Search Results for: work from home

June 24, 2017 By Anusha Subramanian 3 Comments

From Carefree to a Carer

She considers herself a shy and an introvert person who likes to hide behind her pen and paper but, you start talking to her and you will realise that Samara Mahindra is very poised, articulate and has designed a beautiful life for herself that is all about making a difference in other people’s lives.

Her 3 life’s lessons learnt in a short span of time are

Don’t be bound by physical reality (What you see),

You can achieve more than you think you can
Be in the present ( forget the past and don’t think about the future)

“This I have learnt from my mum- stand on your own feet and all is in your hands how to shape it for yourself,” says Samara, in conversation with Vishal Gondal on “Beneath the Force-The Vishal Gondal Show’.

Having lost her mother to Cancer and being left alone to make her choices and take her decisions, Samara’s eyes opened to a lot of brutal realities during her mother’s long journey of struggle with Cancer. She went on to study Integrative Life style medicine and also get a certification in Cancer Exercise Specialist.

“Once I came back from the US after my studies, I did an Observership with Tata Memorial and what I found was that hospitals were not a healing place for patients. And, doctors never gave any proper answer. That is when I decided on Carer Program where a specialist would be taken to the patient and treated in the confines of their home,” she says.

The oncology ward of numerous hospitals became her home where she witnessed extreme cases and dire situations that were unimaginable. She watched blank refusals of curable stage cancer treatment to those who didn’t have the funding and children who saw hospital wards before a classroom. This was the beginning of her carefree to an entrepreneurial journey ‘The Carer Program’.

The CARER Program is an integrative cancer recovery program that helps a patient recover from the side effects of treatment and cancer itself. CARER provides a holistic approach to healing through complementary therapies that target nutrition, movement and mind-body healing for patients post treatment.

Prior to becoming an entrepreneur, Samara kept looking for an escapist route to avoid going back home. So she travelled to Australia and UK for studies and then worked in Singapore and even attended a 3-month acting course with Barry John in Mumbai. She says the acting course was therapeutic and help build her confidence and come out of her shell.

Talking of her success habits Samara says that being disciplined has helped her a lot in her work.

Secondly, having a sense of empathy without sympathy and looking at the situation very positively and passing on that positivity to the patients has been the biggest success.

She admits to being a big fan of Tim Ferris and has read all his books and believes in the 4 Hour Work Week. The 4 Hour Work week is a book by Tim Ferris where he refers to a ‘lifestyle design’

and repudiates the traditional ‘deferred’ life plan in which people work gruelling hours and take few vacations for decades and save money in order to relax after retirement.

Listen to the Podcast here: https://youtu.be/yV0naFwElfo

June 20, 2017 By GOQii Editor 1 Comment

First ‘Walk with A Doc’ begins in Mumbai with a bang !

Dr Aashish Contractor addressing the walker at the WWAD India’s first walk at NCPA-Marin Drive

For sedentary people, getting off the couch and taking that first step is a huge task and often the hardest step. While doctors give detailed exercise prescriptions with heart rate guidelines seldom do patients adhere to doing the exercises and following a regular exercise regime.

As Dr Aashish Contarctor, head of Dept-Rehabilitation and Sports Medicine at Sir H.N. Reliance Foundation Hospital in his book-‘The Heart Truth’ says, “My initial advice to people who do nothing at present is to simply start doing something. This something could be a daily walk of 10 minutes. Ony 10 minutes? Many ask and I tell them that is enough to get started.”

Dr. Aashish takking about heart and how to check pulse

No wonder that Dr. Contractor took to the idea of the ‘Walk with A Doc’ program very easily and led the maiden walk on Sunday June 18, 2017 from NCPA at 7 am in the morning. The 40-minute-long walk started at 7 am from NCPA and covered a distance of 5 kms on NCPA-Marine Drive promenade and ended back at NCPA at 7.45 am. The walk saw a large turnout of people who are patients of Dr. Contractor including GOQii players.

