Weight Down Living

It may be freakin’ cold outside.

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But these new workout tracks? They are en fuego!

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Solara, Smashing Pumpkins

The Pumpkins are back and rocking, yo.

Superlove, Whethan featuring Oh Wonder

Not crazy fast, but with a good beat, you might say we have … wait for it … superlove for this song.

Without You, Justin de Mari

The beat is perfect for running — or dancing in your living room.

Dip, Tyga featuring Nicki Minaj

Lots of language, but just try to listen and not move …

Ever Again, Robyn

A little slower than some of our other fave Robyn songs (like, all of the “Body Talk” album), but we are DIGGING IT.

Make Up, Vice & Jason Derulo featuring Ava Max

And we saved the best for last … (OBSESSED with this one!)

Like always (and forever), here it is on Spotify for you to stream and sweat to! (And, while you’re there, check out our podcast, too.)

What tracks are firing up your workouts right now? —Jenn

There are so many reasons to get more steps: walking can improve your mood, keep you healthy, and even help you lose weight. Experts recommend getting 10,000 steps each day, which can seem daunting. But you'll find that it's really gratifying once you start to see that step count tick upward on your smart watch or fitness tracker. If you're struggling to find ways to make it happen, try these tips from fitness pros:

• Shop locally. "If your neighborhood has a corner store or grocery store within walking distance, try to hit that up sometimes," Kat Wiersum, interval instructor at Studio Three in Chicago, told POPSUGAR. "It's definitely tempting to drive to the nearest big box store, but you'll utilize your neighborhood resources (potentially local small businesses!) and get those steps in."
• Park further away. Wherever you're headed, whether to the store or work, "park at the end of the lot," said NCCPT-certified personal trainer Katie Dunlop, owner of Love Sweat Fitness. "Those few extra feet can add up fast."
• Take the stairs, instead of the elevator. "Stairs not only get you extra steps, but if you sit at a desk most of the day, they can also help you keep your glutes activated throughout the day and avoid dead butt," Katie told POPSUGAR.
• Walk while you're waiting. "Whether you're waiting for a friend, a date, or your doctor, there are always a few extra minutes. Instead of sitting down to wait, move it," Katie said.
• Stay active during lunch, instead of eating at your desk. "Whether you have 30 minutes or a full hour, if you commit to a 15-minute walk each day, you'll be more likely to pack a healthy lunch to ensure you have the time to get in a little energizing calorie burn," Katie explained. Plus, it will allow you to disconnect and refresh before jumping back into work for the day.

• Take minibreaks throughout the day. "Schedule the last two minutes of each hour as your 'hourly stretch.' Get up and walk around to get your steps in, plus your blood circulating and body moving regularly," Katie said.
• Miss your stop — on purpose. "If you take public transit, get off one or two stops earlier than your usual stop," Kat suggested. "This can help you discover neighborhood gems that you may have missed, make you more comfortable navigating to your destination, and give you tons of extra steps." She added, "I just did this and found a great new coffee joint I'd been missing."
• Be strategic at the grocery store. "When you're grocery shopping, if you have time, try to slow down and take an extra lap down another aisle. I try to shop the entire perimeter of the store first and then the middle aisles," Kat said. "If the line is huge, I'll take an extra lap around rather than just stand there waiting. Half the time, the line is down by the time my lap is done."
• Do reverse lunges while you cook. "Instead of just standing around waiting for the water to boil, try adding in three to four sets of 20 alternating reverse lunges. It's a great way to lift and tone your booty, strengthen your hamstrings, and get in your steps," Katie told POPSUGAR. She added that you might also try marching in place.
• Stay busy by walking around your home. Kat often sets a timer for five to 10 minutes and commits to doing tasks around the house until it expires. "This is also a great time to call your mom or best friend and stay standing or walking around during the call," she said.

When it comes to trendy kitchen gadgets, the Instant Pot is all the rage right now, and with good reason. It's versatile and convenient, and it makes for less mess and less time spent in the kitchen. As far as recipe options are concerned, the possibilities are endless, especially when it comes to cooking healthy options. If you're looking for recipes to help with weight loss, here are more than 20 options, from protein-packed staples to filling vegetarian soups.

