Beachbody Coach

So in my previous post, I mentioned I became a Beachbody Wellness Coach, but I wanted to go into a little more detail as to why I took the plunge.

About 5 years ago when I graduated high school I was EXTREMELY THIN! I honestly don't think I will ever get back to that point and I am more than ok with that. I wasn't eating well enough or much at all and I was a total mess. I suffered from depression, was a binge drinker, and was a loser, I have no shame in admitting those things. I began college thinking I would "enjoy myself"....If I had known "enjoying myself" would cause me to gain an excruciating 30 lbs I would have never done it. The pounds just kept stacking on. There was nothing I could do to stop it and I thought I would be that girl people would run into and not recognize. Even my ex-boyfriend at the time, now fiance (LOL), told me I needed to do something with myself. So what did I decide to do? Starve myself. Go vegetarian. Workout like a lunatic.

And did those things work? Yeah, they did for a short time. But it still didn't change the fact that I was extremely unhealthy and depressed about my body image. And you know what happened? I gained all the weight back in the worst way. I worked at a few different restaurants constantly eating bad food trying to suppress my feelings and it killed me every single day. For some reason my weight kept yo-yo-ing and I could never keep it off or stop gaining ridiculous amounts randomly.

When I came into some money I decided I would try personal training. Obviously, what I was doing wasn't working and maybe I needed the extra push from someone telling me not to quit. I loved it and I loved my coach, but I still could not stop myself from binging. I was very strong and started powerlifting so that saved me in a sense because all those carbs were put to good use, but I still wasn't satisfied and it was EXPENSIVE! I was essentially making a car payment every month, not seeing the results I desperately needed to and drove a shit car in the process. Like I said, my priorities were a MESS and so was I.

This year I was diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. Anxiety was something I struggled with since I was 13 and with all my weight nonsense it skyrocketed and became out of control. I was having daily panic attacks and medicated myself with food. The only thing that never let me down. Even though I was still "thin" to some, I felt like trash because I ate like trash. I began taking medication to help control my anxiety and it was like a lightbulb went off!

One of my best friends, who has an extremely similar backstory like mine, had started Beachbody and was noticing these crazy results that LASTED! I was instantly hooked but couldn't get passed the price tag. After a lot of self-motivation, I decided I was worth it and so was my body. I went in head first and bought the challenge pack along with shakeology and I will never look back. In my first week, I lost 8 lbs from simply EATING RIGHT AND WORKING OUT 30 MINUTES A DAY! IN MY OWN LIVING ROOM, SCORE! 
Obviously, to keep myself accountable and help change lives the way Beachbody changed mine I became a Beachbody coach and it was the best decision I made. My anxiety is in check, my weight has dropped, I've lost inches, and I'm genuinely HAPPY!

I would love to give you the same opportunity I was given.
Contact me at:
Corinarod11@gmail.com
Teambeachbody.com/corinarodriguez

GIVE ME 21 DAYS TO CHANGE YOUR LIFE

Beachbody

So I took the plunge and finally decided to become a member of Beachbody.

Let me tell you, I was VERY reluctant at first because I had this crazy idea all I would be able to eat was chicken and broccoli. Gross. After a little research and some coaxing by my beautiful coach, Jayma, I dove right in and I never want to look back. And the best part? My fiance is also doing the program with me!

I have some GREAT recipes to share with yall this week and honest to God, they are DELICIOUS!

The first recipe I want to share is this delicious Chicken Taco Bowl.

1lb chicken (boiled)
1 can corn
1 can black beans
1 can petite diced tomatoes
Taco seasoning
Garlic powder (to taste)
Chili Powder (to taste)
1 Green bell pepper
1/2 white onion (or 1 small onion)
Colby Jack (optional)




I boiled my chicken so it would be easy to shred and then I simply covered it in taco seasoning to taste and some of the tomato juice from my can of tomatoes. SO EASY.
Next, I sauteed my veggies all together to get their juices flowing and adding a little chili powder and garlic powder for an extra oomph!
Rinse your corn and black beans AND BOOM YOU ARE DONE!
I used my Beachbody containers to measure everything out and mixed it up in a bowl and that was dinner. DELICIOUS AND CHEAP!

