healthy lifestyle tips Archives - Page 2 of 7

October 5, 2018 By Gitanjali Bahl 5 Comments

Choose the right activity to stay fit

Who does not like to look good and fit? Everyone does. Off late you are also finding many who are conscious about wanting to be active. Many are obsessed with losing weight. All are aware that these changes will not occur overnight and hence exercising is very important.

Exercising regularly is one of the healthiest things you can do for yourself. It lowers your risk of serious health problems, including heart disease, diabetes, stroke and high blood pressure. It can also tone your figure and improve your sleep. Not only is exercise good for your body, it’s also good for your mind, mood and memory. Walking, doing household chores, climbing the stairs, playing a sport or dancing the night away are all good examples of being active.

Being physically active has other advantages such as easing depression, relieving stress and anxiety, enhancing one’s self esteem and improving one’s overall outlook towards life. You don’t have to spend long, boring hours in a gym to reap these benefits. Whatever your age, health limitations or fitness levels, you can develop an exercise program that’s fun and rewarding and fits well within your life parameters.

If you’re not ready to commit to a structured exercise program, think about physical activity as a lifestyle choice rather than a single task to check off your to-do list. Look at your daily routine and consider ways to sneak in an activity here and there. Even very small activities can add up over the course of a day.

Having said the above, making the right choice of exercise goes a long way in helping one be fit. Making some random choice of exercises can prove to become a deterrent towards you getting fit.

Let me sight few instances of wrong choice of exercises-

1) A person who is on the extreme heavy side ( Overweight) should ideally not op for running as an exercise as it requires to expend more energy and also running will put undue pressure on the joints which will lead to joint damage and injuries.

2) An osteoporotic man who is over 50 years old going to gym to lift weights. Though it is commendable that he is trying to stay active at his age but, lifting heavy weights despite osteoporosis is just straining the joints further.

Another important aspect to take care is never overdo it.

Research has shown that mild to moderate activity is enough to change your life for the better. You don’t have to sweat buckets or run a single step. Moderate activity means:

That you breathe a little heavier than normal, but are not out of breath. For example, you should be able to chat with your walking partner, but not easily sing a song.
That your body feels warmer as you move, but not overheated or very sweaty.

Therefore, making the right choice of exercise is a must.

The factors that are essential for choosing exercises:

-Purpose of exercise

-Age to perform exercises

-Weight

-Interest to exercise

-Medical condition if any

-Daily Routine to be able to spare time for exercise

-Daily Nutritional intake

Always, remember gym is not the only option for one to exercise and stay active. There are exercises that can be done at home, office or a park in the outdoors depending on your interest and purpose.

You can stay Active

-By going for a simple walk

-Brisk walking

-Yoga

-Simple strength and Stretch exercises like push-ups, planks, abdomen exercises that can be done at home

-Aerobics

-Cycling and Hiking

-Play a sport such as Badminton, Tennis, or any other sport

-Play with your kids

-Dancing

-Martial Arts

-and Running

Once you know the purpose to stay active you can automatically choose the right exercise for yourself. Consider all the factors and accordingly make a choice. Preferably if you can get a professional advice before starting on any exercise regime.

June 18, 2018 By Luke Coutinho 1 Comment

Start Living, Stop Dieting

Diets don’t work. They just don’t. You lose weight and you put it back on again after a few months. Sometimes you even gain more than you lost.

The’ diet game’ leads to frustration, depression, starvation, deprivation and begins to become the Centres point of our life and social conversations. At almost every party, you find people talking about weight, or health or envying someone who has lost so much weight or feeling insecure and low on ‘ self- esteem’ because of how you look or fit into your clothes. It’s a vicious cycle as you get sucked into this whole ‘ diet game ‘.

Too many people measure their worth with the wrong scale. Your weighing scale does not determine who you are.

Now sit back a bit, relax and think about this. If it took you a year, or maybe two, or even three years to get the way you are (extra fat, weight, belly fat, cellulite, etc), is it really possible that you can find a plan that makes you lose all of that in 3-6 months? It’s not possible. The science of the human body defies that.

If you have a weight problem, the first thing you need to do is think about all the things/ behavior etc. you have been engaged in over the last few months, years, that has got you in the shape that you are currently in. Write down the following –the extra coffees, desserts, reduction in your days of work out, increased meal portions, increased number of outside meals, increased holidays, etc.

