life Archives - Page 5 of 7

March 30, 2019 By GOQii 2 Comments

Kartik Aggarwal’s Journey to Being Healthy

Has fitness ever taken a backseat with you? Have you ever been active in the early days of schooling but as life and work caught up, your lifestyle became more sedentary? Did junk food and aerated beverages replace delicious, home-cooked meals? While it is comforting to know that you’re not the only one, somewhere it has to stop. At some point, you need to stop and question your lifestyle choices. You need to make a lifestyle change just like our player Kartik Aggarwal did.

Life Before GOQii

Kartik Aggarwal was always into sports. Since school, he was quite active. He has even represented his school in rollerskating. After graduation, work consumed most of Kartik’s time. Fitness became an alien entity to him. Health became secondary. He began skipping meals, his water intake was low and he treated himself to carbonated drinks more than often.

How Did GOQii Help?

Kartik Aggarwal had initially joined GOQii to study the application. He wanted to understand how the interface and the fitness tracker works. As the case with all new players, Kartik was asked to set a goal. His goal was to lose weight and maintain a healthy lifestyle.

He began by regularizing his meal timings. Every morning, he drank a jug full of water. He completely cut off tea and coffee. If he craves for aerated drinks, he has buttermilk or lemonade. On the fitness front, he exercises 5-6 times a week. He works out either in the gym or takes a walk in a park nearby. Kartik has begun taking the stairs and avoids elevators or escalators.

Given his busy schedule, Kartik Aggarwal manages to take short walks every hour or so. He tunes in to Ronak Gajjar’s Meditation Class on GOQii Play as that’s the only show he can squeeze into his schedule.

GOQii Active Sunday Champion

After being active on the GOQii app, Kartik Aggarwal received an email from GOQii. The email was for an Active Sunday registration. He signed up and has never looked back. Since then, Kartik has been a one-man army who regularly champions the GOQii Active Sunday sessions in Ghaziabad.

What Did Kartik Aggarwal Have To Say About His GOQii Coach?

When asked about his coach, Kartik said that his GOQii Coach has been really helpful. She persistently follows up with him to complete his habits, despite the fact that he is not active on the app due to commitments from work. Although he doesn’t even get the time to check his phone, thanks to her dedication, he has been following his habits as much as possible.

Since joining GOQii, Kartik has lost about 7 kg. He says that his lifestyle has dramatically improved, especially his eating habits, thanks to inputs from his GOQii Coach!

Kartik will be live on GOQii Play soon. Tune in to his show to know more about his journey to a healthy and active lifestyle!

#BeTheForce

March 23, 2019 By GOQii Leave a Comment

Ashwin Chitransh Never Gave Up On Being Healthy!

Ashwin C-COLLAGE

After GOQii Before GOQii

Sleeping during the day and working at night was his regular routine. He had no discipline in life and ate indiscreetly. He weighed 79 kg at a height of 5 ft 6 inches. He tried to lose weight by just dreaming about it and doing the bare minimum. He did not have a good workout routine so the small gym that he had created for himself at home was not utilized to its optimum. Finally, magic happened and he got into a routine. He joined a gym with a personal trainer, his diet got regularized and he is far healthier and fit that he was.

Ashwin Chitransh’s Transformation Story In His Own Words

It all began for me in August 2017 when I took a trip to McLeodganj for a couple of days and had rich grand meals. When I came back home, I weighed close to 79 Kg at the height of 5 Feet 6 inches. I was aware that I was leading an unhealthy life but I wasn’t doing anything about it. Set up a small gym at home but hardly worked out. My routine was haywire with me sleeping during the day and working at night. My eating habits were bad and nothing was helping me get on track. I wanted to change things for myself. This is when I was introduced to GOQii by a friend. I liked the concept of a personal coach who will motivate and push you to achieve your health goals.

I enrolled in GOQii and also joined the Gym with a personal trainer. This started my journey of transformation! On my first day at the Gym, I felt nauseous and thought I’d pass out in 15 minutes. Other guys were working out smoothly which was quite intimidating. There were so many well-built guys using heavy weights that I could not even dream of. The key, I realized, is patience. Rome wasn’t built in a day. Don’t compete with others, compete with yourself to achieve your goals.

