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Your Android smart phone can tell you what you are eating

Food-Referee-for-press-01Thanks to smart phones, food logging or food journaling or keeping track of what you eat has shown to help prevent and stop over-eating. The GOQii app has helped its players to portion control their diet and eat healthier trhough the food log. While, the app has made it easy for the GOQii coaches to track what their players are eating and give them appropriate advice.

But, how would you feel, if I tell you that your android smart phone can now detect what you are eating and whether you are eating right by simply taking a photo of your food plate and thereby making it easy to log your food. GOQii on Monday July 17th, launched its auto food recognition feature called ‘Referee. The launch took place in the presence of GOQIi players some who travelled from as far as Nandurbar and Thane. A variety of food items were on display and players with android phones

GOQii Food Referee, is a feature to automatically detect food and it’s nutrition information by uploading photos and logging food. With the introduction of Referee logging food will become easy and the built in database already has thousands of food items.

Food-Referee-for-pressSpeaking on this new development, Vishal Gondal, CEO and Founder, GOQii said “One of the feedback that we constantly received from our players was how it was cumbersome to type food intake on a daily basis and log. ‘Referee’ will now make it easy for the players to just click a picture and log food to share with coach and friends and making it fun and exciting to meet their health goals”.

GOQii Referee, is a food and nutrition detector which uses food recognition machine learning algorithms to identify many different foods and their nutrition information. Using artificial intelligence (AI), neural networks, computer vision and image recognition, Referee identifies the nutrition information in Indian and Continental cuisines. GOQii Referee has been tested on thousands of diverse dishes ranging from Indian and Continental cuisine list.

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Along with the auto food detector, GOQii also launched ‘Arena’ a motivational platform that will help GOQii users, to connect and motivate each other in making a lifestyle change for a better and healthy life. It’s just another social platform for players to get healthy together.

Through GOQii Arena, user can create their own groups of people with similar health goals and challenge each other, thereby creating opportunities to promote healthy living. Using Arena, users can share images of the food, activity, Karma donation with their coach and friends. With the increase in use of social media and apps, most use persuasive technology to steer its users to click on ads or buy products. GOQii aims to use persuasive technology to help the users in developing healthy habits through Arena.

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Preparing for a 50 km Trail walk – What you need to remember and do

Marathon walking

Walking is one of the easiest things one can do. We all do it every day. But how does it feel when I say let’s walk 50 km in 18 hours! “Are you kidding me?” That’s exactly how I reacted when I came across the 50 km Trail Challenge. It is indeed a crazy bet!!

I have been into dancing and fitness for years. But, I never wanted to stop at just being fit. There has always been a kind of restlessness within me, an unreasonable desire to try out something new that I would remember for life and proudly tell my grandchildren about. That’s when I decided to push my limits and test my endurance and willpower, and there was ‘No way’ I could say a ‘No’ to this breath-taking Challenge – A 50 km Trail Challenge.

Apart from training, there are 2 most crucial things that we need to pay special heed to.

Nutrition and Hydration

Let’s check out what we need to do before, during and after the trail walk.

  • NUTRITION BEFORE THE TRAIL WALK (3 days prior)-

We need to keep our Glycogen stores ready. Glycogen is nothing but a storage form of Glucose (energy), which disintegrates to release glucose in the bloodstream when body demands energy.

The only way to build up the glycogen stores is to Carbo-load our body 3 days prior to the event (exactly how the marathoners do). Many people consider it as a “golden opportunity”. That’s simply because we have all the liberty to relish the foods which are otherwise considered “fattening”. You might think I am joking, but we need this to blow up our glycogen reserves, which would ensure sustained energy supply during the event.

It’s a complete carb-treat for 3 days! We need to have a mix of complex and simple carbs. We can enjoy Rice, Rotis, Potatoes, Sweet Potatoes, Fruits, Dry Fruits, Breakfast Cereals (Oats, Cornflakes, Wheat flakes, Muesli), whole wheat bread with Peanut Butter, Daliya (broken wheat), Idli, Dosas, Biscuits, Noodles, Whole Wheat Pasta, Spaghetti, Nachos, Tortillas. Go for tomato sauce in pasta/spaghetti/nachos instead of cheese sauce. Foods with cheese is acidic which might just slow down our body.

Acidic body equals to less Oxygen to the cells. Thus, along with carb-loading, we also need to make sure we keep our body alkaline. Oxygen breeds in an alkaline medium, and our cells need maximum Oxygen during this period. Quick ways to ensure alkalinity- Grab a glass of lemon water twice a day or simply sprinkle lemon over your food before you eat or go for a bowl of sliced cucumber during lunch and dinner. Stay off Naans and Tandoori rotis. Most importantly, we need to stay miles away from the road-side food or unhygienic food as we don’t want to fall ill few days before the event or ever.

