GOQii

Blog

Search Results for: stress

By Leave a Comment

Stay Healthy and Save Money

budget-health

Today’s Union Budget presented by Union Minister for Finance Arun Jaitley provides for new health protection scheme that will provide health cover up to Rs One lakh per family. And for senior citizens an additional top-up package up to Rs 30,000 will be provided. This is good but, how about staying healthy and reducing health costs once for all.

Lifestyle plays an important role in heart ailments but, perhaps many have not taken this to heart. Getting angioplasties and stents that cost thousands of rupees do not prolong life or prevent heart attacks in stable patients. Similarly, lowering blood sugar with drugs does not fully prevent the economic and human costs of diabetes (including heart attacks, strokes, amputations, impotence, kidney failure, and blindness), but lowering blood sugar with diet and lifestyle prevents all of these human and economic costs.

Bringing about lifestyle changes is easier said than done. Simple lifestyle changes like walking or cycling instead of driving, climbing stairs instead of taking an elevator, eating nutritious food or making dietary changes, exercising on a daily basis and incorporating some behavior modification technique can have a big impact on you and your pocket for the better. And rather than buy a pricey gym membership to get in shape, there are ways to work out on the cheap or choose a fitness tracker with a coach to guide you.

Her are 6 healthy habits that can keep you fit.

  • Portion Control and Mindful Eating: Watching how much you eat is one of the best ways to maintain your weight. Have smaller portions of food instead of filling your plate in one go and have 5 small meals a day that is healthy and nutritious. This will help you manage your weight, keep your cool, maintain your focus and avoid cravings.
  • Exercise Daily: The best way to start your day is with some good physical activity. We all know the importance of physical activity, but still only a less percentage of the population in the world follow the same. Exercise has been found to decrease your chances of depression, anxiety, and stress. It is also related to higher success in your career. If you don’t care about your body, every other aspect of your life will suffer. Take care of your body. It is the only place you live.
  • Have Enough Water: Staying well hydrated is one of our body’s basic needs. Water is needed to enable the body to keep eliminating the toxins generated, to produce digestive enzymes, maintain healthy skin, hair, organs and to help your body absorb essential vitamins, minerals and natural sugars. Water also regulates the body temperature, cooling one down by evaporating through the skin. Drinking at least 3 litres of water a day is a must.
  • Get A Healthy 7+ Hours of Sleep: Sleep plays a vital role in good health and well-being throughout your life. Getting enough quality sleep at the right time can help protect your mental and physical health, quality of life, and safety. Sleep is just as important as eating and drinking water. Despite this, millions of people do not sleep enough and experience insane problems as a result. The way you feel while you’re awake depends partly on how you have slept or what kind of sleep you have had. During sleep, your body is working to support healthy brain function and maintain your physical health.
  • Think Positive and have a sense of Gratitude: Being positive and thinking positive builds a healthier immune system and boosts overall health. Body believes what you think so think positive. Gratitude is good for our bodies, our minds, and our relationships. Showing gratitude also keeps one happy. Gratitude also blocks toxic and negative emotions and
  • Avoid Stress: The human body is designed to experience stress and react to it. Here are few things you can do to avoid stress. Namely meditate, deep breathing, be alert, relax, laugh out loud, listen to music, and chase your hobbies.

So let’s stay healthy and save money and rather use that money for things we love to do.

By 4 Comments

5 tips to eat safe outside your home

cut-fruits_625x350_51432907748

Eating outside your home comes as a big relief for most of us especially when we want to have something different from the regular routine “Ghar ka Khana”.

No matter how much we love home cooked food, there comes a point in time when we all crave for outside food even if it is not prepared in the best hygienic way. And well, it’s the first thing foodies like me look forward to do when on holidays or socializing.

Usually,nutritionists and dieticians always emphasize on healthy choices and mindful eating practices while eating out. But sadly, eating healthy i.e non-fatty, low calorie foods alone don’t help to stay healthy and fit. While we pay attention to the fat or sugar content and the processing method of the food while eating out, it’s also equally important to make sure what is served on our plate is safe enough to be consumed.

Failure to adhere to proper safety measures can cause nausea, vomiting, cramps, stomach upset, and in worst case can lead to a serious episode of food poisoning or food borne illness. Thus,a mere act of enjoyment and pleasing the taste buds ends up putting extra stress on our digestive and immune system.

So what’s the alternative? Is there something which can take care of both-the taste buds and our body’s system? The Answer is YES

Here are 5 simple tips which can help us lower the health risk and ensure that the food safety part is not completely ignored!