Measuring: 1 red, 1 green, 2 yellow, 1 blue!

If you know me, you know I love anything with rice. Let me tell you something, this meal HIT THE SPOT! So spicy, and so good, and the best part? IT'S SO STINKIN' HEALTHY YOU WOULDN'T BELIEVE IT! This meal was so easy that I had it ready in less than 10 minutes, that's crazy talk in my house.

1 link Hillshire farm smoked turkey sausage
1 box Uncle Ben's boil in bag brown rice
1 green bell pepper
1/2 white onion (or 1 small onion)
1 can petite diced tomatoes
Colby jack cheese (optional)
Cayenne pepper
Hot sauce



Cook your sausage to your liking and place in a separate container. In the same pan, (for those extra yummy flavors) saute all your veggies until onions are tender and translucent with a little cayenne pepper for an extra kick. In a separate pot, cook the rice according to packaging and you are done!

I used my containers to measure out all my portions and added some extra hot sauce for flavor!

Measuring: 1 red, 1 green, 2 yellow, 1 blue


BTW Y'ALL! MY MEALS MAKE LEFTOVERS FOR MEAL PREP! MY MEASURES AT THE END OF EACH RECIPE ARE FOR 1 SERVING ONLY!!

How do I do it?

I want to take some time to talk about how I coupon, save money, use rebates, and of course why I started doing all of these things. 

About two years ago, Weston and I were living in our first apartment and it was the first time we were "on our own" without our parents. We both had good jobs, bills were always paid, and we never ran into money issues or having to "budget". Because we didn't need to worry about money I never took a second glance at how much I was actually spending a month on groceries and other necessities we were constantly buying like toilet paper, paper towels, and cleaning supplies. My first step to "saving money" was starting to buy certain items in bulk. Now, a little backstory....I grew up in a family that bought EVERYTHING in bulk from Sam's Club. Groceries, paper products, cleaning supplies, even clothes (don't knock it till you try it! Sam's has great sales on basics like shirts and shorts). Back to two years ago, we headed to Sam's and signed up for a membership. It was a little off-putting that we had to pay $45 before we even starting shopping but I blew it off because I just KNEW it would pay for itself in savings. Long story short, it did.
I started by comparing prices at HEB (My #1 grocery store) to Sam's. I did this down to the $/oz , $/roll , $/lb. Yes, yes, I know....that's a little much BUT I wanted to make sure I was actually getting the best possible deal! When it came down to it, Sam's blew HEB out of the water on certain items.

When I go to Sam's I always buy

• Idahoan Instant Potatoes (this is a life saver after a long day)
• Minute Rice 
• Chicken Breast - These are honestly SO big I have to half them into 2 fillets, then food save them in packs of 3 smaller fillets. They are also better cuts than HEBs frozen chicken breast with less "weird" fascia pieces
• Ground Beef - $5/1lb or $10-$12/4lbs? You do the math
• Toilet Paper - I buy the Member's Mark brand, Sam's house brand. 45 rolls for $17.86 (.40/roll) compared to HEBs 30 rolls for $14.27 (.48/roll). I know this seems petty but trust me....the pennies add up. Also, this price is even WITH a coupon and it's still cheaper to buy at Sam's.
• Paper Towels - I buy the POM brand, it comes in a HUGE box containing 30 rolls at $26.52 (.88/roll) compared to HEB 12 rolls at $15.47 ($1.29/roll). Sure you could buy the SUPER cheap brand but you're sacrificing quality and you'll be using double...there's really not much of a savings left. 

Another way I constantly save money when I do shop at HEB is COUPONS! Duh! 