  • HYDRATION BEFORE THE TRAIL WALK

3 days prior, we need to double our water intake. If you drink 3 litres on a regular basis, you got to drink 6 litres now. This is just to make sure our body cells are well hydrated and well energized.

  • NUTRITION DURING THE TRAIL WALK

Surprisingly, you don’t feel very much hungry during the walk as your primary focus is on walking and completing it. Now that doesn’t mean you should forget to eat. We need the sugar boost, we need the food! Carry dry munchies with you such as dry fruits, nuts, khakras, biscuits, cookies, rice puffs or wheat puffs, roasted chanas, peanuts, fox nuts (makhanas), soya nuts, energy bars, etc. and munch on them at regular intervals not only for energy but to prevent acidity and headache caused due to large meal gaps.

When you halt for breakfast/lunch/dinner, make sure you aren’t loading your body with too much food. It might just make you sluggish and sleepy, making it difficult for you to get going again. Ensure that you effectively follow the ‘Portion Control’ mantra rather than going overboard with eating.

  • HYDRATION DURING THE WALK

Though we don’t feel the hunger, our thirst center is very much active and we need to quench our thirst at regular intervals. It’s important that we don’t GULP down water but patiently SIP it.

Apart from plain water, we also need electrolytes (Sodium-Potassium) to prevent cramps/spasms while walking. Carry a small 250 ml bottle filled with ORS (electoral/ glucon D/ enerzal/ lemon water with salt) and make sure it lasts for the 10 km distance, which means we need not even over consume the electrolytes. Remember, moderation is the key.

NUTRITION AFTER THE TRAIL WALK

Now this feels Wow! It’s time to celebrate! It’s time to rest and recover. Along with carbs, we now need adequate good quality proteins as well.

Look out for a good mix of carb+protein in your meals-

Milkshakes or Fruit Smoothies, Paneer Roll or Paneer toast, Hummus with Pita bread, roasted Chicken or Chicken gravy with bread/rotis, Yogurt sprinkled with crushed nuts/chopped fruits/pumpkin seeds/sunflower seeds, Sprout Chaat with chopped veggies, Egg and Cheese toast, Grilled Fish with Boiled Potatoes and Salad, Bean rice (Rajma-Kidney Beans) with curd.

These are a few ways of ensuring that your muscles are well treated with proteins for recuperation and that your body is fuelled with a good power supply (carbs).

HYDRATION AFTER THE TRAIL WALK-

You can get your water intake back to normal, but make sure it doesn’t go below 3 litres.

12 glasses or 3 litres is what our body needs to stay hydrated even on a regular basis.

So folks, gear up for the Mega event of your life, feel the rush and say it out loud- “BE THE FORCE!”

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“I needed a coach who could help me with understanding nutrition patterns better”

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She is a fitness instructor herself. One would wonder why would a fitness trainer need a fitness tracker? But, this fitness trainer wanted a tracker that would help her know how many steps she takes in a day and also wanted a motivating factor in a coach with whom she could interact and understand more on nutrition etc. Let us understand from Nyela Saeed in her own words  what is it that she has learnt and implemented for her ownself?

I am a fitness instructor by profession and I run various classes of aerobics, Bollywood workout etc. and I am trained with Reebok and have done many other short courses in fitness. I was gifted a GOQii fitness band a year back for my birthday by my husband.

I have been with it for a year and I have been extremely regular with my login and my meals but the reason I have actually got the band is because even though I am a fitness instructor and I am conscious in many ways just having a band on your self tells you how many steps you took and having a coach who is constantly watching over you is an important key feature that works for me.

I have a daily routine that starts with the workout classes in the morning and I am extremely busy through the day. I also have a three year old baby who I attend to and therefore end up paying less attention to myself.

Initially, I didn’t really know what GOQii was about, I knew that there are fitness bands in the market that measures your heart rate and track your step count etc. but I didn’t know GOQii existed and it comes with a live coach. When I got the band and synced with the app, I understood that this is not a robotic application its real who understands my needs and works accordingly.

I didn’t have any particular health goal because I am a fitness trainer myself. Despite the fact that fitness is something that has always been of interest to me, I still wasn’t paying a lot of attention to myself. I wasn’t paying a lot of attention to my sleep cycle. I wasn’t eating mid meals at all earlier and I would get extremely hungry and eat a big supper. Now all of this is corrected thanks to my coach and also I make sure I meet my water intake level of three litres per day.

Other than this I get a lots of tips from my coach and I don’t have to keep googling to get my  questions answered. For e.g. the cooking oil that you use in the house. I always go and buy the same cooking oil from the same bottle. The way my coach has explained to me what is poly saturated and mono saturated fats and how to alternate your oils etc. these are the things you need somebody to personally tell you how to incorporate in your life.