Apart from a gym workout, cardio workout is important for me. Most of the fat which I had, was on my belly. I started by walking for 2 km, increasing gradually to 5 km per day, at the speed of 5 to 6 kmph. Then, a bit of my belly fat melted, I started running/jogging at 8kmph. I gradually moved to 10 kmph but reduced the distance to cover (to 1.5 km).

Currently, I work out for 30 minutes mostly focusing on the abdominal area. Slowly once the belly fat saw some reduction, I started working on 2 muscles a day.

One thing which is very important to keep in mind while undertaking any health goal is that it takes time to achieve these goals. You need understand your body and how it reacts to various strenuous exercises. You need to have patience especially when it comes to achieving weight loss goals.

Exercise alone cannot help you, diet is equally important. “There is no love sincerer than the love of food,” quoting from Man and Superman by George Bernard Shaw. A lot of my misconceptions were broken. One such misconception was that if you go on a diet you have to remain hungry. Secondly, good healthy food is tasteless. But, in fact, I learned a few things:

To eat healthily, you do not need to make it taste bad necessarily
Quit (Avoid) unhealthy/junk/fried food

My GOQii Coach helped me make healthy food choices. My diet now includes pre and post work out meals and salads. I was never a salads guy but I eat them now. I have stopped having refined sugar since November 2017. My meals are balanced and portion size is small with multiple meals in a day, unlike my earlier three large meals.

All these small changes over time have helped me achieve my health goals. I am much fitter and healthier now. My only message to all is don’t be disheartened if your hard work does not pay initially. It takes time. You won’t see changes in a week. Just be self-motivated and keep pushing yourself. There will be days when you won’t be able to work out or you won’t be able to follow your diet. But, it’s okay! Continue with the same routine next day. When you fall, you must have the willpower to stand up again not once but multiple times. Its sheer determination and hard work that will help you achieve your goals. Did I fail during my transformation phase? Of course, I did fail, and on more than one occasion but I never gave up.

What does coach Evangelene Wankhar have to say about her player Ashwin?

Ashwin Chitransh was assigned to me in October 2017. His goal was to lose 10-12kgs. He wanted to get active and build strength. Prior to GOQii, he had already started with gym workouts with a personal trainer and lost 3kgs. But, his concern was his food habits. When we started, he was having a heavy meal for dinner, adding few unhealthy foodstuff during the day. These were old habits which I had to gradually get him to shed. Each time he had a heavy meal and ate unhealthy food, I guided and explained to him the pros and cons. I told him choosing healthy food over unhealthy will help him achieve his goal. He agreed and started applying the tips I shared with him every day. Of course, he had few cheat meals but he has managed to make the cheat meals healthy as well. If he took something over the counter which was unhealthy, he compensated that with more activities and a healthy diet the next day. Over the last few months, he has progressed well. He has been very consistent in his workouts, healthy food habits and has been following every guideline that I share with him. I am proud to say that Ashwin has achieved his target goal of losing 12kgs and now we are in the process of building his strength and muscles since that is his next goal.

March 12, 2019 By Anusha Subramanian 5 Comments

Catalysing Social Change through Karma

How often do we all do Charity?

Whether it is monetary or just about helping somebody out. How often have we helped someone with their studies? When was the last time we spent time playing with underprivileged kids? We seldom do it. Unless some friend actually points to a particular cause that he or she is related to. Let’s accept the fact that Philanthropy does not come to us easily. While globalization is increasingly making us aware of all the problems faced by humanity today, we aren’t doing much to bring about social change.

Everywhere around us, there is hunger, unemployment, lack of medical facilities and education. Not much has been done to eradicate poverty from every corner of this country, extend health care, provide basic education to one and all and protect our environment. Anyone who’s studied emerging markets talks about the opportunities the BoP offers. Especially in South Asia and more importantly in India. It’s a well-known fact how 70% of the population lives in rural areas and 75.6% live on less than $2 a day.

People below the poverty line all around the world are not asking for the moon or any aspiration goods and services. They are asking for basics such as infrastructure, water, energy, education, and employment to be able to live a decent and sustainable life.

Be The Change!

