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Healthy Eating: Eggless Whole Wheat Jaggery Marble Cake

Whole Wheat Jaggery Marble Cake

This Cake reminded me of my childhood Britannia cakes. We, as kids, could not stop at one slice. The minute that packet was opened, the whole cake vanished with no crumbs left behind. Marble Cake has both vanilla and chocolate flavors and two distinct colors are mixed together to create a marble effect. To top it all, this gorgeous marble cake is a stress buster for me and made my life super special over the weekend. It is a perfect cake to accompany a cup of Tea or Coffee. Bake a loaf and gift it to your loved ones. I am sure they will love it.

What You Will Need

(1 cup= 200 gm,  1 tbsp=15 gm , 1tsp= 5 gm)

  • Whole wheat flour – 2 cups 
  • Odorless oil/Pure ghee – ½ cup 
  • Jaggery powder/syrup (melt jaggery in ⅛ cup water) – 1 cup 
  • Cocoa powder (unsweetened) – 1 tbsp 
  • Vanilla essence – 1 tsp 
  • Baking powder (7.5gm) – 1 ½ tsp
  • Baking soda (5gm) – 1 tsp 
  • Warm water – 1 cup (can be replaced with milk)  

How To Prepare

  1. Preheat  the oven at 350*F/180*C for 10 mins. Take a normal size Cake Loaf Pan (7-8 inches) and grease it lightly. You may also line it with a parchment paper for easy handling.
  2. Take a big bowl and sift 2 cups of flour, baking powder and baking soda into it. Mix it well with a fork and set it aside.
  3. In another bowl, add ghee/oil, curd and mix well. Add jaggery powder/syrup and beat the mixture till jaggery dissolves. 
  4. Add all the dry ingredients and mix gently with a cut and fold method. Add ¼ cup warm water/milk and fold it again. If you feel the batter is thick then slowly add warm water/milk  till the batter is in flowing consistency (DO NOT OVERBEAT THE BATTER).
  5. Now divide this batter into 2 equal parts.
  6. In one part of the batter, add vanilla essence. Mix it well till incorporated in the batter. This is your vanilla Batter.
  7. In the other half of the batter, add the cocoa powder. Mix well with a fork till well incorporated and therefore, the whole of this batter turns chocolate brown in color.
  8. To pour the batter, add 1 tbsp vanilla batter first at the bottom of the greased pan.Then pour the 1 tbsp chocolate batter on top.Tap the pan on the counter a few times so that the batter settles down evenly with no gaps in between.You may pour the vanilla and chocolate batters in the pan in an alternate sequence or the sequence of your desire, could also be chocolate first and vanilla later. However you want to do it.
  9. Keep it  in the oven for 30-40 mins. at 180*C. After 30 mins, check the cake with a toothpick. If it comes out clean then remove the cake tin from the oven and keep it on a cool down wire rack . Demould the tin when it completely cools down. (If it sticks on a toothpick, then bake it for more than 10 min. at 160*C .Temperature may vary in different ovens/OTGs.
  10. Cut it into small pieces according to your choice and store it in a steel or glass container in the refrigerator for a week. Enjoy a hearty slice of your Marble Cake with a cup of coffee or tea.

Why Is This Marble Cake Healthier Than A Bakery/Store Cake?

  • We are adding whole wheat flour in a cake which has more fibre, packed with B vitamins, while a bakery cake is made with maida (refined flour). Eating maida raises your bad cholesterol (LDL), makes you put on weight, clogs arteries, raises BP, disrupts blood glucose, keeps you hungry, causes you to crave for sweets, causes mood swings and ruins your health. People eat it because they’re probably unaware of its consequences.
  • We are using jaggery as a sweetener in cake, which is a good source of iron, helps in maintaining the electrolyte balance, aids digestion and helps prevent water retention thanks to its potassium content. Bakery cakes are loaded with white sugar and contain only empty calories without any nutrients. Excess sugar creates higher blood pressure, inflammation, weight gain, diabetes and fatty liver disease.
  • In Bakery cakes, they use shortening and margarine, which are Trans Fats (Hydrogenated fats) that raise your risk of heart disease. They also raise your “bad” cholesterol levels, lower your “good” cholesterol and cause inflammation, therefore, hardening of your arteries.

We hope you enjoy this Whole Wheat Jaggery Marble Cake recipe. Do try it out and leave your feedback in the comments below. For more Healthy Recipes, checkout Healthy Reads or tune in to LIVE cooking sessions on GOQii Play. 

#BeTheForce 

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Sangeeta Jajodia goes from a Simple Housewife to a Super Woman!

Sangeeta Jajodia

They say being a housewife is a full time job, and quite rightly so. As one among many, 52 year old Sangeeta Jajodia from Mumbai, led a very busy life. Her routine revolved around tending to the needs and demands of her grown up children, cooking, cleaning and regular household chores. During her free time, she watched TV or browsed through her mobile – this is how she summed up her life before GOQii.