My Sunday afternoon ritual is to sit at the kitchen table and go through the Weekly Ad online and choose my dinners from what's available. If hot dogs and shredded cheese are on sale, we're eating hotdogs! If pasta or pasta sauce is on sale, we're eating pasta! You get the idea. This is a great way to cut overspending because you have something to work off of. This doesn't mean I only buy things on sale because that's not realistic, but it helps my bottom line a ton. I also registered to use HEB Digital Coupons which are different than the yellow printed coupons you can find around the store. These are similar to a loyalty card and are taken directly at the register whenever you input your number on the screen. It's hassle free because you can do this online or on the app and they stay on there until they expire or you use them. HEB even tracks how much you have saved total on digital coupons every time, pretty neat! I also use paper coupons when I see them around the store or I print them directly from HEB.com since they are automatically linked to Coupons.com. I don't use these as often however because they are usually for name brand items and I prefer HEB brand.....which is still cheaper even if I use coupons on name brand items. 

Lastly, I have FINALLY started using Ibotta! I don't know why I had never heard of these before but I'm so glad I started using it. Ibotta is basically a rebate app that gives you money for buying certain items. This week they had rebates for ANY brand milk, cheese, eggs, juice, sodas, pasta, and pasta sauce. All of these things were also ON SALE at HEB so I DOUBLED my savings once the rebates were verified. Awesome! So far this week I saved $6 at the store, plus and extra $3 using rebates. 

I have a referral code you can use for an extra FREE $5 when you sign up using it and verify your first rebate. Verifying is as easy as scanning the barcode using their app and taking a picture of your receipt for proof. It's FREE MONEY Y'ALL!

Referral Code:

fxvtdul

I also use a coupon tracker I downloaded through MS Excel that tracks how much my retail costs are, my discounts, coupons, rebates, and my ultimate savings total. It's a fun tool that serves as a nice reminder!

This is my 2016 tracker so it's still empty because I've only gone shopping once.

Now, why did I start couponing in the first place? When we bought our home I was field-basing, which is similar to student teaching. I would be in the classroom all day (taking two whole days away from working) and I also had to take a night class (I work nights so now I'm out 3 days of the week). I also reserve Sunday's for time to spend with Weston, our families, and to catch up on school work, house work, and running errands. That left me with a whopping 3 days I could work a week. Add into that lessson planning, homework, and everything else....it just wasn't possible for me to work nights any longer and the daytime shifts at my work were already taken up by other servers. So I started subbing on those 3 days and still bartending on Saturdays...but it still wasn't paying much. I found myself in a pickle, I had all these bills to pay but no way of being able to work more to pay them. Weston and I came to a personal agreement and now I pay our bills, groceries, and take care of housework which is a reasonable amount. I figured more serious couponing would be more beneficial than only buying things in bulk and I was hooked. Weston ALWAYS makes fun of me in the stores because I am that girl with the coupons.

In the end, couponing has seriously changed so much for me this last year. It's nice to not worry about money and I'm so blessed that I set my mind to something and it paid off, literally. If you ever think couponing could be for you, do it. It's always worth it.

Happy couponing!

Cheesy Chicken and Broccoli Over Rice

Here in South Texas it's officially cold front season and the tempuratures can easily go from 85* on Christmas Day to 48* the next morning. My house is sitting at a pretty frigid 67* right now with no heater or AC going so I can finally lay on the couch with a blanket and not sweat it off a few minutes later like usual. So, with this cold weather I felt like eating something to warm my body up and that wouldn't take very long to make that way I could spend extra time cuddling my babies on the couch. Thus, this recipe came about. It's cheesy (Weston's favorite), has broccoli (my favorite), and of course the chicken adds a healthy amount of protein to really fill you up. I served it over rice because one of my FAVORITE homecooked meals is my mom's cheesy broccoli rice and I thought this would fill the void I've been having since Thanksgiving.

