I seem to have mistakenly watermarked some of these Thrive Life images with the logo from my other website.  Oops.  Although I’m calling them “eXcuses” in order to account for the letter X, today I’m talking about objections to Thrive Life.  What are some concerns that people might have about the company or the products?

It’s expensive.

Well, it kind of is…depending.  Many of the products are fairly comparable in price, once you account for waste.  Because you’re not paying for carrot peels, ends of onions, the rest of the celery stalk that rots in the bottom of the fridge, etc. you’re only paying for usable food, some things come out pretty even that don’t seem at first to come out even.

(Or even ahead.  The folks I know who have been using it for a while all say they cut their food budget, and waste is apparently one of the big reasons.  I’m told it takes about three months to really start seeing the savings — probably because it takes a few months for most people to build up a variety in their supply.)

For some other items, it is more expensive than the “regular” version of something, but when you factor in the convenience of it, that makes it a good value.  You don’t have to cry chopping onions.  There’s no raw meat mess.  No cutting boards to wash.  Nothing to thaw.  And it’s portable in a way many other options aren’t.  For instance, you can’t just carry around prepared chicken salad in your car — but you can carry around a chicken salad mixed up from freeze-dried ingredients and add water at mealtime.

So the expense is really relative; it depends on the situation and what you’re comparing it to.

It’s unhealthy.

Some of it is.  Some of it isn’t.

I’m a whole foods/real food girl (mostly).  As a rule, I don’t like to eat a lot of heavily-processed ingredients, or manmade chemicals I can’t pronounce.  Consequently, I have no interest in certain Thrive Life products, like lemonade mix or white flour.

BUT…many of the Thrive Life foods are simply real, whole foods, quickly freeze-dried to preserve their nutritional value.  This makes them the ultimate in “fast foods” — portable, quick & easy, and wholesome.

So I totally encourage you to read labels and refrain from buying anything that’s not right for you, but there’s plenty to interest us real food folks.

It’s unnecessary.

So are chocolate and music, but they definitely make life better. 😉  Seriously, can you live without Thrive Life?  Obviously.  If you’re reading this post, you probably already are.  But that doesn’t mean it can’t make your life a little easier or more enjoyable.  It’s a tool; if it improves your life to use it a little or a lot, use it a little or a lot.

Some people might appreciate the foods for special circumstances but only then.  For example, I have a hard time imagining using freeze-dried beans as a regular weekday meal kind of thing, personally (although some people might love it).  But they have obvious uses in things like chili mixes or bean soup mixes intended to be last-minute meal options.  It’s totally okay to make use of it for those special-occasion scenarios even if it isn’t a regular-use thing for you.

I have special dietary needs.

So do I!  This makes some things a bad fit for me that I would otherwise enjoy.  For instance, some of the Simple Plate meals are non-options for me because they contain ingredients I can’t have.  Many of the products are individual foods, though, and I’ve found that they make it a lot easier on me when I’m having to make myself food separate from everyone else.

The nature of the freeze-dried pantry options makes them perfect for single-serving situations.  It’s a lot easier to scoop out a serving’s worth of Thrive Life chicken than it is to deal with a single raw chicken breast.  I often find myself avoiding the carrots I love to eat, because it’s so much trouble to scrub and peel and slice them.  These things are all doable, but it’s so much trouble for so little return when it’s just for me.  (It’s almost as much trouble to prepare meat or carrots or whatever for one person as it is for a whole household.)  So I have really enjoyed having these on hand.

I only bought a single can of the chicken the first month, just to try it out, and when it ran out, I really missed it.