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How Ahmad Najib Controlled His Diabetes & Lost Weight With GOQii

Ahmad Najib

It’s a well-established fact that unhealthy eating, lack of physical activity and an overall unhealthy lifestyle can lead to many health issues. To begin with, it is the biggest cause of being overweight, which comes with other issues such as high cholesterol, high blood pressure and even diabetes. While well known, people tend to overlook these aspects. Our Player Ahmad Najib had also found himself in this predicament and when things started to slip, he decided he needed to change his lifestyle. How did he bring about this change? Read on to find out. 

Before Joining GOQii

“My lifestyle was all over the place. There was no routine, I ate an unhealthy diet and ate whenever I wanted and ate whatever I wanted. I never even exercised,” says Ahmad Najib. Owing to his poor eating habits and lack of physical activity, his weight shot up to 108kg. 

His HbA1c levels were as high as 6.7. After his regular yearly checkup, he found that his triglyceride and cholesterol levels were high as well. The problem with sugar and being overweight is hereditary in his family. Keeping this in mind, Ahmad Najib wanted to change his lifestyle for the better.

One day while checking the internet for a solution along with a friend, he came across GOQii. After going through the features, he was attracted by the 3 month coaching subscription and decided this was the way to go! 

Interacting With The Coach & Adopting Healthy Habits 

When he began his coaching subscription, he said that he really liked the way the instructions were simplified for him and the communication was easy. “The interaction was so smooth and easy that I could follow everything my coach shared with me,” he said. The flow of information was continuous between him and his coach. 

6 months before beginning his journey with GOQii, Ahmad Najib said that he had completely cut off from sweets and oily food due to his Diabetes issue. But the daily workout he was doing wasn’t helping him at all. His weight would not budge.

After speaking with his GOQii Coach Farhat Khan, he got a better understanding of his diet and what he should be eating as well as avoiding. His coach suggested some fruits he could eat – which he says benefited him immensely. She also helped him clear any doubts he had regarding his meals and helped him balance them.

He was asked to stay off maida and wheat chapatis. These were replaced with jowar or bajra rotis. He was also instructed to stay off junk food and eating out.  Apart from this, Coach Farhat Khan also introduced him to portion control. She also asked him to take frequent walks – which included walking for 5-7 minutes post a meal. His workout routines were also shuffled frequently. 

Even during the holy month of Ramzan, Ahmad Najib did his best to follow the morning routine, exercises and diet suggested by his coach and avoided eating oily food or ordering in. He says that he has completely stopped eating out. 

How Did These Changes Impact Ahmad Najib? 

The biggest change he witnessed was that his weight was reduced from 108kg to 91kg. Furthermore, his HbA1c levels have reduced from 6.7 to 5.5. “I don’t need tablets for high sugar anymore,” he says. Even his triglycerides and cholesterol levels are now under control.

His Coach Farhat Khan says, “His fat loss is amazing, sugar readings are now under control and his fitness and stamina have also improved.” She further added that, “Ahmad is really dedicated. He never said ‘ye nahin kar paunga’, and was always ready for the tasks given to him – whether it was physical or diet related.” Before, he couldn’t walk even half a km in one go but now, he can cover 3km without feeling tired. 

Looking at his transformation, the people he meets wonder how he pulled it off. With the changes he saw within himself, he recommended GOQii to 2-3 of his acquaintances. He also gifted a GOQii Smartwatch to his sister who has benefited greatly from it. She too lost weight by following instructions from her GOQii Coach.

Overall, he says it’s been a life-changing experience! Currently, along with his coach, he plans on reducing another 8-9kg.

Was this story inspiring? Do you or someone you know wants to make a lifestyle change? Share this article with them and subscribe for GOQii’s Personalised Health Coaching here. 

You can find more inspiring health stories here.

#BeTheForce 

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Active Rest For Muscle Building

Active Rest

Yes, you heard it right. Rest is an essential part of any training program. Even when it comes to classes or work, we recognize that a few days leave can be recharging and renewing. For athletes, this can be harder, as they may feel guilty for taking a day, a week or a month off their training plan. Whether you are training for a competition or feeling extra motivated, more is not always better. Rest days are just as important as exercise. In fact, a successful fitness regimen isn’t complete without rest days.

