lose weight Archives

August 1, 2021 By GOQii 38 Comments

Health Benefits Of Eating A Bowl Of Salad Daily

Traditionally, salads are prepared with raw vegetables like cucumber, tomatoes, cabbage and onions – which are cut into slices and sprinkled with a pinch of salt and lemon. They were either served as the smallest portion of the meal or totally ignored. If you have also been doing the same, it’s time to change! Adding a bowl of salad to your meals is important and that’s what we’re going to tell you in this article.

Why Should You Eat A Bowl Of Salad Daily?

Firstly, starting your meals with a bowl of salad will help you lose weight. It’s true because salads are low in calories, high in fiber and rich in other nutrients. Fiber helps you feel full and you go easy on the rest of your meal. Eating less but healthy = sustainable weight loss! Eating a high fiber salad aids in lowering cholesterol and also is known to prevent constipation.
Eating a little good fat (like the monounsaturated fat found in olive oil, avocado and nuts) with your vegetables in salads helps your body absorb protective phytochemicals (known to protect against cancer and heart disease), like lycopene from tomatoes and lutein from dark green vegetables.
Best way to skip croutons (deep fried pieces of wheat bread) which are few in nutrients and have a high glycemic load, is to replace them with nuts and seeds and maintain the crunchiness in the salad.
To balance it with proper carbohydrates and proteins to make it a whole meal, you can add brown rice or protein packed Quinoa, grilled chicken, low fat Paneer, Tofu or Sprouts.
People, who do not like to eat fruits, can relish salads which combine fruits and vegetables and eat it as a whole meal or an in between snack. This provides a host of powerful antioxidants which protect the body from damage caused by harmful molecules called free radicals.

Tips To Prepare Healthy Salads

Salads are known to be rich in Vitamins. Fat soluble vitamins A, D, E and K cannot be absorbed and used by the body without the presence of some fat. So go for the unsaturated kind (good fats) like olive oil or canola oil. Toss the oil with vinegar which helps to prevent blood sugar spikes after meals.
The best way to include greens like romaine, radicchio, iceberg and spinach in our daily diet is to mix them all up or use one at a time in salads.
Add medicinal herbs like basil, garlic, lemon juice or parsley to the salad for that strong punch of flavor and loads of disease fighting antioxidants. The more flavorful your salad is naturally, the fewer high calorie ingredients you will need to add for taste like extra cheese and cream.
Pack your salads with as many other veggies or fruits as possible to get the synergetic effects. Carrots, cucumbers, different colored peppers, broccoli, peas, artichokes, strawberries, raspberries, or pears are great choices to get in different textures as well as plenty of filling fiber.

We hope this article helps you pick up the habit of adding a bowl of salad to your meals! Do get creative with your salad, make it colorful or crunchy and share a pic on social media or the GOQii Arena and tag us! For more on healthy living and nutrition, check out Healthy Reads.

To get more advice on nutrition, weight loss, diet tips and healthy recipes, subscribe to personalized coaching and ask your GOQii Coach directly: https://goqiiapp.page.link/bsr

Eat Healthy and #BeTheForce

June 1, 2020 By Shaeba Shaikh 2 Comments

Top 5 Effective Workouts For Weight Loss During Lockdown

Visiting gyms, joining classes for yoga and zumba have become troublesome because of the COVID-19 lockdown. With limited options, it is natural to get bored and stumble back into a sedentary lifestyle. Don’t put on all the weight you’ve worked so hard to lose. We have some effective workouts to help you lose all that unhealthy weight.

5 Easy and Effective Workouts To Lose Weight

1. Walking/Running:
There’s nothing better than running outdoors – the fresh air and all but the problem is that the lockdown prohibits anyone from stepping out… so how do you do it? There are many ways, in fact, it is easier if you have a treadmill. If you don’t, try spot jogging and taking frequent breaks in between your work from home schedule to walk around the house and unwind.

2. Jump Rope:
Do you want that sleek, slender body? Jump Rope is your answer! It is one of the most underrated yet effective workouts. If you’re new to this, start with a 2-5 min warm up, then do the traditional rope skipping with 30-50 reps. Then, you can run up and down your building stairs, do the rope again for 30-50 reps and end with a cool down. It is high intensity, low cost, doesn’t consume time and is still one of the most effective workouts for weight loss.

