

 

Sleep Series

Courtesy: sleepadvisor.org and Mathew Walker.

IF we draw a graph of brain neural activity, the graph will look something like this

As you can see, at the start it is the NREM which is occupying the real estate and the REM shows up intermittently. Approximately each of the cycles lasts for 90 minutes and then it changes. But in general, we can see the domination of NREM in the first half and REM in the second half. 

Interesting Facts on REM and NREM 

  • Dream your way to creativity: As homo sapiens came down from trees to sleep on flat grounds, they developed REM sleep as an evolutionary advancement. REM sleep is responsible for the evolution of creativity, memory and problem solving. It is during REM sleep, the neural network gets more intricately wired with new synapses being formed. In some sense, it is the REM sleep that contributed to the supremacy of humans over other animals.
  • Early morning school timing inhibits creativity: If schools, colleges or universities start pretty early in the morning, it is quite possible that the student has to wake up early and hence, foregoes some part of REM sleep. That is NOT good news for memory and creativity, which are most critical for studies.
  • Sleep algorithm is an enigma: NREM has been measured in 4 stages depending upon how deep it goes. The deeper it goes, the body gets better rest and the housekeeping activity of scavenging the brain of useless memory and storing of useful memory in the long term storage area happens – this is a totally involuntary activity based on an enigma algorithm. God/Nature is the first and best coder. 
  • Forgetting is beautiful: The brain decides to delete (forget) what is irrelevant. You will definitely not remember what breakfast you had the same day last week. Forgetting is an essential function just as much as remembering is. 
  • Striping emotion – REM heals: REM sleep is responsible for stripping emotion from past events over time. For example, you would remember the death of a close relative. But rarely you can recollect the emotions that were recorded when it happened. It is a blessing in a way. It is not the Time, but it is REM that heals! 
  • 7 hours or nothing: 5 cycles of 90 minutes – 450 minutes approx. 7 hours gives you a good full cycle. Anything less is like jumping 90% of the well! Short sleep leaves work undone and there is no use. You add to the pressure of work.
  • There can be no sleep “Deposit” and Sleep “Loans” ( this would appeal to the Finance community). You cannot oversleep to compensate for a past deficit nor you can accumulate a deficit to be cured by oversleep a bit later. It is 7.5 to 8 hours  a day, every day! You would now have understood why from the chart above.
  • You cannot “Live your dream”: The motor activity other than breathing is all frozen during REM stage , all muscles (particularly limbs) are frozen – imagine you swishing your sword or trying to run away when chased by a cobra! It protects you from getting injured!
  • You are not meant to remember your dreams: You will only remember that you had vivid dreams or nightmares. Dreams have been the subject of so much research. Only one thing is clear – every dream is made of illogical and impossible combinations. If you behave during the day like the way you behaved in your dream, you will find yourself in a psychiatric ward. It is the façade or alibi as the brain is reorganizing the hard disk.
  • Dreams have no meaning: Do not over analyze, dreams have no hidden meaning. If you need to know something, why would it be revealed in your dream? It would rather appear in Times Square visible to all.
  • NREM is all about detox and growth: NREM sleep detoxifies the body, grows tissues, improves immunity, repairs injuries. Breathing slows down, body temperature goes down, blood pressure drops and the body gets a deep relaxation to get ready for the next day. 
  • You need both: It is NOT that NREM is better and preferred than REM. Combined activity and result from both is critical for overall physical and mental health.

We hope you enjoyed reading this article on REM and NREM sleep. Stay tuned for more from the Sleep Series by Srini! To read more about sleep and sleeping techniques, check out Healthy Reads or tune in to LIVE sessions by experts on GOQii Play. 

#BeTheForce 

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