Write it down. Your solution will be staring right back at you in the face- REDUCE!!! CUT BACK!! ADD!!!

Don’t always blame it on your age or your hormones or your genes. First study your LIFESTYLE and how it has changed over the last few months or years.

You don’t need professional help to figure that out.

And then….start making lifestyle changes but, one at a time. The most fantastic research I have been exposed to over the last few weeks is the fact that even if the unhealthiest person makes as little as one lifestyle change in a month, and keeps it consistent, he or she will begin to make a positive impact on weight or health.

Just one lifestyle change.

it could work miracles – –

Increasing your water intake
Reducing meal sizes
Reducing sugar
Cutting back on outside meals
Exercising more
Stop smoking
Alcohol in moderation
Increase intake of fruits and vegetables
Get a GOQII to help you make goals and impact lifestyle
Sleep 7 hours
Meditate
Stretch more
Practice gratitude and kindness
Manage your stress effectively
Keep your dinners light

The list can go on and on. Select something and start working on it.

The truth is that burning fat is multi-factorial. You need to do more, much more than a ‘ diet’ to reach your goal. You need to feel good about yourself.

You need to stop following fad plans that you read about blindly. It must make sense to you if you are doing it. never do something that does not make sense to you, or that you don’t understand how it will work for you.

Fat burn = Lifestyle change = Need time and patience if you want the real thing. (there are no shortcuts)

Know your goal, the truth behind why you really really want to achieve that, and then be patient, consistent and positive.

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March 7, 2018 By Farida Gohil Leave a Comment

Chocolate lovers Listen up!!! Dark chocolate can boost your health

Who does not love chocolates? Everybody does but, chocolate and especially (75% and above) dark only a few of them. One needs to cultivate a taste for it. And, believe me, once you have developed that eating dark chocolate can be super beneficial.

How? Well, let me take you through the benefits ….

(1) Dark Chocolate Cuts Stroke, Heart Disease Risk

I recently read an article in an English Tabloid that said mentioned that dark chocolate is good for the heart.. Quoting from the article, according to one of the researchers Simin Liu, “The analysis found that Cocoa flavanol intake may reduce dyslipidemia insulin resistance and systematic inflammation, which are all major subclinical risk factors for cardiometabolic diseases”.

As per another new study published in the journal Molecular Nutrition & Food Research, eating flavanol-rich dark chocolate has been found to protect against the risk of heart disease and stroke by improving platelet function within two hours of consumption.

Researchers at the University of Aberdeen Rowett Institute of Nutrition and Health examined the effects of consumption of dark chocolate that was enriched with cocoa extract in the blood of 42 healthy volunteers, 26 women and 16 men. They compared platelet function of the participants who ate enriched dark chocolate with those who ate dark chocolate that contained a lower cocoa and flavanol content, and white chocolate.They found the dark chocolate enriched with flavan-3-ols significantly decreased platelet activation and aggregation in men, but only decreased platelet aggregation in women.

“Taken together, these findings support the notion that flavanol-rich foods, including cocoa products, may help to promote cardiovascular health,” Dr.Kelm said.

(2) Dark Chocolate helps in increasing endothelial function of SMOKERS…

The researchers studied smokers because their blood vessels tend to respond poorly to changes in blood flow, possibly related to impairments in how nitric oxide sends signals to the inner lining, the endothelium, of blood vessels. This impaired endothelial function is a marker for increased risk of cardiovascular disease.

A dozen smokers (six men and six women) in their early 30s, who did not have any known health problems, were enrolled in the double-blind crossover study to compare the effects of a cocoa drink rich in flavanols to a cocoa drink that tasted the same but contained very low levels of flavanols. Circulating nitric oxide levels and blood vessel responses (flow-mediated dilation) were measured before drinking the cocoa and again two hours later. Each participant drank flavanol-rich and flavanol-poor cocoa drinks during different testing sessions.There were significant increases in circulating nitric oxide and flow-mediated dilation after ingestion of drinks. These changes correlated with increases in flavanol metabolites. In addition, the improvements were reversed when the participants were given a drug (L-NMMA) that interferes with nitric oxide signalling, thus supporting the idea that the flavanol-rich cocoa drink produced its effects by influencing the nitric oxide system.

