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6 Fitness goals to get you into awesome shape

“Fitness is not about being better than someone else…It’s about being better than you used to be”

The term ‘Fitness’ is very common among people now. Whenever we talk about fitness the only thing which comes to the mind is weight management. But, let me tell you that fitness is not only about weight loss or gain but increased inner strength which gives you extra energy to the body as well as to your soul.

So sharing some fitness goals with all you out there. These goals should help you to remain fit and confident if you spare some time out of your busy schedule.

Here it goes-

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1) Running:

Run 10km: A classic goal for those who want to get into running. Start small initially if you are not into running and then slowly get to the large goal of accomplishing 10Km. Benefits of running are not only physiologic but also psychological. Physiological benefits include cardiovascular fitness, weight loss, and improved upper and lower body strength. The often overlooked mental and emotional benefits include not only the sense of accomplishment after finishing the run but, also the self-confidence gained from reaching such a goal.

2) Yoga:

Yoga requires minimal equipment, provides stretching without stressing the joints, and can improve stress levels and posture. Individuals new to yoga should begin slowly, ideally with an experienced instructor so poses and postures can be corrected and not lead to injuries.

Three good yoga poses to master include:

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(i) Mountain Pose (Tadasana): Improve your body awareness, balance, and posture. Stand with big toes touching. Lift up your toes and let them fan out, then drop back down, creating a solid base. Bring your weight evenly to all parts of your feet. Tighten your quadriceps, allowing your kneecaps to rise. Rotate both thighs inward, tucking in your tailbone. Tighten your belly; widen your collar bones, making sure shoulders are parallel to the pelvis. Keep your neck long, and your shoulder blades down and back.

 

image source: Yoga Basic

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(ii) Warrior Pose: This pose lengthens the front of our bodies. Much of our day is spent sitting; and by stretching the front thigh muscle. It can improve our posture and can help with low back pain.

 

 

 

 

(iii) Bridge Pose: This pose address two areas where women want to improve: the buttocks and inner thigh.

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3) Plyometric moves: Plyometric moves are jumping exercises so adding a hop, skip, and a jump to your workouts boosts fat-burning and uses muscles which you don’t use normally in your daily routine. Do them prior to your workout and after a thorough warm-up. Repeat each for 10 seconds, or five jumps.

TwoPlyometric moves to master include:

(i) Squat Hops: Stand tall with your feet hip-width apart and your hands clasped behind your head. Keeping your weight on your heels, squat down until your thighs are parallel to the floor. Pause in the squat position. Then without counter-movement and without the use of your arms, jump as high as possible. When landing, make sure to absorb the impact by pushing your hips back and flexing your knees.

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(ii) Slam Hops: Stand in an upright position with your knees slightly bent and your feet about shoulder-width apart. Flexing your knees to quickly drop your body 10 to 12 inches, rapidly explode upward, forward and to the side. Swing your arms forcefully upward. Upon landing, immediately repeat the jump, but jump forward diagonally in the opposite direction.

 

 

image source: SportPlan

4. Swimming:

Swimming can have a positive impact on body fat, insulin levels, and overall health. If you are swimming for 30 minutes at a moderate intensity three times a week then you will lose more weight, experience improved body-fat distribution, and insulin in the short term.

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  1. Do 25 Push-Ups:

Mastering the ability to perform 25 Push-ups is a very reasonable, realistic, and attainable goal for most women. Benefits include upper-body strength in the chest (pectorals), shoulder girdle (scapular stabilizers), and arms (triceps). Push-Ups require no equipment and can be varied in many ways to train different muscle groups(i.e. a closer grip targets triceps). Aesthetically, Push-Ups develop the pectorals muscles of the chest, which help to prevent breast sagging as the women age.

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  1. Add Sprinting to your routine:

Sprinting is one of the best ways to tone the glutes, and when practised as intervals, sprinting can also speed up calorie burning. Adding sprint training to your running routine has a number of benefits. The initial benefit comes simply from the variation in the workout, which prevents boredom. This type of training should be added gradually to avoid overuse injuries.

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Try this: 30 to 60 seconds of sprinting alternating with 60 seconds of light jogging; repeat for 10 or more minutes. Adjust the intensity of the active phase and length of the rest phase according to your fitness level.

So, think of your workouts as important meetings you have scheduled with yourself and be proud of each step you take towards reaching that goal and the result is for sure “FITNESS” and an ‘Awesome Looking You’

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Body detoxification – A way to rejuvenate and re-energize

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Most of us are worried when we put on that little extra weight. Recently, one of my pals came to me cribbing about her weight gain. she said that she had tried every possible diet… but nothing seems to work on her! she was desperate that I do something for her.