Walkers along with Dr. Aashish, GOQii Team and Sir HN reliance Foundation hospital team

The walk began with Dr.Ashish taking the walkers through the basics of understanding the Heart and how to measure pulse rate. In all a little over 50-people attended the first walk. Dr Bipin Chandra Bhambre, Dr Jaini Patel, dr Chandan Poddar and Dr. Richa Nadkarni from Sir H N Reliance Foundation hospital along with Dr. Akshat Chadha – head of medical services at GOQii attended the walk as well. The walk ended with a summation by Dr. Contractor.

“It was wonderful to see the enthusiastic response of the patients, inspite of rainy weather. They enjoyed the walk and were interested in both learning and walking more,” said Dr. Contractor.

Dr. Akshat Chadha, from GOQii said, “The concept of Walk with A Doc is an excellent idea for making ‘Practice what you Preach’ genuine. As a Doctor I keep telling all my patients to get up and get moving but that doesn’t mean that they do it. Seeing the doctor walk alongside, gives the due importance to being physically active along with creating a bond with the patient by breaking the doctor-patient barrier.”

The idea of walking with a doctor is to encourage people to gove up the sedentary lifestyle and focus on healthy living. Ideally, walking may be the simplest wat to work out. You can do it almost anywhere, and it’s easy tos tart- just put one foot ahead of the other.

Most walkers present were over the age of 50 and found the initiative ‘Walk with A Doc’ a very encouraging concept and found walking with their doctor very comfortable. They felt that the whole walk was so different from the regular walks that they have attended in the past.

Rahul Nandkeolyar who was one of the walker had this to say, “Not having been much of a walker, I actually walked approx. 5 km in about 45-50 minutes. Felt good. Would have done better if my shoes had not given way. I am now going to walk regularly around my home.”

Another walker said, “I like this idea of walking with the doctor. I would like to get tips regarding walking to loose weight, the walker said pointing to his wearable watch. How should I pace myself?” said another walker who participated. Most walkers were very keen to get tips on walking.

WWAD program aims to reimagine healthcare between doctors and their communities. Initiatives like WWAD will have great significance in India where the people are at a high risk due to sedentary lifestyle and the doctor to patient ratio is lower than WHO recommendations. WWAD aims to bridge the gap between the doctor and the community to promote preventive healthcare.

Dr. Aashish with his and GOQii team after the walk

GOQii and WWAD have strategically come together to spread this movement across India. The first walk in 2005 in the US with Dr David Sabgir, whose brainchild is ‘Walk with A Doc saw 101 people showing up for the walk. After 10 years, there are 3011 WWAD chapters spread across 44 states in the US averaging 25 walkers per walk; which are done weekly/bi-weekly/monthly by doctors.

Walk with A Doc has already helped thousands commit to a healthy lifestyle in USA and we at GOQii along with WWAD wish to make this program help many Indians commit to a healthy lifestyle under the able guidance of doctors in India. In addition to being part of an extremely rewarding program and helping patients lead healthier lives, Walk with A Doc can help improve patient satisfaction and has helped position doctors as wellness leaders in their communities.

Benefits of Walking

Maintain a healthy weight.
Prevent or manage various conditions, including heart disease, high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes.
Strengthen your bones and muscles.
Improve your mood.
Improve your balance and coordination.
Improves Posture and reduces Belly fat

June 9, 2017 By Dr Manali Rao Leave a Comment

Vaccination: Prevention is better than Cure!

All of us have seen Mr. Amitabh Bachchan saying ‘Do boondhZindagiki’, but very few of them would have realized the magnitude of importance of that advertisement. The fact that one of the most vivacious and accomplished Bollywood star is chosen as the brand ambassador for the campaign of immunization shows us the important role it plays in every child’s life.

What lead me to writing this blog?

Having a month old baby at home and finding myself pouring over the immunization schedule made me think that there are so many people unaware of the importance of vaccination.

