Hey there, I’m Haylee!
A full-time Software Engineer, part-time Recipe Developer | Content Creator | Food Photographer | Blogger here on Hayl’s Kitchen.
So basically 2 full-time jobs? LOL.
No complaints at all though, because I absolutely love both of them and wouldn’t give up one for the other.
Another something about me: I tend to talk a lot, but it’s all honest, unfiltered thoughts. So I’m basically talking to you right now how I would in a conversation!
P.S. I also love bead, and brownies, and white shoes 🙂 And always trust in God and His plans for us all ❤️
P.P.S. If you ever have questions, email me at hayls.kitchen@gmail.com
Hayl’s Kitchen?
I’ve always loved sweets (all that candy growing up may or may not have led to cavities, haha) but as we all know, too much added sugar doesn’t have the best impact on our long-term health.
So as a means to have desserts while keeping it healthy and sugar free, I started making recipes that use protein powder (which is stevia-sweetened) to replace the sugar! So now we satisfy our sugar cravings AND hit our protein goals for the day. A real win-win situation!
Why Hayl’s Kitchen? It was a bit of a play on Hell’s Kitchen, because my sister just loves puns and has now rubbed some of that off on me as well.
How Hayl’s Kitchen Came to Be
My cooking began with the “need” to make my own food since eating out on Keto while also being on a college-student budget was quite hard!
Side note, I had never cooked a single meal before getting to college.
And my cooking was a hot-dog&cheese omelette, chicken & cheese quesadilla, and spicy cabbage-chicken casserole (definitely recommend!).
I started experimenting with fun stuff when I discovered Keto recipe blogs. Then came things like bread, coconut flour pancakes, cinnamon rolls, bacon-wrapped chicken, and whatnot!
When my Stage 2 happened, the experimentation expanded coz I could eat so many more food groups! A college colleague suggested I make a page for my recipes, and here we are.
The OG Recipes:
While doing that whole “what to eat when” research though, I started reading a lot into quality foods.
- Value of whole grains
- How bad sugars are for you (when you just eat them all the time)
- Additives in otherwise simple and healthy foods like nut butters
- So much salt in everything
- … and a lot more
So I used to create sweet and savory dishes for healthier versions of recipes I found online, making easy swaps for some of the usual ‘bad’ ingredients.
My page has evolved since then, but I’ve kept some of my (and my audience) favorite savory recipes on here!
Protein Powder Desserts!
At some point I realized my Instagram page just wasn’t kicking off so I had to find a “niche” on there.
Paid some attention to what posts did well, and realized it was the healthier, high-protein desserts and other sweet recipes.
It was hard letting go of the other content, but the effort wasn’t worth it.
Plus, I LOVE desserts way more than a zucchini soup, lol.
But no, it wasn’t easy. Baking with protein powder was hard. Like, VERY hard.
A ton of dense cakes, brick-like brownies and soggy banana breads later, I finally figured it out 🙂
So now you have my perfected protein-packed dessert recipes!
And breakfasts and snacks and basically food for any sweet meal you want.
And in true fashion – all macro-friendly, high-protein, lower-fat and lower-sugar sweet treats 🙂
My Journey
Having been on the heavier side all my life, I was never comfortable with how I looked and only dreamed of wearing clothing in a size less than 6. Being a total foodie, an overachieving academically-inclined student who was also terrible at sports, only made things worse. I always prioritized studying and working hard towards those goals, putting my health, fitness and “dream body” on the sidelines. I just “didn’t have the time”.
To add to that, I had an accident on my leg when I was 10, from which I now can’t run too long, or stand too long and just have a bunch of other restricted movements; Another excuse on the list.
As you can imagine, the calories kept coming in with hardly any going out.
High School and Freshmen/Sophomore Year were back-and-forths of “I want to lose some weight”, “I should be happy with how I look” and “I want to … but don’t have time … “
You get the gist 😂
Fast forward to junior year of undergrad when I took a semester off to do an internship instead and had A TON of free time every evening after work. You know.. the free time when you’re done with your 9-5 and don’t have homework..
My “I don’t have time” excuse was no longer valid, and THERE began my journey towards a healthier lifestyle.
Stage 1: Keto!
Yes, I was one of those.
I used to do the elliptical for like an hour+ a day (was too afraid to try any of the weight machines), but only started to see major movement on the scale when I switched out my diet.
