GOQii user journey Archives

August 13, 2022 By GOQii Leave a Comment

Anupa Samuel Lowers Triglycerides and Cholesterol Levels With Help From Her GOQii Coach!

While the lockdown was a great move to curb the spread of COVID-19, it affected the health and lifestyle of a lot of people. Those leading active lifestyles had to be homebound and this led to the development of certain ailments that affect them even today. Our player Anupa Samuel faced a similar situation where her triglycerides and cholesterol levels shot up but with the help of her GOQii Coach, she was able to reverse her condition. Here’s how her Health Story unfolded.

The Journey From Active To Inactive

Anupa Samuel is a 46 year old who lives in Mumbai with her husband and 2 children. She claimed to be a sports enthusiast, playing sports since childhood. She enjoyed playing sports such as throwball and badminton. She was quite active even before the COVID pandemic, walking almost 14km a day.

After the lockdown, Anupa Samuel was unable to participate in the activities she enjoyed. She stopped walking. “It got difficult to walk even 5k steps,” she said. Her eating habits became problematic as well as her lunch and dinner was too heavy and she began eating at odd hours. Although weight wasn’t an issue for her, her triglycerides and cholesterol levels shot up significantly.

Choosing Diet Over Medicine

When she figured her triglyceride and cholesterol levels were high, she made a decision to avoid medicines. “I don’t like taking medicines,” she said. She was willing to do anything apart from taking medication and wanted to solely focus on reversing her condition through diet and nutrition.

When her husband asked his friends and colleagues if it is possible to reduce triglyceride and cholesterol levels through diet alone, they said it would be a difficult task as you need to switch your food habits and eat lots of salads, to which Anupa said, “I can do it!”

Joining GOQii & Making A Positive Lifestyle Change

Anupa joined GOQii on Feb 11, 2022 when her husband gave it to her as a gift. Around April, she was assigned to Coach Nikhil Sapate. “Now, he’s not just a coach but a very good friend of mine, so I’m very comfortable with him,” says Anupa about her GOQii Coach Nikhil.

He closely monitored her habits and took into account her goal of wanting to reverse her condition through diet and nutrition alone and suggested a few changes.

These suggestions included:

Start the day with apple cider vinegar with turmeric and lukewarm water for detox
Drink bay leaf ginger tea in the evening
Eat fruits, roasted pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, soaked brazilian nuts, walnuts and almonds
Include red rice in meals
Eat heavy meals only till lunch, whereas before her lunch and dinner used to be heavy
Post lunch, stick to green tea
For dinner, eat fruits or a bowl of salad
Drink more than 2L of water a day

Apart from the changes above, Coach Nikhil also ensured that she stopped consuming brown bread. She also began indulging in activities she enjoyed doing before. Currently, she spends her time being active throughout the day by walking, playing table tennis, performing aerobics, planks, squats and badminton, etc. She varies her workout to keep it from being boring. Albeit, she tries to cover these activities within a single day. She says, “I enjoy activities so I can give as much time as needed for exercising”.

When her father was diagnosed with prostate cancer in April, she had to do hospital visits once a month. While waiting for her father’s treatment, she found ways to keep herself active like meditating while waiting or trying to complete her steps by walking up and down the stairs of the hospital.

Within 6 months of joining GOQii Anupa is already an Elite Player. When asked about her progress, she says, “All the credit goes to my GOQii Coach. He is outstanding. Apart from him, coaches like Anushka Contractor and Mukesh Morwall have helped me a lot!”

This can also be credited to the fact that Anupa is quite active on the GOQii App. “My kids say that I am married to GOQii only,” she said as she has a hard time when she is not close to her GOQii Tracker.

She is a regular on GOQii Play and also joins live online classes on GOQii PRO. Her favorite coaches include Anushka Contractor, Mukesh Morwall, Rounak Gajjar, Sheetal Tewari and Alistair Fernandes as well as she enjoys dancing.

She is also an active reader of the GOQii Blog. Her main goal right now is to improve her sleep and hydration levels. She joins the ASMR sessions on GOQii Play to improve her sleep.

Results Of Personalized Health Coaching With GOQii

At the time of joining, Anupa’s triglycerides were at 345 and her total cholesterol level was at 239. Her TSH levels were at 7.33. “She was looking to bring her triglycerides and total cholesterol down with the help of natural food and no medication,” says her Coach Nikhil. “After cutting processed foods and fried items, she managed to bring her triglycerides down to 187, and cholesterol to 174, while her TSH levels dropped massively to 4.64. The levels were achieved in 3 months,” he added.

