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This is What Binge Watching is Doing to Your Health!

binge watchingI’m writing this blog with a pinch of salt because recently, I’ve been binge-watching as well. While stuck in this trap, I realized that this is something serious and needs to be addressed. Binge-watching may not be a new concept but it is quickly becoming the new normal. Thanks to the online streaming boom, you no longer need to watch a single episode with multiple commercial breaks and a cliff-hanger that keeps you biting your nails for another week.

Imagine having an entire series at your fingertips minus the ads. Now imagine what this much entertainment might be doing to you. We all remember Uncle Ben’s quote from Spiderman, “With great power comes great responsibility.” If you’re not responsible enough with your time, can you imagine what binging can do to your personal and professional health?

How Binge-Watching Affects Your Health

  • Kills Time: The humour or suspense in the story will make you want to spend hours watching episode after episode without even realizing. Binge-watching may result in slipping grades, being late to work or class and most of all, not being active.
  • Hello Heath Risks: Sitting for long stretches of time increases your risk of health issues (including diabetes, heart disease, and cancer), even if you also exercise regularly. If you must binge, make it healthier by standing, stretching, and taking mini-breaks for physical activity.
  • Addiction: While binge-viewing can be fun and feel satisfying, there’s always the danger of becoming too obsessed. Behaviour also becomes addictive when it begins to negatively affect other aspects of your life. For instance, if you neglect other activities or responsibilities to binge.
  • Antisocial Alert: Binge watching tends to be a pretty isolating activity. You’re taking time away from other essential things in life like hanging out with friends or working.
  • Binge Watching = Binge Eating: While watching an entire season of a show that caught your eye, you often tend to munch on a bag of chips, bowl of popcorn or multiple chocolate bars at the same time with an accompaniment of a soft drink or two. This happens due to mindless eating which ultimately leads to weight gain and health issues.

Is There a Way to Stay Healthy?

If you must binge, then here are a few tips that will help you be more mindful and make healthy choices consciously.

  1. If you binge, make it healthy by standing, stretching, and taking mini-breaks for physical activity.
  2. Try having breaks between episodes and not snacking while you watch. This would avoid mindless eating, and thus, avoid weight gain.
  3. Prefer watching with family & friends. Chatting with fellow fans about the show can also make your binge habit healthier since it pulls you away from the main screen and allows you to reflect on what you’ve just watched.
  4. Use Time Management as a tool to avoid wastage of time. Prefer setting a particular time slot for your favourite series in your daily routine.

However, Binge Watching is incomplete without Binge Eating. The only option left here is to choose healthier alternatives such as baked kale chips, simple roasted chickpeas, apple chips, salt and vinegar Zucchini chips, nuts and seeds mix, etc.

If you’re looking for more tips to live a healthier lifestyle, you can explore Healthy Reads or connect with a GOQii Coach by subscribing for Personalised Health Coaching here.

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10 foods with super qualities that will help in healthy living

image of fruits and brocolli

All foods are unique in their calorie count, and unique in the way they are digested. Those foods with negative calories burn more calories than they contain. These foods are usually plant-derived foods that are high in water content and rich in fiber: grains, legumes, vegetables, and fruits, except for fatty fruits like avocados and olives. Since your body takes a longer time to burn off fibrous foods, your metabolism continues to stay revved up, giving you a jump start to your weight loss.

While these foods may be an important source of micronutrients, they are not sources of fat packing calories.That works because your stomach senses when it is physically full, and it will trigger your brain to stop eating when you can’t handle more food.

This is why, believe it or not, the simple act of drinking a glass of water before each meal is a proven weight loss strategy. It fills your belly with water, thereby reducing the amount of space left for other foods.

This is the common property among all: They all contain a lot of water locked in a fibrous matrix. Apples are essentially “water fruits,” as are grapes and watermelons (hence the name). Many vegetables are also “water vegetables,” meaning that they’re loaded with water. Celery, for example, is the classic example of a water-rich negative-calorie food. I am providing you with the examples of negative calorie foods:

  1. Apple:Apple contain amazingly powerful nutrients that improve your quality of life. Studies have also shown some evidence that the quercetin found in apples could lower the risk of Alzheimer’s disease by protecting your body from the damage that can be caused by dangerous free radicals.
  2. Lettuce and leafy Veggies:Lettuce and other leafy greens, including kale and spinach, are extremely low in calories. These contain 50% water to 50% fiber. As a result, leafy greens are an excellent source of energy, and definitely help to reduce the urge to eat sweet treats.Dark greens are packed with Vitamins and nutrients as well.
  3. Broccoli:Broccoli has a couple of different properties that make it an ally of those who are trying to lose weight. The fibre content is huge, helping to keep you feeling full and satisfied after you eat broccoli, and the protein is equal to that found in rice (while it contains just a fraction of the calorie content of rice). You should either steam the Broccoli or consume it raw if you want to make sure that you preserve all of the nutrients that make this vegetable a superfood.
  4. Papaya:Papaya’s also like Oranges are just as rich as oranges in vitamin C and contain 15 times more of the antioxidant beta-cryptoxanthin. Papaya’s fibre is also good for combating constipation and keeping cholesterol in check.
  5. Celery: About 75% of a celery stick is actually water; the other 25% is fibre and other roughage. The high water content of celery means that you will burn more calories eating it than it actually contains.
  6. Cucumber:Cucumbers are mostly made up of water. The cucumber is one of the best vegetables when it comes to providing vitamin C, and there is plenty of evidence suggesting that a high intake of vitamin C is linked to an improved ability to resist invasion by bacteria and viruses.
  7. Tomato:This veggie is more than 90 percent water. t has small amounts of carbohydrate, protein and fat, and it is rich in vitamin C, B, E and K, carotenoids and lycopene.The chromium that they contain might help your body to regulate blood sugar levels, keeping them within healthy limits by controlling the amount of sugar that gets absorbed in your blood.
  8. Radish: Radish has an extremely low calorific value. It has good amount of of vitamin C, B and A. It is interesting that in the same amount of radishes there is 2 mg of iron and other minerals.
  9. Watermelon: This fruit is extremely low in calories and contains no fat. It is a rich source of B vitamins, which increase your energy levels and reduce your need to eat extra foods.
  10. Orange: Oranges are wonderful for heart health in a couple of different ways. Firstly, they contain magnesium and potassium, which naturally regulate blood pressure. They are also a source of something called herperidin, which lowers levels of bad cholesterol. .

Having talked about negative calorie foods, please understand that eating negative calories will not replace exercise.In GOQii, we do not believe in Calorie intake and we do not cunt calories, what we encourage is to eat a balanced diet and exercise to live a healthy life.

To sum up, these super foods with negative calorie qualities can significantly benefit your journey to healthy living. If you’ve found this information helpful or have any thoughts to share on these foods, please feel free to do so in the comments below. Remember, embracing a balanced diet and regular exercise is the key to achieving and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. For more articles and guidance on holistic well-being, explore our Healthy Reads or speak to a certified expert by subscribing to GOQii’s Personalised Health Coaching here.

#BeTheForce

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Healthy Eating Tips for Women at 40

Healthy-eating-tips-for-women-at-40

“Lordy, lordy, look who’s forty!” The big 40—it’s a milestone for sure, signalling a time of transition from young adulthood to middle-age.

This is an important decade for preventing lifestyle diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and many cancers later in life. So, if you’ve been making healthy lifestyle choices, keep it up in your 40s, and if you haven’t, now’s the time to start!

Healthy habits like eating right, exercising regularly, getting enough sleep, and not smoking can help reduce your risk for a number of chronic medical conditions.

Age 40 is a milestone when the risk of many health conditions increases. This makes the 40th birthday a perfect time for taking stock of your health. Today, Forty is considered the new twenty. So if you want to feel young and healthy now is a good time to take stock of the situation. Though there might be other things out there more important, do take a deep breath and feel good and healthy.

Adopting a healthy eating plan is the best preventive measure against disease. It involves both avoiding certain foods and incorporating others in varying proportions, making the transition gradual yet effective.

Good nutrition starts with the basics: a well-rounded diet consisting of whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables, healthy fats, and lean sources of protein. These kinds of foods provide women with plenty of energy, the means for lifelong weight control, and the key ingredients for looking and feeling great at any age. Our diet has a major effect on our food cravings, stress levels and energy throughout the day.

Applying some simple rules will assist our bodies in maintaining hormonal balance and promoting long-term well-being.

Focus on whole, plant-based foods. Fill most of your plate with fruits and leafy green vegetables. Also include a variety of whole grains, beans, and other legumes to give a filling fiber.

Bone up on calcium. Women are at a greater risk than men of developing osteoporosis, so it’s important to get plenty of calcium to support your bone health. While dairy products are high in calcium, their animal fat and protein can accelerate bone loss. So also consider plant-based sources of calcium like beans, broccoli, kale, brussels sprouts, and collard greens.

Make sure you get enough iron. Many women don’t get enough iron in their diet. On top of that, women lose a lot of this important mineral during menstruation. Boost your intake by eating iron-rich foods such as lean red meat, dark poultry, lentils, spinach, almonds, and iron-fortified cereals.

Cut back on alcohol and caffeine. Women who consume more than two alcoholic drinks a day are at a higher risk of osteoporosis. Caffeine consumption interferes with hormone levels and also increases the loss of calcium. Try to limit alcohol consumption to one glass once in a while and caffeine to one cup a day.

Eat the right type of protein. Protein is an essential part of any healthy diet. Protein at this point in your life will help maximise your current metabolic rate and also prevent the loss of lean muscle mass. Eating too much animal protein can cause calcium loss and lead to a decrease in bone density and osteoporosis. Instead of red meat and processed meat, such as hot dogs, bacon, and salami, opt for fish, skinless chicken and turkey, low-fat dairy, and plant-based protein sources, such as beans, nuts, seeds, peas, tofu.