Yeah, turns out the whole “diet + exercise” thing is actually true lol.
Keto continued throughout college (maybe a total of 1.5 years).
I did start lifting in the gym maybe 3 months in though, so there was that change.
Side Note: I did have a bunch of ‘relapses’ and gave up on it at least 3 times in the middle, but thinking about how hard I had worked to even get to that point got me back on track.
Stage 2: Transition to “Normal” Eating (Macro Friendly!)
I love carbs (remember how I mentioned bread at the beginning?!) so yeah Keto wasn’t really a sustainable thing for me.
I was so very afraid to make the transition though.
Everything I read online about stopping Keto seemed to be along the lines of “you will gain the weight back you stop”.
Not an option here though, coz I’d worked too hard!
So I did a ton of research into “how to the carbs”
- the best times of day to eat the carbs
- when to have the fats and the protein
- how to structure C, F, P with a workout-routine…
I crafted my “perfectly macro-balanced diet”, and stuck to it.
Shocker: I was in a calorie deficit so I actually continued to lose weight 🤯
Stage 3: Underweight 🤦🏻♀️
A few months of that, and I actually had the reverse problem.
- I lost way too much weight
- Weighing scale said I was in the underweight category
- Body-fat percentage was quite below the healthy level
How serious was it?
At my lowest, I was 104 lbs with just 7% body fat, which for a 5′ 6″ woman actually is quite bad. 😵💫
Here‘s an idea of what that number should be.
While I was proud of what I had accomplished for a bit, that came with a bunch of other issues too..
- Feeling SO cold all the time
- Losing a bunch of hair
- Pale skin
- I even looked malnourished
I needed more fat in my body!
I started upping my calories by 100 every 2-3 weeks, and it made absolutely no difference. The weight-loss continued.
+700 calories and >30% fat calories per day later, I finally started making progress.
What was the problem? It turns out that my metabolism had ramped up so high that I was pretty much starving myself with my previous 1300 calories a day. 🫣
Stage 4: Enough Calories, but maybe an Eating Disorder?
So yes, now I was eating “enough food” and “balanced macros”, but…
- Only eating food I cooked at home
- Obsessively looking up menus of restaurants if there was a plan to eat out
- Only eating at restaurants which put up nutrition info online
- Always only eating what I should eat, never what I wanted
- Asking for NO SALT on anything (What if I ate too much sodium? 🙄)
- Even avoiding the usual grilled chicken breast if they couldn’t do “no salt/no oil”
- Whole Wheat only.
Brown Rice only. - Desserts? NEVER
No sugars whatsoever. Not even fruit (I’ve learned since then…)
Overall I was clearly lying to myself that I was “happy” and “eating everything I wanted”.
Also working out like crazy for 1.5 hours a day. Even through COVID (I actually had dumbbells from 3-30lbs at home and worked out from my apartment bedroom, haha)
Stage 5: Pushing out of that Comfort Zone!
Should probably credit my best-friend-turned-boyfriend-turned-fiancé-turned-husband all in one year for this.
Side note: We knew each other 7 years starting to date, so not just some random person I didn’t know.
July 2021: We went on a trip together to Denver (as friends) and I actually ate “normal” food outside, without tracking it all.
- Salads with funky ingredients
- Wraps with even more funky ingredients (Almond Feta?!)
- Elk Meat hot dogs – probably the craziest.
but also …. - Worked out every morning
- Had my protein zucchini oats for breakfast
- Still getting in veggies for the day
- Getting protein in every meal
Got back to eating at home + working out routine after that
Sept 2021: Another 1 week trip to Seattle, which was pretty much just like that one ^ (with Seattle-specials food of course)
And that routine of trips-normal continued…
Stage 7: Balance 🙂
I guess this is now life…
- Eating out once a week
- Monthy Anniversary date nights
- Trying out cuisines from over the world (we have a checklist, haha)
- IN LOVE with funky burgers – like real funky ones.
We’re talking gourmet crazy combinations of toppings, like Wasabi coleslaw and steak sauce or bacon jam, garlic aioli, horseradish and arugula. - And PIZZA <3
- A don’t even get be started on Brunch.
But also,
- Strength Training 4 days a week (I try to get them all but sometimes its 3 :/)
- A High Protein diet!
- Good amount of Veggies & Fruits throughout
- Salad dressing on the side when eating out (always)