I thought I should tell you that I am about to be deleted from Wikipedia. Someone sent me a message to this effect. It seems that someone from Manchester entitled User:Skeptic from Britain has decided that I am a quack and my presence should be removed from the historical record.

I have no idea who this person is, perhaps it is possible to find out? It seems a bit harsh as I recently contributed money to Wikipedia to keep it going. Was this a terrible mistake?

To be frank, I am not entirely bothered if I no longer appear on Wikipedia, but I am increasingly pissed off that self-styled anonymous ‘experts’ can do this sort of thing without making it explicit why they are doing it, what their motives are, and if they have any disclosure of interest.

Perhaps user Skeptic from Britain would like to reveal himself and provide some information as to why he is so interested in trying to wipe me out? Perhaps one or two of you here could join in the discussion and see what emerges.

His reasons for trying to get rid of me are the following

Malcolm Kendrick is a fringe figure who agues(sic) against the lipid hypothesis. He denies that blood cholesterol levels are responsible for heart disease and in opposition to the medical community advocates a high-fat high-cholesterol diet as healthy. Problem is there is a lack of reliable sources that discuss his ideas. His book The Great Cholesterol Con was not reviewed in any science journals. Kendrick is involved with the International Network of Cholesterol Skeptics, I suggest deleting his article and redirecting his name to that. Skeptic from Britain (talk) 20:29, 2 December 2018 (UTC)

Come out, come out, whoever you are.

Legumes usually grow in pods and are an affordable source of protein, fibre and vitamins that offer many health benefits. They include but not limited to nuts, lentils, peas, soy, chickpeas and beans. Legumes offer various health benefits according to Amanda Tumwebaze, a freelance nutritionist.

Protein source
Beans contain amino acids, which are the building blocks of protein and help build muscles. Protein is a vital nutrient that plays a key role in every bodily activity. Tumwebaze says, “Soybeans contain all the nine essential amino acids so these make an excellent source of protein for vegetarians and vegans. They are also lower in calories and saturated fat than some other protein sources, such as dairy products.”

Nutrient dense food
Legumes contain several vital nutrients, including folate which can help prevent a mother from becoming irritable as well as developing neurological defects in a foetus during pregnancy.
It is better to cook beans in their dried form because they contain more folate in their dry state. They also contain nutrients such as zinc, iron, magnesium and fibre. They are also rich in polyphenols, an antioxidant which fights the effects of free radicals that contribute to physical aging, cancer and inflammation. “Chickpeas for instance are high in protein, containing around 14 grammes per cup. They are also a rich source of many minerals such as calcium, iron, copper, zinc, and manganese. They also contain vitamin K for blood clotting as well as vitamin A, and folate,” she says.

Glucose metabolism
Beans may help stabilise blood glucose levels or even prevent diabetes. Soybeans also support the healthy functioning of pancreatic cells. The pancreas produces insulin, which regulates blood sugar. Beans are high in fibre, which can help lower blood glucose.
“Legumes are rich in minerals and fibre without the saturated fat found in some animal proteins. Incorporating legumes such as beans into your diet, therefore, improves your heart health and may help improve your blood cholesterol, a leading cause of heart disease,” she says.

Digestive health
Most legumes, especially black beans, enhance gut health by improving intestinal barrier function, and increasing the number of healthy bacteria. They also add bulk to stool thereby enhancing increased bowel movements. This may help prevent gut-associated diseases. The high fibre content in peas improves bowel health and peristalsis.

Controlling appetite
The fibre and healthy starches in beans can help prevent food cravings. Adding beans to your diet may help keep you feeling full longer, thereby helping you in your weight loss attempts.
Also, legumes such as beans and peas are great plant-based sources of fibre and protein. These will often make you feel satisfied to reduce hunger-driven sugar cravings.
If you have not been eating something such as beans, it might be hard knowing where to start. Educate yourself on the best ways to cook and maintain flavour or consult an expert for all the information you need.