Some of the healthy tips to be focused on:

Avoid

– Ready made meals and microwaving your food in plastics and cling film.

– Genetically modified foods

– Sugar as much as possible

– Food additives such as MSG (monosodium glutamate or better known as Ajinomoto), Fructose, Glucose-Fructose-Syrup, Corn Syrup, Aspartame, Colourings, and E numbers.

– Cut down on sodium

– Eating any food that is burnt

– Carbonated beverages, especially ‘diet’ varieties

– Margarine and other ‘fake’ butter

All foods labelled ‘diet’ or ‘low calorie’ or ‘fat-free

Highly processed foods

Refined grains (white).

Options that can be included in the meal platter:

Eat plenty of raw organic fruit and vegetables

Eat complex carbohydrates

Eat Essential Fats – oily fish, nuts, & seeds (avoid nuts in cases of acne and allergies)

Include healthy fats such as coconut oil, olive oil and butter

Increase your fiber intake

Drink sufficient clean water every day

Eat good, clean sources of proteins.

Eat vegetarian at least once each day

Thoroughly wash all fruits and vegetables before eating.

Feed your body high-quality fuel, monitor its intake and routinely push your engine’s limits to keep it running smoothly. Remember, you are the captain of your plane. Just reach out and take the controls.

We hope this article equips you with valuable insights for maintaining a healthy and balanced life. If you found this information helpful, we’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below. Find more articles on Women’s Health here. For further information or guidance, reach out to our certified experts by subscribing to GOQii’s Personalised Health Coaching here.

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Natural Mouth Fresheners

mouth-freshner

Many a times, when I ask my players to avoid having sweets or fruits immediately after a meal, their usual reply is, ‘oh! But, this is a very Indian thing. We don’t feel complete finishing the meal without a sweet or a fruit. We are accustomed to this post meal sweets ritual since ages and we need that to refresh the mouth and the breath from the typical smell of our spice rich meals!’ Or else, most say they need to keep chewing some mint flavored gum or some artificially flavored mouth freshener when they are working for long hours or while traveling.

But, how about replacing these artificially flavored, preservatives added, empty calorie loaded mouth fresheners with more real, natural, very nutritious breath fresheners which are present in abundance in the nature and which are readily available in your kitchen cabinet?

Here I am enlisting few of them:

  1. Water: Dry mouth is the foremost reason behind that foul smelling breath. Drinking water more often keeps your mouth moist and promotes the release of saliva, the enzymes which keep cleansing the mouth from the growth and collection of foul smelling bacteria. You can make it more refreshing by infusing the water with cut pieces of lemon, mint leaves and a small piece of ginger. Keep it overnight in the fridge and drink that water in the morning.
  2. Fennel Seeds: Many of our elders still use these very refreshing seeds as an after meal ritual. Apart from giving a distinctive sweet taste to your mouth, they are excellent to prevent flatulence and acid reflux and promote the secretion of gastric juices for better absorption. Roast them, store in an air tight jar and chew them after meals.
  3. Mint Leaves: Why to go for an artificially scented mint flavored mouth freshener, when you can have the original and much more nutritious mint leaves in your kitchen garden or in your refrigerator. Chew the raw leaves or drink a mint tea by boiling them in water and experience an instant freshness in your breath.
  4. Parsley Leaves: Chew on the raw Parsley after meals or garnish your curries with it. Recent studies suggest that this ancient herb may help in reducing the ‘garlic breath’ through a process of ‘enzymatic deodorization’.
  5. Lemon Candies: These refreshing and nutritious treats come in handy when you experience prolonged mouth dryness. You can create lemon ice cubes by mixing lemon juice with water. As they melt in your mouth, the lemon’s tartness triggers saliva production, effectively moistening your mouth and providing a refreshing sensation.
  6. Cinnamon: Chewing on cinnamon sticks kill the bad smelling bacteria by releasing essential oils in the mouth, and it’s peculiar taste is great to freshen you up. You can make cinnamon mouthwash as well by boiling few sticks in water and using the cooled down water for mouth wash.
  7. Citrus fruits like oranges and berries: These antioxidant rich fruits are again great to cleanse your mouth by destroying the toxins and the germs. Start your day with a fruit or have them as mid meal snacks, as these are the times when the mouth is usually dry for a longer time.

If the bad breath is not because of any underlying illness like tonsillitis or other buccal (oral) cavity infection, these are the sure way to feel refreshed throughout the day.

The bottom line is to figure out the reason behind that bad breath (like dry mouth, bad bacteria) and choose the right method or ingredient for yourself to get rid of the bad breath.

We trust you found these natural breath fresheners beneficial. If you’re looking for personalised guidance on holistic health, consider subscribing to GOQii’s Personalised Health Coaching here. Share your thoughts in the comments below and explore more health topics in Healthy Reads.

#BeTheForce

From Terminal Illness To Complete Wellness! Ananda Mukherjee Health Story

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