Also lot of questions pertaining to nutrition, I now just ask my coach and take her word for it. She also, put me on a three to four days detox regime in between because I had a long wedding period. My wrong sleep patterns have come down drastically because of my coach. Sometimes I used to have my meal and then have chocolate cravings.

My coach has taught me to alter my meals and now after my meals I have flavoured saunf or jaggary and peanut bar. My meals are now only healthy choices and I have given up on white sugar for the last one year.That is a big thing for me. I only take jaggary for everything but my coach has told me not to go overboard with it.

Recently, I have also been away from tea and coffee not because my coach told me but because I have become more conscious. Tips on nutrition is what I was largely looking for and my concepts are now clear. Apart from my health, my baby’s nutrition is also taken care of.

Earlier I would workout 5 days a week, my coach suggested I add one more day of workout and have only one day for rest.I have stopped taking the car or an auto and instead walk to places that that has helped me reach my target step count. My water intake has always been good. All in all I am happy being on GOQii platform and it has helped me a lot.

What does coach Tejal Gupte have to say about Nyela Saeed?

Nyela has been on her GOQii health journey for more than a year now.  She has always been a cheerful and an enthusiastic person, always ready to learn more and new things about health and nutrition. Coming from a fitness background, staying physically active was never a big challenge for her. But, her lifestyle consisted of high frequency of eating out due to frequent socialization and she had been a sugar addict for a long time. So we took these two aspects as our short term goals one after another.

We regularly discussed ways to practice mindful eating when having outside food and importance of portion control in such situations was explained and imbibed in her routine. Dealing with the sugar cravings looked challenging and took time initially. Right from using healthy substitutes i.e jaggery based sweets, dates and fruits, to the distraction techniques like engaging in favorite activity, consuming saunf at the time of craving, and other tips were shared and incorporated. I must say, even though it was not easy for Nyela to go off sugar that easily, it was her determination and hard work that helped us to achieve these goals. She even participated and to her surprise finished the 7 days sugar free challenge. She also completed some other challenges like the “3 day detox challenge” and step count challenge.During the whole year, we also worked successfully on some other goals like water intake and adding healthy snacks in evening to beat the hunger pangs.

Nyela has been regularly syncing her band, sending her updates as well as interacting on her goals throughout, which has made it more helpful to work on her goals.In the current scenario, her water intake has improved a lot than earlier. Best part is that although we could not do much alteration in her frequency of eating out due to her highly social lifestyle, mindful eating has almost become a habit for her and she is able to master it most of the times. I feel really happy and proud to see the transformation she has brought in herself in this one year period.

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“The tiny little tracker was the spark that ignited an enormous change in my life…”

After run work out

After run work out

He is from the Defense forces and has a mandatory regime to be fit. But, his dietary habits were not as healthy as it should be.3 years ago he had to move out of active field services due to an injury and that was the day he decided come what may he has to work hard and put in all efforts to get back to field services. Within a year, he was able to get back on track to active services. But, what has changed for Jatin Singh now is that while he used to be fit even earlier now he is  fitter and motivated. He says, “I am driven and not slacking.” Here is Jatin Singh’s story of change and success in his own words.

My story is different from the others in the sense that I was already driven for fitness. I have always been sporty. I was playing Squash at quite a good level and also Basket Ball. I also swim a lot. Also, being a serving officer in the Defense forces we have a regular exercise regime. I was stronger, fit and had more endurance.

But, then, unfortunately, 3 years ago I had a bad back injury which was near close to a slipped disk. After that, while I was still in service, I was not on the field. The reason being that once you are in that kind of a situation you are no longer in active service in the armed forces and cannot be serving on the field.

I knew that I could not stay away from the field and wanted to get back to active service so I put in a lot of effort to recover well and get back. I wanted to get back to be at the top of my health and fitness to combat any eventualities that may occur as a result of being in active field service.

I worked very hard, did a lot of physiotherapy sessions, I had to take care of my diet and did yoga to strengthen my back. Initially, I started walking and then got back to running. I took lots of efforts to get back my fitness and get my back in shape. I was successful and finally got back to field service after a year. But, now my worry was I had worked so hard to come back, I didn’t want to let go of the fitness and the health I had gained at any cost.

My back was back in shape but, I had to maintain that. I was looking for something to keep myself motivated to be on the health and fitness track. This was also because the amount of effort and pain I had put in for close to 8 months to get everything back on track, had drained me quite a bit.

One day as I was browsing the net, I came across GOQii. I started reading about it. I went through a couple of reviews on various websites and I went through some user reviews as well. I liked what I read and saw. I liked the costing of the band I liked what it was offering especially the personalized coaching where somebody will be constantly motivating you to get on the track of wellbeing. I thought that maybe it might help me get much better as I’d always wanted to. I was intrigued.