Amidst listening to her cribs and complaints, I noticed that she looked absolutely dull and was feeling terribly lethargic. It seemed like someone’s sucked all the energy out of her. A detailed conversation with her led me to discover that she was over-exerting herself at work and ending up binge-eating to counter stress.

This, in turn, was followed by unreasonable crash diets and excessive exercise to burn up the excess calories. Little was she aware that her body was actually in dire need of some essential nutrients which could make her healthy for the better.

Today, most of us lead a very fast-paced lifestyle. And this lifestyle is associated with certain inevitable factors such as stress, pollution, physical exertion, few negative habits such as drinking alcohol and smoking etc. As one’s body gets continuously exposed to these factors, there comes a point wherein the body gives up. The body gets weighed down by huge amounts of toxins which essentially needs to be flushed out.

These toxins include waste products that result from normal cell activity, such as ammonia, and also the chemicals that we consume almost daily through the air, water and food like flavoured enhancers, food colours, pesticides and preservatives. A cumulative load of these toxins is known to slow down the body metabolism which in turn results in weight gain and other health-related issues such as indigestion, impaired immune function, low energy levels, lethargy, fatigue, poor concentration, headache, dull skin and so on.

The body has its own ways of detoxifying itself. The liver is the main organ which has detoxification as its primary function. The other organs like intestine, kidneys, lungs, skin and blood work together with the liver to ensure that toxins are transformed into less harmful substances and excreted from the body via urine, stools, sweat or breath.

Just as your car engine needs servicing so that it runs better, your body organs also need to be cleaned at regular intervals so that they perform their functions well and at a faster rate. One way to cleanse your body is through food by including various detox foods into your diet.

Detox foods include the ones that are power packed with vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, fibre and water. The antioxidants neutralize the toxic free radicals that are generated due to stress, excessive exercise, air pollution, etc. whereas fibre and water draw out and eliminate toxins by increasing the frequency of bowel movements and urination.

While detox dieting is a great way of cleaning your body internally, it can be beneficial to lose weight as well.

How is that possible? As detox foods cleanse the liver by flushing out the toxins, it actually gives relief to the liver by reducing its workload. This gives the liver a chance to focus on its next important function which is fat metabolism. Thus, many of whom I know have found that detox dieting is a wonderful way to kick off those extra kilos or to get over a weight loss plateau. Apart from weight loss, the other benefits of detox foods include improved digestion, regular bowel movements, and improved energy levels, lowered levels of fatigue, improved concentration and glowing skin.

Now the next big question is how often should you detoxify yourself? According to me, at least once a week and preferably choose a day which is followed by what you call “a cheat day”. So after having an exhaustive week and a fun-filled Sunday where you break free and grab that cup-cake or a pan pizza, Monday is a perfect day to detoxify yourself. A detox food menu would ideally include colourful fruits, all kinds of veggies – either stir-fried or in the form of soup/juice/salad, beans and lentils, nuts and dry fruits, oats, beverages such as green tea, coconut water, Aloe Vera juice and many more.

Remember, we are keeping the proteins at bay just to avoid burdening our digestive system and kidneys with extra work as proteins are heavy to metabolize. Thus, milk, cheese, butter, cream, eggs, meat and meat products are out of the list. Other foods to keep away during detox include wheat products, excessive sugar, unhealthy fats (saturated and trans fats), processed foods, artificial sweeteners, caffeine and alcohol- that goes without saying!

A detox diet will, therefore, rejuvenate your system, re-energize you and gear you up for all the meetings and assignments lined up for the week. A word of caution here –Pregnant and nursing women shouldn’t go for Detox diet. Otherwise, it’s an amazing experience. So get started with it and feel the difference.

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“All it takes is to make small changes to achieve a healthy lifestyle”

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He was a late riser as he slept very late at night. However, he tried to remain active through the day, little did he know all that he was doing was wrong. He consumed little water, ate a lot three times a day. He weighed between 74-79 KG over 8 years and his waist was 36 inches. He had nothing to feel proud of his existence. He tried multiple options of getting fit and losing weight the right way but nothing worked. And, then a miracle happened 6 months ago which helped him move, eat right and sleep well and today he is 12 kgs less, runs marathons and feels completely happy and content with himself. Let’s here Vishal Choudhary’s story of transformation in his own words  

I started my journey with GOQii in the month of June. At first, I was reluctant to buy the same as I was not sure if this will help me in any way.  My life prior to GOQii was haywire with wrong sleep and eating habits. I would sleep late and wake up late and hence eat breakfast at 10 am followed by a heavy lunch and heavy dinner late at night. I would wait till I got hungry and then eat like there was no tomorrow. My water consumption was low at just 1 litre per day. I was 10 KG overweight at 78 kgs and was like that for 8 years or more.  My waist size was 36. I use to feel happy wearing a   32 size (Lycra Jeans) thinking that my waist is still 32. I stopped wearing my favourite round neck t-shirt only because either it was loose on the shoulder or tight on the stomach.