The last week of April is the World Immunization Week. It is a global public health campaign to raise awareness and increase rates of immunization against vaccine-preventable diseases around the world.Each World Immunization Week focuses on a theme and this year it is “VACCINES WORK”.

So what is IMMUNIZATION?
It is the process by which an individual’s immune system becomes fortified against an agent (known as the immunogenic).

Immunization is done through various techniques, most commonly vaccination. Vaccines against microorganisms that cause diseases can prepare the body’s immune system, thus helping to fight or prevent an infection.

Immunization can protect against 25 different infectious agents or diseases, from infancy to old age, including diphtheria, measles, pertussis, polio and tetanus. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates active immunization currently averts 2 to 3 million deaths every year.

The WHO lists 25 diseases for which vaccines are available:

Anthrax
Measles
Rubella
Cholera
Meningococcal disease
Influenza
Diphtheria
Mumps
Tetanus
Hepatitis A
Pertussis
Tuberculosis
Hepatitis B
Pneumococcal disease
Typhoid fever
Hepatitis E
Poliomyelitis
Tick-borne encephalitis
Haemophilusinfluenza type b
Rabies
Varicella and herpes zoster (shingles)
Human papilloma-virus
Rotavirus gastroenteritis
Yellow fever
Japanese encephalitis
Malaria
Dengue fever

There are also some vaccine-preventable diseases, which are not on the WHO-list, probably either since the vaccine is not very good according to present standards, or the disease is not any longer a threat.

Anthrax
Plague
Q fever
Smallpox

IMMUNIZATiON SCHEDULE :

SL. NO.	AGE	VACCINE	DISEASE
1.	Birth	BCG + OPV	Tuberculosis + Polio
2.	1.5 months	DPT + OPV + IPV + HBV + HiB	Diphtheria Pertussis Tetanus Polio Hepatitis B H Influenza B
3.	2.5 months	DPT + OPV + IPV + HBV + HiB	Diphtheria Pertussis Tetanus Polio Hepatitis B H Influenza B
4.	3.5 months	DPT + OPV + IPV + HBV + HiB	Diphtheria Pertussis Tetanus Polio Hepatitis B H Influenza B
5.	9 months	Measles	Measles
6.	15 months	MMR	Measles Mumps Rubella
7.	18 months	DPT + OPV + IPV + 1st booster HiB	Diphtheria Pertussis Tetanus Polio
8.	4.5 – 5 years	DPT + 2nd booster OPV	Diphtheria Pertussis Tetanus Polio
9.	10 years	Tdap/ Td	Diphtheria Pertussis Tetanus

VACCINES UNDER SPECIAL CIRCUMSTANCES;

SL. NO.	AGE	VACCINE	DISEASE
1.	2 years Booster dose to be given every 2-5 years	Meningococcal	Meningitis
2.	< 9 years : 2 doses to be given every year. > 9 years – 1 dose to be given every year	Influenza	Flu
3.	0,3,7,14,28 days	Rabies	Rabies

SIGNIFICANCE:

Vaccination protects children from serious illness and complications of vaccine-preventable diseases which can include amputation of an arm or leg, paralysis of limbs, hearing loss, convulsions, brain damage, and death.

Elimination of polio in India:

Polio was last reported in India in West Bengal and Gujarat on 13th January, 2011.

On 27th March 2014, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared India a polio free country, since no cases of wild polio had been reported in for three years.

As of mid-2016, only Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan have wild polio cases.

The Pulse Polio Initiative (PPI) aims at covering every individual in the country. It aspires to reach even children in remote communities through an improved social mobilisation plan.

No child should miss the immunization.
Cases of acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) are to be reported in time and stool specimens have to be collected within 14 days.
Outbreak response immunization (ORI) should be conducted as early as possible.
Maintaining a high level of surveillance.
Performance of good mop-up operations where polio has disappeared.

ADULT IMMUNIZATION:

Even adults need to be immunized from time to time. It is recommended for adults who meet the age requirement, lack documentation of previous vaccination or lack of evidence of previous infection. Also older adults with medical conditions like Diabetes need to be immunized as recommended by their Doctor.

