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“All the small changes that I have made has had a positive impact on me”

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He is just 33 years of age and was on the heavier side at 87 kgs. Like most people, he was conscious he was on the heavier side and had to do something but, never did anything. It was the same usual story of no time to follow a daily regime. He had no daily exercise regime and not so very good eating habits either. But, one chance encounter with a fitness band on a shopping website and things turned around for him. Let us hear from Tarun Chadha how from being a couch potato he is now walking his way towards fitness.

While I was randomly browsing the net I came across GOQii.I just read few things about it and the reviews and decided to buy it. However, I had no specific agenda nor did I give it much of a thought as to what am I going to do with it once I get GOQii? It was a random buy. Prior to buying GOQii, I was extremely unhealthy. I had no exercise regime nor did I eat healthy. I had no plan to follow a healthy lifestyle either, I nevertheless bought the band. And, I set a goal for myself for the first time- to reduce weight to about 79 kg in about 6 months.

Thereafter, I had a call from my coach Dimple Dua. We had a brief chat and she explained a few things but, I was not very serious initially. But, on the second day when she called me again, I heard her out completely and I was quiet impressed that she had gone through all my details and had taken the pain to chalk out a healthy regime for me that included exercise and nutrition. I realized the effort my coach had put in for me.

I decided to follow her recommendations. And, am I glad to say that post availing GOQii services my whole lifestyle has changed for good, there has been a total transformation towards a healthy life. Now my routine includes a daily exercise (Walking 10000 steps and yoga), completely controlled eating habits resulting in a reduced weight of 83 kg within three weeks of being on GOQii. Now, within 5 months I am at 79 kgs thereby have achieved my first goal along with a better mind and body. Overall, I feel good about myself. All the small changes that I have made has had a positive impact on me.

I completely credit my GOQii coach for bringing about this change in me. She has been a good listener and has been able to understand my routine, my schedule and has accordingly helped me to adapt change. In my last 33 years of life no one else has motivated me to be healthy as she has done. She has been prompt in responding appropriately and possesses great knowledge in her domain.

People around me have been surprised with the changes they see in me. They find me positive. Personally, too positive outlook towards life is really helping me in terms of my appropriate relationship with everyone, be more productive at work and it has made me happy in life.My wife and other family members have also seen the change and been impressed. In fact, my wife has already enrolled into GOQIi and she also has Dimple as her coach.

What does coach Dimple Dua have to say about her player Tarun Chadha?

Tarun Chadha has been a dedicated player and is enrolled with GOQii for the last 5 months. Before, engaging with GOQii his weight was 87kg and wanted to lose weight to 79kgs.Tarun belongs to a north Indian family where alcohol and Punjabi tadkas is very common. Tarun, initially had no daily exercise routine and his eating habits were bad too. He ignored many crucial eating habits in his daily meals. But,ever since on GOQii, he is very dedicated and disciplined. He updates his daily logs and keeps me informed on everything he does. He is always ready to take up the challenges I give him. We decided to make a transformation towards a healthy life. Now, his routine includes a daily exercise (Walking for about 25minutes with high intensity,daily clocking 10000 steps and yoga), completely controlled eating habits including healthy meals, controlled meal portion size and also reduced alcohol which has helped him control his fatty liver condition which in turn has helped him reduced his weight from 87kg to 83kg in just 20days and 79 kgs within 3 months. Tarun is now motivated to work towards leading a better and healthy lifestyle.

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“I have achieved the impossible and that is a change of attitude towards health, happiness and fitness”

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“Fitness is not about being better than someone else… it’s about being better than you used to be.” – unknown
Impossible – can be broken down to I’m Possible – and this is the one thing that comes to mind when you see the progress Namitha, a GoQii player of a year has made. Once a salad dodger and a soup skipper who couldn’t care less about exercise, Namitha has seen a remarkable change in her life, having lost 24 kgs in the last 11 months.

This is her story –

“I have never been on the slim side of the scale. Right from childhood, as far as I can remember, I have been pleasantly plump and easy going. My love for food dominated my life style and I was very pleased with myself, despite hovering on the higher side of the 2 digit weight figure. My double pregnancies became a good reason to pacify myself for the increase in my weight.