I wanted to change myself and get healthy and fit but, did not know how to go about it. I tried multiple things like going to a gym, engaging in some kind of activity but nothing seemed to work for me. I remember my wife Deepika and me would sit together and prepare a plan for myself on what to eat and what not to, what activity should

I do and what not but, somehow, somewhere something was missing.  I feel that somewhere something was missing. I would keep changing my routine and try all sorts of things. If one plan did not work I would shift to another.

For sure I knew I was not a lazy person but, I was doing something wrong which is why I was the way I was. Despite, indulging in activities my weight was the same. I did not understand what was going wrong and I had nobody to guide me on my health and fitness.

I got to know of GOQii from my colleague who was wearing one. He told me about the personal coach feature along with the band that tracks your activity and sleep. The feature of coach attracted me to GOQii and I decided to give it a shot. I selected Dimple as my coach and started using the device.

I use to get regular updates from the coach on what to eat and what not to. I also liked GOQii’s app features and how the coach can discuss with you on chat through your regular updates on the app.

After using the GOQii features sincerely for 2 months I personally started feeling the changes within me. Though there was not much difference in the weight but because of eating right and regular exercise, I started feeling better and energetic than before. I even convinced few of my friends to buy GOQii and get on the platform and we started having competitions among ourselves on step counts and what we are eating and what we are not.

After 4 months on GOQii, I enrolled myself for my first short run of 5 km and am I glad to say that there has been no looking back since that first run. I think this has been possible only because of the right guidance from my coach. The moment I realized there is someone to watch over you and guide you, I knew I wanted to be on GOQii platform. Personal coaching is one of the best things about GOQii. Before, I started chatting with my coach Dimple, I thought my food intake and whatever activity I was indulging in is good enough to maintain a healthy lifestyle but, after having a discussion with her I realized how small things matter a lot to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

In term of activity, she set up a goal to achieve 10K steps count every day. Best thing I liked about my coach is that she did not ask me to take up anything new. After knowing my interest in Tennis she asked me to pursue the same. Along with activity, she helped me understand the benefit of water and food intake.

Some of the things that I learnt from my coach

* Importance of snacks before activity

* Importance of having food within half an hour of completing the activity.

* Importance of water intake, Food intake and timing of the same

* Importance of running

* Importance of salad

After going through my daily routine Dimple made few changes in my meal pattern. We sat together and prepared a meal chart. I started following Dimple’s advice sincerely and slowly and steadily introduced changes in my daily routine. After few months even though there was not much difference in the weight, I somehow felt good from within. Above all, my coach kept me motivated through this period of my healthy transformation.

Today, I feel great about myself. I am 12 kgs lighter now. Now the number of selfies has increased from none to too many. Compliments are pouring in. I have motivated 10-12 of my friends to take the healthy path and they are also now a member of GOQii.

We are a group of friends and we try to have a healthy competition among ourselves. Some of my colleagues wanted a lifestyle change and I suggested GOQii to them and without explaining anything they blindly became the member of GOQii by saying I have seen changes in you and that is more than enough for me. Feels great, I remember seeing one of my colleague participating in the marathon and I thought to myself if he can do it why can’t I?

I ran my first 5k marathon 4 months after joining GOQii and slowly shifted to running 10km. It’s been more than a year with GOQii and as of today, I have run more than 12 marathons (two 5km and ten 10KM) with the best time of 1hr3min.

Last two marathon I ran non-stop. Done couple of 50km cycling and recently completed 100KM cyclathon and completed the same in 6 hr 55min. Also, because of the fitness and stamina, I was able to win both Singles and Doubles in Tennis tournament organized by the academy where I was practising. Recently I have been introduced to badminton and gradually doing great in that as well.

Last but, not the least I am also doing well for the society as I keep myself healthy. I donate my karma points earned to a good cause that is registered on the GOQii app. The concept of earning Karma points is a win-win for both the user as well as the charity. The more steps you do to keep yourself healthy, the more points you earn.

Coach Dimple’s Comments

When I had my first interaction with Vishal Choudhary. He mentioned he was looking for a weight loss journey as he was 10kgs overweight. He had tried everything but was finding it difficult to reduce. He had some really good health goals in mind to achieve but no right direction and he just needed that right push to achieve them. We decided to take small baby steps first to get to achieve his health goals. I explained to him why it was important to achieve those health goals and how we could work together towards achieving these…!