As of now, she avoids biscuits, crackers and packaged foods as well as any type of bread. She consumes air fried chicken and fish with minimum oil intake. She also completes 17k steps a day.

“All the changes we made gave good results. She feels that her energy levels have improved and she can work the whole day without any sign of fatigue. She has gotten leaner as well. Now, to achieve her goal of improving her sleep, we’ve begun with chamomile tea,” said Coach Nikhil.

Anupa Samuel made significant changes in just a few months. You can do the same with dedication, discipline and a little bit of guidance and motivation from our experts. Sign up for GOQii’s personalised health coaching here: https://goqiiapp.page.link/bsr

For more inspiring Health Stories, check out Healthy Reads.

#BeTheForce

October 24, 2020 By GOQii 7 Comments

“Don’t Ignore Your Health!” – Nirmal Bhatt Shares a Message For All Womenfolk

As a working woman, managing a professional life and a personal life can be quite challenging given the status quo that exists in our society. Sometimes, so much effort goes into looking after a household as well as crushing it in the professional field that one easily forgets to take care of themselves. Nirmal Bhatt, a 42 year old working professional from Noida faced similar challenges as she tried her best to maintain the delicate balance between her work as an Academic Coordinator at Amity University and her household.

Before Being a Part of GOQii

Since 2012, Nirmal Bhatt has been suffering from hypothyroid and hypertension. Over the years, her weight had been increasing consistently. In 2019, she weighed almost 82kg. Her TSH was 10 and her BP was 150/110. Her diet was loaded with ghee and oil, zero physical activity and every weekend involved eating out. She always felt lethargic and given her routine, she lacked any motivation to do anything for herself. But all that was about to change!

Making a Lifestyle Change With GOQii

As a part of the deal with Star Health Insurance, she got a GOQii subscription as well. Living in a joint family with her husband and 2 grown-up kids, she says one can only imagine how hectic her life was. She had avoided talking to her GOQii Coach fearing that she’d be asked to make drastic changes in her routine which would be near to impossible to achieve.

She had heard from her friends how dieting works and she undoubtedly wouldn’t be able to do any of it. Upon the brink of giving up, Nirmal decided to give GOQii a try after relentless calls from her GOQii Coach who refused to give up on her. Since taking that decision to move forward, Nirmal didn’t have to look back ever again.

Her coach explained to her how she can bring about small changes to her lifestyle and still achieve her goals. She stressed on 3 major changes which have contributed the most to her weight loss – reduced tea consumption, avoiding junk and sweets. Nirmal confessed to being a tea addict, consuming almost 7-8 cups of tea a day. Now, she has reduced to just 2 cups a day. In addition, she has also stopped consuming fried food and sweets – both of which she couldn’t resist before.

Physical activities were something she would never try before but has now become a part of her daily routine. During the 2 initial months of lockdown, she wholeheartedly gave herself up to an active lifestyle and worked out for an hour every day. Since May, when she resumed work from home, she still tries to complete her 10k steps on most days. Her secret, she says, is never sitting idle. She constantly tries to be on the move, walking, stretching as and when she can.

The other changes which were implemented by her coach include:

Intermittent fasting
Including salads in meals
Early dinner
Fixed meal time irrespective of other family members

Thanks to all the changes which she accepted, her weight has reduced to 67.5kg and her waist size has gone from 38 inches to 34 inches.

What Does Nirmal Bhatt Have To Say About Her Coach?

Nirmal Bhatt says that she can’t thank her GOQii Coach Meenakshi enough for all the cooperation, guidance and motivation she provided. During the early days, when Nirmal would get frustrated about preparing all the delicious snacks for her family and not get to eat any, Coach Meenakshi used to keep her morale high by reminding her that she has to fit into that lehenga while attending the next wedding. She used to keep nudging and pushing her constantly, giving her tips and ways to stay healthy even on days when she would absolutely want to do nothing. Owing to her positive outcome and the bond she and her coach have formed, Nirmal has renewed her subscription for a year.

“I want to tell this to all the womenfolk”, Nirmal says as she adds that, “It’s very easy to lose track of yourself while tending to your family and household responsibilities. Don’t ignore your health! You can only take care of your loved ones if you are fit. Don’t bother what others have to say about your appearance. Lose weight because you want to look and feel good. Not because your relatives or friends want you to. It’s not at all easy but it is definitely worth the effort. You can’t stop beaming when you get compliments on your transformation from friends and colleagues.”

What Does Coach Meenakshi Have to Say About Her Player?

