GOQii

Blog

Search Results for: work from home

By 1 Comment

Moderation – 365 days

cheat-day1

“CLEAN EATERS” be like – “Can’t wait till my cheat day !”

Is this your story too? What if I’d say, “let those “REASONABLY SIZED” treats be scattered throughout your life, instead of ‘cheat meal’ which often turns out as a ‘cheat day’ or ‘weekend binge’. And not to forget, the guilt that you take back home , after overdoing it .

Trust me, I too was pretty convinced initially with the idea of a cheat meal/treat. But, what happens in reality is totally different? It’s often blown out of proportion and we end up calling for anything and everything that fits within the 24 hour span of cheat day. This is pretty natural because we have literally “restricted” ourselves these 6 days.

 

cheat-day2

Consider this case –study:

Monday : EAT CLEAN !

Tuesday : EAT CLEAN !

Wednesday : EAT CLEAN ! ( Its mid-week and we are half-way through !)

Thursday : EAT CLEAN ! ( One more day to go ! )

Friday : EAT CLEAN ! (Cant wait for tomorrow ! )

Saturday : ATTACK !!!

-Breakfast is usually skipped, to save appetite for the feast .

-The cheat meal which was supposed to be a “treat” now looks like: “Eat all that you have craved for this week ”+ the weekend “pour” (if you have a habit of drinking alcohol )

Sunday : Who doesn’t want comfort food on Sunday !

Monday (next week) : The aftermath !

-Wake up feeling “HORRIBLE”, bloated, greasy and very unhealthy

-Exercise is generally not in picuture because you feel aweful about the weekend

cheat-day3

I am sure many can relate to this. No wonder, weekend binges were ruining our week’s hard work and goals seemed far away,

Hence, “moderation-365 days approach” !This no-brainer. Just requires practice, thoughtfulness, self-control and mindfulness.

Go ahead! In combination with clean eating, sprinkle those “tiny” treats here and there. The more we deprive, the more we feel the need to indulge (notice the word in inverted commas). BUT, that doesn’t mean we are better off eating whatever, whenever! There are a few rules here too :

  1. Find a healthy alternative:

Choose your battle: Dessert or a pizza and immediately think of its cleaner version. Like almond /coconut milk ice-cream or cauliflower crust pizza, zoodles (zucchini noodles), burritos made with clean ingredients.

I know cleaner versions means “high quality”, which means “expensive”. Accept it .After all, it’s of a “reasonable size” and will not burn a hole in your pocket.

OR

Make a home-made version, where you have a 100% control over what goes in it . Even better!

  1. In accordance to your appetite:

Eat what you actually want. Eat in tune with your hunger and you’ll likely end up eating a reasonable amount

  1. Enjoy treats time to time:

Like I mentioned several times before: SPRINKLE- REASONABLE SIZED TREATS .

Enjoy a piece or half of a cookie or a piece of dark chocolate…say on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday .

  1. Savour “EVERY” bite :

This is BIG ! Lack of this makes it easy to down a whole bar of chocolate or a tub of ice-cream or an entire pizza!

Place it in your mouth, take a moment to taste, smell and experience the food, Awaken your senses !

Well, these were my thoughts on what’s working for me . I know it’s a highly debatable topic but, this has helped me make a healthier pact with life and feel so much free and confident.

Neither does healthy food nor the cravings run my life. I am on the driver’s seat when it comes to my chow choices.

What do you think about this? If you are already following this, I ‘d love to hear your success story . Lay it on me!

 

By 1 Comment

How important is to know ‘Self Defence’?

Self-Defense

Gone are the days when one felt safe in this country. Recently a childhood friend of mine was attacked by some robbers in the road. He was threatened at knife point and robbed.My friend was disappointed with himself because he just was unable to do fight for himself. Many like my friend have been in this unfortunate situation where they have been attacked or threatened by someone they don’t know. Or t time by someone they know. Some have suffered injury, have had broken bones and wounds and in some cases even died.

With increasing violence on men and women it has become very important to be more aware of our surroundings and the people around us. Today, the need to protect one is something everyone should take note of seriously. We all invest in health and nutrition and fitness programs, but it’s time to start thinking about defending our bodies as well.

