Pan Programming

This is a series of articles discussing tactics I use to stay fit and healthy as a programmer working at a startup company. Part 1, Part2, Part 3

Last article, I talked about how you should start transitioning to cooking your own food. It’s essential for fitness and health. If you compare the average person who cooks all his meals versus a person who purchases his meals, it’s evident. The restaurant and preprepared food business always tries to squeeze as much marginal profit out as possible, so unfortunately they will find ways to cut down cost and use lower quality ingredients (high fructose corn syrup vs sugar in the US).

This article is dedicated to KALE - no joke. Ok maybe not entirely, but on COARSE VEGETABLES and LEGUMES. It will be a major tool to help you transition to a more healthy eating habit and eventually cooking your own meals. Here’s a list of some coarse vegetables and legumes:

• kale
• broccoli
• cauliflower
• lentil beans
• black beans
• pinto beans

Before I get into the rational for coarse vegetable, let me share with you how I use kale with my meals. This will vary from person to person, but this works for me:

Kale with meals
I have 3-5 leaves of kale before I have my meal.

Kale with snacks
I primarily eat 1-2 leaves of kale for snacks that has processing, such as bread and peanut butter or cookies. 

A lot of people who has shared a meal with me will remember me eating raw kale and it really sticks with them. They always wonder why and I explain it to them. Then the next time I see them they are eating kale. I don’t think they always understand my explanation, but I guess from looking at the shape I’m in, they are convinced. Don’t take anything I say blindly though. 

The reason why you want to eat coarse vegetables such as kale or legumes is because we

1. tend to overeat
2. eat a lot of sweet, salty, and carby food
3. eat processed food

(1) We tend to overeat
It’s hard to gauge how much food our body needs to consume, so we tend to eat until we feel full. By that time you have already overeaten. If you incorporate coarse vegetables or legumes into the beginning of your meals, you’ll start to feel full faster, as a result you eat less or in this case an amount relatively closer to how much you really need.

(2) We eat a lot of sweet, salty, and carby food
This goes back to the period when humans were migrating and hunting all the time. Humans of this period would have to migrate based on seasons, hunt food, run away from predators, and they didn’t have the conveniences we have today. These tasks requires a lot more energy than we use in present day for the average person and our body hasn’t had enough evolutionary time to update this craving. With coarse vegetables, it slows down your stomach acids from processing these types of food, so we don’t get a bunch of sugar at once. These types of food tends to gives you food coma, but if you have it with coarse vegetables or legumes it’ll remedy it.

(3) We eat processed food
When you consume processed food your body will break it down faster since it’s processed. This leads to your body intaking the food too fast and when your body doesn’t need that amount then it becomes fat and waste, so if we have coarse vegetables or legumes with it then the intake is slower.

If you do this and make it a habit, I guarantee your body will start craving more healthy food. Most restaurant and processed food will taste like crap - unless they are really good. Start doing this with your meals and slowly transition to cooking your own meals. Post below if you have any questions.

Oh btw this is what Dino Kale looks like, just in case you are looking for it in the supermarket today :D