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How To Fight Junk Food Cravings While Working From Home

Fight Junk Food cravings

While working from home, it’s quite easy to get swayed by all the delivery options we have around home. That favorite fast food chain, greasy burgers at the corner of the road and pizzas with extra cheese! Sounds breathtakingly delicious but gorging on all this junk food can be detrimental to your health. When we indulge in junk food, especially at home where we get little to no physical activity, our body gets a sense of pleasure, often due to the salty or sweet nature of these foods. The neurotransmitters of our brain make us want to keep coming back for more. So how can you fight junk food cravings? 

Simple Tips To Fight Junk Food Cravings 

Whether you’re working from home or you’re back at the office, here are some simple tricks to help you avoid these cravings. 

  • No skipping meals: The work from home scenario has led to irregular eating habits. When the stomach growls with hunger, we automatically reach out for our phones and end up ordering for food. Sticking to preparing and eating food at the same time every day can help you manage these cravings effectively. 
  • Stock healthy food: like fruits and dry fruits. Have dates and anjeer if you have a sweet craving and popcorn and makhana for salty cravings. When healthy food is available , you will eat healthy. In fact, try this Ultimate Healthy Chivda recipe! 
  • Soups: Soup is a perfect blend of health and taste. Since it contains a good amount of stock, it helps to bring satiety. A hot cup of soup in the evening is a good way to curb hunger and avoid junk food. You can try some of these Healthy Soup Recipes! 
  • Protein rich food: One of the lesser known reasons for that unsatisfied hunger pangs is lack of protein in the diet. Most junk food is made up of simple carbs which fills as well as empties the stomach quickly. Protein on the other hand, provides fullness and as a result, we can easily ride over that wave of junk food craving. Cottage cheese, Greek yogurt and eggs are protein rich snacks.
  • Hydration: There’s a difference between hunger and thirst. Majority of the time when hunger strikes, it could just be thirst.
  • Stress: can be a major underlying factor for faulty eating habits. If we fix the stress part first, junk food cravings will be easy to manage.
  • Sleep: When we are deprived of sleep, the craving for junk food increases. So catching up with 6-7 hours of sleep on a daily basis, and not just weekends, can go a long way in controlling these unwanted urges to eat and overeat.

Try these tips to fight junk food cravings and we’re sure you will see visible changes to your health and lifestyle. Small, consistent efforts go a long way. Do let us know if this helped in the comments below! 

For more tips on living healthy, check out Healthy Reads or join our team of experts on GOQii Play. To get these tips and tricks directly from a certified expert, subscribe to get your own GOQii Coach here: https://goqiiapp.page.link/bsr

Eat Healthy & #BeTheForce 

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Working From Home? 5 Simple Stretches You Must Do!

5 simple stretchesWith more of us working from home now, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, there’s bound to be excessive hours where we’re seated and glued to work, chasing tight deadlines. Long sitting hours can have detrimental repercussions on our health like stiffness in the back, shoulder, knees, ankles and low circulation leading to low metabolism as well to name a few. While the work from home routine is here to stay for a while, these aches and pains can be avoided or resolved through simple stretching. It’s like an antidote to combat the ill effects of continuous sitting. So if your chair has held you hostage long enough, here are 5 simple stretches you can do to keep yourself healthy. 

5 Simple Stretches To Do While Working From Home 

1. Chest Opener
How this helps: Extended sitting time can weaken the spine and cause dropping shoulders. This reduces upper back and neck stiffness.
How to do it: Stand with feet shoulder distance apart, firmly hold a towel or scarf with both hands behind your back. Slowly raise your arms up as far as you can and stretch your shoulders while doing this.

2. Downward Dog PoseDownward Dog
How this helps: This stretch provides relief from back ache and strengthens the arms and legs. It energizes the body and helps to reduce fatigue.
How to do it: Stand tall with both hands up in the air, bend down to touch the palms on the floor without bending the knees. The hands should be shoulder distance apart. The feet should be flat on the ground and gaze at your navel.