What is Active Rest?

In terms of Rest days, there are 2 types of rest days

  • Passive Rest
  • Active Rest

Passive rest means a day of total rest without any physical activity, whereas Active rest means including low-intensity exercise that promotes blood flow to the muscles, helping them to recover better and faster.

Active rest is the sweet spot between being idle and training intensely. The goal of Active rest is to help your body heal from exercising by reducing the likelihood of inflammation and soreness. It allows your body to recover and repair. On your Active rest day you need to be active enough to increase blood flow, but gentle enough to allow your muscles to heal. 

Benefits of Active Rest

Whenever we use our muscles for exercising, our body turns glucose into Lactic acid; this is how our muscles get the energy to perform. Once our muscles stop working, the lactic acid our body remains in our muscles and causes that dreaded post-workout soreness. Active rest helps lactic acid move out of our muscles and dissolve into our bloodstream, so it’s not around to cause us pain afterward. The increased blood flow also makes it to our joints, reducing the chance of joint and muscle inflammation. It is essential for muscle growth. Exercise creates microscopic tears in your muscle tissues. But during rest, cells called fibroblasts repair it. This helps the tissue heal and grow, resulting in stronger muscles.

Active rest is also known to improve our mood and keep us from getting the post-workout blues, while also alleviating any fatigue. Plus, it’s great for our heart since it increases our heart rate and builds endurance.

Planning an Active Rest Day

An active rest day should include a different activity from your usual workout at the gym. You shouldn’t be working at maximum effort. Rather, go slow and don’t push yourself too hard.

Examples of active recovery exercises include:

  1. Stretching: is a simple and effective way to maintain increased blood flow and relaxation.
  2. Yoga: lengthens our muscles and tendons, aids in their recovery, and helps our body develop better mobility and flexibility.
  3. Meditation: is a great way to rest and refresh your mind. If sitting still for extended periods isn’t for you, there are alternative ways of meditating that keep your body busy and your mind free, such as doing the dishes or knitting.
  4. Swimming: is a low-impact exercise that’s easy on your joints and muscles.
  5. Walking or Jogging: is one of the best forms of Active Rest. Walking or jogging at a leisurely pace can enhance blood flow and help with recovery.
  6. Cycling: at a leisurely pace is an excellent way to get in an active recovery. It is low-impact and doesn’t put pressure on the joints. One can cycle either on a stationary bike or on a bicycle outdoors.
  7. Myofascial release with a foam roller: Active rest doesn’t only include movement. One also can stretch and roll a foam roller over parts of your body and get many of the same benefits. If your muscles are sore, foam rolling can help relieve tightness, reduce inflammation, and increase your range of motion.

A Word of Caution

Active rest day exercises are generally considered safe. During active recovery, make sure you aren’t working harder than about 50 percent of your maximum effort. This will give your body the chance it needs to rest. You may find that you feel less tight, sore, and even have more energy to exercise after active recovery. If you’re injured, in pain, or very fatigued, your body may need passive recovery which means total rest.

We hope this article helps you make the most of your workout and recovery. Do let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

You can find more information on muscle building here. You can also get these tips and know more about Active Rest or set up your own fitness routine by speaking to a GOQii Coach. All you need to do is subscribe to GOQii’s Personalised Health Coaching here.

#BeTheForce 

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10 Easy & Effective Tips For Fat Loss

fat loss

In recent years, food choices have become plenty and the comfort of ordering food online via an app makes it difficult to eat healthy much less aid fat loss. With so many choices, abundance and variety, natural and healthy foods have somewhat been left behind.

Even food brands, restaurants or eateries that sell “healthy foods” don’t help you cut back unwanted fat. So how exactly can your food choices help you reduce body fat? Here are a few tips that can help you reduce fat and get healthy!

