Food – The Who WOD Wear Blog

Fitness & Health, Food, Personal, Uncategorized, wellness

Tracking Macros & Meal Planning When You Live With Your Partner

July 6, 2020by Hayley PosnerLeave a Comment

Moving in with your partner is a huge life step! This relationship milestone can be particularly scary for many reasons, but my biggest worry was actually one that very few people think about when taking the leap to cohabitate with their romantic partner. When my boyfriend and I decided to self-isolate together this past April, I was most worried about how I was going to keep up my healthy food habits and continue to track my macros while learning to live and cook with my man.

My boyfriend does not track his macros and does not have a structured meal plan or eating schedule like I do, which initially caused me to be nervous about us living together. I am definitely more OCD/type A when it comes to meal prepping and planning while he is more of a mindful eater who does not pre track or weigh his food. This stark contrast could have potentially negative side effects for us as roommates and life partners and I was super anxious about making things work when the time came for me to move into his apartment.

So how do we eat meals together if I have to weight and track my portions, and he doesn’t! It’s actually super simple, we just make equal portions of food and try to spit things evenly! If I am making 6 ounces of ground beef for me, I will simply weight an equal portion for him as well and make 1 giant pot meal that we simply split down the middle as best as possible. While this is not an exact science, it does work well for me when I am eating for maintenance or being a less strict with my macro tracking. Overall, this cooking method works super well for nights when we both are craving pasta or a ground beef taco bowl but is less cut and dry when it comes to cooking more complicated dishes or want slightly different meals that have some common ingredients.

Another way we make this work is cooking on 2 separate baking sheets. I will prepare 1 sheet for me with my pre weighted portions and 1 sheet for him with his portions if they differ from my own. This allows us to still make a meal together without having to make the exact same portions or veggies. I personally, love mushrooms and kale and eat them probably every other day, while my boyfriend is a mushroom hater and will only sporadically join me in crunching on some crispy kale chips. I am a huge proponent of simple but effective meal making and both my boyfriend and I are not into spending hours in the kitchen each night. One pan/bake sheet meals, work wonders for us when we are trying to eat together but enjoy different protein, carb and fat sources and make for a no fuss dinner.

Cooking together when you have different habits does not need to turn into WW3 or cause you or your partner to feel guilty for their needs/wants. For me and my boyfriend, we try to cook/plan 2-3 meals per week together and then will eat the rest on our own. Sometimes we do more, and some weeks we share less, but either way we make sure to clearly communicate before we cook so that one person is not left with no chicken for dinner. If you are like me and you cannot share your food without feeling anxious about it shifting your numbers, then I highly recommend cooking on separate baking sheets or in separate pans from your roommate/partner. This will allow you to portion control your food while enjoying the same meal as your dinner date! It’s a win win for you both. No need to compromise your goals or feel guilty!

Fitness & Health, Food, Personal

My Go-To Sweet Treats & Desserts

June 22, 2020by Hayley PosnerLeave a Comment

I am going to share a little secret.. I eat ice cream almost every night! For a long time I thought desserts were the devil. I thought that eating dessert would lead me to becoming cookie monster out of control with food, feasting on anything and everything I could get my hands on, so for a long time I would simply avoided dessert at all costs.

As a kid, eating ice cream after dinner was a regular occurrence in my house and I never had any guilt or shame about treating myself to an ice cream bar or cookie until I starting my weight loss journey. After successfully losing and keeping off 30 pounds for about a year, I became super aware and focused on everything I ate. Tracking my food and weighing everything out was a daily ritual. Soon the desserts and treats became less and less frequent in my diet to the point where I went for weeks on end without eating dessert or any kind of treat/baked goods because I was scared of gaining weight back. The more I restricted dessert the more I craved it, leading me into a negative pattern of binging and restricting that went on for almost the entire first year of my weight loss journey. I was scared and alone, ashamed of telling my friends that I thought I had an issue with sweets and treats and that I had a negative relationship with food in general.

Dessert was my love, my joy when I was younger yet when I decided I wanted to be healthier in my early 20’s I felt like I had to demonize it to achieve my fitness goals. This led to me going Cookie Monster crazy when I went on vacation or took a day off from tracking leading to even more guilt surrounding sweet treats. Letting go of my rigid rules and labeling of food was the best choices I ever made. I no longer demonize certain foods and praise others, but rather I see all food as fuel and some sources are more ideal than others for making me feel my best. I fit all of my favorite foods into my diet and try to allow myself one treat a day to keep the Cookie Monster cravings away.

So yeah I eat dessert almost every night, and yes I still reach my fitness and health goals and so can you! A few of my favorite treat brands/companies are Halo Top, Enlightened, Yasso and Trader Joes. For me I would say frozen treats like ice cream and fruit bars are my favorite go to dessert during the week. Cookies, brownies and baked goods have never stood a chance to me compared to ice cream or sorbet! In order to keep my macros balanced I usually will opt for some kind of single serve frozen dessert bar or will go for a piece of Trader Joes fair trade dark chocolate. I am mildly obsessed with the dairy free options from Halo Top as well as Enlightened Ice Cream bars and have to have them in my freezer at all times. Frozen fruit bars, such as Outshine or Trader Joes Fruit Frenzy Bars, are also a go to for me when I want something low cal but still sweet that won’t eat up too many of my macros. Recently I have also been experimenting with putting ice cream or dairy free whipped cream on top Kodiak power waffles for some added protein and carbs late at night. Get creative with your treats, variety is not just reserved for the veggies!