Although I had tried dieting before, the weight always crept back! Further, I had issues like PCOD since 16/17 years and chronic ache in the heel.

Two years ago, work required me to move to Bangalore. My desk job, coupled with canteen food and a sedentary lifestyle increased my weight and lethargy more than ever. It was not till Februrary 2016, on my birthday, that I was confronted with the rudest shock! My weight had reached the 3 digit mark! This is when a friend of mine who had seen drastic results from being a goqii player recommended the Goqii band and encouraged me to become a player.
I was assigned Kiran, my coach for who I will be eternally grateful for. Kiran set very small targets for me in the beginning starting with the basic 10k steps. She was always available for me and I recall how much I have nagged her. Kiran’s patience and encouragement along with my perseverance has paid off.

I introduced dietary changes in my food – from slowly cutting down on the carbs (I am a rice lover!) and adding sprouts and salads, fruits and soups to my diet. I played with smaller portions. Now it amazes me to see people actually polishing off a whole plate of biryani and to think I used to do the same.

I loved the fact that Kiran was pushy but not drastically so; just the right amount of push that someone like me needed. She guided me and was so dedicated which further pushed me to do my best.

Today, I am a whole new person. I took part in the 5 kms marathon on March 29th this year and this is a person who hated walking, running was a far cry. My friends and family are proud and ecstatic with my achievements. In fact, my husband joins me for my morning jogs. I realised that I don’t feel as restless during physical exertion like i used to and my recovery rate is faster than before as well. The pain in my heel has close to vanished. In fact, just yesterday, I climbed up six floors of a building. These are things I would have never imagined I would do even in my wildest dreams.
For someone who only went to the limited plus size stores, today I proudly walk into regular stores and am thrilled to be able to choose from a variety. People who see me are shocked to see the remarkable change and I keep telling every one of the benefits of being a Goqii player.

The last one year has been a memorable journey, a momentous one actually. I have achieved the impossible and that is a change of attitude towards health, happiness and fitness!

What does Coach Kiran Madari have to say about her player Namita?

Namitha is an awesome person. As a coach I am really proud of her and her achievement. Namitha was very worried before starting on GOQii as she was on the heavier side weighing 114 kg with PCOD and she wanted to lose weight, be healthy and wanted to be a girl which she was before. She was very consistent in following my advice and worked very hard to achieve her goals. We have been together in this journey. Whenever she had challenges like guest coming, festivals, illness, she used to ask me for my support and followed whatever I told her and stayed on track.

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“Coach’s guidance and motivation along with my willpower has helped me achieve my goals to lead a better, fitter and healthy lifestyle”

Prashant Bhatia-solo

Prashant Bhatia, 36, is an IT Professional and was always active but, he was not at his optimum level of fitness. He was more of a weekend warrior and not too serious about a daily work out and moreover took things for granted. Until one day when he realised he was doing no good to himself and decided to rectify his habits and get serious about a good routine workout. The result of this change has been that he reduced about 10 kgs in about 8 months’ time and since then has maintained his weight, is active on a daily basis and eating and living healthy. Here is Prashant’s transformation story in his own words.

For a while, I was thinking of wanting to change the way I was physically and mentally. I was active but not consistent enough. Then I happened to read about GOQii on Amazon and the way they managed your health. I learnt that GOQii was more than just a fitness tracker. It did not just help in tracking your daily step count but also guide you on how to lead a good lifestyle.

I was quite impressed with what I read as I was looking for something like GOQii. I was looking for more guidance coming my way to improve the way I live. In September 2015, I went in for a 3-month subscription of GOQii. At this point in time, I weighed around 83 kgs. My weight more or less hovered around this level.

I chose Jyoti Kumawat as my coach. In our first intro call, she asked all about my daily routine, what I do, what I eat, when I eat etc and after that call, I realised so many things for changed drastically and changed for the better.
Just to give you a perspective, before I came on board GOQii, my day used to start with tea and biscuits as breakfast. Fried food at times. I never ate salads, milk or buttermilk. Fruits were nil from my diet All that has changed with me eating healthy food and being active on a daily basis.

I now take time out to go a daily walk or a jog. Lots of foods have been added to my daily diets such as Milk, dry fruits, salads and fruits. Fried items are deleted from my diet list and I have started having buttermilk as well. My urge for tea has also reduced and if I do crave for a tea then I have plain green tea.

