Search Results for: running

May 28, 2024 By Prachi Aggarwal 1 Comment

Have A Healthy Summer With These Safety Tips!

Summer is officially here and it often indicates fun and sunshine. Unfortunately, that also brings unbearable heat induced illnesses such as sunburn, heat exhaustion, stroke, etc. Therefore, a variation in weather calls for the change in our routine, dietary habits and activity that suits the weather. So, here are some tips to help you enjoy a healthy summer!

Safety Tips For a Healthy Summer

Hydration: Heat and sweat in summers may lead to dehydration causing sleep issues, and headaches. So, no matter what time of the day it is, water is very important to prevent dehydration. Keep the body hydrated and drink a minimum of 2-3 litres (8-12 glasses) per day. In addition to water, buttermilk, lemon juice, aloe vera juice, mint and amla (Indian Gooseberry) juice with rock salt can also be included (prefer fresh ingredients).
Have healthy and light meals: One’s appetite decreases in summers because of the excessive heat but it is important to provide nutrition to the body. Prefer light, small and frequent meals which can be easily digested by the body. Prefer more fresh fruits and veggies with high water content such as melons, oranges, cucumber and tomatoes.
Avoid caffeine and fizzy drinks: Caffeine (tea, coffee) and fizzy drinks (soft drinks) dehydrate the body and also cause gastritis. Try to reduce the consumption of these products for a healthy summer! If you do have them, pair them with nuts, unsalted popcorn, plain peanuts, fox nuts, etc.
Wear the right clothes: Always prefer to wear loose and light clothes in summers as they allow the free flow of air, speed up the evaporation process and carry off the excess heat from the body, keeping it cool.
Be active: Exercise for a minimum of 30 minutes, 5 times a week. It’s the best way to keep the body active. It also improves blood circulation in the body, preventing headaches and migraine attacks during summer. One can opt for indoor activities like swimming, yoga, dancing, aerobics or outdoor activities like walking, jogging, running or cycling. The best time for outdoor activities is before 8.00 am or after 6.00 pm

We hope this article helps you have a healthy summer! Do leave your thoughts in the comments below! For more summer tips, check out Healthy Reads or speak to a certified expert by subscribing to GOQii’s Personalised Health Coaching here.

Beat the heat and #BeTheForce

April 24, 2024 By Luke Coutinho 4 Comments

STAIR climbing – One of the best exercises

You can run a 5k but running up a couple of flights of stairs tires you out? You can squat heavy and lunge with weights, yet walking up a couple of flights of steps makes it feel like a whole other workout?

Here’s a workout that can actually challenge your body, endurance and actual strength and stamina.

Climbing stairs is one of the best exercises when it comes to pure FAT BURN, strengthening the lower body, toning the butt, thighs, calves, losing inches from those love handles and belly and building great abs. Along with these benefits is the immense good it does for your lungs and cardio vascular system.

It is totally free and just about all of us can get access to a set of stairs
It leverages gravity and the heavier we are, the harder we’re forced to work and the more calories we burn
It is a relatively intense exercise that quickly increases our heart rate and in doing so can greatly improve our cardiovascular fitness
It helps strengthen and shape our most common problem areas like calves, thighs, buttocks and tummy
It is a very efficient way of burning maximum calories and is great for those of us with limited time to exercise
It can easily be mixed with other exercises, like walking, skipping and weight training, to maximize results and stair-climbing workouts are easy to build progression into
It can be done by almost anyone, regardless of fitness level
Because it is weight bearing, it helps build bone strength
It is low impact and safe for the knees (providing correct technique is used and a preexisting condition doesn’t exist)

The way forward with exercise is quality over quantity. Too many people fix a ‘one hour’ work out in their mind and if they can’t find time for that ‘1 hour’ they just don’t do it.

Aim for power workouts, 25 to 30 mins max, where you max out your reps, burn those muscles and really get your heart rate up. 35 to 40 minutes should include a great warm up and an extremely important cool down.

You can burn more calories walking/running up steps in 30 mins than a 1 hour run or walk, plus it challenges your body.