Here is where I would recommend that each one of you should know self defense. We need to ask our self, are we in a position to defend ourselves and our loved ones if someone were to physically attack us? Self Defense is not confined to men alone. It has become imperative that both men and women should be able to defend themselves when in a tough situation.

According to me, the old adage ‘prevention is better than cure’ is the best self defence. We don’t know if someone is trying to attack us what is his or her motive behind the attack. Just follow general safety tips like being aware of your surroundings, walk in a known and in a well lit area, keep your keys in hand when you are about to reach your home or car.

There are many self defense classes today that one can join. But, in the eventuality that you are not able to take these classes, here are few tips I am sharing with you that will help you to defend yourself.

The first thing to bear in mind when someone attacks you is do not panic. When you don’t panic look into the eye of the attacker he will lose half his confidence.

Here are few dos you must know and can do.

The most effective body parts to hit are :-

Eyes- Poking the attacker’s eyes with your fingers, a pen or knuckles would be effective. Always have a pen as it works as a good defense to poke people. It will cause the attacker lot of pain and you can easily escape as his vision will blur and will not clear for couple of minutes.

Nose- If the attacker is close to you, use the edge of your palm to hit on his nose, push your body weight along with it while hitting with your palm as it will give more power to hit. Once you hit him he sure lose his balance and you will get an opportunity to escape.

Neck- The side of the neck is a good target to attack as this is where both the carotid artery and jugular vein are located. Hitting the side of the neck or pushing the side of the neck of the attacker hard with your palm can stun the attacker.

Knee- Knee is an ideal self-defense target. We can kick without our foot being grabbed. Kicking the side of the knee will cause injury to the attacker.

Sheen Bone: Kicking the attackers sheen with the tip of your shoes is equally painful and can put the attacker off balance

The above mentioned parts are the most sensitive to hit in any attacker. Having said that, we should also use our body parts such as the elbows, knees, hands, legs and head to hit the attacker.

Be extremely careful and cautious when you are away from home or town. If possible don’t have a fixed schedule of travelling and above all the most important thing is ‘NEVER PANIC’.

Await my next blog where I tell you how to get rid from the attacker’s holds.

By 3 Comments

What do you know about doing crunches?

crunch

PRO’S AND CON’S OF CRUNCHES

Summer is here, and it’s the time to flaunt your perfect physique. Some of them have that perfect beach body already and many of them dream to have one all the time.

To have that perfect body, the one most common thing that a person resorts to is an exercise called ‘Crunches’. But, before one does hundreds of Crunches, is it not necessary to know its pro’s & con’s?

The answer is ‘Yes’, it is indeed extremely important to understand the advantages and disadvantages of an exercise.

Let’s have a look at some of them here,

Pro’s

  • It is an exercise which can be done anytime. You don’t have to go to a gym to perform crunches. You can do these at home.
  • Crunches help you tone and strengthen the muscles in the abdomen.
  • Helps build the core muscles. Hence, improves the stability of your body
  • Gives you a perfect ripped midsection.

Con’s

  • While regular crunches helps to build the abdominal muscles and strengthen our core, performing the same exercise in a wrong way or too many repetitions at once may potentially increase the risk of a back or a neck injury.
  • To have a perfect beach body, it is necessary to maintain a balance between the structures. This balance is disrupted when we over work or build only a section of our abdominal muscles. We tend to focus on our front abdominals more than our oblique’s and the back muscles, which are also a part of our core. This imbalance results in faulty posture and loss of balance.
  • Larger muscles burn more fat. Crunches use only a specific muscle group and don’t involve the larger group of muscles. Hence, the amount of fat burnt is less.

So, should we continue to do the Crunches or stop it completely? Well, I suggest that we do this exercise by following the proper technique and minimizing the repetitions to protect our spine.

 

By 9 Comments

Food Pyramid – Did you Know? A guide to healthy eating with the Food Pyramid

food pyramidGood food after a day’s hard work is always a pleasure and there is no substitute to good wholesome and nutritious food. But, more often than not, we are so engrossed in our work that we fail to think about our health which in turn means that we neglect good food.

