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Having achieved my goals, I can now proudly declare that my lifestyle has become active

Abhinav Sharma...

He had a hectic work life that left him with little or no time for exercise or any form of fitness regime. It was all work and no play for him. His sedentary lifestyle got the better of him. As a result his eating habits were erratic with no control on what was being eaten. The net result of all this was he had gained weight apart from being unhealthy. The best part was that this 31 year old young man was aware of his issues and was keen on rectifying the situation. And, adapt a healthy lifestyle for a better future. However, he knew he had to make an effort to achieve his goals. Abhinav Sharma’s story in his own words on how he achieved his active lifestyle and health back.

Here is story in his own words

I work in the travel industry and have a very hectic work life due to which I led a very sedentary life style with no activities of any sort. I realised I was becoming nothing more than a couch potato and wanted to change. I tried to gym but could not sustain it. I then started looking for other solutions. I was looking forward for some options which I could follow and better my lifestyle. During the process of my research I came across GOQii. I got to know its features and one of the main things that attracted me was the unique human touch along with technology.

I came on board GOQii as a beta player two years ago. Personalised coaching attracted me and that was also the motivating factor. I knew that if I had to achieve my goals I would need someone to motivate and push me constantly. As soon as I came on board GOQii, I got Shimpli Patil as my coach. She took me through the GOQii ecosystem and explained the whole process which I found very interesting. Then she educated me about real fitness and how you could achieve an active lifestyle and your health goals by taking small steps initially and then gradually increasing the process. She also told me about water intake and also how in the office and while I am travelling I can keep myself active. And finally, she improved my dietary and nutrition habit. I learnt how a good and balanced diet plays an important part in fitness and overall health.

I did exactly what my coach asked me to. It wasn’t easy at all for me to bring about the changes, follow a routine. I would get tired easily but, I was sure I wasn’t going to give up. Soon, walking for 30 minutes became 45 minutes and then an hour. I then added strength training to my fitness and I gradually started walking the path of a healthy and active lifestyle thereby clocking 10,000 steps daily to the current 12000 steps daily. After a year of being on GOQii, I participated and successfully completed the 100 km Oxfam Trailwalker in November 2015.

Now my daily routine includes regular exercising- basic free hand exercise as suggested by my coach and after that I leave for office around 8:30am and in between office hours I take breaks, go for a walk and use the stairs now instead of taking elevators thereby also increasing my step count.

Along with moving and achieving my daily step count I also overhauled my diet. My diet now includes salads, veggies, lentils and fruits. Now, I know about good and bad foods, which is the right diet for me etc. My water intake increased to 3 litres from a mere one litre earlier.

My initial health goals when I came on board GOQii was two pronged. Firstly, to achieve a healthy lifestyle and secondly control my weight. Due to my hectic and erratic work schedule I gained lots of weigh.

Having achieved my goals, I can now proudly declare that my lifestyle has become active but, I still need to achieve more. My weight is also under control thanks to the changes in my diet. I am glad that I am now a part of the GOQii active family. Going for active Sundays here in Delhi and I have met so many like-minded individuals from GOQii family and it only inspires me further. A big thank you to my coach who has been constant source of motivation at every juncture of my journey be it in good times or when I have been low.

Infact, Shimpli has been my motivator for the participation in the 100 km Oxfam Trailwalker. At first when she told me about it and asked me to participate, I did not believe her. I did not think I could achieve my goal of completing 100 km within 48 hours. My first thought was it is really impossible to do that but, my coach told me that it is possible. I then participated in 2015 after a year f achieving some fitness levels.

Oxfam Trailwalker was an eye opener. I met so many personalities and people both young and old and watching them be so fit and walk so much was inspiring and motivating at the same time. My biggest question to myself was.. if they can do it why can’t I? That environment was conducive for someone like me to share my experience and listen to others too. Overall it was truly an outstanding experience.

What does coach Shimpli Patil have to say about Abhinav Sharma?

 

When I had my first interaction with Abhinav, he described himself as a ‘Lazy Person’. He had some really good health goals in mind to achieve but lacked motivation and the right push to achieve them. After a quality chat with him, I explained to him why it was important to achieve those health goals and how we could work together towards achieving these.

