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10 Ways to Turn Quarantine Time into Quality Time

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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

  1. 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.  
  2. 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.
  3. 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.  
  4. 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.
  5. 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!
  6. 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.
  7. 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.
  8. 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.
  9. 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.
  10. 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

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5 Simple Exercises You Can Do At Home

simple exercisesAmid the Coronavirus pandemic, social distancing and self-quarantine are in full swing. With everyone locking themselves up indoors, The activity levels have seen a considerable drop. Social distancing has resulted in a 51% drop in step count in the first 15 days of march 2020 according to a recent real time data study of 5 lakh users using GOQii Trackers. This drop in percentage is only likely to increase in the coming days as the fear of spread of this deadly virus is only increasing by the day. However, don’t let the lockdown make you fall into the recesses of a sedentary lifestyle. Get back up and get active at home with these 5 simple exercises!

Start Your Day Right With These 5 Simple Exercises

1.Push Ups: A great upper body exercise to begin your day. Start with lying down in a prone position, place your arms with your palms facing the floor shoulder width apart. Bend elbows and upper body to do a Push Up. Repeat the push ups for 8-10 reps.

2. Balancing Table Pose: This pose is perfect for improving balance, posture, concentration and memory. Start with a kneel down position, while breathing, lift your left arm and adjacent right leg parallel to the floor and exhale, hold for 30secs. Repeat with the other hand and leg. Do this for 5-7 repetitions on each side.

3. Butt-Kickers: As the name suggests, it is simply kicking your Glute (Butt) muscles. Start by standing with your feet about hip distance apart, bring your right leg behind your buttock contracting the hamstring muscles, and touch your Glutes with your right leg,  repeat the same with your left leg. Continue doing it by alternating the legs. Do it for about a minute and repeat the exercise for 3 sets.

4. Wall Sits:Start with sitting against a wall with your back supported by the wall and your feet about 2 feet apart from the wall. Sit in such a position that thighs are parallel to the ground forming a 90 degree angle. Hold the position for 60secs. Repeat for 3 sets. Great exercise for the core muscles, Glutes. Quadriceps and Hamstrings. It is a fantastic lower body workout.

5. Surya Namaskar or Sun Salutation: We all know it, we all have heard about it. It is one of the most impactful and easiest full body stretches to loosen those tight muscles and to energize the body instantly.

Start with a standing position with hands in Namaskar position, bend backwards with hands still in namaskar position, breathing out, bend forward touching the toes, Breathing in, push your right leg back, as far back as possible. Bring the right knee to the floor and look up. Then while breathing take the left leg behind and form a straight line. Gently bring down your knees and let the chest, chin, hands, feet touch the floor with the hips slightly raised, then slide forward and do a Cobra pose, lift your body and bring yourself in an inverted V pose, then  bring the right knee forward in between the two hands, left knee should be on the floor and press the hips down and look up. 

After this pose, get into the standing forward bend position, and then breathing in, roll up the spine. Raise the hands up and bend backward a little bit, pushing the hips slightly outward. And finally end it with the starting position of a standing Namaste. Start off with 5 repetitions of this exercise everyday to yield benefits.

We hope this article on 5 simple exercises helps you stay fit at home. For more home workouts, tune in to fitness experts on GOQii Play. 

#BeTheForce 

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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 

  1. Track Body Temperature, Weight, Heart Rate, Blood Sugar and other vitals. 
  2. Symptoms like Cough, Cold, Difficulty in breathing etc 
  3. Food and activity log with location
  4. Log contacts – time spent with people at various occasions
  5. Uber, Lyft, Ola rides with driver details
  6. 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.

 

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Safety Tips to Prevent Coronavirus Infection

coronavirusThe recent Coronavirus outbreak has become one of the biggest health scare in the world right now. What started in Wuhan, China on 31 December, 2019 has now struck Europe and the US and has overall claimed many lives. As of February 27, 2020, China reported 78,824 confirmed cases of the virus with a death toll of 2,788.

The virus is spreading rapidly and has been deemed to have pandemic potential by WHO. Now, among all the quarantines, preventive measures and news spreading like wildfire, how much do we really know about the virus? Of course, we’re well aware that it spread from China but what else do we really know?

In India, people are aware about the virus but aren’t prepared. This is because of lack of details. At this point, we are of the opinion that prevention is best as there is no cure for the Coronavirus yet.

As a leading preventive healthcare company, GOQii is recommending a few basic prevention and safety tips that people need to follow. The recommendations made here are in line with WHO guidelines: https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public

The first and foremost thing is to build your defense by building your Immunity. All that one needs to do is follow the basics of exercise, eat right and sleep well.

How Do You Build Immunity Against the Coronavirus?

  • Include 1 or 2 cloves of garlic every day in your meals. As garlic is a potent anti-viral.
  • Cut out smoking completely. Smoking destroys your respiratory tract including the lungs.
  • Exercise regularly- Include a combination of strength training and cardio, concentrating on breathing patterns
  • A dehydrated body is most prone to infections. Drink adequate water. Avoid alkaline water and drink boiled water.
  • Avoid refined sugar in any form as sugar can reduce your immunity directly plus alters the bacteria in your gut
  • Make sure you sleep well for at least 6-8 hours.

Other Prevention Must-Dos to be Followed

  • Wear a Mask while travelling to crowded places. Preferably avoid crowded places.
  • Wash your hands at regular intervals.
  • If you have any symptoms of fever, cough, cold, sore throat and having trouble breathing please seek medical advice immediately.
  • Avoid touching eyes, nose and mouth while travelling and otherwise
  • While coughing or sneezing use a tissue and dispose it off safely

From Terminal Illness To Complete Wellness! Ananda Mukherjee Health Story

As we observe World Cancer Day under the powerful theme ‘United by Unique’ (2025-2027)**, we are reminded that every individual’s journey with cancer is distinct, yet united by shared resilience, hope, and the collective fight against this disease. This theme places people at the centre of care and their stories at the heart of the […]