And most think it’s a cumbersome task to deal with all these nitty gritties, think about nutrition, good food etc.. It’s so complicated. The idea ultimately is to just eat whatever is available when hungry.

But, it’s not difficult as it seems. Well, while you are in a restaurant you always think about ordering something tasty and compromise often with the nutritional aspects, here is a simple food pyramid tips which can be followed easily without any complications. This can be followed in restaurants or while you are out and at home.

So in the food pyramid, there is a cereal and grains group, followed by fruits and vegetable group, dairy products and non-veg, and then oil fat and sugary foods,

1.Cereal and grains group.
These are mostly staple foods which is consist of nutrients like carbohydrates ( Complex carbs ), proteins, fibre, minerals, calcium and B-complex vitamins. An individual should have 6-11 servings of this portion in a day. Common food items in this group- Whole grain cereals, millets, rice, Jowar, Bajra, Makai (Corn), Barley Oats, Poha (Puffed Rice) and Upma. These foods are rich in nutrients and good to provide the necessary fuel for our body to run all day long

One serving of this equals
-1 cup of rice, Poha or Upma
-1 cup of oats
-1 Paratha
-2 Phulka
-1 Jowar, Bajra or Makai roti.

2.Vegetables and Fruits group (Protective Food Group)

These foods are a must eat and should be added to our food plate daily. A person should have at least 3-5 servings of vegetables and 2-4 servings of fruits each day. They contain vital nutrients like vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, folate, iron and potassium and many more nutrients. These foods consist fiber help our digestive system and also gives us different types of nutrients, phytochemicals and are also rich in antioxidants.

One serving of vegetables consists of:

1 cup of leafy vegetables ( Lettuce, spinach, Fenugreek, Dil, spring onions)
1 medium potato/yam, ½ medium sweet potato ( cooked )
1/2 cup of other vegetables, cooked or raw ( You can also include some of them as salads too )
3/4 cup of vegetable juice(vegetables like Bottle gourd, carrot, beetroot, French beans, green peas, are good to grind and have as smoothe with a pinch of salt and pepper)

In fruits one serving is:
One small apple, orange or banana or any other fruit
1/2 cup of chopped, cooked or canned fruit

3.Dairy products and non-veg food items 

These foods are the main protein building group because it is important to maintain the strength of our bones and muscles. Apart from providing proteins these food items also provide B-complex vitamins, invisible fat, fibre, calcium, vitamin A, riboflavin, vitamin B12, iron and iodine. You should ideally have 4-6 servings of this group each day. These foods are mainly important to build up our muscles and help to recover the wear and tear that might occur during the hectic day

One serving of this group consists of:
1 cup of milk, curd
40g (2 slices) cheese, paneer
1 cup dal, pulses, sprouts
1 handful of dry fruits, nuts like groundnuts
1 Egg
65-100gm cooked meat/chicken (½ cup mince, 2 small chops, or 2 slices roast meat)
80-120g cooked fish fillet

4. Oils, fats and sugar:

There are certain good fats which are useful and beneficial for our body, as the cell membrane around our brain are made up of good fats, These are the foods which should be eaten by keeping the portion control in mind and even the time of the day should be noticed as its important.

Some good source of sweetners are Raw honey/Jaggery/Dates/Prunes, these are the healthy sweetners, But, because of today’s lifestyle some unhealthy sweetners have sadly become the staple diet in our lifestyle. Ideally this should not have happened. Choose Any of the junk food item and it will contain these ingredients – burgers, pizza, vada pav, samosa, fizzy drinks, alcohol, instant noodles, chips, frankies etc.

These are not bad to have but, at the same time we should keep our portion in control. We shouldn’t have more than 3-4 servings of these food items in a day. Some common basic sources are vegetable oils, butter, sugar, jaggery and honey.
One serving is defined as 1 tsp of oil, ghee or butter and also 1 tsp of sugar, jaggery and honey.

Now last but the least…WATER:. Water is one of the most important component that cannot be ignored in this entire pyramid. We should have at least 8 glasses of water, as it is very important to keep our cells well hydrated and alive. The above given quantity is for a non-active person, but an active person needs at least 10 to 12 glasses of water average..

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 […]