3. Back Bend Stretchback bend stretch - 5 simple stretches
How this helps: This helps with better posture and supports the back muscles.
How to do it : Stand tall  with feet shoulder distance apart and clasp your hands above your head and stretch back. For greater level of stretch, you can place your palms on the wall while stretching backwards and look up at the ceiling.

4. Glute BridgeGlute Bridge - 5 simple stretches
How this helps: This reduces lower back pain, provides a good stretch to the hamstring and activates the glutes.
How to do it: Lie on the mat on your back, legs folded at 90 degrees and feet firmly placed on the floor. Now lift your hips from the floor till your lower back is above ground. Hold on and gently come down.

5. Reclining Back BendReclining back bend
How this helps: It stretches the shoulders, chest and abdomen. It also strengthens the spine and soothes the sciatica nerve.
How to do it: Lie down on your stomach, with palms placed firmly on the ground next to your chest. Lift your upper body till the navel and look at the ceiling.

That’s it! That’s all you need to do. You can try these 5 simple stretches while taking a break from work. You can do these anywhere! We hope this article helps you and you try these stretches. Do let us know your thoughts in the comments below! If you feel like sharing these stretches, take a video, upload it on your social media channels and tag us! 

For more on fitness and home workouts, check out Healthy Reads or join our fitness experts on GOQii Play or get your pass for a LIVE GOQii PRO workout class – all within the GOQii App. 

To get these tips directly from your GOQii Coach, subscribe to personalized coaching here: https://goqiiapp.page.link/wssu  

#BeTheForce  

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Effective Ways To Manage Working From Home

working from home

It has been well over 2 months now that people have been working from home because of the lockdown and to ensure safety from the COVID-19 pandemic. It won’t come as a surprise if working from home becomes the norm in a post-COVID world. While there are some people who have adapted to this lifestyle, there are others who are possibly struggling with the work from home model due to several reasons not limited to lack of communication, stress, work-life balance being disrupted and so on. As the lockdown may continue, it is a fact that this process of working from home has turned everyone’s routine upside down. 

Changes Due To Working From Home

  • A lot many people are unable to meet their work deadlines which are impacting their overall performance level
  • Because of the entirely new set up, a lot of people are getting stressed as this is beyond their comfort zone
  • A majority of the population has become too lazy to work on time.
  • People end up spending more time working and mess their sleep routines. The cycle of disturbed routine goes on to the next day as well.

Easy Tips To Strike A Work-Life Balance 

Here are some effective ways in which you can keep your work-life balance under control in the current situation. 

  • Start your day at the same time every day. This means both the wake-up time and the time to start your work
  • Get ready early to feel energetic
  • Sit for your work at such a place where you will feel fresh or simply choose a favourite corner of the house which will make you feel like working
  • Schedule your resting & eating break before starting your work
  • You may simplify this by eating meals at the same time what you used to maintain at the workplace
  • Take a walk inside the house in between your work just to relax your mind and body
  • You may set a two-hour alarm on your phone & get up from the place and take a walk inside the house for two minutes. This will help you to increase your step counts easily and will make you feel fresh
  • Avoid doing household work “Ghar ka Kam” in the middle of working hours
  • Finish your work every day at the same time or just shut down your dashboard & create that work-life balance for yourself by maintaining the time
  • Keep some healthy snack options ready. Choose options simply like roasted home-made snacks: puffed rice and chana (or) poha and chana (or) puffed jowar/bajra with chana or khakhra or mixed nuts trail or frozen yoghurt. Well, one may simply choose to have a fruit with chana or nuts or buttermilk or milk as per the availability
  • If you are the one who cooks, then make sure that you pre-plan your day in terms of planning the meal options to be cooked for the next day
  • Try to arrange those ingredients a day before making the dish, this will bring in more free time and it will reduce the stress of thinking what to cook and arrange ingredients for the same while you work

Lastly but most important point is to be strict with yourself to follow these tips to get a work-life balance in your life and enjoy the phase of being at home all day. We hope these tips on working from home help you. Do leave your thoughts in the comments below. 

For more such useful tips, check out the GOQii Blog or tune in to experts on GOQii Play. 