Nirmal Bhatt was very determined,dedicated with the health goal to reduce weight and waist size when she came on board .She was suffering from thyroid, BP, bloating, emotional stress, less energetic and disturbed sleep. She wasn’t able to spare time for her health because of her busy schedule

We began with small changes like reduced tea, sweets, biscuits and added salads and early dinner along with 15 minutes of Pranayam. She lost 4.5 kg. weight with 1 inch loss in a month. We worked on stress and sleep by adding deep breathing and meditation to her routine. We followed 10 minute abs exercises along with some cardio like jumping jacks, skipping, spot jogging, plank. For dinner, we added proteins, beetroot juice, chia seeds – post which she lost 10 kg. and 2 inch loss in 4 months. Then we accepted challenges like reduced sugar, intermittent fasting and added flax seeds, green tea and virgin coconut oil in her diet – all of this with consistent 10,000 steps with strengthening exercises. She further lost 14.5kg and 4 inch loss. Her TSH level is now 6.5 which was 10.2 in 2019. BP is also under control but she takes medicines sometimes, not regularly. Nirmal is very honest about whatever she eats. The best part of Nirmal is trying to be active throughout the day to complete 10,000 steps challenge daily with any exercises.

We hope this story motivates you to make a positive lifestyle change! For more inspiring stories, check out Healthy Reads. To be a part of GOQii’s preventive healthcare ecosystem, visit our website now!

#BeTheForce

August 22, 2020 By GOQii Leave a Comment

How Did Police Officer Sharad Hembade Go From Healthy to Healthier?

Being a part of the Police Force means that you need to be healthy and active at all times. Poor health or lack of activity can come in the way of duty otherwise. But, as an officer, if you’ve been active throughout your life, is there a way you can improve further? Let’s find out from the journey of Officer Sharad Hembade from the Nashik City Police.

Being an Active Force of the Police Force!

Sharad Hembade has served 18 years as an officer and has been stationed at Nashik for the past 12 years. He is happily married and has 2 kids. When he isn’t involved in his police duties, he treks – sometimes with a group and sometimes alone around Maharashtra. He has also participated in a number of marathons pan India as and when time permitted.

Apart from these activities, he also participates in cycling events. One such event was organized by the Nashik Cyclists Foundation which spanned from Nashik to Pandharpur and back – a distance of 365 to 375km which he undertook in the year 2018. They completed 185 km on the first day and 80 km on the second. The entire distance was covered in 2 days and 2 hours. Though it was tiring, he said the event was worth remembering.

From Healthy to Healthier!

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the pressure on the police force has increased exponentially. To ensure the safety of our frontline heroes, a GOQii Tracker was handed over to the entire Nashik City Police Force by their commissioner, Shri. Vishwas Nangare Patil two months back. All the mechanisms of the tracker including temperature monitoring and how to use the app was explained to them.

Though Officer Sharad Hembade was already quite active, GOQii helped bring in a newfound enthusiasm in him by motivating him to complete his daily step count target and check all the habits set by his GOQii Coach. Compared to before, he says that his entire routine is now structured when compared to his lifestyle before.

The structure and changes to his routine introduced by his GOQii Coach were:

Starting his day with a walk-run combo from 6 AM to around 8:30 AM. He also includes some bodyweight exercises and a few minutes of yoga and meditation towards the end.
On the diet front, he was asked to introduce more protein sources to his meals
Reducing water intake as he used to consume 6-7 liters a day which his coach explained were harmly as he would be losing a lot of essential minerals in the process.
Including more plant-based protein sources such as rajma, chana and various kinds of lentils for lunch and dinner.
Walking between shift hours instead of being seated.

Thanks to these minor changes, he was able to lose 4kg in 2 months. He has also begun purchasing healthy products from the GOQii Health Store such as protein snacks and bars.

What Does Officer Sharad Hembade Think About His Changes?

He says his job involves a lot of stress for obvious reasons and hence, it is extremely important to have a positive mindset and handle it on a daily basis. Physical activity helps in developing the body as well as the mind – willpower improves and it also helps ease the stress. This has been his belief throughout his life. He says that right now, GOQii is like their caretaker and health inspector – constantly monitoring and reminding them to take care of their health!

We salute the efforts of Officer Sharad Hembade and his dedication to serve the country as well as remain fit and active!

Gear up as we’re going to share more insights on the life and journey towards an active lifestyle of our Police Force in the coming weeks! For more successful user stories, check out Healthy Reads within the GOQii App.

#BeTheForce