The announcement over the grocery store’s intercom rang in my ears at the exact moment that I passed by the frozen food section.
Coincidence?
My eyes were inadvertently drawn in the general direction of the plethora of food like substances.
And I realized that Pavlov’s little experiment no longer worked on me.
For the first time in my life, I didn’t start salivating.
Could it be, I wondered, am I no longer an addict? a frozen food junkie?
You remember my father? The guy who I adored but who also was at least partially responsible for my journey down the junk food highway?
Not that I blame him.
Well, besides the trips to The Poppe Shoppe and Burger King, my Dad was known to frequent the frozen food aisle at the grocery store, provided there were coupons involved.
I remember how my heart would leap with joy whenever Dad would come home with Van de Kamps’ fish fillets and Crispers french fries.
What rapture!
I first learned to cook by opening colorful boxes and lovingly arranging the contents on the cookie sheet. And of course, I had to turn on the oven. And then stand there for those agonizing 12 minutes until it was done!
I don’t want to mislead you- Mom made most of our meals from scratch. She even made home made bread, used eggplant in several recipes, and tried to get us to drink aloe vera juice.
But Dad was all about special occasions and treats and bargains.
All that convenience food was special and therefore, much coveted by me.
We kids were elated whenever he’d whip out the frozen manna from the freezer.
And you know, they don’t call it convenience food for nothing. Swanson TV dinners on sale? The perfect dinner solution for a hectic day.
As a young Mom who was pregnant more than not, March was a blessed month for me. Combine all those great bargains with a deep freezer and it equalled I could lay on the couch in my morning sickness misery or bed rest banishment and my kids could still eat.
I am not sure when the tide started to turn. Several years ago, I began taking a hard look at all those ingredients listed on the back of those attractive packages.
By the time Morgan Spurlock made Super Size Me, I needed no convincing of the message. I was fully in his camp, a member of the “eat healthier choir”. But that movie did cause me to have one epiphany. Junk food is addicting and I was/am an addict.
I’d like to think of myself as cured. My experience in the grocery store gave me hope. But something tells me I could very easily fall again. I am still pretty fond of fried cheese sticks.
And therefore, I must be ever vigilant.
My name is Jen, and I am a recovering junk -foodoholic….
3 Comments
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Jessica
You know, you can make your own fried cheese sticks.
I still like frozen food. It works for me sometimes when my days are very busy. But we don’t eat much of it anymore. I’ve even given up eating frozen meals for lunch, instead opting for PB sandwiches or leftovers. So maybe this is an area where I am not doing so badly — an area I didn’t realize that I wasn’t doing so badly in. Thanks for the realization!
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HK
My “Supersize Me” confession: I totally started eating fast food again after that movie. I couldn’t sit through an entire movie showing me commercial after commercial, close up after close up of quarter-pounders and not want one. I fell off the wagon, and I fell hard.
It’s sort of embarrassing.
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Rachel
I like Michael Pollan’s food rule, “You can eat as much junk food as you want, if you make it yourself.” Words to live by I say. I try not to buy those convenience foods so much. They are not nearly as good as I remember them from my childhood anyway. And I did make homemade bread again over the weekend.