There may not be one resolution to all the problems. Non-profits for decades have been working for the betterment of the lives of the people at the bottom of the pyramid. But, there is only so much they can do. There is a new breed of young social entrepreneurs (Socents) who have sprung up in the last decade or so and are doing their best to bring about a social change. For instance, GreenSole, a social venture by Shreyans Bhandari and Ramesh Dhami, collects discarded shoes, refurbishes them and makes comfortable footwear for the underprivileged. You can know more about them by visiting their website: www.greensole.in.

Step Towards a Brighter Future

Apart from NGOs and the Social entrepreneurs, the opportunity to do Karma or good to others awaits all of us. There is an opportunity for us, as individuals, to be bold and use our unique role as philanthropists to spark, and drive large-scale social change. Whether as a social entrepreneur or by supporting a social cause, each one us has the opportunity to participate and do ‘Karma’(Doing good to others). GOQii, provides the opportunity to do Karma and this can be done by being healthy, fit and earning Karma Points.

At GOQii, our philosophy has been to achieve harmony between mind, body & soul. Inspired by Mahatma Gandhi’s journey of 390 KM, which he started today, for every 390 steps tracked through your activity tracker, you earn 1 Karma Point. These points then get converted into monetary donations by our donor partners.

With the India Steps Challenge, you’re not only walking and earning big rewards but you’re also collecting Karma Points which you can donate to a charity/cause of your choice in the GOQii app! Currently, there are two causes in the GOQii app:

1. Upcycling to Slippers for Children in Need

This cause enables the collection of old shoes and Rs. 199/pair to upcycle them to slippers and donate to children in need. Greensole’s vision is to contribute to social good, by creating a self-sustaining infrastructure that facilitates the provision of the basic necessity of footwear to everyone. Environmental good by refurbishing discarded shoes with zero carbon footprint and economic good by giving employment to refurbish shoes.

2. Trees for Rural Communities, Chintamani, Karnataka

Grow-Trees.com wants to allow users to satisfy a private purpose of greeting someone through an eTreeCertificate, while doing social good by planting trees. With Grow-Trees you can plant trees with just a few clicks and gift them to celebrate festivals, birthdays, anniversaries or other special occasions using their personalized e-certificate. The cost of each tree is INR 85.

Believe me, I can say this from my own experience, doing Karma will only help bring a positive change in your life – a change for the better.

Who knows? One day, you may look back and say, “I was there at the beginning and I made a difference!”

March 9, 2019 By GOQii 1 Comment

From Fattest to Fittest! Pratyush Dixit & His Awe-Inspiring Transformation

Have you ever been in a situation that felt hopeless? Do you think that your current predicament is irreversible? Have your circumstances chained you down to the extent that you feel you cannot achieve your dreams? If everything around you is crumbling to an inescapable pit of despair, we want to remind you that things can change. You can change. It’s never too late. It’s never too late to reverse your circumstances and achieve your dreams.

If you want to know how this is possible, we want you to read Pratyush Dixit’s inspiring story of reversing the odds!

A marketing professional from Delhi, Pratyush Dixit has been working since 2005. He was leading a sedentary life due to the strenuous nature of his work. Especially for the past 8 years, handling stock provisions, then the hospitality sector and now heading a marketing division, he was always seated and stressed. Apart from being sedentary, Pratyush was also a foodie. He had been winning food eating competitions for as long as he can remember, enjoyed street food and was never into healthy eating. On the medical front, he had a family history of diabetes. At 34, he weighed 105 kg and things weren’t working well for him. He found himself thirsty throughout the day and urinating frequently at night.

Identifying these as the classic symptoms of diabetes, he went for a medical checkup. He was aware that his blood sugar might be high but once his tests came in, he got the shock of his life. His Blood sugar level was at 330 and PP (post prandial sugar after meals) was more than 525 and his cholesterol was extremely high. When he consulted his family doctor, he advised immediate measures to bring the situation under control. He was put on heavy doses of insulin till his sugar dropped to 200. Pratyush knew he had to bring his weight under control as well for him to be able to recover. He immediately took to walking and in 2 months was able to shed 7.5 kg.

Enter GOQii

At this point, Pratyush Dixit had read extensively about diabetes. He was searching for a fitness tracker that could help him. He came across other bands but eventually settled for GOQii. Initially, he didn’t want the coaching option as he believed he had read enough about diabetes to know everything. After a long conversation with the GOQii Coach assigned to him, he realized that he needs a coach. His Coach was knowledgeable, patient, understanding and motivating. She assured Pratyush that he will achieve his health goals.