These changes were implemented slowly and not all in one go. We proceeded one step at a time. My coach has done a fantastic job and I followed everything she said and hence this positive change in me. Initial 4-5 months I still hovered around my weight of 82-83 and then gradually as two months passed I started reducing and I have now lost around 10 kgs and I am maintaining my weight at 71-72 kgs.

One and half years since I am on GOQii and I can proudly say, I feel good about myself as my lifestyle has changed for the better and I am more healthy. I have been jogging or walking at least 8-10 km a day.

I then suddenly developed a knee issue (ACL Sprain) due to which I had to go in for treatment. I took complete rest for 3 weeks and did not train my legs. During this time my coach recommended that I start taking Curcumin extract which will reduce the inflammation. That helped me.

Overall, I feel awesome. I can definitely wear the jeans that I used to wear earlier because it would not fit and all. So I’m liking it. I can tuck my shirts in the jeans which I didn’t earlier as I was on the heavier side. I definitely feel better and lighter.

People around me too have seen the change and me. My colleagues especially have seen the change as I have stopped eating junk food, fried food etc. I have learnt a lot from my coach and I am thankful for that.

The reason today, I feel positive is that it’s not about just getting guidance from a coach but also that you yourself abide by what is being told to you. I had not followed what my coach told me I do not think I would have seen the positive results in me. I realised a lot of this has to do with your own self-motivation and willpower to change things for the better for yourself.

My goal when I bought the GOQii was to get into best shape physically, run a marathon and am I glad to say that I achieved both my goals within a year’s time of being on the GOQii platform. Six months ago I ran my first 10 km run and I was able to do this purely by walking and jogging daily and slowly building on that. I thought if I can do more in terms of maintaining my physique and my muscles by eating right, I think I will go long way. So going forward my intention is that.

What does Coach Jyoti Kumawat have to say about player Prashant Bhatia?

It feels so great when I roll back my eyes to the time when Prashant came on board, in September 2015. His health goal then was “Optimum fitness and Fat loss”. This was really a broad term as a goal….as he did not have a specific target in terms of his stamina, flexibility and eating habits. But, we started working on simpler habits like stretching and simple food habits like lemon warm water and as time passed he had a better view of his health goals. He started with 83 kg weight and within 6 months he lost 10 kgs weight and inches from his whole body and is now maintaining that 70 kg weight.

I remember I used to tell Prashant that “I will make sure you run marathon”, and he used to laugh it off. I motivated him and made sure he trained well and ate healthily. Today, I am so proud that he did participate in a 10 km marathon organised by one of the large sporting stores in Mumbai.

Prashant’s story started with simple changes in workout adding stretching and warm up pre workout and post workout cool down, then adding cardio, interval training to improve stamina and later on started with strengthening for stronger muscles. Giving different types of workouts- HIIT, Tabata, meditation for relaxation and yoga for flexibility has made him more dedicated towards his fitness and stamina. Starting from 3-5 kilometres walk, now he jogs around 7-10 kilometres daily. In addition to this he now also has pre and post-workout meals for better recovery and this has helped him gain better stamina.

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What’s for Dessert….

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“You dietitians have banned all desserts for me.. “

“I have not tasted sweets since I discovered I am diabetic “

“No Artificial sweeteners, you say; does that mean I can’t ever enjoy life? “

Since the time I became a dietician, and later a GOQii coach, I must have heard these statements at least once every week.

What I like to explain to my players is that – It’s not that you can’t enjoy desserts; it depends on how you choose to enjoy them.

Even where diabetics are concerned – our focus should be, not on cutting off all their sugar but, to achieve good sugar control.

Growing up, I had always observed an aunt of mine, whose husband was diabetic; make a separate serving of sugar free dessert for my uncle.And, I always used to wonder how would a dessert taste without any sweetness in it – But, the main ingredient of her sugar free custard or puddings, used to be some or the other added fruit.

When god has given us naturally sweet ingredients, why not use them to their fullest potential.