This recipe took less than 5 minutes to put together and only 5 hours in the crockpot or you could prepare it in the morning and set your timer that way your crockpot would just keep it warm till dinner time. Luckily I'm on winter break and have all day to do things around the house otherwise I would be going with the morning method.

Ingredients:

• 10.5 oz Cream of Chicken (Condensed)
• 10.5 oz Cheddar Soup (Condensed)
• 14 oz Chicken Broth
• 1.5 cups Shredded Cheddar
• 1 cup Sour Cream
• Frozen/Fresh Broccoli (I added how much I want, you can too, there's no right or wrong!)
• 1/2 Tsp Salt
• 1/2 Garlic Powder
• 1/2 Coarse Black Pepper
• 2-3 Chicken Breasts 

Throw the cream of chicken, cheddar soup, chicken broth and spices into the crock pot and stir until smooth(ish). Add your chicken breasts and set the temp to low for 4-6 hours or high for 3 hours. About an hour before finished or serving shred the chicken and add your sour cream, shredded cheddar, and broccoli. Allow everything to melt and for the broccoli to cook through, you can stir occasionally.

Serve over rice and you're good to go!

Hope y'all enjoy this super quick and easy recipe. Weston loved it and I loved how easy it was to make so it will be a staple from now on.

Grocery Savings and Winter Break

Well, I finally beat my last best of $15.74! This was a complete surprise since I did not put ANY planning into this trip whatsoever like I usually do. However, this was one of the most hectic trips I have ever made because the week before Christmas at HEB is a literal black hole. Despite it all though I came out on top....even with Weston making constant "extreme couponer" jokes about me to the cashier...

In other news, I'm officially on Christmas Break from my kiddos and I successfully slept in till 10 today....then took another nap at 11....and 1....and 3....basically I slept all freaking day and I have absolutely no regrets about any of it. Tomorrow I will get back to work and do some minor winter cleaning around the house. We are hoping to have Weston's family here on Christmas and I would like for our house to not look like its usual very "lived-in" self.

Goals this week:

• Get my office space together
• Wash the comforters and guest sheets
• Fold and actually put away the laundry
• Finally make a schedule to follow for blogging
• And last but not least, spend some quality time with my sister

Gobble, Gobble!

One of my goals this fall was to attempt to cook a turkey...my mom ended up making the turkey this year and my boyfriend's family had a fish fry for Thanksgiving so I thought my moment was shot. However, I love turkey and don't mind eating it after Thanksgiving! So, that's what I set out to do and of course it was made in a crockpot. I had my parents over for dinner and this was a total hit. I was so worried I would mess this up but it is seriously so simple there is NO WAY to ruin this turkey. Have fun with it, use other spices if you wish!

Ingredients:
4-5 lb Turkey Breast
3 Stalks/Ribs Celery (chopped into 2 in. pieces)
1 Carrot (cut into 2 in. pieces)
Garlic Powder
Kosher Salt
Coarse Black Pepper


Chop up all of your veggies and place them in the bottom of your crockpot.

 

Wash and pat dry your turkey breast and place on top of veggies. Sprinkle with Garlic, Salt, Pepper to taste.

That's it! Set your crockpot on Low for 4-5 hours and leave it alone! Internal temp MUST reach 165 before consuming. If you want that "crispy" skin you would get from roasting, feel free to throw it under the broiler for a few minutes to toast it up once it is done cooking.

Enjoy!

Holy Cow! Or at least, chicken!

Today I embarked on a journey I have been scared to try for some time.....a whole chicken. I was mostly scared of royally screwing this up but to my surprise it was a complete WIN!

Right into the crockpot

Ingredients:
4-5 lb chicken
3 lemons
2-3 heads of garlic
brisket seasoning

Cook time: 4 hours
Prep: 15 minutes (depending)

Remove the ends of one lemon on each side as if you wanted to stand it up straight. Cut lemon in half and place at bottom of crockpot. Cut 1 garlic head in half and place at bottom of crockpot as well.

