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From Scalp Issues to No Issue – Incredible Change with GOQii

From Scalp Issues to No Issue - Incredible Change with GOQiiSince GOQii’s inception, our core motive has always been to help people help themselves. With a majority of healthcare services focusing on sickcare instead of getting you healthy, GOQii chose to be different. GOQii chose to be an enabler.

We understand how frustrating it must be for someone with a health issue to keep looking for a solution in traditional healthcare and not find it. Like most people out there, Manisanthosh Bondugula suffered from a condition that Allopathy could not solve. After a lot of searching, Manisanthosh found GOQii.

For well over 3 years, Manisanthosh Bondugula, a 26 year old, working professional from Hyderabad, suffered from a condition known as Scalp Psoriasis – which is a skin disorder that makes raised, reddish and often single or several scaly patches that affect the entire scalp. When Allopathy couldn’t help, Mani began reading books for a solution and one of the books he read was ‘The Great Indian Diet’ by Luke Coutinho and Shilpa Shetty. Impressed and intrigued by the content, he reached out to GOQii’s Master Coach Luke Coutinho, who then introduced him to GOQii and Mani’s life began changing for the better.

In 2017, Mani became a GOQii Player. After much conversation, Mani’s coach diagnosed that his scalp psoriasis was caused by multiple issues which involved stress and sleep. His coach explained why he had these issues and how he can overcome them. The long-term goals assigned to him were to Manage Stress and Good Gut Health to Manage Psoriasis.

Mani’s coach asked him to consume chamomile tea to improve his sleep and asked him to add nuts and salads to his diet. He was asked to consume veg proteins for breakfast and dinner to improve his stamina. He was to avoid tamarind, curd, fish and non-veg entirely. To compensate, he began eating a lot of veggies and fruits. Additionally, his coach also advised him to participate in activities that gave him pleasure.

Currently, Mani is regular with meditation and walks 5km every day. When he finds the time, he performs yoga as well. He drinks 1 glass of lemon/honey water to detox his system and boost metabolism. He drinks milk with a pinch of turmeric before he sleeps to boost his immunity and healing. Initially he consumed Quinoa but replaced it with Millets as suggested by his coach. He also adds salads and sprouts to his meals.

After 2-3 months, Mani began noticing changes. His sleep improved and he lost 4-5kg. As of 2019, his Scalp Psoriasis has been cured by 90%. He is closely working with his coach to resolve the rest of it. Since 2017, Mani has had 4 GOQii coaches and has had a good experience with all of them.

With all that he has learned, Mani can now manage his lifestyle on his own. He told us, “For over 3 years no Allopathy doctor could help me. They kept telling me that the issue cannot be solved but when I got GOQii, it felt as though someone gave me a helping hand and pulled me out. It changed everything and it is awesome!”

Since being a part of our ever-growing family, Mani has recommended GOQii to 20 of his friends and acquaintances. He has subscribed to GOQii Play and follows dance workouts, yoga and breathing exercises. He had also attended the first GOQii Active Sunday in Hyderabad.

In closing, Mani had to say, “GOQii is an enabler. It doesn’t provide you with half knowledge. There’s only so much you can learn from a book and a book can’t tell you everything. Having a coach by your side does wonders as you can interact and get precise solutions for your problems, what you should and should not do and even your diet.”

We hope Mani completely recovers from his issue and is able to lead a happy and healthier lifestyle!

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Why is KEEPING the weight off more challenging than LOSING weight? (And What Can You Do To Keep the Weight YOU Have Lost Off For Good?)

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When it comes to weight loss…the process is fairly simple. You need to eat less and move more. (Notice that I didn’t say doing so would be easy only that it was simple.) Countless studies have been done to promote this diet or that one. Eat Mediterranean. No! Paleo. No! Atkins. Wait…no! Vegan….

At the end of the day, however, regardless of which nutrition plan or strategy is employed, what all the results of any given diet indicate is this: as long as the person in question eats less overall in terms of their calorie intake AND exercises more, they will lose weight. That is true regardless of the diet/nutrition plan one chooses. http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa0804748

So what is the problem? That seems simple enough!

Well…The really challenging part isn’t actually taking the weight off. It’s KEEPING it off. In fact, many researchers insist that of those who lose weight, upwards of 95 percent of them gain the weight back plus extra. The most recently highlighted example of this was illustrated in May, 2016 when a number of contestants on The Biggest Loser were interviewed several years after their time on the show. All but one had gained a significant amount of their lost weight back. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/02/health/biggest-loser-weight-loss.html

If the pharmaceutical industry developed a drug that was 5% effective…they wouldn’t be able to get it in the market. So why should we bother to try and lose weight when doing so has a 95% failure rate? And if my heart is set on losing weight and keeping it off…Does this mean there is no hope?

The answers are nuanced and complex.

First off – there absolutely IS hope. If you want to lose weight (be it because you want to have less pressure on your knees so that you can exercise longer, or because you want to feel more at-home in your own body, or because you recognize that doing so would likely help you achieve a more balanced blood sugar level) you can lose it AND keep it off.