I decided to buy GOQii and bought one. And after a few months what I realized is that it met all my expectations and did much more. That tiny little tracker was the spark that ignited an enormous change in my life. At the core of my success was the concept in its entirety that when a person tracks and records something related to their fitness or health, they can change it for the better. Using the GOQii online dashboard and my coach’s motivation made it simpler for me.

Jatin On his daily run

Jatin On his daily run

I wear my band all the time. It keeps me motivated 24*7 because I keep looking to see if I am meeting my goals for the day or not. Now I take readings every day and compare them over any time. It sends all of my data to my computer or phone and also my coach is able to view exactly what I have been doing. My tracker is a great tool for my training. Gone are the days of handwritten exercise logs and calculators. I have all of the training data I could ever need at my fingertips. It’s become a great tool to discover trends in my activity, nutrition and show positive progress.

The biggest motivator for me is the fact that I am answerable to somebody and that keeps me going. I am not sure if am the only lucky one but, I would like to say that my coach Charmi Gogri is just fantastic.

I think she must be twenty years younger to me, but she is so much knowledgeable and has done a fantastic job. She understands me and what goals I want to achieve very well. And her tip on nutrition has been fantastic. I am only doing what she has advised and I have witnessed quite a visible difference not only in my nutrition but at all levels..

I had bad dietary habits before I got injured. I am a Punjabi and ate whatever came my way. Had absolutely no control. I remained in shape and fit only because I played a sport and I did exercises regularly.

But, after my injury I was advised to cut down my weight to about 67-68 kg below what was my ideal weight of 74-75 kg for my height and age. I am around 182 cm and currently 40 years of age.  I was advised to maintain a lighter weight than the normal so as to put minimum pressure on the back. When I was getting back in shape with yoga, walking and running, I had reduced and I cut my weight down to around 68 kgs.

I wanted to maintain that weight. I do not play a sport anymore. So ideally, I only run. I run only 6 km a day and I have been able to maintain my weight at 67-68 kgs only because of eating right. Thanks to my coach she advised some changes such as smaller portions and frequent meals, healthy snacking between meals and we have been able to stick to that plan more or less.

My coach has also advised on a few Yoga asanas to keep my back strong. I do yoga for around half an hour every day. I also do a lot of exercises for my stomach, and when there are days I can’t exercise especially because of lack of time especially when I am on field, she has given me a lot of exercises to do which does not require too much space and can be done when you have lack of time. I tried these exercises and found it very helpful.

When I am on field there are times I am incommunicado. My coach has been flexible with my timings and helped not slack off when I am back from field duty. The band keeps me driven that I don’t slack.

I have been on the GOQii platform since 2014 and it has done wonders for me in the last 18 months. Things changed drastically. I am fit, eating better and right, I am maintaining my weight and am slimmer than ever. When I got injured and was out of active service hence my first goal was to get back to active service. You don’t want to be in services and not be in active service.

Now my health goal has totally changed because I have built my fitness. Currently, my new goal is to run marathons. This year I shall do a half marathon and then the full marathon. And the other thing I wished for was to maintain my weight and I am able to do that.

I also like the karma initiative. It is a good thing and makes you feel nice once in a while. I would say it is one more motivating factor to stay healthy. I have so far probably donated well above 2000 points.

I would say that there are lot of people who have asked me about the band and they are very impressed by me being constantly motivated. Earlier too I used to be fit but never so charged.

The 5 things I like about GOQii is 1) coaching 2) the step count and the technology 3) Usability of the app 4) I find the band perfect. It is not very bright in colour and is something I can wear with my uniform and all my clothes. And lastly, I like the response of the GOQii team. They are fast and immediate.

Last but not the least I would like to say is that GOQii is a great enabler it gives you the tools and motivation that you need to make your own success story.

What does Coach Charmi Gogri have to say about Jatin Singh?

I met Jatin a year and a half ago. I was already impressed by his workout routine and meal choices via his lifestyle. Over the call, I understood his lifestyle more clearly and felt REST is something which is inadequate. We initially settled down for the goal to improve his sleep quality and duration. After following few bed time rituals, Jatin accomplished this goal in few weeks. He has been the most obedient player so far. He is always ready to implement suggestions and is open to ideas. All he wanted was daily motivation so as to keep his lifestyle the way it is. Over time, we worked upon many small goals which in turn became part of his routine, from as simple as how to perfectly wash fruits and vegetables to portion control to mindful eating to detoxification to maintaining weekly chart of Kms run to formulating some temporary goals such as meditation, free hand workouts, smart snacking etc; while he has to go to the sea on duty. Since his schedule is uncertain due to his duty on sea and harbour, we make sure to keep his routine flexible. His aim this year is to run his first marathon so currently, we are working on his training to run a marathon by year end

(He is almost ready!) and adding a smart and healthy evening snack daily to bridge the long gap between Lunch and dinner (He has been consistent with this one so far ).

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