1) Look for eateries having open kitchen or at least which allows a view of the kitchen

Food safety is all about what goes beyond the scenes i,e inside the kitchen and depends on the person who is cooking as well as the one who is serving the food. Hence, opting for places or restaurant joints that have open kitchen or dining place which allows you to have a view of the kitchen area helps a lot. This will give you some idea of the cleanliness of the kitchen premise, the utensils/equipment and also whether the chef and other kitchen staff are taking care of personal hygiene or not.

2) Go for places/joints which are always crowded or have high visitor ratio

Apart from ensuring that such restaurant is popular and serves tasty food, it will also ensure safer food. This is because crowded places have high turnover of food, and hence chances of getting served stale food reduces (example-the left over gravies and sauces or foods such as cooked rice from previous day).

3) Avoid opting for dishes which are too exotic, off beat or off seasonal

This is largely to play safe as we never know which ingredients go inthe preparation of such foods. Also,it’salways best to avoid dishes which have offseasonal food ingredients say any fruit or vegetable, because storage method of such foods then is a big question?Which if not stored properly as per the protocol can impose a potential risk for food toxicity.

4) Prefer cooked foods over raw or cold foods

This is applicable while eatingin the roadside eateries or joints as they often use food items like chopped onion, peeled potatoes, chutneys etc; which are pre prepared and if not covered and stored properlycan be subjected to contamination from flies, pests etc and thus become a potential health hazard. Opting for cooked foods ensures that at least some microbes get destroyed due to heat.

For example:

#Go for grilled/toasted sandwich instead of regular sandwich

5)Beware of what you eat during buffet set ups

** Avoid having cut salads, cold pastas and fruits in buffet set ups like weddings or in hotels since they are likely to sit there for a long time before they actually go into our plate.We can have soups, grilled/sauteedveggies or steamed starters instead of salads in such situations to fill ourselves and save us from overindulgence.

** Besides this, make sure that all other foods kept at buffet table are maintained at proper temperatures; cold food should be kept cold, hot food should be kept hot when you serve them on your plate.

Remember, next time when you head out just follow these simple tips to make sure you enjoy your time away from the kitchen without thinking of the extra calories or worrying about food poisoning…think good nutrition!!

By Leave a Comment

5 basic exercises to shed your excess weight –Part 1

walk-or-run

In today’s hectic life – with packed schedules, calendars have no column for relaxation or time for doing anything good. This also translates into “No Time” for eating healthy food which invariably leads one to have all sorts of JUNK food available on the menu.  and is a ready to eat option. Outcome of overeating junk food is ‘excess weight’.

Excess weight slowly and steadily leads to Obesity and to shed this excess weight and get back on track becomes a huge task. Nevertheless it is not impossible if one puts in the effort, had dedication and patience. Exercise is the key to creating a physically, mentally, and emotionally healthier body. However, at the same time, some of the moves may be too painful or nearly impossible for those who are heavy.

Here are some basic exercise which can be done to avoid unhealthy lifestyle, without any harm:

  1. Walking–This is one of the best and basic workouts that can be done by one and all, anywhere without spending a single penny and is a low-impact aerobic exercise. It may still be difficult to work for those who are morbidly corpulent, which is when baby steps need to be implemented with a walker, walking cane, or assistance. Slow walking burns extra calories for those carrying extra weight because they have to exert more energy than a normal-weight person.Friends Power Walking in Park
  1. Exercise Ball Workouts: people on the heavier side often find it difficult to exercise in front of others. The best solution in this case is Exercise Ball, which is really a great help to do different workouts at home. An exercise ball will help them to do the variety of strengthening, toning, stretching and balancing exercises with support. Exercise balls can be used for abdominal crunches by lying on your back, setting your ankles onto the ball, and lifting upward with your core and both arms behind your head.

You can do:

# “Bouncing On the Ball Workout” targets: core, quads, glutes, and hamstrings

# “Inner-Thigh Squeeze Workout”, targets – Strengthens inner thighs and core

# “Half Squat” with the help of Exercise Ball and wall”, which targets: Strengthens abs, glutes, and hamstrings

Once you get comfortable with the ball, try incorporating it into your everyday activities, such as sitting on it while you are on the computer, eating at the dinner table, or reading a book.

swissball

 

 

 

 

  1. Aqua Aerobics: You can perform your exercise under water because water makes you feel lighter by helping to support your body weight. It also lessens the impact on your joints. You can do swimming if you know.

For more read my Blog “One-Stop Shop Workout – Swimming”:  http://goqii.com/blog/one-stop-shop-workout-swimming/

Water-Aerobics-Exercises-for-Weight-Loss

  1. Seated Stationary Bike: The seated or recumbent stationary bike is different than a normal upright exercise bike. It provides a backrest optimal for heavier or obese people who haven’t developed a strong enough abdominal core to hold them upright long enough. It also places less stress on your lower spine, which is a frequent problem for those who are heavy. Biking also engages different muscles than walking or running do. Alternating exercise days between biking and brisk walking will also give the body a dynamic bonus aerobic workout.