10 Effective Tips For Fat Loss

  1. Begin Your Day with a Fruit: Eat a fruit within 15-20 mins of waking up. This is handy for both working and non-working folks who are rushing through their morning routine. Fruits being rich in fiber, fructose and micronutrients, replenish glycogen stores in the liver after a long fasting period at night and jumpstart metabolism which aids fat loss.
  2. Avoid Processed/Packaged Food: Certain processed foods that come in plastic packets are calorie dense, don’t have natural dietary fiber, and usually lack essential nutrients & minerals required for fat loss. Whereas dietary fiber from whole grains has longer intestinal-transit time and hence has a higher satiety value as compared to processed/packaged foods. This prevents the creation of required calorie deficit for fat loss. Thus, avoid products containing refined flour, white sugar, salt and fats such as biscuits, breads, chocolates, sugar cadies, packaged fruit juices, pastries, white pasta, white noodles, pizza, samosa, Kachori, vada pav, etc.
  3. Begin Your Meal with a Salad Twice a Day: For instance sprouts + vegetables. Since raw, non-starchy vegetables contain high amount of water and fiber, they can be consumed in a relatively larger amount contributing to increased satiety with fewer calories. Thus, aiding fat loss by creating an energy-deficit. Vegetables are important sources of many nutrients which boost the speed of various biochemical reactions that burn stored fat. Dietary fiber from vegetables also have a prebiotic effect and promotes growth of health beneficial bacteria which even aids lipid metabolism.
  4. Add Protein in Meals: Proteins take longer time to digest. Hence, it keeps us fuller for a long time which in turn prevents us from eating more often. Secondly, proteins are building blocks for muscles which again help in increasing the basal metabolic rate. Thus, help in burning extra fat stored in Adipocytes.
  5. Small & Frequent Low Calorie Meals: Try to eat smaller meals every 2.5 to 3 hours rather than eating a huge meal after a long gap or eating too frequently. Spacing out the meals adequately and breaking it down into smaller meals gives our body enough time to metabolize the food. This leaves little or no chance for food to get converted to fat and get stored in your body. Don’t forget to eat up to 70-80% of your stomach’s capacity.
  6. Drink a Glass of Water Every Hour: Now, you might be thinking, how water can help in fat loss? Well, water fills you up in zero calories and being a medium of all cell fluids, it facilitates all physio-chemical reactions in the body including the ones which causes fat oxidation.
  7. Go for Home-Cooked Meals: Yes, at least 4-5 days in a week, eat home cooked food. This prevents intake of outside food which may have an unhealthy quality and quantity of fats. You’d rather eat a satiable and nutrient dense meal which aid fat loss.
  8. Use Cooking Oil Sparingly: Go for steamed, grilled, roasted, sautéed cooking methods using non-stick cookware to reduce the amount of oil used for cooking.
  9. Get Active: An active lifestyle helps in burning the stored fat by increasing the basal metabolic rate and blood circulation. Exercise should be a combination of aerobic/cardio and resistance training.
  10. Sleep Your Way to Fat Loss: Are you getting adequate sleep? Yes! If you don’t sleep well, it will create stress in your body and facilitate the release of cortisol which leads to fat accumulation in the body over a period of time. So get a good night’s rest. Try these tips to sleep better!

Remember, food is for nourishment of body not for over indulgence. Eat to Live, not Live to Eat. If this article helped you, let us know in the comments below. You can browse through more articles on weight loss here.

If you want to lose weight in a healthy, sustainable manner, get the right advice from a certified expert through the GOQii Transform weight management program here.

#BeTheForce

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How To Create A Full Body Workout At Home!

Create A Full Body Workout It has been over a year since I wasn’t able to visit the gym or go for my swimming classes. To continue being active, I had to plan a full body workout at home! A full body workout can provide overall toning and help you achieve your goal – whether the goal is to gain strength or to lose weight! A full body workout doesn’t require any machines so it’s a routine you can follow anywhere. 

How You Can Plan A Full Body Workout At Home 

To begin with, I divided my workout into three parts – Stretching, Abs and Cardio. Let’s see why these are important. 