Apart from her daily chores and normal walks which were required, she never indulged in any physical activity. She had no restrictions on food, she would sleep late and wake up early to prepare food for her kids. All of this led to acidity, cholesterol, fatty liver and weight gain. She says that she had never been underweight nor obese.

In 2017, after a family wedding when browsing through the pics, she realized that she had gradually put on a lot of weight. She decided that she needs to lose weight. Not knowing where to start, she decided walking was the one thing she could do. Seeing her interest, her son gifted her a GOQii and with it, a key to a new life which began taking shape from January 2018.

Life after GOQii

Initially, Sangeeta Jajodia was very reluctant to follow her GOQii Coach’s instructions – even simple things such as adding a salad and fruits to her diet – something she hadn’t done before. Slowly, she began adding salads to her dinner and her lunch as well. Now, she includes them daily.

Apart from adding salads to her diet, some of the changes included:

  • Adding fruits in between her main meals to avoid the long gap she used to have before.
  • She had to exercise portion control while eating her meals.
  • Drinking 2 cups of green tea and cinnamon water before going to bed
  • Eat dinner by 8 PM
  • Regularize eating and sleep timings
  • Apple detox twice a week which includes adding a few pieces of apple and cinnamon powder to a jug full of water, leaving it overnight and consuming that water throughout the day. On these days, she avoids grains and dairy products
  • 1 hour walk every day and does basic home workouts shared by her GOQii Coach
  • She takes her 10k step target seriously and walks even if she’s on vacation.

Sangeeta Jajodia Makes the Shift!

After implementing all of the small lifestyle modifications suggested by her GOQii Coach, Sangeeta Jajodia witnessed a lot of positive changes in her life. To begin with, her weight had reduced from 82kg to 73kg within a year of joining GOQii. Furthermore, her acidity was gone completely. Her cholesterol and fatty liver levels are in the normal range. Apart from this, she has participated in 4 5k runs and 1 8k run last year.

What Does Sangeeta Think About Her GOQii Coach?

Sangeeta completely trusts her GOQii Coach and follows her instructions and guidance diligently. Her coach follows up with her every day and reprimands her if she doesn’t follow a habit or cheats on her diet. What Sangeeta likes the most is that if she is in a difficult situation, her GOQii Coach modifies her habits – for instance, when Sangeeta’s mother-in-law was sick and she was stressed, her GOQii Coach asked her to start with breathing exercises and meditation which really helped her out during that time. Constant suggestions and a customized solution like this is what appeals to Sangeeta the most!

Like Sangeeta Jajodia, do you want to make a positive lifestyle change as well? Download the GOQii App and subscribe to our service now!

For more inspiring user journeys, read here: https://goqii.com/blog/category/user-stories/

#BeTheForce

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Tips To Support Your Immunity During Winter

support your immunityWith the onset of winter, there’s always that one person at home who catches a cold and spreads it to the rest of the family members due to the close proximity. Infections spread easily during winter and given the ongoing pandemic, it has become quite important to support your immunity and avoid cough, cold and flu. But, is there a way to support your immunity naturally? Let’s take a look! 