Abhinav was convinced and decided to go for it. Time was a challenge for him but, he was ready to realign his schedule in a way which could fit an exercise routine in the morning. He took the time to regularize his daily regime but, yes he could pull it off gradually. Jogging, core exercises, body weight exercises. We moved ahead step by step. The best thing about Abhinav was, he never said NO and when I added extra exercises to his routine. He paced up and he decided not to put a full stop and keep at it.

It is not exercises alone that we worked towards, he also brought about dietary changes wherein I introduced him to the concept of pre and post workout meals, some mid meals (to cut the large gaps between meals) and he learned to keep his dinner light yet balanced. With these wondrous dietary changes along with regular workout routine, there was no doubt he could reach his goals. After few months he noticed a drop in his inches (Fat loss), increase in stamina and endurance while he jogged and ran. He kept feeling better each day.

One day, after having shared his progress with me, he asked me now what next? And I immediately said ‘Let’s Walk 100 km within 48 hours’. ‘You are all set’, I said and he was dumbstruck for few seconds. I made him believe that ‘HE COULD DO IT’ and should have confidence in himself. He decided to take up this incredible challenge. And, guess what he completed it gracefully.

“When you have the will, you can achieve anything that you want!” That’s what Abhinav has proved.

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GOQii supports children affected during terror attacks through Ratnanidhi

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Mumbai has seen some gruesome terrorist attacks in the past few years. As a result many families have lost their loved ones to these inhuman activities. Most children of these families have lost their financial support and were left with an unstable future. Given this background, the first thing that takes a back seat is always the child’s education.

Let me cite an example of one terror affected family……

“At a tender age of seven, Anjali lost her father during the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks. A garage worker by profession was shot in his head at Chatrapati Shivaji Terminal Railway Station. Fortunately his mother survived the attack but, was critically injured. Anjali’s younger sister Nikita was just two year old during that period. Her mother Savitri’s world came crashing down with the sudden loss of her husband leaving behind to single handed take on the responsibility of two young daughters and ailing mother in law.

Savitiri with a limited family saving couldn’t see a way to support her daughters education. Here is where an organisation called RatnaNidhi Charitable Trust (RNCT) stepped in as a saviour. She was provided scholarship for her two daughters through RNCT’s Education Sponsorship Program.

With the support of this program, Anjali has now reached to Class 9 and ranks second in her class.  While her sister Nikita is happily studying in Class 4. Watching her two daughter study, Savitri was also motivated to continue her education. She has now completed her 10th from a night school and works with the India Railway to support her family”.

RatnaNidhi Education sponsorship has been working in the field of education. This Program was commenced understanding the need to support children and families of terror attacks. Through this project, Ratnanidhi strives to break the barriers towards acquisition of education for the deprived and underprivileged section.

The Organization works hard to provide a fair chance to every child of this project, especially to the most deprived. There are more 60 children who are still in the process of completing their education and require guidance.

GOQii is currently supporting the cause through its Karma Platform and is looking for support from one and all. Walk, Run as much as you can and earn your karma points and donate them towards this wonderful initiative of educating those lesser privileged kids affected by the gruesome terror attacks.

To know more about the project visit http://www.ratnanidhi.org/Category/educational-sponsorships-for-terror-victims.

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Why eating too healthy is dangerous for your health

Fruit diets, fruit juice diets, banana and milk diets, high protein diets, chia seed infused water, salads, Vegan food, sugarless snacks, low-fat foods, organic foods, fortified foods, innumerable ranges of organic vitamins, supplements etc……

We have it all….We also have more obesity, more cancer, more diabetes, more depression, more mental decay, more medication, more vitamin deficiencies, more time spent with doctors and in hospitals.

In our endeavor to get healthy, we may actually be doing more harm than good, if we don’t understand the physiology of the human body and mind. Too much of a good thing is bad…..even food… Yes, fruits are extremely nutrient dense foods but, it does not mean we constantly eat them.
Protein is needed, it’s good for repair, tone, muscle, recovery but, it does not mean we need more and more of it.

Many fats may be bad, but it does not mean we stop eating fat completely. It’s a very common belief that to be healthy, we need to eat more and more healthy foods.