1. Stretching

workout schedule for beginners - stretchingThere are many benefits of stretching regularly. It not only increases your flexibility but also corrects posture, reduces stress and body ache. I believe this is a must during a lockdown, especially for individuals working at home as continuous sitting hours affect posture drastically. So stretching should be an important part of your routine. Stretching before a workout prepares the muscles for an activity. It improves performance, blood circulation, blood flow to the muscles and reduces muscle soreness.

Types of Stretching include:

  • Dynamic: Usually done before an exercise to get your muscles ready for movement 
  • Static: Done after exercise to reduce risk of injury 

Stretching exercises include: neck stretches/rotation, shoulder stretch, arm stretch, chest stretch, stretching your wrists, standing stretch, ankle flex, etc. 

2. Core Strengthening

create a full body workout - core strength After getting in a few good stretches, I begin with core strengthening because with long sitting hours, I’ve observed my belly growing in size. To curb that, my full body workout also includes core strengthening. 

Abdominals or Abs are that part of the body which help in generating power for functional movements. To avoid injuries that may occur from day to day activities, it is very important to keep the core of the body strong and flexible.

There are varied benefits of core strengthening. It is not just about reducing belly fat. Some of the benefits of training your core include: 

  • Balance and stability to the body
  • Improved posture
  • Helps in alleviating back ache
  • Better performance in sports and related game activities
  • Strong core is very important for women during pregnancy
  • A strong core minimizes the chances of injury caused by undue stress on some parts of the body
  • Core strengthening leads to muscle strengthening and this, in turn, leads to bone strengthening

Some simple exercises for core strengthening include:

  • Forward Crunches
  • Reverse Crunches
  • Bridge
  • Plank variations- Front plank, side planks, plank walk
  • Air cycling 
  • Leg pull-in/push-out

3. Cardio 

Eventually, I increase the intensity of my workout by including a few cardio exercises. Cardio exercises are aerobic exercises of long duration (more than 3 minutes at a stretch). It works on your cardiovascular strength (heart health), stamina and muscular endurance. Examples of these exercises are walking, brisk walking, jogging, running, swimming, cycling, stair climbing, etc. In lockdown or while self-quarantining, I include spot jogging, spot cycling, jumping jacks, march pass and stair climbing to my daily routine.

Few Things To Keep In Mind While Planning Your Routine 

  1. Workouts should be developed around a person’s age, goals, nutritional strategy, free time, etc.
  2. How much time can you devote to exercise? If you can do an hour a day, that’s fantastic. But maybe you have a wife or husband, three kids, a dog, two jobs, and no robot butler… then maybe you only have thirty minutes, twice a week.
  3. Break up your workout! According to the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), if you accumulate three 10-minute bouts of exercise throughout the day to a total 30 mins of exercise, then that is as effective as someone who does one 30 mins bout of exercise

How to Build a Full Body Workout? 

Now comes the tricky part—putting all this together. 

  1. Full-body workouts should be fairly simple! Always begin with a dynamic warm-up and finish with a cooldown.
  2. Add a variety to your exercise routine by including one new exercise every week to avoid boredom
  3. As a beginner, you can start your full body workout slowly and once you get used to the routine, you can increase the intensity for better results.
  4. Rest is also required to ensure complete recovery of the body. So do not forget to give one day rest to your body – it deserves that! 

Finally, the favourite that I never miss doing is Surya Namaskar! At least 1-10 rounds depending on my workout. Surya Namaskar postures are a good blend of warm-ups, asanas and burn out. It helps to tone and shape the body and it also improves body function, improves flexibility, strengthens muscles and helps beat stress. Add this to your routine to stay active always and it’s best done in the morning hours. 

If this article helped you, let us know your thoughts in the comments below. If you’re not sure where to begin, try joining a live, interactive class, conducted by an expert on GOQii PRO. You can schedule a class via the GOQii App. 

To get a workout routine suited to your health goals, speak to a GOQii Coach by subscribing for Personalised Health Coaching here.

You can also browse through more articles on everything workout and fitness here.

#BeTheForce 

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