Starting slowly, she told Pratyush that he need not rush in one go but should take one step at a time. For instance, when on the phone, he could squeeze in a walk. She encouraged him to eat healthy. Whenever he wanted to eat a pizza, she advised him to not eat more than a few bites. She also advised him to eat smaller portions throughout the day so that he was full and didn’t feel the urge to eat unhealthy.

Changing Habits and Getting On Track!

Pratyush stopped eating unhealthy. Now, he avoids rice completely. His diet involves a lot of protein and complex carbohydrates. On a daily basis, he consumes fruits with cinnamon (as it helps control blood sugar) as well as a couple of teaspoons of apple cider.

In the mornings, he starts his day with Fenugreek and Fenugreek water. Then he goes for one liter of luke warm water with apple cider, lemon, pepper and black salt. Post that some apple and cinnamon. He follows that up with some cold milk with Basil (Sabja) seeds. Later, he eats either Porridge, Oats or Upma loaded with vegetables. He then goes on to eat nuts, some pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, pistachios, almonds and/or walnuts.

For lunch, he takes multigrain chapati with one dal or vegetable or both and salads in good quantity. He also has buttermilk twice a day. In the evening, he munches on dehydrated pulses with some salt. He also eats a fruit, mostly pomegranate or pears. He avoids mangoes and pineapples. At night, he again eats a chapati, vegetable and salad. If he must opt for rice, he prefers brown rice.

For exercise, apart from walking, when he gets the time, Pratyush includes bicep and tricep curls as suggested by his Coach. He also manages to do a few pushups and squats. He has started jogging a little as well.

He was bedridden for 6 months because of lower back pain but was able to overcome that and recover. His GOQii Coach helped him with some yoga as well.

When Asked If He Still Eats Street Food, Pratyush Dixit Said:

“Now I go for healthy street food! Even if I go for the unhealthier one, instead of going for Dalda or ghee, I go for a olive oil tikki and I won’t take more than a bite or two. I avoid whole portions. I have stopped ordering from Dominos or Pizza Hut but opt for Pizza Express where they serve thin or wheat crust. If I’m out, instead of Aloo Tikka, I got for Paneer Tikka or Soya Chaat. Everything without butter. Then I opt for Green Tea regularly as well as Basil Leaves.”

What Were The Results?

Pratyush told us that he wasn’t worried about his blood sugar levels anymore. He slowly lost weight the healthy way with help from his GOQii Coach. He currently weighs around 80kg. Before, his HPCL was 14 and now, it is a stunning 5.2. His diabetes is completely under control. His PB recently was 95 and fasting was 80, both of which are not sugar levels of a diabetic. With diabetes under control and low cholesterol, he is always high on energy! He says that he is the healthiest person in his office! Recently, his TSH shot up. He is working towards controlling it. On a daily basis, he walks anywhere between 10k to 30k steps. He is a part of the Active Sunday group and every Sunday meets his like-minded GOQiites for some fun walks and exercises.

When Asked About GOQii, He Said:

“The best thing about GOQii is that it provides you some learned, educated and dedicated coaches. They are like friends who are helping you out. They are not just carrying that professional approach of ‘you have to do this and my job is done’. There is a lot of personal approach and they keep motivating you. That does not mean they are lenient. They keep pushing you to do better. Sometimes when I miss my walk, my coach tells me that it is okay. You can’t religiously follow your schedule every day. You aren’t a machine. The key is that even if you go off schedule, you should come back. With GOQii, there’s someone to motivate you to come back to that schedule. So that is what GOQii has done to me. When I told my coach of my problems, she assured me that we will overcome them and achieve my goals! I never thought I will be this fit person.”

People in Pratyush’s office consider him as their idol and often approach him for help. Once upon a time, he was fattest man in his society and now he is a role model with people asking him how he did it. He simply responds by saying because he had the zest to do it!

Going forward, Pratyush wishes to push his limits and practice Parkour Running. He is currently working with his coach to achieve this. As it was always his dream, now he feels he can finally achieve it.

What did you think about Pratyush’s journey? Share your thoughts in the comments below!