First – It’s important to know what you’re up against.

  1. When a person loses weight (and by that, I mean more than 5 – 10% of their initial weight) two things happen:
    1. That individual’s metabolism slows down. It becomes less efficient at burning calories.
    2. The produces more ghrelin (a hormone associated with hunger).
    3. The combined effect of this is that the person in question needs to eat less even though they are, on average, hungrier. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/01/magazine/tara-parker-pope-fat-trap.html?_r=0
  2. Once you lose weight, you will need to eat less than someone who is EXACTLY the same size but who never gained weight in the first place. That means if you are 150 pounds (after having lost 50 of those pounds) and your friend is 150 pounds (but she was pretty much always at that weight) YOU will have to eat up to 20 -30% less calories than your friend just to sustain that weight than she will.

Second – you need to know what YOU can do.

  1. According to the National Weight Loss Control Registry (http://www.nwcr.ws/Research/default.htm) , those who have successfully lost weight AND have kept it off long-term (more than 5 years) did the following:
    1. 78 Percent of them eat breakfast EVERY DAY
    2. 75 percent of them weight themselves at least once per week
    3. 62 percent of them watch less than 10 of television per week
    4. 90 percent of them exercise at least 60 minutes every day. EVERY. SINGLE. DAY
    5. In other words (and forgive me if this is sounding trite) But ….YOU NEED TO MAKE A LIFESTYLE CHANGE.
  2. But here is the thing…making a lifestyle change requires more than will power. Will power is a part of the equation…sure. But we live in a world that is CONSTANTLY telling us to eat. Every day we are inundated with ads, messages, and temptations. There is a Starbucks at every corner. Not a Whole Foods store. Thus, in order to make these changes, you will need a set of skills. A good way to think about this is that it’s not about “will power” it’s about “skill power.” And just what kind of skills should you adopt? According to Sherri Pruitt and Joshua Kaplow in their book “Living Smart” – you can sustain your success if you:
    1. S – Set a specific Goal. It should be specific, measureable, actionable and observable. For example, don’t say “I will plan on losing a pound per week.” I can’t observe you lose weight. Instead, say “I will make a plan to exercise 20 minutes for three days out of the week this week. It’s specific, I can measure the time you’re taking, it’s an action you can directly apply, and I can observe you do it.
    2. M- Monitor your progress. If you want to lose weight, you’re going to have to keep track of how you’re doing. Weight yourself every day, and take an average at the end of the week. Think this will make you feel too neurotic about your weight? Nope. The more often you weigh yourself, the more likely you are to treat it just as “data.” http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/2016/01/03/weight-loss-scales-daily/77584478/
    3. A – Arrange your environment for success. If you want to exercise every day, that’s going to be hard if your shoes are buried in the back of your closet in some as-of-yet-undetermined location. Get your workout clothes out and ready to go.
    4. R – Recruit support. If your friends gain weight, you are 57% more likely to gain weight as well. If your friends lose weight? Same thing. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12237644 This is because our relationships have a powerful influence on us. You may be able to make drastic changes in your life…but you can’t sustain those changes unless you have support.
    5. T – Treat yourself (but not with food). In Charles Duhigg’s book “the Power of Habit” was able to illustrate beautifully is that habits are much easier to form when you have a reward system. So if you set a goal to exercise every day for 20 minutes…how can you reward yourself afterward? A pat on the back? Some time on an app you love? A call with a friend? A sticker on your calendar? Whatever the case, you want to have something built in that makes you feel like your actions reap a benefit.

Conclusion: Losing weight is hard. KEEPING it off is even harder. That’s the bad news. The good news is that it is NOT impossible. Many people are successful in keeping the weight off. It’s just important to know what is required, and to have compassion for yourself when you start to feel overwhelmed. In order to stay healthy it’s MUCH more important to be “fit” (have energy, have a habit of exercise, eat fruits and vegetables)…than it is to be “thin.” And it’s entirely possible to be healthy at just about any size. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128267723. Even so, if you’re determined to lose weight, just remember… yes it’s hard work, but it can be done. You just should never have to do it alone!

(Want someone to help hold you accountable to your weight loss goals? Chat with a GOQii Coach!)

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Lifestyle Change: Key to Good Health

GOQiiEcosystem

If there is any solution that has ever worked with any of my patients or clients over the last 10 years, it’s a lifestyle change. Be it cancer, weight loss, or just feeling better about one’s self, a lifestyle change has always provided the most effective and sustainable result.

Restrictive diets have never worked, in fact, they lead to collateral damage like depression, frustration, yo-yo and a feeling of deprivation. If you are eating an ice-cream or chocolate, eat it with love, enjoy it, or don’t eat it at all. GOQii’s coaches will coach you to do just that. They will coach you to eat mindfully, they will help you set up goals, encourage great habits and break down the bad ones.People have started measuring their worth with the wrong scale. The weighing scale dictates to people for beautiful or healthy they are or should be, and that’s so wrong.