Finished product!

Rinse chicken inside and out very well and pat dry with paper towels. Remember to remove any insides if they are present (I buy ready to cook chickens to avoid this, gross!). Once dry season inside and out with brisket seasoning. Stuff chicken with other head of garlic separated into smaller pieces and peeled. Cut 2nd lemon into quarters and stuff chicken with these too. Cut 3 lemon into slices and place on top of chicken.

Set crockpot on high for 4 hours and leave alone! When thickest part of chicken reads at 165 degrees with a meat thermometer, chicken is cooked!

Enjoy!!!

Btw, of course this chicken was bought on sale :)

Weekend Warriors Pt. 1

To start off, I'm thankful for Thanksgiving Break!

Definitely missing my kids but I needed this break more than anything and managed to get so much done just this weekend alone. It was a weekend full of cooking, cleaning, buying things, and best of all spending time with Weston.

With the temperatures dropping I have had Mexican Posole on my mind for weeks. My mother always made it for me during the fall/winter because it's one of my favorite cold-weather soups and I haven't had it in at least 2 years since I moved out. I always contemplate making a batch, but I'm always terrified I'll butcher the whole thing and never try to make it again...like fideo. Much to my surprise, I took a chance and it was a complete SUCCESS! I used pork stew meat, chicken broth, white/yellow hominy, and a new addition green chiles and enchilada sauce!

Yum!

Ingredients

• 3 Tbsps. oil
  
  
• 1 lb. pork stew meat
• 1 tbsp. dried onion flakes
• 2 tsp. garlic powder
• 8 cups chicken broth
• 1 (14.5 oz.) can mild red enchilada sauce
• 1 (7.5 oz.) can chopped green chilies
• 1½ tsp. each chili powder, cumin
• ½ tsp. each Mexican oregano
• 2 (15.5 oz.) can white/yellow hominy, drained
• 1 lime (optional)

Instructions

1. Heat oil in large pot on medium heat. Add pork, onion, and garlic. Sauté 3-4 minutes searing pork on all sides.
2. Stir in broth, enchilada sauce, green chilies, and spices. Bring to a boil on high heat. Cover and reduce heat to low. Simmer 40 minutes. Add hominy. Cover and simmer 10 minutes.
3. I like to garnish with a lime wedge squeezed!

If I remember correctly we spent the rest of the evening watching The Fox and The Hound (thanks Netflix) and me crying over the ending. What can I say? I'm a sucker for a good Disney movie :)

Steak Dinner For Two

Over the weekend I had purchased some steaks on sale and we finally got around to making them for dinner last night. I had the longest day subbing for a junior high special ed class and I didn't want to have to come home and make some huge dinner. Luckily my amazing boyfriend whipped these up for us and all I had to do was make the sides (bought on sale of course!) About 10 minutes later we had an awesome dinner and barely any dishes to do.

We spent the rest of the evening at my parents introducing Sam to my mom's dog, Cinco. All the dogs were playing so well together ane being silly and it was definitely an evening well spent. Bailey and Sam even managed to tree a opossum and of course went NUTS trying to get it down and kill it. Definitely beagles!!

This November I am very thankful for everyone I have had the pleasure of having in my life so far, and of course I'm thankful for my perfect fur babies.

Chicken, and Steaks, and Coupons, Oh My!

I didn't think I could do it, but I definitely did.

Last week I saved $9.75 on my grocery shopping for the week and didn't think I would be able to beat that total for awhile. I was only skeptical because HEB has such a tough coupon policy that you can double coupons, truly piggyback, and coupons.com doesn't make coupons for HEB unless they are manufacturer coupons. So this week I started planning ASAP. HEB's weekly ad comes out on Wednesdays so of course there I was scanning the ad plus trying to think of a recipe that could go along with it, which wasn't very easy this week. Since it's only us two, whenever I make dinner we typically have leftovers for the next days lunch and dinner. In essence, I really only make dinner maybe 3 times a week and we go out 1 night or we find odds and ends in the pantry.