IMMUNIZATION AGAINST CERVICAL CANCER:

> 10 years females

0 dose

After 1 month

After 6 months

Protects against HPV (HUMAN PAPILLOMA VIRUS) which causes cervical cancer.

Immunization is one of the safest ways for you to protect your health. Vaccine side effects are usually mild and go away on their own. Severe side effects are rare.

Regular immunization of your child will prevent many serious diseases. Follow the schedule and the advice of your child’s Pediatrician. Minor illnesses are not a contraindication to vaccination. Report any adverse events following immunization.

April 27, 2017 By Trishala Chopra 16 Comments

Decoding Energy Bars!

Image by Vegan Liftz

Energy bars have been the all-time snacking options for most. Earlier, it was popular only amongst sportsmen and women and body builders but,over time people on weight loss too have started munching on energy bars as their meal options.

The questions that most of my players ask is, how healthy are these energy bars? Would you recommend me adding these bars in my routine? Which energy bar is the best one? How to choose?

Energy bars have been a hit in the sports world but, what is bothering me is common people binging on energy bars. There is a huge range of energy bars available online or in the super markets and hence has become easily accessible.

Is it a boon or a bane?

I cannot label anything as good or bad but all I prefer doing is educating people about choosing the best one for them!

As the name suggests, energy bars were made to provide instant energy to the athletes and sports enthusiast but thesedays, it is slowly becoming meal replacement snack.

Is it worth skipping a meal? Let’s find out!

Let’s consider an Indian thali. When you eat an Indian thali, all nutrients are covered.

Macronutrients (Carbohydrates, proteins, fats)

Micronutrients (Vitamins and minerals)

As the name suggests, MACRO means larger quantities and MICRO means lesser quantities.

FIBRE and WATER are also very important. They are said to be most forgotten nutrient.

Depending upon the recipe, the amount is decided.

Let’s try and understand about how to read a nutritional label of any given energy bar: –

1. Carbohydrates

Energy bars have 10-60 grams of carbohydrates which varies from one brand to another.
It can be a mixture of simple and complex carbohydrates.
If energy bars contain more of oats, muesli then it means it is high on complex carbohydrates and the form of sugar in them makes up the simple carbohydrates.

2. Proteins

Energy bars have 5-25 grams of proteins depending on the source of proteins.
If it is a meal replacement bar then proteins are higher, if it is an instant energy bar then carbohydrates are higher.
Pea protein, soya protein, casein or whey protein are most common sources used in energy bars.

3. Fats

Energy bars have 3-5 grams of fats which completely depends on its nutrients.
Sometimes, fat content is higher depending on the amount of other nutrient groups added.

4. Calories

Most of the energy bars used by the athletes and sports enthusiasts are more than 500 calories.
People who eat energy bars as their snacking options then they should take care about the calories mentioned on the label and should always go for calories less than 250.

5. Fibre

It is one of the most forgotten nutrient but when it comes to energy bar, high fibres ones are to be choose only if you are having it as a snack.
If you are having an energy bar to boost up your energy before workout or any sport then low fibre ones should be preferred.
3-5 grams of fibre is ideally preferred if you are picking it up as a meal replacement snack.

6. Sugar

Energy bars might sound like a healthy option but you need to be very careful while picking one for you.
Most of the energy bars are loaded with unwanted sugar. Reading the nutritional label in such cases becomes very important.

Here are some key points which you should take care off before picking up an energy bar for yourself: –

Energy bars should have fat less than 5g
If you are choosing an energy bar as your meal replacement snack then go for the ones which are having at least 3-5 grams of fibre.
If you are having your energy bar before workout or any endurance exercises then you need to go for high carbohydrate bars.
If you are having your energy bar as a meal replacement snack then go for high protein bars.
If you are on any weight loss program, choose energy bars which are less than 500 calories.
If your energy bars are having large amounts of high fructose corn syrup or some other sugar source then try avoiding those bars.
Try to choose bars which have lesser ingredients.
Go for the ones with oats, muesli, honey and so on.

