You might have heard the saying, “Almost all diseases begin in the gut.” If gut health issues are left unchecked, it can get worse and affect your mental health too. Our Player Ashima Dalela suffered from gut health issues which led to severe anxiety and she visited around 15 doctors who were unable to identify the cause. But, she was able to fix the issue with simple lifestyle changes suggested by her GOQii Coach. How did she tackle her gut and anxiety issue? Let’s find out!
Life Before GOQii
Ashima Dalela is a young working professional based in Ghaziabad. For the longest time, she suffered from stomach issues and anxiety. Multiple doctors were unable to diagnose what was wrong, with some saying it was GERD and stomach infection. One doctor told her that it was IBS and her gut problem has combined with anxiety. Finally, one of the doctors she visited suggested GOQii.
Identifying the Issue & Making Lifestyle Changes
Since she onboarded, Coach Meenakshi was assigned to Ashima Dalela. Coach Meenakshi began by tackling the stomach issues and acidity. She prescribed specific foods to improve her gut health. She coupled nutrition with exercises such as asanas for the stomach, all of which slowly and steadily brought about a change.
Initially, Ashima faced some difficulty in walking. So she was tasked with completing 2k steps a day. She was also skipping meals due to her situation and her condition was only getting worse. Despite some hurdles, Ashima stuck to the habits given by her GOQii Coach. Thanks to her dedication and her GOQii Coach’s constant motivation, she was able to fix her gut health issue as well as her anxiety. She now enjoys the live sessions on the app and always browses through Healthy Reads. She also enrolls for challenges within the app.
Initially, her mother was skeptical about the coaching aspect but after seeing positive results, she is convinced that the coaching works. In fact, the entire family has adopted healthy habits. Her goal now is to stay active and gain healthy weight.
What Are Coach Meenakshi’s Thoughts About Ashima Dalela’s Journey?
When Ashima came on board, she was very nervous about her health issues. She wanted to control:
- GERD with symptoms like acidity in the morning, vomiting sensation, stomach upset, burning sensation, bloating and gas after meals
- Anxiety (20%, 1-2 anxiety attacks in a month because of health problems related to the gut) with symptoms like dizziness, increased heartbeat and numbness in hands and legs.
Now, her GERD has reduced by 95% without any symptoms after introducing habits like lemon water, detox water, eating slowly, adding curd, rice, kanji, etc. Anxiety levels reduced by 95% without any symptoms. Now, she can cope easily with any arguments/bad news.
She has been practicing meditation, deep breathing and is generally more positive. Ashima doesn’t feel stress and anxiety while handling physical, mental and emotionally taxing situations.
We changed to a new health goal on 15 August 2020 as she wanted to be more active in 3 months as she was unable to do any activity in the morning and evening because of work. She felt lethargic in the evening after office work. She was also facing haemorrhoid issues and irregular cycles.
She feels 85% improvement in activeness with asanas, exercise and daily walks. Her bowel movement is fine with more water and salad intake. Menstrual cycle also continues now in September with the habit of seed cycle.
We’re now working with a new health goal from 10 March, 2021 – She wants to gain weight up to 53kg (weight was 50kg on March 10). Her current weight is 51kg thanks to the added habits of eating nuts and seeds, post workout meals and employing strengthening exercises.
To take a glimpse into Ashima’s inspiring journey with GOQii, watch her GOQii Health Story session with our Founder and CEO Vishal Gondal along with her GOQii Coach Meenakshi, Doctor Viral Thakkar and Divya Thampi here –
If you suffer from similar issues or know someone who does, share this article with them and subscribe to GOQii’s Personalised Health Coaching here.
Find more inspiring health stories here.
#BeTheForce
Everyone knows about yoga and the benefits it can bring to your life. This ancient form of exercise started in India and has reached far and wide across the world. Since the pandemic, we’re always looking for new ways to be fit and active, given that health has now become a priority. I have a few ways on how we can be more active during the day and that’s Hand Yoga!
In this Mudra, the thumb and index finger are touching and form a circle. The other three fingers are stretched casually. The palms are facing upwards. This Hand Yoga Mudra is known as the gesture of knowledge and wisdom. The Index Finger symbolizes the ego that is beaten by the universal wisdom, which is represented by thumb.
To perform this, the thumb and middle finger are brought together. The other fingers are casually stretching. Aakash stands for the element of room or ether.
In this Hand Yoga Mudra, you bend your middle finger until it touches the ball below the thumb. The thumb performs light pressure on the middle finger. The other fingers are stretched. Put your hands, palms facing up, on your thighs. Sunya Means “sky” or “zero”.
It is formed by folding the ring finger so that it touches the lower end of the thumb. The thumb pushes the ring finger slightly down and other fingers are casually stretched upwards. Surya Mudra activates the fire element of the body.
To perform this, the small finger is bent towards the thumb. The thumb pushes the small finger slightly down. The name of this hand gesture (Mudra) is made up of from three words Jal for “water”, Udar for “ stomach”and Nashak for “finish”. The small finger represent the water element.
Priyanka struggled to get blood for her father who was undergoing a surgery. The blood bank did not have her father’s blood type. As things got tougher, she tried to get in touch with other blood banks but none of them had it. In fact, she was ready to pay, but the blood banks did not have the blood type! Time was running out. She also started getting in touch with her friends but to no avail. Her friends all refused to donate blood due to their preconceived notions and myths.