Pure Ghee on a fresh hot wheat roti? What’s’ worse, the ghee or the roti?

Most people say that Ghee, is a fat and fat causes cholesterol and high cholesterol causes heart attacks… which really isn’t’ the case in most people who have cardiac arrests or strokes. There are many other reasons. I would worry about the roti, the wheat, where has the wheat come from, is it GMO? How processed is it?

Our beliefs about healthy foods need to be balanced with the understanding of what our body really needs and how our body assimilates nutrients from the food we eat.

A fruit diet is not going to do anything but cleansing……

Too much protein intake is going to do more harm than just repair or muscle build. This is when good food turns bad. When we have too much of even a good thing, it ceases to be good, and can in fact cause harm. There is absolutely no doubt that fruits and vegetables are rich in vitamins, minerals and all things good, and that they also contain fibre, which prevents constipation and other gastric problems. But, too much fibre (for instance, when you eat platefuls of raw green leafy vegetables or salads like radish day in and out) can mess things up – big time. Excess fibre often causes bloating, abdominal cramps and gas right away.

In the long term, it can interfere with the absorption of minerals like iron, zinc, calcium, magnesium and phosphorus, causing some serious deficiencies. Fruits also contain natural sugars, no harm in that but, too much is bad…your body only uses what it needs, the rest gets stored as fat or becomes waste and all waste is waste, whether it’s a fruit or a samosa. Waste is toxic.

Insane workouts or working out too much, I have a question for you, is it really working? are you really getting the desired body you have in mind? Or are you using exercise as a way of punishing your body because you ate too much?

It just doesn’t work, your body has a life, so does your bones, your muscles and joints and over exercising will decrease your bone density, deplete vitamins from your body , raise cortisol levels, decrease immunity and leave you with ‘STUBBORN BELLY FAT AND LOVE HANDLES’…

The body needs not more than 30 minutes of smart exercise to stay health and if your fat and you are trying to lose weight, more exercise DOES NOT mean more exercise…it means looking smartly at your food choices, your alcohol intake, your sleep, your stress levels, your sugar and the consistency of your exercise program.

Does your choice of exercise suit your body or are you just following the latest fad ?

The body needs protein to repair and build muscle, but eating excessive amounts won’t do the job better. In fact, in a diet where the protein intake goes beyond 30 per cent of the daily caloric intake, a build-up of toxic ketones in the body may occur, causing the kidneys to go into overdrive in an attempt to flush them out. This may lead to a significant loss of water and calcium from the body, causing dehydration and bone loss.

Symptoms include a feeling of weakness and dizziness, dry skin, loss of hair, low appetite, nausea and bad breath. In the long term, this may strain the kidneys, stretch out the liver and put stress on your heart too.

Weight loss efforts go bust too, as excess protein is converted into fat. Another problem is that while making protein into carbs or fat, the body converts the protein’s nitrogen into urea or uric acid. In large amounts, this can mess up your kidneys, lead to gout (a condition that causes your joints to become inflamed, tender and painful to move) and cause gallstones and kidney stones.”

Be super careful with protein shakes and bars. The body can process only about four to five grams of protein per hour, so the 50 grams you got from that protein bar or shake will take about 10 hours to digest and absorb. Also, when you replace your meals with protein shakes, you run the risk of missing the vitamins and nutrients you get from real food.

The Japanese eat soya and stay healthy and live longer. It is high in protein and has zero cholesterol. So what could be wrong with that?

That’s true, but, what is also true is that most Japanese eat only about 8 to 10g of soy protein a day, and even soya causes problems when eaten in excess. If overeaten, it may promote cancer, dementia, reproductive abnormalities, and osteoporosis and thyroid disorders. Increased consumption could also increase a woman’s total estrogen level, which is a risk factor for breast cancer.

For men, excessive soya can raise the risk of infertility, physical changes, and hormonal havoc.

The body will only use what it needs…anything in excess becomes fat or waste and both are detrimental to your mind-body health.

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Here is your guide to Nut allergy: Dos and don’t’s

Nuts! Oh…they sure can cause trouble if you are allergic to them and growing number of adults and kids alike are allergic to them. I became more attentive to it when my 3 year old daughter experienced it. The doctor identified the red rashes all over her body, as an allergic reaction to some food.