Start off with a couple of flights, Walk and run slowly. As you get better, run and then skip 2 steps at a time and run or walk.

In a nutshell –

Burns more calories: Stair climbing engages your body’s largest muscle groups to repeatedly lift your body weight up, step after step. Thus using your muscles to carry your own weight is far higher to running as compared.

Maximises your cardio efforts: It also raises your heart rate immediately thus maximizing your cardio benefits.

Increases core muscle strength: Climbing stairs is a great way to amp your core muscle strength.

Tones and sculpts your body: It also engages every major muscle in your lower body – glutes, hamstrings, quadriceps, abs and calves to exercise and thus tones your body better.

Low impact workout: You don’t have to ideally sweat it out while climbing stairs. Just a few stairs every day will give you a good workout.

Safety first: Never run down the stairs, be confident while running up, take a break when needed.

Start doing this regularly and soon, you will be running up flights of stairs, feeling fitter, younger, stronger and leaner.

We hope this article helps you. For further information or guidance, reach out to our certified experts by subscribing to GOQii’s Personalised Health Coaching here.

#BeTheForce

March 27, 2024 By Luke Coutinho Leave a Comment

Power of Your Immunity – Part 1

Over the years my work has led me to believe that we need a fundamentally different way of looking at health care. We need a system that works beyond simply just looking at the symptoms that brings people into the clinics and instead is actually able to look and improve health where it begins. Health does not begin in the 4 walls of a doctors’ office or a hospital, but where we live, we work, we eat, sleep, learn and play.

Are you struggling with disease, pain, taking more medicines and spending more time with the doctors? Are you still sick?

Are you scared of the onset of disease, of flu’s, of cancers ?

We may be living in a polluted world, with pesticide laden foods, water that we think is clean and pure, but may not be, breathing in oxygen that consists or several deadly carcinogens, using cosmetics and hair colours laden with chemicals, microwaves, eating toxic junk food… the list goes on..

And we keep running around, like headless chickens, searching for the next best healthiest option, getting sucked into fads, diet programs, dangerous exercise programs, believing in the media, in what our social circles say, in what Bollywood and Hollywood blinds us with.

Eminent Doctors/Nutritionists across the U.S have T.V. shows that inspire the masses with their latest take on weight loss pills that work… first there was green bean coffee extract, then there was raspberry ketones, then Garcinai Cambogia. If these worked, there would be no one struggling with weight issues.

Stop all of this, step back and really slow down.

Yes it’s a crazy world, and people are going to get sicker by the day, and there are going to be more Antibiotics, Cancer, Diabetes, Thyroid drugs that pharmas will continue to flood our communities with. But, guess what, it’s all of this that is not allowing us to get healthier.

Your body is designed to heal itself, if you give it a chance. I’m not saying stop medication. If it works, do it. But, aim to understand what got you on that medication, what’s the trigger and then sort that out so you don’t have to stay on medicines. Don’t get reliant on the medication and continue to live without making changes in your lifestyle.

The answer to disease prevention and cure is ‘IMMUNITY’. It is your body’s first and last line of defense against all diseases .

We all know that Nutrition, Exercise, Stress and Sleep are the aspects that work together to contribute towards a strong immunity.

Over and above this my first recommendation would be for everyone to understand their ‘lymphatic system, and how it works in each of our body’s.

Having a lymphatic system that works well, is the first step towards a super strong immune system.

The lymphatic system is closely related to the cardiovascular system and is sometimes referred to as the body’s secondary circulatory system. Its major function is that of a defense mechanism and it is a key to the body’s immune defenses. The lymphatic system includes the lymph vessels (four times more than blood vessels), lymph nodes, tonsils, spleen and thymus gland. Lymph is the colorless fluid containing white blood cells that bathes the tissues and drains through the lymphatic system.

The lymphatic system:

– Distributes fluid and nutrients throughout the body

– Assists in draining off excess fluids and protein left behind by capillary circulation activity, preventing tissues from swelling

– Removes toxins

Furthermore, when toxins are produced within the body faster than the body can process and release them, the body suspends those toxins in fat and interstitial spaces in an attempt to protect the organs. This toxic buildup results in soft and connective tissue inflammation and excessive buildup of lymph fluid which contributes to fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, cancer and a multitude of immune system disorders.