Cookies and ice cream are good for soul and should not be causing you to feel stressed or shameful! If you can’t remember the last time you let yourself eat a cookie without a worry in the world then maybe it is time to ditch your food rules and re find your love for sweets and treats. A life without ice cream is not a life I want to live and neither should you!

Fitness & Health, Food

Healthy Breakfast Tacos

June 1, 2020June 1, 2020by Hayley PosnerLeave a Comment

Who doesn’t love a quick and easy weekend brunch! Often times my weekends are even more packed than my weekdays. Being the busy bee that I am my weekends are nearly always filled with errands, social events, workouts and outdoor activities, so finding time to make healthy meals is always a challenge!

Here is one of my favorite healthy eats that takes less than 10 minutes to cook…All you need are the below ingredients:

½ Cup of red onion chopped
½ Medium green bell pepper chopped
1-2 Large eggs
¼ Cup of pepper jack cheese
1 Jimmy Dean fully cooked turkey breakfast sausage chopped
½ Strip of applewood smoked bacon chopped
1 Teaspoon of olive oil or 1 spray of trader joes olive oil cooking spray
3 Teaspoons of pico de gallo
3 Teaspoons of hatch green chili
3 Mission small street taco corn tortillas

Cooking Instructions:

Recipe yields roughly ~3 street style tacos

First step is to spray or oil your pan and chop up the veggies and meat.
Next once your pan is hot and ready, sauté the chopped bell peppers, onions and protein until browned.
Once the veggies are cooked, crack and add the eggs to the pan and begin scrambling/mixing the ingredients together. Continue to sauté the egg, meat and veggie mixture until cooked to your desired consistency.
Portion scrambled mixture into the tortillas, top with cheese and salsa then serve!

What I love about this recipe in the versatility and ability to make it your own! You can sub most of the ingredients for other options, whether that be red bell peppers instead of green ones or cotija cheese instead of pepper jack. No matter what alternate ingredient options you choose is sure to be a fan favorite!

Fitness & Health, Personal

Seeking The Great Perhaps

May 30, 2020June 25, 2020by Hayley PosnerLeave a Comment

I have been passionate about fashion and style since I was in third grade. My family and friends used to call me Coco, short for Coco Chanel, when I was little because I was so vocal about my love for being fashionable and on trend. I even tried to start a fashion magazine when I was nine years old, and organized a fashion show for my elementary school! This passion grew and provided me the drive to become a campus fashion blogger in college through CollegeFashionista and eventually prompted me to intern for a fashion focused PR agency in New York City before I graduated college. Little did I know I would move to Denver permanently and become a lover of Birkenstocks!

Despite being a fashion lover, clothing shopping and picking outfits has been a sore spot for me for as long as I can remember. Being in a bigger body when I was younger was a source of a lot of discomfort and frustration for me growing up. I never looked like the models I saw in magazines or actors on TV and always felt like fashion was reserved for those in more desirable shapes than my own. I tried every diet in the book and was constantly at war with myself because I never looked the same as the girls in magazines and every time I went shopping I was crushed to find out the latest fashion trends did not look the same on me as on others. I struggled with my weight on and off throughout high school and college, eventually getting to a place where I felt like I guess I should just give up and accept that I will never feel at peace or hell ever confident in myself. Luckily, that all changed when I approached my last semester of undergrad at the University of Denver.

Three years ago I was inspired to change my life drastically. I was tired of feeling self conscious and hiding behind friends in photos and twisting my body at weird angles in the mirror hoping that I would wake up one morning magically different. I wanted to feel confident and free from the negative voice in my head that picked apart my body when I didn’t fit into the clothes I so desperately wanted to wear. In the summer of 2017 I began a journey that would soon change my life, I decided I wanted to be “healthy”. At the time I thought that meant losing the extra 30 pounds I had on my body but little did I know it would be so much more than that. Along the way I made some mistakes, treated my body poorly and lost myself a little bit however in the last year and half I have been able to find my stride.

Since 2017 I have successfully lost and kept off the pounds and have come to not only love my body but I am working towards body neutrality. I am finally at a point of acceptance with my body where it is at and am grateful for all that my body allows me to do. I have also found a sense of love and respect for myself that allows me to work towards a better me, both mentally and physically.

Crossfit and yoga have provided me a safe space to move and challenge my body with intention and love and not from a place hate. In the past I have tried to hate myself skinny to find that when you finally reach that goal number you will not be any happier with your life. Finding an exercise routine that works for me has taken me a long time and I am so grateful for my past experiences for those have all helped me in shaping who I am and who I want to become. This blog was created to help me speak my truth and share the advice, wisdom and words that have helped me on my journey to build the happiest and healthiest version of myself. Get ready for more about my healthy habits and body confidence coming soon!