Easy, cheap, and tasty. That’s what drove my obsession with TV Dinners. Long before keto I would buy Hungry-man Dinners, Michelina Bowls, or Swanson Trays 4 for $10.00 and be set for work lunches all week.
How could I go wrong? You take a frozen product that won’t go bad, pop it in the microwave for five minutes and you have a full meal. The entire thing only cost $2.50 and is filled with enough salt and sugar to trick you into thinking it tastes good. Sign me up.
Are TV Dinners Bad?
This was my old life, before keto. The thought of doing this now makes me feel ill and lazy. Really that’s what it comes down to… lazy. I could go to the store and buy a week’s worth of food that is cooked in minutes. No planning or work needed. The convenience made my lunch something less to worry about. I used that to justify putting garbage into my body.
So, are TV Dinners bad? Yes, they are. I was going to try a debate on the subject but, there is very little hope of that. If we even look at the basics of a TV dinner, we can see they are not only bad for a keto diet, but they are also awful for any diet.
What’s So Bad About TV Dinners?
I won’t name names here but looking at the most popular TV Dinner in North America we have some alarming macros. For one 454 g serving we have 81 grams of carbs of which 25 are straight sugar. Living a keto lifestyle that means in one lunch you will have 4 days of carbs. Looking at the rest, this “meal” is packed with 39 grams of fat and only 26 grams of protein. Think about that. If you add up the protein and fat you still can’t reach the carb count.
It was obvious that a TV Dinner doesn’t fit a keto lifestyle, but what about more traditional eating styles? Let’s look at a little bit more of the nutritional information. If you go to the ingredient list you will find things like this: mechanically separated chicken, soy protein, isolated oat product, and sodium acid pyrophosphate. Those are just the ones I can pronounce. The amount of real food in that tray is minimal at best.
How Did I Kick My Obsession with TV Dinners?
Two things happened to pull me away from the ease and comfort of these frozen trays. A health scare and keto. I was eating a frozen lasagna when I realized that something was seriously wrong. It felt like I was having a heart attack. I think deep down I always knew my health problems were food related, but that’s a scary thing to admit. It came to a head that day and I knew as I headed to the hospital that would likely be my last TV Dinner.
Enter keto. When I was diagnosed with hyperinsulinism the doctor gave me two options. Organ destroying drugs or a low carb diet. I obviously picked keto and my life has been better for it. I haven’t had a TV Dinner since and really don’t miss them. So how did I kick my TV Dinner obsession? I didn’t… keto did. Eating good food, feeling full, and feeling healthy will push the bad things out of your life.
Do You Miss Them?
I will admit on some days I miss the convenience. Five minutes in a microwave after opening a box is very easy. On those days I quickly realize I didn’t prep properly and have the ingredients on hand I need to properly do keto. Keto doesn’t make laziness go away or the need to take the simplest path. That takes a little determination and willingness to use all that newfound energy you have from ketosis.
Missing the convenience is one thing, but do I miss the food itself? Not even a little bit. The salty taste with weird texture is something I have no need to experience again. I enjoy whole or real food and really question why I would ever put this in my body in the first place. The ingredient list is a who’s who of chemically produced nonsense.
Success Story
We have done blogs on non-scale victories in the past and I add kicking my TV Dinner obsession as one of them. It’s two-fold. The first success is how empowering it felt to kick this habit and realizing I have the power to take my health into my own hands. Thinking about the ingredients before the ease of preparation shows me how far I have come.
The second success is overcoming my sheer laziness. I said I ate TV Dinners because they were cheap, tasty, and easy. In reality they don’t taste good, and they really aren’t that cheap considering what $2.50 can get you if you cook a full portioned meal. So, it came down to easy. I was lazy. Plain and simple. I’ve overcome that, gotten off the couch and show a willingness to use my energy to better myself.
It may just be a TV Dinner to you, but to me it’s a success story.
Bill