Caution
It is important to note that some people are allergic to beans or members of the legume family. Peanuts, for instance, are a legume and a common allergen.
Despite the abundant nutrients in green peas, they contain anti-nutrients which can cause bloating in some people and may interfere with the absorption of minerals such as iron, calcium, zinc and magnesium.
“It is unsafe to eat beans so often because they contain proteins called lectins that can lead to gas and intestinal discomfort. These are not dangerous but can be unpleasant and even painful for some people,” Tumwebaze warns.
A person can reduce the risk of gas and other intestinal problems by hot-soaking beans and discarding the water used for soaking, or sprouting, boiling, or pressure-cooking them. Digestive enzymes can also be taken to improve digestion of beans.

A few days ago I attended the Node-RED 101 workshop with Ross Cruickshank - brilliantly organised by the Linuxing in London group. It was an excellent event. One thing that I thought I’d like to highlight for people coming from other data processing tools is the terminology and interface, which is covered below:

Prerequisits: You have got the LTE version of NodeJS installed on your workstation. You can dowload it from here. For Node-RED to work reliably, the LTE version is required (not the latest version).

For check the version of NodeJS that is installed and once you have confirmed that it is the LTE version proceed with installing Node-RED:

node -v sudo npm install -g --unsafe-perm node-red 

For alternative install methods see here.

To start Node-RED run;

The Node-RED User Interface is available on:

All command line options for the node-red command:

Usage: node-red [-v] [-?] [--settings settings.js] [--userDir DIR] [flows.json]  Options:   -s, --settings FILE  use specified settings file   -u, --userDir  DIR   use specified user directory   -v                   enable verbose output   -?, --help           show usage 

Terminology

Interface

From the left to the right:

• Palette: Shows available Nodes, which are conveniently grouped (input, output, function, social storage, analysis, advanced)
• Workspace: By dragging nodes from the palette onto the workspace and connecting them you can create a flow.
• Sidebar: Displays info on the nodes and the debug log.

Running and Stopping Flows

Once you click Deploy, the flow gets published to the server and is running (button color changes to grey once flow is published successfully). If you make changes to the flow, the Deploy button changes its color to red again and you have to click Deploy again to make sure the latest version is available on the server.

You might have realised that there is no Stop button available via the main interface. There is, however, a similar concept of disabling a flow. To do this, double click on the flow title. The Edit flow dialog will come up which allows you to change the Status of the flow to Disabled:

Once you click Done, the title tab also shows a disabled icon:

Useful Keyboard Shortcuts

Where are my flows, setting etc stored?

By default they are stored under ~/.node-red. You can find flows in:

.node-red/flows_localhost.localdomain.json  

Selectively importing and exporting flows

Via the Humburger icon on the top right corner you can reach the Import and Export options. The Export option will be only enabled once you mark a few nodes for selection on the workspace.

Hello World

Double click the title tab. This will bring up the Edit flow dialog. Set the Name to Hello World and then click Done.

Flows normally expect an input data source, however, for testing purposes you can use the inject node to manually inject messages into the flow (by clicking on the handle on the left hand side of the node) or set a time to inject messages.

Click on the inject node and notice how the info panel on the right hand side shows related help text.

Double click on the inject node to bring up the node properties:

• Payload: Click on the same button with a down arrow and pick String from the list.
• Topic: Type Hello World!.

At the bottom of the same screen there is also a node settings section - we won’t change anything here now, but keep it in mind for later on. Click Done.

Add a Debug node and connect the two by clicking on the output node port of the inject node and dragging the cursor to the input node port of the debug node.

Click Deploy in the top right corner. Then click the right handle of the inject node and click on the debug panel to see the output of the stream:

Your first REST API

Our next exercise is slightly more complex, but a bit more exciting:

Add a http node to the workspace (You can either use a new sheet to create the flow or use the existing one). The http node acts as a receiver in Express that gets the request.