Stationary Bike

  1. Group Exercise Classes:  There are chances that you will get bored and demotivated if you are working out alone. The best way then to motivate yourself is by joining a group exercise class that has people who all have similar goals such as yours. Each of them then motivates the other to achieve the respective goals. Initially, it will be difficult to achieve your goal, but with the continuous motivation and effort, you will achieve your goal.

104e3f_b083d0f76eb140bdaa581ba4a45cf79b.jpg_srz_660_400_85_22_0.50_1.20_0

 

Get up set your goal and start working towards it.

Look forward to the second part of my blog where I will take you through some more exercises.

Note: Please consult your Doctor before including the above exercises into your routine, as an individual’s body and medical conditions vary.  

By 3 Comments

Why is GOQii the best startup to work at?

Values-600x480

Two years ago when I first walked into the 7th-floor office of GOQii to meet Vishal Gondal, the first sight was that of some youngsters playing loud music and doing Zumba. I was told it’s a regular routine at the office. If it’s not Zumba then its Tabata or skipping or indulging in some physical activity while at office. Then I saw some weights, exercise ball, kettle bell lying around. My first thought was it was a small startup, few people so it’s just one way to probably relax at work. But, the best part is this fun atmosphere continues even after 2 years of being in operation and with close to 100 odd employees.

No wonder that it is rated among the top 10 best startups that one should be looking at to work for in 2016 by a leading news website. The website rated it based on the new exciting business in the wearable space that GOQii is operating in. But, GOQii apart from the business that it operates is a cool startup to work at for varied reasons.

GOQii founded by gaming geek Vishal Gondal in 2013 with the basic premise to get people to follow a healthy lifestyle by making small changes in their life. GOQii which operates in the wearable space combines a fitness band with personalized coaching to help people lead a healthy lifestyle. This ideology was not meant only for their ‘Players’(customers) but, also to be practiced within the company. One of the values of the company is ‘Practice what we Preach’.

Being a startup there is pressure to perform and deliver but not at the cost of a bad work life balance. The company provides a work atmosphere that is lively and not monotonous. For all here at GOQii, the two main aspects that have attracted them or have kept them back is because it is a great learning place for one’s career and secondly, you can just be the person you are and do not have to change yourself to prove your abilities. It is one company that does not hire basis your degrees but hires basis your attitude and persona.

Says Gondal, CEO of GOQii “We hire people not for their degrees but for their passion. We want people to be themselves at work and have the same persona as their personal life.”

The coaches who are responsible for motivating and changing people’s lifestyle for the better say that they are motivated within the office and therefore are able to motivate their players. The one thing that strikes a chord with all coaches is the ethical practice followed by the company and that they are not focusing on weight loss but on leading a healthy and holistic lifestyle.

The learning curve at GOQii is fabulous, there are great mentors within the company who are approachable including Vishal who is the CEO. These Mentors may work in a completely different department but, you get unlimited, time with him/her to talk and understand any issue. The work culture is open and there is a lot of freedom for you to work your way while you bear in mind the ethical values of the company.

As one employee from the tech department says: “Two years at GOQii has been enriching for me. I being an IT professional have got an opportunity to learn beyond just technology. I have had the opportunity to work with various departments and in the process learned people management. GOQii has not limited me from doing anything.”

Apart from the work culture and the cool people working for the company, GOQii also takes care of its people. Being in the health industry, the company has been instrumental in getting its employees to lead a healthy lifestyle as well without imposing any rules or regulations on them.

“I had a bad work life balance but, I can vouch and say now that I am a much healthier person now. I eat well and sleep well. I am not stressed at work and I do not wake up thinking ‘Oh shit’ I need to get to work. But more eager to get to work daily,” says one woman employee who works in the HR department.

It’s not only about an open work culture, flexibility or ethical values at work, but also the fun things that happen within office- the regular workout sessions, Zumba session for fitness, work from wherever you want to as no specific desk space is allotted, work sitting on a beanbag or on an exercise ball so long as work is getting done.

I would be doing injustice if I do not talk of the healthy food that is served for lunch. Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays the employees get healthy organic food and Tuesday and Thursday is Vegan organic all free of cost. There are also regular outdoor activities such as runs, walks, hikes or treks conducted across India where players and coaches meet. Last but not the least, the karma culture is a part of GOQii Life where employees along with coaches and players are invited to volunteer with a social organization and do good for the society.

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 […]