Energy bars are the most convenient snack option to go for but anything which is homemade has a higher preference!

Energy bars can be prepared at home with absolute ease!

Benefits of homemade energy bars: –

Cost effective.
Hygiene levels are maintained.
Better awareness about ingredients used.
Without any artificial preservatives or added colours.
Purest form of energy bars, can be made depending upon individual preferences.

Here are some energy bar recipes which can help you in getting a healthy dose of your snack option!

(1) Rasp-Chia Energy Bars!

Name of the ingredients	Quantity
Raspberries	1 cup
Chia Seeds	1 tbsp.
Rolled oats	1 cup
Walnuts	1 cup
Dates	1/4^th cup
Vanilla extract	1 tsp
Honey	1 tsp
Rock Salt	½ tsp
Lemon Juice	1 tsp

Method: –

Take raspberries, chia seeds, honey and lemon juice and place it in the food processor and keep processing it until it becomes smooth. Keep it aside for 15 mins. This becomes the chia seed jam.
Add rolled oats to the processor to make it as a coarse flour. Add walnuts, vanilla extract and rock salt to the coarse flour. Process it further and add seedless dates while the processor is on.
Once the mixture is prepared, spread it evenly on the pan and let it set.
Spread the chia seed jam on this mixture. Cover and keep it in the fridge for 2 hours.
Remove it, cut the bars in the desired shapes!
Enjoy!

Nutritional Label: –

Nutrition Facts
Nutrients	Nutrition per serving
Calories	307
Protein	6 g
Carbohydrates	45 g
Fats	5 g
Fibre	7 g
Sugar	18 g

(2) Choco-Nut Rush!

Name of the ingredients	Quantity
Raw Cashew Nuts	1 cup
Raw Almonds (Skinless)	1 cup
Shredded Coconut	½ cup
Cocoa Powder	3/4^thcup
Dates	1 cup
Vanilla extract	2 tbsp.
Rock Salt	½ tsp
Cold water	3 tbsp.

Method: –

Chop cashews, almonds, dates and keep it aside.
Combine chopped cashews, almonds, dates, cocoa powder and rock salt in a food processor.
Process all the ingredients till it becomes coarse. To this mixture add shredded coconut and process further.
To this, add vanilla extract and little cold water till it becomes moist.
Spread the mixture evenly on the pan and refrigerate it for 2 hours.
Cut it into desired shapes.
You can top it up with some Choco chips as well!

Nutrition Facts
Nutrients	Nutrition per serving
Calories	323
Protein	12 g
Carbohydrates	36 g
Fats	5 g
Fibre	8 g
Sugar	7 g

(3) Walnut-Fig Talks!

Name of the ingredients	Quantity
Raw walnuts	1 and ½ cups
Whole grain flour	1 cup
Baking soda	1/8^th spoon
Rock Salt	1/4^th tsp
Cinnamon	½ tsp
Honey	3 tbsp.
Figs	1 cup
Vanilla extract	1 tsp

Method: –

Chop walnuts, figs and keep it aside.
Combine chopped walnuts, figs, whole grain flour, cinnamon powder, baking soda and rock salt in a food processor.
Process all the ingredients till it becomes coarse.
To this mixture, add vanilla extract and little cold water till it becomes moist.
Spread the mixture evenly on the pan and refrigerate it for 2 hours.
Cut it into desired shapes.
You can top it up with some fresh fruits as well while eating!

Nutrition Facts
Nutrients	Nutrition per serving
Calories	200
Protein	8 g
Carbohydrates	28 g
Fats	5 g
Fibre	3 g
Sugar	7 g

I hope you like all these recipes! Being a naturopath I prefer home made things over anything else!

Do give your reviews!

From Carefree to a Carer

First ‘Walk with A Doc’ begins in Mumbai with a bang !

Vaccination: Prevention is better than Cure!

Decoding Energy Bars!

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