Support Your Immunity Naturally 

  1. Improve gut health as your gut is your second brain. Any disturbance in gut health will affect your immune system. Prebiotics and probiotics together help keep the gut healthy. Prebiotics in simple terms is the food that feeds the friendly bacteria in the gut. Garlic, onion, leeks, asparagus, bananas, barley, oats and flax seeds all help increase gut friendly bacteria and improve the immune system. On the other hand, probiotics are living microorganisms which give health benefits when taken orally. Probiotic foods include sauerkraut, yogurt, Kimchi and tempeh.
  2. Eat Seasonal and dark coloured fruits and vegetables which are rich in antioxidants and vitamin C like oranges, sweet lime, amla, guava, apple, sweet potato, ginger, carrot and beetroot. You can also have sea buckthorn juice which is the best known source of vitamin C having 12 times more vitamin C than an orange. These foods help us keep our moisture levels and prevent dryness due to seasonal changes.
  3. Get your daily dose of Vitamin D: As there are less food sources of vitamin D, getting a good amount of sunlight, at least 20 minutes during the day, between 9am to 3pm or including supplements to maintain your vitamin D levels is very important, especially if you are living in an area with severe cold. Low levels of vitamin D can lead to low levels of mood boosting hormone, mood swings and depression.
  4. Supplement your regular diet with immune boosting herbs like ashwagandha, tulsi, turmeric, cinnamon, cardamom, methi seeds and ginger. The list is endless! These foods help us keep warm, improve gut health, reduce inflammation and also manage stress – all of which keeps our immunity at optimum levels.
  5. Get adequate sleep of 7-8 hours: When we sleep, we give our body a chance to repair and restore itself to optimal levels. It helps you gear up for the next day’s activities. Good sleep also means fewer cravings for unhealthy food, better management of stress, less hormonal variations and weight gain.
  6. Have well-balanced meals and avoid junk and unhealthy sweets in large quantities as they cause inflammation and increase your risk of infection. Including a lot of sugar in your diet also reduces the white blood cells ability to attack invaders. Having a lot of sweets also leads to more production of free radicals, which increases inflammation and lowers immunity.
  7. Exercise regularly: Aim for 30 minutes of exercise at least 5 days a week as it improves metabolism and blood circulation. This makes it easy for the body to digest food and improved blood circulation makes it easy for cells to absorb nutrients from it. Exercising regularly also helps improve cardiovascular health, manage BP and avoid many lifestyle diseases. Exercise helps us manage our weight as being overweight impairs immunity.
  8. Quit smoking and keep a check on alcohol intake: Nicotine is known to suppress neutrophil’s ability to kill pathogens, leading to tissue damage and inflammation. Research also proves that the brains of smokers have weaker neuro-immune response to infection and inflammation. Alcohol intake kills the healthy bacteria in the gut, triggering inflammation by altering the microbiome of the gut. It also destroys the cells of the immune system which leads to increased risk of serious infection. Alcohol also disrupts the body’s critical functions as the body does not have the ability to store alcohol as it does with other nutrients like carbohydrates or fats. So the moment one consumes alcohol, all the body’s energy is concentrated in breaking down the alcohol and sending it to the liver for further metabolism. 

We hope this article helps you support your immunity and stay strong during winter. Do leave your thoughts in the comments below! For more on immunity, check out Healthy Reads or tune in to LIVE sessions by experts on GOQii Play. 

#BeTheForce 

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Decluttering And The Joy Of Giving

Decluttering2020 was a rollercoaster of a year with the pandemic, lockdown, being enclosed within 4 walls and being panic-stricken thanks to COVID-19. The battle with COVID-19 is far from over but there is a little something you can do for your soul and peace of mind in 2021 – that’s decluttering! There are many people who have faced hardships and have lost more than just their jobs. Let’s utilize the first month of 2021 with an exercise that benefits us and the underprivileged people in need as well. 

Decluttering Your House 

Are you ready to clean your closets? Clean them and take out things you no longer have a use for. You can either choose to discard, donate or give them to people who may have use for them. For such an activity to be successful and not time consuming, reorient your home by category instead of by room – clothes, kitchen utensils, toys, stationary, footwear, accessories, etc. so that it becomes easy for you to reach the right person with the right things. Believe me, we all will face some troubles but amid all that, when we give to the needy, it will make us feel good too! 

How Do You Go About Doing This? 

If you have things you don’t use anymore, consider giving them away. One of the best ways to decide is to ask yourself when you used the item last. If you are unable to recall or if it’s more than 3 years, you’re better off giving it to someone else who needs it because there’s a good chance you’re not going to use it in the future too. 

Even though you don’t want your old things anymore, it’s almost guaranteed that someone else will. There are many people in need of usable items and your donations can help. When you throw away your used items, they have no chance of reaching people who need them the most.

Also, before donating take the condition of the item into consideration as well. Only donate the items that are new, unused, or gently used. This means items which are in a good condition, clean and presentable. Do not donate items that don’t work properly, with missing parts, or are ripped, torn or stained. If you can’t use them in their current state, neither can others.

Benefits of  Decluttering

  • Decluttering teaches us how to let go and create space. Owing less helps save time and feel lighter and self actualized.
  • It exercises our decision making skills. What to keep and what to get rid of is basically solving a problem. It works our brain and gives us a sense of satisfaction.
  • Clutter can affect our brain, our ability to focus, our sleep, and our anxiety levels. While decluttering improves concentration, sleep quality, reduces stress and enhances mood.
  • Decluttering exercise will leave us delighted, our home clean and organized. There’s something deeply satisfying about being in a space that’s free of clutter and where the only thing in use has its place. We feel more relaxed and focused when we find the item we need, easily. So better to get rid of extra things and enjoy the organized, clutter-free, calm and energetic home space . 

Once Decluttered, Where Do You Donate? 

  • One can donate to a residence or to any charitable organization involved in such activities.
  • You can check with your househelp, your local cleaners and watchmen, etc. if they require any of the items you wish to discard.  
  • Involve the entire family in the process, especially the young ones. They will learn decision making, know the noble cause behind and experience the joy of giving.

We hope this article helps you declutter and donate to a good cause. You can also up your Karma on the GOQii App by walking, earning Karma Points and donating it to a charity listed within the GOQii App. Check out the Karma feature now! 

#BeTheForce 

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 […]