I initially set small goals for him such as increasing the fibre intake in the form of salads and fruits which help us to decrease the body fat combined with small walks. He took some time to regularize his daily routine but, yes he did it really well and his interests started showing up in the different form of exercises like long hours of walk, going for cycling and finally he started participating in short runs. This was one of the best things that had happened to him. Every run gives him different energy and makes him ready for the next challenge. I clearly remember his first run was a 5km one and slowly he has graduated to 10 km and participates in every single run that happens near the vicinity of his residence. The best thing about Vishal is, he never says ‘NO’ to ‘ANYTHING’ even when I decided to add an extra modification to his routine in terms of food or targets. He took up the challenge and decided not to put a full stop and keep at it.

I brought about dietary changes wherein I introduced him to the concept of pre and post workout meals, some healthy mid meals evening snack choices, different seeds benefits, apple cider vinegar, good protein and he has learned to keep the dinner meal light. Sometimes he does have a cheat meal day. With these wondrous dietary changes along with regular workout routine, there was no doubt that he could not reach his goals. Although his weight reduction took a while slowly and steadily that improved as well in a couple of months’ time. When that started happening automatically there was belly fat loss and finally, he lost all those extra fats from his body and he’s still motivated and working on his goals in a perfect way…!. He kept feeling better each day.

I only told him, “Do not wait until you’ve reached your goal to be proud of yourself. Be proud of every step you take toward reaching that goal.” Vishal proved this with his hard work

 

 

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Myths and Facts about Dieting

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Dieting is synonymous with Weight loss. But what does dieting mean? There is a lot of misconception among people that going on a diet means not eating enough food is dieting.

Let’s clear this misconception by proper examples and scientific approach.

1. Dieting means to skip meals?

The major misconception that leads to health risk is skipping meals which people assume will help them to achieve weight loss. Skipping meals will only increase acidity levels, more food cravings and large portion size. The sensible approach is to take lesser quantity food at regular intervals what we call as “small ad frequent meals”.

2.Reducing calories

Reducing calories doesn’t mean you skip your major course meals, for instance, skipping rice, roti or oats. The smart approach is to fill your stomach with low calorie and more fluid foods. If you take a salad plate include more cucumber and sprouts which will fill your stomach with a good amount of food but are low in calories.

3.Restrict non-vegetarian food

The non-vegetarian food contains all the essential amino acids that lack in vegetarian or vegan food. However, food preference is a matter of choice for each individual. If you choose chicken, fish or lean beef you are probably increasing proteins in your diet. Make sure the portion size is not more. Your plate should have more of low calorie, high protein food and less of calorie dense food.

4. Cut back on carbs to lose weight.

Carbohydrates come in different forms: simple and complex. Simple carbs found in foods like cookies and candy lack vitamins, minerals, and fibre. Cutting back on these sweets is a great way to eat healthier. Foods with complex carbs like whole-wheat bread, beans, and fruit, have lots of nutrients that are good for you. Cut back on simple carbs but keep complex carbs on the menu.

5. You need fat in your diet. Fat keeps you full and satisfied.

Fat is the slowest food component to clear the stomach. For ages, it was assumed that fatty foods slow digestion and keep you feeling full longer. Recent research proves that the proportion of sugar and fat has little or no difference in satiety ratings. What’s more, fat actually has twice the calories of protein or carbohydrates. In reality, protein tends to leave people feeling more satisfied than either carbohydrates or fat while fibre and whole grains affect feelings of fullness and satisfaction. To stay full longer, eat healthy foods that are high in fibre, like fruits and veggies and lots of healthy whole grains.

6. Only dieting will promote weight loss.

Weight loss is 50% with proper diet (as mentioned above) and 50% with exercise. You need to burn already stored calories in the body to lose weight. Extra calories and extra carbs are converted into fat in the body for storage. Extra proteins get converted to uric acid. You need to burn out and eliminate that extra energy. Choose exercise from low intensity to gradually increasing to moderate and then high.

7.Detoxification is the quickest way to lose weight.

The truth is that while detox actually does help you lose weight very quickly, most of the weight loss is body water and the weight will come right back on as soon as you stop doing it. Detox can also help you lose stool through diarrhoea and that will cause your weight to drop fast but as soon as you eat, the stool will build up again. You can lose only so much weight when participating in a cleanse diet. It is much better to lose weight the conventional way—through eating a low-calorie diet and exercising in order to lose the extra pounds.

 

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