Crunchy By Nature: Saying Goodbye to Rotten Tomatoes, Empty Pocket Books, & Last Minute Trips to the Store

Guys, for the past few weeks I have been working at a friend's publishing company, not doing anything important, just manning the phones for when an order comes in or a subscription needs to be renewed. Some days it is slow and I spend most of my time surfing the web thinking of ways to build up my own business.

After a seven hour day, I am exhausted. (I know its sad right.) And when I get home the last thing I want to do is stand in the kitchen for 30 min to an hour preparing a meal. And many times, I'll get home ... start cooking ... then realize I am missing one ingredient that I have to have. So, I put the meal on hold, and make my way to the grocery store. Luckily, we live 5 minutes out of town. We have two stores, a grocery store and a dollar store, those are my only options unless I go to one of the gas stations which as we all know are over priced on all their attempt at "food".

So lets say I go to the normal grocery store ... oops ... I procrastinated to long ... and they are closed so its off to the dollar store, which is actually not a 'dollar' store, let's just call it Dolla' Land, and I will most likely be paying the price of the Holy Grail for my desired ingredient. So I walk into the store, and Ooo hey... garden supplies are on clearance because it is now the middle of November and I live in Wisconsin, and I was hoping to get another plant hanger, Wait what... 90% off? And there is like 15 of them here and buying all of them would actually be cheaper than buying one at full price. I'll take 'em!

This almost makes me feel better about my insufficient meal planning skills. So, with that splurge out of the way ... let's get back to the reason for this whole trip ... the desired ingredient. I head to the back of the store which is where the refrigerated items are ... but then I am struck by a wall of dumb ... the item I need is in the produce section ... and in this world of Dolla' Land where supposedly every thing is a dolla' there is No. Fresh. Produce ... Heck ... there is barely even any canned produce ... So I stare ... watching a sea of hungry husbands, picky kids, and way to much sugar coated junk come flooding over me.

I'm defeated ... I turn around, grab a box of cereal and a gallon of milk, and make my way to the check out. My family will eat cardboard for dinner once again. This failed attempt of a dinner deserves a pity party, so I make a pit stop to the candy isle and grab a bag of chocolate covered peanut clusters, but then I see them ... my favorite thin minty cookie is on sale for 'Buy one get one half off'. I grab four and add them to the leaning tower of sugar in my arms, since I didn't grab a basket ... because really ... all I was planning on getting was that ONE ingredient, and we all know from this post, and my jean size, that I am woman with a strict sense of will power. (be sure to note the sarcasm there.)

I practically dump my failed attempts of a happy family dinner and sugar filled condolences on the conveyor and look sheepishly at the cashier who is ten years younger than me and just adding insult to injury with her puny waist. I give a smile, and she makes some random comment about how she wishes she could come to my house and binge on all this chocolate, but if she even looks at the stuff she'll turn into a cow. HA! I stifle a snide remark.

"Your total is $20.64."

What?! How is that possible? I was only going to spend like $3. I sigh. I'm not gonna ask her to put it all back, because there is now a line of three other customers behind me and I gotta try and find enough quarters to pay. Forget it! I pull out the preferred plastic of choice and make a quick swipe with Jolly Master Debt Raiser and storm out of the store.

My 5 minute ride on the Minty Chocolate cookie express is enjoyable ... but as soon as I enter the kitchen and see the remnants of an attempt at a healthy home cooked meal I remember the nearly empty box of cookies, I panic and realize there has to be a better way.

[Here is a sad note: This is actually a true story that ~~happens~~ happened to me frequently ... sometimes on a nightly basis.]

Enter Thrive.

So after I devour a bowl of the cold ~~processed pillows of sugar filled with GMOs and pesticides~~ cereal I head to my station of forget-about-the-world-around me, a.k.a my computer and I start to look up meal planning recipes and a thought pops into my head about food storage and how I really need to build it up past the 7 bags of wheat and a few flats of canned vegetables we have.

I have some flats of canned mixed veggies that I know I should just donate to a food pantry, because lets face it ... I hate canned carrots ... and it would be better to share them with someone who will actually eat them.

Anywho ... so I was looking at different food storage options, then I remembered a commercial which lead me to my experience at a TimeOutForWomen a couple of years ago, where I got to see Mercy River. Afterwords, I bought their CD and next to their table was a booth with a huge food storage rack loaded with Thrive freeze dried foods. At the time the company was called Shelf Reliance, and I had seen the products in our LDS bookstore which is sadly now closed and turned into a liquor store. (Still can't wrap my head around that one.) I loved everything about Shelf Reliance and Thrive foods since the day I saw them. Something about them just intrigued me. That was about four years ago.

Enter in the need to revamp my grocery attempts and my memory for some reason did not fail me this time. (Usually it would leave me to fend for my self and I would be lost, falling into the same trap that has been occurring for the past 10 years of marriage. TEN years people!)

Anyway, I placed my order of a variety of things, and then read and watched more videos about ThriveLife. I know ... it was probably backwards ... but hey ... that's how we roll here ... After watching the videos and reading the blogs, I fell in love with ThriveLife even more and enrolled as an independent consultant.

My consultant kit will arrive tomorrow, which again is backwards from the way I actually purchased everything, which is funny by the way, because I now am doing it in the right order. (Sorry if this is all confusing. I get excited about one thing and then quickly move on to the next all while stepping on my tongue.)

I can't wait to share with you everything I learn while on my journey with ThriveLife.

Here are some things I learned about ThriveLife.

IT's FRESHER THAN FRESH!