Going forward I would also like to add that, even though the recipes I am sharing are sugar free – they are still desserts, made with some amount of fats and are still an extra to our routine meals, hence should still be enjoyed occasionally and in smaller quantity than our main meals. I always like to remind my players that our society has smaller sized dessert plates and bowls for a reason. Because, we were meant to enjoy them in smaller quantities from the beginning – It is only, the commercial trend of JUMBO sizing everything that starts the trouble.

Date Balls

It is a customary Indian tradition to celebrate everything with laddus (sweet balls). You get good grades – laddu, you have a baby – laddu, your wedding gets fixed -laddu, and the list goes on…Why not have healthy Laddus then to celebrate every occasion?

Ingredients:

1 cup deseeded dates

¼ cup mixed nuts (almonds, walnuts, pistachio)

Desiccated coconut.

Just soak the dates in ½ a cup of water for 10 minutes – and churn in a grinder jar with the nuts. If too soft, refrigerate for half an hour. Make lemon sized balls of the mixture and coat with desiccated coconut.

Banana custard

Everyone knows how to make custard – It’s the simplest desserts to satisfy our sweet cravings. And the recipe couldn’t get any more basic than this.

The trick to make a sugar free custard is to mash up an over ripe banana and mix it in the milk, instead of just adding chopped fruit.

Just follow the instructions on your packet of custard powder – and mix an overripe mashed banana in the end – strain the mixture if you don’t want any lumps. Serve as you wish – plain as a fruit salad or even a healthy trifle.

You could try the same thing with mango puree too, to make mango custard.

Date biscuits

This is a recipe I pulled off the internet in my earlier baking days. And, the first thing I realized after trying it once – there is no need of sugar in it, although the original recipe calls for it. So, I went on to perfect it, minus the sugar and it actually made no difference whatsoever.

Ingredients

Date Filling:

3 cups (400 grams) pitted dried dates

1 cup (240 ml) water

Oatmeal Crust:

2 cups (200 grams) old fashioned rolled oats

1 cup (130 grams) Whole wheat flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

¾ cup (175 grams) cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces

Method

Date Filling:Place the dates and water in a medium saucepan and cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, until the dates are soft and have absorbed most of the water (about 5 – 10 minutes). Remove from heat, Let it cool to room temperature and then puree in your food processor until smooth. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C) and place rack in center of oven. Grease an 8 x 11 inch (20 x 28 cm) or a 9 x 9 inch (23 x 23 cm) pan. Line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper. Set aside.

Oatmeal Crust: In the bowl of your food processor, place the oats, flour, and baking soda, salt and ground cinnamon. Pulse to combine. Then add the butter and pulse until the mixture is crumbly. Press 2/3 of the mixture into the base of the prepared pan.

Spread the dates evenly over the oatmeal crust. Sprinkle the remaining dough evenly over the top of the dates. Bake for about 30 -40 minutes or until golden brown. Place on a wire rack to cool. Once the squares have cooled, cover the pan with plastic wrap, and place in the refrigerator at least one hour or until firm enough to cut easily into squares.

These will keep, covered, in the refrigerator up to a week.

Makes about 20, 2 inch squares.

Banana and mango ice cream:

I SCREAM, YOU SCREAM, WE ALL SCREAM ICE CREAM!!!

Ever heard that phrase? I have grown up with it… Well, this is technically frozen yoghurt but, I don’t see anyone complaining when it’s served up in a cone or a pretty ice cream bowl.

  • 6 bananas, peeled and chopped
  • 2 mangoes, peeled and chopped
  • 1 cup (280g) yoghurt
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Place the banana and mango in an airtight container and freeze for 4 hours or until frozen. Place the banana, mango and yoghurt in a food processor and process until smooth. Serve as you like.
When it comes to cooking, there is no reason to stick to only these fruits – if some other fruit catches your fancy like straw berries, raspberries or peaches or any other, you can try using them too in a similar manner.

Tip: If not serving straight away, return to an airtight container and freeze. Allow to soften for 5 minutes before serving. You could scoopinto ice-cream cones to serve.

Serves 6 -8

My list can be endless, Sweet potato porridge, Date pudding, Carrot and Date Porridge /Halwa…..

But, why should I do all the work, cooking is therapeutic for some and for some it’s an experiment. So why not all of you try this experiment and make sure to share your results..

 

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