Stay home, stay safe and #BeTheForce 

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Overcome Hurdles to Home Workouts

hurdles to home workoutsWith most of us working from home and no options to go out to gyms/parks for our daily workouts, it can become challenging to stay motivated, to do regular workouts at home. No matter what your current situation, home is the best place to do a workout right now! If you are finding it difficult to set a routine, are not motivated enough, or don’t know how to keep yourself active, here some solutions to overcome the hurdles to home workouts! 

Solutions to Overcome Hurdles to Home Workouts 

1. Lack of Time
How many times have you thought of working out and suddenly you realise you’re running out of time and you tend to skip it altogether? Most of us are under the impression we need to exercise for at least 60-90 minutes for it to be effective. But the truth is that we can get good results with workouts like HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training), even if you have 15 to 30 minutes with you. You exercise with your maximum effort for 15-20 minutes, and get better results than a moderate intensity workout that you would have done for twice as long! You’ll build a leaner, stronger physique, and your routines will always feel fresh.

It’s always better to know your schedule for the day and squeeze workouts based on that schedule. If you have online meetings/ conference calls, lined up for the day, do a workout early in the morning or late evening. If you couldn’t do that, you could probably eat lunch while you work and utilize the lunch time to do a sprint workout or HIIT session in your living room.

2. Lack of Equipment/Heavy Weights
Most of us who are used to working out at the gym do not find it fulfilling or don’t get the “kick” when not able to lift the heavy gym machinery or weights. To our surprise, you can get comparable results if you can use your own body weight correctly as we do in Yoga, pilates or simple exercises like push ups, pull ups, lunges, etc. Alternatively, if you have a set of resistance bands or even a set of water bottles, it can be effectively used for weight training as well. Use your treadmill, Static cycle or resort to spot jogging/ running, skipping etc , for your cardio workout.

 3. Lack of Motivation
It is very natural to lose motivation and this can become one of your biggest hurdles to home workouts. There are days you just don’t feel like it, you’re either too tired, too bored or just want to relax. If this is happening too regularly, you need to work on developing your – Instigation Habit! These are simple habits or cues that give signals to the body that it is time for a workout. For eg- ringing of the alarm, getting into workout attire, placing your mat on the floor, etc. Stick to a fixed schedule for a few days (Monday to Friday), either first thing in the morning or in the evening and by the end of the third week, your body will automatically crave to get into action and this will keep you motivated.

It is important to keep changing your style of workout. Doing the same workout over and over becomes boring and stale for your mind and muscles. Not only do you lose motivation, you may not get the desired results as well. So look for variety, watch and follow online classes, there are so many options available, these days. Don’t forget to reward yourself from time to time but avoid indulging too much. 

 4. Too Many Distractions at Home
There are so many more distractions at home than there are in a gym or an outdoor environment. You’re constantly being tempted to watch television and if you start a series, you will not realise where the time has flown. You may even have to check your emails, finish household chores and all this leaves you with no energy and time to do a workout. Here is when you ought to be disciplined and exercise some self control. Do not start your day with checking your phone and switching on the TV. It’s always better to complete your workout first thing in the morning. But if you are really obsessed, you can put on your favourite show and do a cardio workout or complete a bodyweight circuit during that time. And if you have a treadmill or a stationary bike, no excuse to sit down and watch TV, keep moving on the machine!

5. Lack of Knowledge
When you train randomly, you get random results. Set a goal and work towards achieving it and if you are not too sure, seek professional advice from a fitness expert, or watch online videos/ join classes and build a roadmap to your fitness journey. The lockdown has brought the entire world together and there is nothing that you cannot gain knowledge about, be it your workout routine – Setting a goal, planning, execution, type of workouts that interest you and will suit your fitness goal.

The hurdles we create for ourselves are often the most difficult to overcome. I hope this article helps you overcome your hurdles to home workouts and you will make full use of the time you have in hand to improve your fitness levels!

If you’re confused where and how to start, tune in to our fitness experts and join their LIVE sessions on GOQii Play. You can also read more about fitness on Healthy Reads. 

Stay home, stay safe, get active and #BeTheForce

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