The GOQii dream is to change the world. There are millions of people out there, struggling with their health and lifestyle. Most are lost and have no clue what’s right and what they should do to be healthy and fit. It doesn’t help that there is so much information and research out there that just confuses us even more.

The GOQii eco-system is designed out of passion and with an intention to change people lives, make a difference, add value and evoke change in people. It’s based on simplicity and believes that motivation is the energy for action. We can do anything when we are motivated. GOQii ties in Karma, ‘giving back to our communities, it’s such a self-fulfilling feeling when you know you can give back to society through an action that is making you healthier. This ecosystem ties in all of this and more.

Our coaches come from diverse backgrounds of nutrition, sports, fitness and other fields and go through a comprehensive training on behavior, nutrition, fitness and motivation. Our training material is designed by experts from Stanford University and Yale and delivered by professional trainers.

As an individual, there are only a handful of people I can professionally help in a day. Through GOQii, we can reach out to millions. Research today has proved that even if the unhealthiest person makes as little as one lifestyle change in a month, they are on the road to rejuvenation and better health.

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High Fructose diet and Vitamin D

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We are all aware that lack of sun exposure and spending more time indoors makes us prone to Vitamin D deficiency. But, did you know that Vitamin D deficiency could also occur due to an unhealthy diet –especially one that is loaded with high fructose.

In fact, what led me to write this blog is a recent conversation with a close friend of mine. Anita, as I knew her was always conscious about her diet and what she ate. Her seemingly healthy breakfast included packaged cereals and fruit yogurt. Trying to keep her meals small and frequent, her snacking included salads from fast food joints and her quick fix dinner at home mostly comprised of fruit juices with a veg sandwich.

But, something seem to bother hear off late. When I casually asked her how she was doing and that she looks a bit perturbed, she mentioned about her recently diagnosed Vitamin D deficiency at the age of 35 years.

What triggered the check up? Well she had a fall and fractured her right hand. It intrigued me to find out more. Anita was also keen to find out if there was anything in her diet that had led to the Vitamin D deficiency. She was obviously under the impression that she was eating healthy.

As a nutritionist, let me tell you that the sunshine vitamin-Vitamin D, can have reasons other than insufficient exposure for its deficiency. Fast paced lifestyle and dependence on packaged foods pointed to high fructose in the diet, which could be a major cause. Precisely, what triggered the deficiency in Anita as well?  Surviving on packaged foods is not a good idea at all.

Fructose, as we know is a fruit-sugar; unfortunately, it’s not fruits from where we get most of the fructose in our diet. A large part of fructose in our food enters via HFCS – High fructose corn syrup which is an alternative to sugar in most packaged foods.

This low cost sweetener is favorite of food processing industries.Being stable in acidic foods and beverages, HFCS is attractive alternative to sucrose and is found in many unsuspecting packaged foods such as – Packaged fruit juices, carbonated drinks, breakfast cereals, flavored yogurt, salad dressing, ketchups, soups, sauces, nutrition bars etc. Baked products such as biscuits and breads, which is a classic case of ‘HFCS camouflaged with the whole grain marketing’.

When we consume high levels of fructose, an enzyme called  24-hydroxylase (which is responsible for degrading vitamin D3) becomes more active, while another enzyme, 1α-hydroxylase (which helps synthesize vitamin D) becomes less active.  As a result of this high level of fructose consumption, the body tends to start breaking down whatever levels of Vitamin D you have. In other words Fructose reduces blood levels of active Vitamin D.

Vitamin D in the form of calcitriol plays a critical role in maintaining calcium levels in blood. It regulates active calcium transport in the intestine, helping increase its absorption from food. In fact, in Vitamin D deficiency, we absorb only about 10 to 15% of the dietary calcium we eat!

We need calcium for proper functioning of nerves and muscles, including the cardiac muscle –Heart. When calcium levels go too low,in its survival mode body starts pulling calcium from bones. Boom: suddenly we enter a state of bone-tissue breakdown, because of a chain of events initiated by excess fructose. Over time, skeletal health becomes compromised, and the risk of osteopenia, osteoporosis, and fracture may go up.

A study published by PLOS One in April 2014 demonstrated that a chronic intake of high levels of dietary fructose can lead to a decrease in circulating levels of Vitamin D and also creates physiological increases in calcium requirement. They quoted this finding as highly relevant since fructose, a sugar contained in many types of foods that are being consumed at high levels, may contribute to the increasing prevalence of vitamin D insufficiency, especially in sensitive populations with high, processed sugar intakes. (http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0093611).

Before it’s too late, cut down on your fructose intake. Less than 40 g of fructose from whole foods sources per day is a great target. For reference, that’s what we’d get from 1.3 whole mangoes or 3.5 apples. Yes, 2-5 servings of fruit per day (depending on fruit choice, stick to max 2 if high fructose fruit) is perfectly fine!

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