Double click on the node and configure it as follows:

• Method: GET
• URL: /hello. This should be exposed via:

http://127.0.0.1:1880/hello 

Since we also want to return a message once someone triggers a request, we have to create a payload message. This can be achieved by adding a change node to the workspace. Connect the two nodes. Double click on it and configure it as follows:

• Set msg.payload
• to: From the pull down menu pick String and set the value to Hello World!.

So now that we have a message, we want to add some formatting. Add a template node to the workspace and connect it. Configure it as follows:

• Name: add css
• Set property: msg.css
• Template content:

body      font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;  #hello      color: cadetblue;     font-weight: bold;     font-size: 2em;  

Click Done.

Next we want to create the HTML snippet that returns our message. Add yet another template node and connect it. This node has full support for the [Moustache](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mustache_(template_system) templating system. Configure it as follows:

• Name: add html
• Set property: msg.payload
• Template content:

<style>  </style>  <h1>My response:</h1> <div id="hello"></div> 

As you can see we can use all the HTML magic here and the CSS and Payload get inserted at the required places thanks to Mustache. Note that having three curly brackets avoids having things replaced (Mustache being clever). Click on Done.

Finally we add a http request. In our case there is nothing to configure. Your flow should look like this now:

Note that I didn’t explain above how to add the debug node - this is not really required, but you can add one yourself as well if you want to.

Now click Deploy, open a new browser tab and enter following URL

http://127.0.0.1:1880/hello 

The result should look like this:

A raw food diet may sound appealing, especially if you don’t have time to cook healthy delicious meals. You may also have come across studies like this one, which concluded that eating raw fruits, veggies and nuts lowers blood pressure and the risk of heart disease.

Many people are also under the impression that all raw foods contain more nutrients. While that may be true for some foods, cooking actually increases the bioavailability of nutrients in some foods. For instance, these vegetables are healthier when cooked.

It’s okay to eat raw sometimes, but a diet with more than 70 percent raw food may do more harm than good. Here are the reasons you should avoid a raw food diet.

1. Irregular Periods

This may sound surprising, but a raw food diet can affect your menstrual cycle. One study found that 70 percent of women on a raw vegan diet experienced irregular periods. Even worse, a third of them had complete amenorrhea, which means they stopped menstruating completely.

Researchers suspect that the low calories in raw food diets may be a contributing factor to the irregular menstrual cycles.

2. Nutritional Deficiencies

This may sound ironic, considering that many people assume that raw foods offer more nutrients. However, your diet may lack essential nutrients, such as vitamin B12.

This study found that no participant on a raw vegan diet got enough vitamin B12 in their diet. Being deficient of this vitamin can cause anemia, heart disease, poor bone health, and infertility.

3. Food Safety

Cooking food makes it safer, especially meat. Raw meat and poultry contain bacteria such as Salmonella, E. coli, and Listeria, which may cause vomiting, diarrhea, or even death.

Sometimes the effects of eating raw food are almost immediate. A man in South Korea suffered a fever and excruciating pain on his left hand just hours after eating raw seafood. Doctors had to amputate his arm a few days later.

4. Weaker Bones

Most raw food diets tend to be low in calcium and vitamin D, which help strengthen bones. That’s why this study found that people on a raw vegetarian diet had lower bone mineral content and density compared to participants following a cooked diet.

5. Difficulty

If you thought that eating raw doesn’t require any preparation, think again. Preparing raw foods involves sprouting, blending, dehydrating, soaking and fermenting. These tasks can be time-consuming and difficult for busy people.

6. Convenience

A few years ago, vegans had a hard time eating out, but that’s not the case anymore. Many restaurants serve vegan meals. Unfortunately, raw food dieters will have to wait for a few more years before raw food meals become a norm in restaurants.

7. Digestive Problems

Raw food tends to be harder to digest. People with sensitive stomachs may struggle with indigestion, gas and bloating, food allergies, and loose stool while on a raw food diet.

What’s your experience with a raw food diet? Have you tried going fully raw? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Images via Getty