3. High Intensity Interval Training:
As the name suggests, it is periods of High Intensity exercises coupled with Low Intensity exercises/rest. The aim for HIIT workout is to target 80% of VO2 Max (Max Oxygen Consumption) for maximum results.

Your typical HIIT session can be:

Warm Up
Lunges for 1-2mins at a stretch
Walk/Jog in place for 30secs
Pushup for 1-2mins
Walk/Jog in place for 30secs
Squats for 1-2mins
Walk/Jog in place for 30secs
Abdominal Crunches for 1-2mins
Walk/Jog for 30secs
Cool down

You can add more exercises and modify the exercises as per your fitness levels.

4. Weight Training:
Yes, this might be impossible since most of us don’t have dumbbells and other gym equipment at home but that shouldn’t pose much of a problem. You can still use your daily household equipment as weights. For instance, water bottles filled with water as dumbbells or a bucket of water for your deadlifts. In fact, you can also use your own bodyweight. The key idea here is to undergo a process called Hypertrophy of the muscles, wherein the body increases the size of the muscles and reduces the fat around it. Weight training helps in burning fat 24×7 as opposed to burning fat only during the workout. A beginner can start with 20 reps + 3 sets of deadlifts, squats, lunges, bicep curls, etc.

5. Boot Camp:
This is one of the most intense and effective workouts which alternate between aerobic activities of sprinting/running along with strength exercises and drills. It simultaneously works on your endurance and strength.

You can start a typical routine as:

Warm up
1 min each of Push ups, Lunges, Pull ups, Crunches, Buttkickers, spot jog
Repeat the exercises
Cool down.

To make things easier for you, you can find all the above effective workouts for weight loss on GOQii Play. You’ll be guided by fitness experts in LIVE sessions. More so, you can also subscribe to GOQii and get tips, guidance and motivation from a certified GOQii Coach.

We hope this article helps you choose your workouts and lose weight during the lockdown. Do leave your thoughts in the comments below. For more tips on fitness, do check out Healthy Reads within the app as well.

Stay home, stay safe, get active and #BeTheForce

February 24, 2020 By Alfana Khatri 1 Comment

Unable to Lose Weight? 7 Secrets for Sustainable Weight Loss

During your weight loss journey, have you contemplated the impossibility of you reaching your weight loss goal? How many times were you close to giving up? Despite all your struggles with following proper exercise routines and eating the right food, you don’t seem to lose weight. If you resonate with this, it is fairly common. Such situations or instances are faced by people who are trying to lose weight. And yes, we understand how frustrating that can be. The real question here is – is there anything more beyond diet and exercise?

7 Acceptable and Easier Secrets to Lose Weight

1. Focusing on a Single Number
How frequently do you check your weight and get disheartened? The thing is that weight loss isn’t just about losing weight in kg but also about losing fat mass and gaining muscle mass. Your body type, ethnic group and muscle mass can change the meaning of the number that you see on the scale. How much fat loss and how much bone density has improved are the numbers you should be looking at. A Body Composition Analysis (BCA) once a month would be a better indicator than a weighing scale alone. Also, measuring waist and hip circumference in inches gives insight on your inch loss. Measure it once in 15 days along with weight.

2. Setting Unrealistic Goals
Always set tangible and measurable goals. Aim for slow and steady weight loss i.e. 1.5 – 2 kg/month as it’s easy to achieve and maintain. Setting short term quick fixes will not help you with sustainable weight loss and the chances to regain the shed kilos increases. A goal without a plan is just a wish. Accompany your health goals with good planning, take some expert advice for goal setting and guidelines which will also help you track them daily.

3. Sitting Time
If you haven’t been able to lose weight despite working out for an hour a day, 7 times a week, then there’s a good explanation for it. Researchers conclude that sitting continuously for hours is as dangerous as smoking! When you stay seated, your body metabolism slows, you burn less calories, your muscles and joints stiffen up, and your back may hurt. Rather, get up every 30 minutes and stretch or take a short walk, as every bit counts. You can also try this workout routine you can do anywhere.

4. Sleep Well
Adults usually need 7-9 hours of sleep. Our bodies use that time to detoxify, fix tissues, make hormones, and grow muscles. Our brains use it to process the information and learning of the day into memories. Not enough sleep can make you hungrier and make junk food more appealing. Quantity of sleep is as important as quality of sleep. It’s important to train your body’s circadian rhythm to sleep early and wake up early. Your body responds well if you sleep during the magical hours of 10pm to 6am.