For this week, I planned the following and knowing us this will be MORE than enough.

• Steaks with broccoli cheesy rice
• King Ranch Chicken (my style)
• Pasta Bake 

I got the New York strip steaks on super sale at $4.75/lb. I had a coupon for the broccoli rice which was buy one bag/get one free so I couldn't pass that up. I buy chicken at SAM's, but Rotel, peas & carrots and the cheese for toppings was on sale too. And last week I had gotten the pasta and pasta sauce on sale (buy pasta/get sauce free) so I just needed to buy mozzarella cheese (on sale too). Basically, the only thing I bought not on sale was tortilla chips for King Ranch Chicken. Of course, we got some other goodies like tamales (sale), Delimex taquitos and Bagel Bites (buy tacos/get bagel bites free) and household items for cleaning that I wrote about in my previous post. 

All in all, my grand total savings was $15.74! WOW! Price before sales/coupons was $73.32. Some people turn their nose up at HEB brands like Hill Country Fair, but you'd be amazed that there is NO DIFFERENCE and it's ALWAYS cheaper and on sale more frequently. 

Can't wait to post pictures and recipes for everything I cook later this week! Stay Tuned!!

Falling into Fall

I'm with my kindergarteners all day on Tuesdays and Thursdays so I like to take full advantage of Mondays when I know I'll be completely alone. With midterms coming along full speed and only 4 weeks left in the semester my workload has become insanely busy. However, I still try to get dinner on the table ATLEAST 3 times a week. I haven't had pork chops since I had moved out of my parents and I figured with the weather cooling down now would be the perfect time to try it out. I was so hesitant about whether I wanted Weston (my boyfriend) to grill them, throw them in the crockpot, or bake them. I finally decided baking would be the quickest and easiest way to throw dinner on the table and off to HEB (our AMAZING grocery chain) I went.

If there is anything I love, it is a good HEB sale. For this week's circular pork chops were on sale for $1.97/lb and I also had a digital coupon for $2 off if I got the value pack. The only pork chops I could find were the "wafer thin" kind that had almost no meat or bone-in. Bummer. Right when I was about to give up I went a little farther up the meat section and found the most perfect butterflied pork chops that were not only THICK but for only $7. Since they were butterflied, and still an inch thick, what would have been only 4 humongous pork chops turned into 8 perfectly sized ones. With the $2 off coupon, I essentially got a meal for 6 people for $5. SCORE! HEB also has a great generic brand that tastes just as amazing as name brand products so I grabbed a box of $.75(sale !!!) cornbread stuffing and was out the door.

I am extremely proud to say I made dinner for Weston and me for the next two days for less than $7.
Another great thing about HEB is that they tell you at the bottom of the receipt exactly how much you saved buying their brand + coupons. It is always a game for me to beat the previous weeks bill and I think it'll be a while until I can beat this weeks savings of $9.75. Of course, we bought some extra necessities but, all in all, this was a good trip.

Pork Chops (Baked)

Ingredients

• 1 box Shake and Bake (or generic, always go with whatever's cheaper! You'll never taste the difference.)
• 3.5-4 lbs Pork chops (boneless or bone-in)

Pre-heat oven to 350.

I simply dropped 1 pork chop in at a time and covered it completely then placed them in a greased pyrex dish. Once the oven was heated I popped them in for 50 min - 1 hr depending on thickness and left them alone. 

I also made some stuffing that came from a box (it's still way too hot in South Texas to be keeping the oven on for too long) and prepared some mashed potatoes with chicken gravy. I had dinner on the table in an hour and it's so great to have the time after dinner to still WANT to clean up the kitchen. 

 Right before going in the oven

Fresh out 

We were starving