The researchers pointed out that the cocoa drink they used was specially processed to retain much higher levels of flavanols than are typically found in commercially-available cocoa drinks; so it is unlikely that drinking more hot chocolate would produce a similar effect.Nevertheless, the conclusion drawn from these results have to be interpreted with caution, because it is not known whether or not the chronic consumption of flavanol-rich foods leads to sustained increases in endothelial function and the prevention of future cardiovascular events. In particular, in smokers, it is unlikely that cocoa can completely attenuate the deleterious effects of continued smoking, the study says.

(3) Dark Chocolate helps in preventing the development of Atherosclerosis

A flavanol-rich drink is capable of increasing nitric oxide levels in the blood and reversing the detrimental effect of smoking on vascular adaptation. It remains to be seen whether the acute beneficial effect of a flavanol-rich drink translates into a long-term benefit, in terms of attenuating or preventing the development of atherosclerosis.

(4) Dark Chocolate helps in improved thinking, decreased appetite, obesity, as well as type-2 diabetes.

Cocoa, the basic ingredient of chocolate, is one of the most flavanol-rich foods around. That’s good for chocolate lovers because previous research has shown that flavanols in other foods such as grapes and tea can help fight weight gain and type-2 diabetes. But, not all flavanols, which are a type of antioxidant, are created equal. Cocoa has several different kinds of these compounds. Researchers found that adding one particular set of compounds, known as oligomeric procyanidins (PCs), to the food made the biggest difference in keeping the weight down if on high-fat diets. They also improved glucose tolerance, which could potentially help prevent type-2 diabetes. Oligomeric PCs appear to possess the greatest antiobesity and antidiabetic bioactivities of the flavanols in cocoa, particularly at the low doses.

5.Dark Chocolate helps in Lowering blood pressure

In particular dark chocolate which contains higher levels of flavanols than milk chocolate, may protect against the risk of cardiovascular disease by lowering blood pressure, blood flow, and improving blood lipid levels. The link between cocoa and blood pressure stems from the discovery that the indigenous people of San Blas Island in Central American, who drink flavanol-rich cocoa drinks every day, have normal blood pressure regardless of age. However, flavanol concentrations in cocoa and chocolate products vary according to cocoa processing procedures and types of chocolate, so it is difficult to establish the optimal dosage for an effect.

So go ahead and be a Chocoholic!!!!

January 19, 2018 By Gitanjali Bahl 1 Comment

Simple tips for Lifestyle Changes

Today, everybody, everywhere seems to be busy.And, in the rush to make more money, the busy work life has got the worst of every individual leaving them with little or no time to think about themselves and their health.

Most people’s work in the current times either involves sitting for about 8-10 hours in one place or too much travel thereby resulting in people developing many issues such as

-Joint pains specially neck and back pain

-Irregular meal timings

-Problems like indigestion due to unhealthy eating

– Complete or partial cut off from social life

– Stress or depression

-Lack of Sleep

Hence the question on top of everybody’s mind is what do I do? Leaving the job is not a solution. In that case how do I get rid of all these problems?

The answer is very simple … bring about a ‘Lifestyle Change’ .

Tips for Change

-Set your meal timings. Set alarms for your meals on your mobiles and laptops

-Eat a balanced diet.

-Eat fruits, Vegetables and Salads

-Have small meals after every two to three hours rather than having three large meals or skipping any meal

-Get up from your seat every one hour and walk for about 5 to 10 minutes. You could also walk and talk when you get a call instead of sitting in your seat and conversing

-Don’t cradle your phone or message your colleague if you want something walk down to their desk.

-Use the staircase instead of the elevator As much as you can. There is no better exercise that walking up and down the stairs

-If your office is at a walking distance, try to walk or buy a bicycle for the same. It cannot get better than this

-Stretch in between work whenever possible so that the muscles get relaxed

– Instead of keeping a bottle on your table every time you are thirsty, walk down to the water cooler and have water.

-During tea breaks sit with colleagues rather than having it alone

-Listen to soothing music before you sleep. Believe me you will certainly get good sleep

-Breathing exercises works well whenever you feel stressed.

Bring about these simple lifestyle changes and you will realize that life is so much better. In case you find it difficult to bring about these changes go through the following blog http://goqii.com/blog/why-is-it-difficult-to-make-a-lifestyle-change-6-tips-to-follow/and you can follow the tips given in this so as to bring about a change within your lifestyle.