5. Manage Stress
How many times have you been stressed out over not reaching your target weight? Stress can make the weight loss journey nearly impossible. Stress eating is a type of emotional eating, where the body usually craves high fat, high sugar foods. Stress produces cortisol, a hormone which promotes body fat and makes it harder to lose weight, especially belly fat. It also causes disturbance in sleep. Less sleep, chronic fatigue leads to the rise of the hormone – Ghrelin, which is the primary hunger hormone, which makes you feel hungry even when you don’t need to eat. Constant stress, however, can wreak havoc on your emotional and physical health by causing anxiety, depression and sleep deprivation.

6. Water Intake
Many of us cannot draw a distinction between thirst and hunger. The first thing that comes to mind is always ‘food’, even if it is just thirst. In most cases, a glass of water might do the trick instead of eating a snack. To set a baseline, drink one glass of water before you eat anything. Drink adequate water before, during and post-workout.

7. Nutrient Deficiencies
Vitamin B-12 and Vitamin D3 are the major vitamins involved in the fat loss process. Vitamin B12 converts fats and proteins into energy and aids in the breakdown of carbohydrates too. The sunshine Vitamin D3 decreases body fat and limits weight gain by altering the storage and formation of fat cells and it also increases the levels of serotonin (happy hormone) and testosterone (affects bone and muscle mass) in the body. Unfortunately, nearly 50% of people worldwide suffer from low Vitamin D levels.

If you’re still looking for a “magic pill” to aid weight loss, it is the combination of the above points. They can help you succeed in your weight loss journey as well as sustain it. There is no shortcut to it, only consistency. We hope this article helps you out. For more tips on weight loss, watch LIVE sessions by experts on GOQii Play.

#LevelUp Your Weight Loss Journey and #BeTheForce!

March 19, 2019 By Shimpli Patil 7 Comments

Lemon Water and Weight Loss: Are They Really Connected?

Lemon! There’s no doubt that this bright yellow, all season fruit has innumerable advantages. If I were to list down the benefits, it would be endless. The foremost advantage of lemon is its power to enhance the flavor of our kitchen. Packed with vitamin C, calcium, potassium, phosphorous, magnesium, pectin fiber and citric acid, this fruit has been known to boost immunity and take it to another level.

It is anti-bacterial in nature, thus protecting you from the clutches of most infections. It’s also a blood purifier and known to rejuvenate the skin by taking away acne and wrinkles. It’s a perfect morning drink! It aids in the elimination of waste products from the body and promotes quick bursts of energy.

I have seen many people using lemon water as a way to lose weight. Does it really help in weight loss? The good news is that it does! Lemon water has shown to have real weight loss powers. It actually helps accelerate the process of weight loss.

Let’s understand the Weight Loss Mechanisms of Lemon

Drinking lemon water in the morning helps activate the detoxifying process. It clears out toxins and some internal waste from the body. Once the toxins are out, it accelerates our sluggish metabolism, increasing our calorie burning capacity
It has diuretic and laxative effect, enabling smooth bowels and cleansing of colon. Lingering waste in the colon also adds on to the weight and results in bloating. Removal of the lingering waste helps drop some kilos then and there itself
Lemon water helps cleanse the liver. Some components of lemon stimulate the liver to produce more bile. Bile is a chemical that helps in fat digestion. This process helps metabolize fat faster
Having lemon water with a meal also stimulates the production of gastric juices that enhance digestion
Lemon is packed with Vitamin C. According to an article published in the “Journal of the American College of Nutrition” in 2005, vitamin C is inversely related to our body mass. Reports suggest that having enough vitamin C can stimulate a series of chemical reactions that breakdown body fat and use it as energy
It creates an alkaline atmosphere in the stomach which is conducive to weight loss and helps shed off the kilos faster
It contains a fibre called pectin (especially the lemon peel). Pectin is known to cut down hunger cravings and provide satiety effects, thus, exerting control on overeating
Last but not the least – substituting other drinks (colas/sugary fruit juices, etc) with lemon water certainly reduces the caloric consumption as lemon water adds ZERO calories to your body each time you drink it as compared to the other drinks. If you choose to replace the other drinks with lemon water every day for months or even a year, it will help you lose weight