The doctor asked me to cut down on 8 foods namely eggs, milk, peanuts, tree nuts, fish, shell fish, wheat and soy which accounts for about 90% of all the reactions.

So what type of food allergies are we talking about? It could be peanuts for one or tree nuts. (Almonds, walnuts, pecans, cashew).

Nut allergy is one of the most common types of food allergy in both children and adults. This allergy tends to last an entire lifetime, although about nine percent of children with a tree nut allergy and 20 percent of children with a peanut allergy eventually outgrow their allergy. On stopping the consumption of peanuts, the rashes never turned up, thus confirmed the nut allergy in case of my daughter.

The first thing that comes to one’s mind about having an allergy is, you picture non-stop sneezing, running nose etc. But, unlike an allergic dust or spring flower that many have, a nut allergy can cause difficulty in breathing and other serious issues including skin rashes etc.   And could prove fatal at times.

Before we proceed towards, the symptoms, precautionary measures to take and substitutes, let’s quickly check out what exactly is a food allergy.

What is food allergy?

It is very important to know what food allergy is. People are seldom aware that one could be allergic to some food and that dust and flower allergies are not the only allergies that people may have.

The job of our body’s immune system is to identify and destroy the germs (such as bacteria or viruses) that make you sick. A food allergy occurs when this immune system wrongly identifies a harmless food as an allergen i.e a threat and attacks it.

When you come into contact with something that you are allergic to (an allergen), a group of cells in your body, called mast cells, release a substance called histamine. Histamine causes the tiny blood vessels in the tissues of your body to leak fluid which causes the tissues to swell. This results in a number of different symptoms.

The Symptoms may vary for person to person. Here is a list for you to go through. Basically the symptoms are divided into two categories-:

  1. Mild symptoms which can be cured by medication

Rashes, swelling of the extremities, redness and tenderness, hivesm nausea, stomach cramps, vomitting, diarrheo and breathing difficulty.

Quick action: Antihistamines such as diphenhydramine (Benadryl) or loratidine (Claritin) can help relieve rashes and hives. Cold, wet compresses can also help soothe irritated skin.

  1. Anaphylaxis: Life threatening

Constriction and tightening of airways, a swollen throat or the sensation of a lump in your throat that makes it difficult to breathe, Shock with a severe drop in blood pressure, Rapid pulse, Dizziness, lightheadedness or loss of consciousness

Quick Action: Emergency treatment is critical for anaphylaxis. Untreated, anaphylaxis can cause a coma or even death.

KEEP YOURSELF ALERT !!

A person with an allergy to one type of tree nut has a higher chance of being allergic to other types. Therefore, many experts advise patients with allergy to tree nuts to avoid all nuts. Here are few precautionary actions to need to take care of:

  1. Avoid peanuts and tree nuts. This means we also need to avoid foods containing them like cookies, candies, ice creams, yogurts, sauces, Thai, Chinese and Indian dishes that often contain peanut and tree nut. One can have these without the nuts in them.
  2. Read labels while you purchase foods from market. Keep at bay all the food products which say “may contain nuts” or “produced on shared equipment with nuts or peanuts”
  3. Be very cautious in the kitchen while using the equipments. Knife, spoon or any vessel in which peanut or nut food preparation was used should be properly washed before using it again.
  4. Inform about your allergy to everyone with whom you enjoy your food like your family, friends and colleagues so that they are careful while serving you food. When you visit a restaurant, be very careful to check the ingredient list or ask the manager about the foods served. Don’t feel shy and if they are not willing to share, better opt for some other restaurant. (Abroad restaurant menus do specify dishes that have nuts and warn anyone with nut allergy. But, in India we do have to ask and let the person know about your allergies)
  5. Keep rescue medicines on you at all times — not in your locker, but in a pocket, purse, or bag that’s with you.
  6. If your child is suffering from nuts allergy, inform this in their school.

Take care of your loved ones, by being extra careful of what they are eating. Make them happy by suggesting these alternatives such as sunflower seed butter or soy nut butter, hummus and nut free granola bars over peanuts and tree nuts.

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