To be continued ….

March 9, 2024 By Disha Jhamb 8 Comments

Beyond Counting: Unraveling the Real Story Behind Calories

CALORIE- a term that haunts many of us …And Counting Calories was one such thing that drove me crazy in the last 2 years. Somehow I always felt and many of you will agree, that, all the tasty and delicious food of the world has tons of calories, whereas the ones which we don’t find tasty, has fewer..

Two years back when I started my weight loss journey, my greatest difficulty was keeping a count of calories all the time. But then, it seemed to be the only option to lose weight. I was told that my calorie intake should be between 1200 cal- 1500 cal. Left with no choice, I did that for quite some time. Opting for low calorie food, staying hungry, doing cardio but sadly, the result was minor weight loss with pain in my knees, low energy levels and pale skin.

I was unable to understand the reason for so many health problems. I was eating a healthy low cal diet (which seemed to be healthy then), was doing 45 min of cardio followed by strength training. Hence, I started reading about calories and weight loss. But, all my reading led to more confusion and I finally decided to do a course in nutrition. And that is when my understanding about being fit and healthy started to evolve. My studies made me identify the areas where I was lacking. I was so conscious of calories but was not paying any attention to food and its quality.

Calorie is just a unit of measurement for energy content. It tells us how much energy we get by burning the food. And I realized that I should keep the definition of it as it is in my mind, and not make it the focal point of my fitness journey. Carbohydrates contain between 3 and 4 kcal per gram; proteins are about the same; fats contain approximately 9 kcal per gram. I was of the mindset that for weight loss to happen, I have to decrease the intake of calories and increase the output by staying physically active. But, things are not as simple as they appear. There is much more needed for correct weight loss to happen and to have a lean and fit body. And that much more is NUTRITION. From where these calories are coming is something that matters the most. For example – if a person consumes 1200 calories from processed food and the other consumes 1200 calories from balanced diet which has carbs, proteins , fats and fiber … which one do you think will experience weight gain ? The answer is known to all of us- obviously the one consuming calories from processed food. So yes, 1200 calories matters but, what matters the most is- what these calories do in and to our bodies and from where these calories are coming i.e. the quality of the food. Eating fewer and fewer calories does not result in better weight loss. When our body senses an energy deficit, it slows its metabolism by reducing the output of important hormones.

I have stopped counting calories now. My eating pattern has totally changed. My focus is in making my every meal more nutritious and balanced with the right combination of carbohydrates , fats , proteins and fiber.. I have been focusing on what my body tells me. I eat if I feel hungry because my body needs food then. I still want to look a certain way. I want to be healthy, lean and fit. But, at the same time, I do not want to harm myself in any way by not taking care of the nutrition part of food. I am confident about myself now, I know the weight loss is going to be slow but that does not matter to me anymore. Weight is just a number and no weighing scale can judge or tell me my fitness in terms of numbers. It’s me who can feel it. I know that what I am eating now is certainly having more number of calories than earlier but now, these calories are coming from the food that my body needs.

Thanks to my diet, I feel energetic throughout the day, my stamina for running has improved. I don’t feel any joint pain and I am sure I will soon be running a marathon, (something that I have always wanted to do)

The journey from calorie counting to nutrition-focused eating is a transformative one. Discovering the true significance of food quality over mere numbers has reshaped the approach to fitness for many. As we celebrate the realization that health is not just about counting calories but nourishing our bodies, let’s embrace a holistic understanding of nutrition for a sustainable and vibrant life. Share your own journey in the comments below and inspire others on their path to well-being. For further information or guidance, reach out to our certified experts by subscribing to GOQii’s Personalised Health Coaching here.

#BeTheForce

STAIR climbing – One of the best exercises

Power of Your Immunity – Part 1

Beyond Counting: Unraveling the Real Story Behind Calories

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