It's no secret, the TV is laden with ads for food food food all the time. There are entire networks dedicated strictly to food. Millions and millions of dollars go into making food look better for TV. There are shows about the importance of healthy eating with ads for KFC during their breaks. We all know this...

So this morning I woke up STARVING. Like, literally tummy growling, light headed, NEED SOMETHING NOW hungry. My husband was already awake, thanks to people from work calling way early this morning, and the kids were awake too. (thankfully, they let me sleep in! <3) I got up and went to the kitchen and both kids come running in asking for breakfast. I made them their breakfast, and as I'm putting it on the table, out of the corner of my eye I see the TV in the living room. My husband is watching Anthony Bordaine and Mr. Bordaine is in the deep south. Growing up, my family ate all the yummies from the deep south... it's my ultimate comfort food. Hypnotized, I watched as they made and ate my all-time favorite breakfast EVER, fried chicken and waffles with extra butter and maple syrup. I stood there drooling until commercial break. I walked back to the kitchen, looked disdainfully at the packet of oatmeal I was preparing, then up to my favorite southern cook book... To smack myself back into reality, I looked up the calorie intake for the exact meal I wanted. I knew it was more than I would want to eat.

I looked up the meal they were eating:
1 large fried chicken breast, 1 fried chicken leg, 1 plate-sized belgian waffle, 1/8 cup (approx.) maple syrup and 2 T butter - (ready for this??) 1243 calories. TWELVE HUNDRED AND FORTY-THREE CALORIES!!! I used to LOVE eating this exact meal, sans the one chicken leg, which saves me about 150 calories... My jaw hit the floor when I hit the total.

I grabbed my perfectly healthy packet of delicious chai oatmeal, mixed in a tablespoon of pumpkin butter and made myself 2 egg whites. I'm perfectly satiated. TV, you have lost this round.

Yeah, I think those cooking shows should be required to show the total calorie counts and the nutrition breakdown of the foods they demonstrate. In Parade magazine a couple of weeks ago, they had fancy grilled cheese sandwich recipes from a couple famous chefs, and each sandwich had around 1200 calories. Thank goodness Parade give the calorie counts! I won't be making them any time soon...

Jay

I had to limit my TV watching, so I wouldn't be as exposed to really thin women savoring these so called "light" or low calorie treats, that would either trigger me into binging, or make me yearn for the "real thing" (cheese cake as opposed to cheese cake yoplait light yogurt).

Im proud you stood up strong

the food and drug industry is really the devil sometimes!

I feel your pain... The gym I go to has a row of TVs in front of the treadmills and ellipticals, and one of the channels is always tuned to the Food network - torture!

I've been eating a pretty darn healthy diet for about 2 1/2 months now, and my tastes have NOT yet changed (for the most part - I do genuinely prefer thin crust pizza with less cheese and tons of veggies now). I see commercials for fast food with thousands of calories, and I want it. I see cooking shows making pastas, biscuits and gravy, and fantastic looking deserts, and I want it. Calorie counts don't really make me want it any less, I just have to tell myself NO!

I've been watching less regularly broadcast TV, and recording everything on DVR so I can fast-forward through the commercials. I avoid the food network and the travel channel like the plague. I'm hoping that someday my tastes will change enough that oatmeal or egg white omelets sound better than biscuits with sausage gravy...but somehow I doubt it

Good for you!!

Good for you for staying strong.

Incidentally, I like chicken and I like waffles but eating them together just sounds weird to me. But then again I'm not from the South and I've no doubt that some of the food combos I like would sound strange to anyone who didn't grow up eating them.

I'm originally from Indiana, born and raised, but my family and many families from the area are transplanted Southern families, based on how we speak. It's a combination of a mid-western with a southern 'twang.

I cannot WATCH Man vs Food. It makes me sick. Even when I didn't care about how I ate, just watching him made me feel bad. I was a binge eater, so maybe seeing him, and realizing he was doing it for others' entertainment was the reason.

I watch very little TV. I watch Glee on DVR, and that's it. :P I don't have the attention span for it, but my family does watch it and my husband's favorite channels are the Food Network and Travel Channel.

I always turn the volume off and look away when the TV commercials come on... ^^ It's not just a matter of the junk food ads because those don't even tempt me anymore(they disgust me more than anything), but all of the ads.. medications and personal products and fast food and car insurance and everything else that's constantly getting hawked on the TV(I saw an ad for an emergency room a few months back! An emergency room! What, do they think someone will see that and go "Oh, that looks nice, I'll go break my arm now so I can visit!") at the expense of billions of dollars... it's too much. I hardly ever watch TV anymore but when I do, it seems half of the program is commercials.

I had to limit my TV watching, so I wouldn't be as exposed to really thin women savoring these so called "light" or low calorie treats, that would either trigger me into binging, or make me yearn for the "real thing" (cheese cake as opposed to cheese cake yoplait light yogurt).

I hear ya on this one!! There is a Twix commercial in our area and all of the people in the ad our downing these candy bars. I have always felt that if we really want people to lose weight we should put obese people in these commercials to show what these types of foods will actually lead to.

it's funny i have a different POV, but it's probably because i don't really like to cook and never have. Now that i am a vegan and my family isn't, it's like i have "permission" to try new stuff. i don't have anyone to please but myself so i am taking more risks and actually taking ideas from tv. i love to watch food shows now, and i hope it will continue to help me fight the urge to eat everything i see. Seeing it on tv isn't as much of an issue for me as *smelling* it in real life!

-fm

ohhhhhhhh mannnnnnn chicken and waffles is the best combo. There's even a restaurant that specializes in the combo - Roscoe's House of Chicken and Waffles. The salty and sweet is so perfect and so deadly.

I can't watch cooking shows because they make me want to go to the grocery store and loot.

I always laugh that the day I got my PVR system, my pounds started melting off.
Which is more or less factual. My weight loss started last September when my dad brought that baby home and we started fastforwarding through adverts

I used to have this issue with food on TV. Some people call cooking shows "Food Porn" and I can understand why. After a year of my healthy lifestyle change, I actually look forward to watching shows like Man VS Food now as I find them eye opening and they serve as a reminder of why I don't eat like that anymore. Watching a grown man stuff himself with nasty food until he is sick, makes me feel ill and kind of repulsed over what our society has become and what I used to be like.
The fact that you realized how bad the breakfast is, is great! 1200 calories!!! WOW! You should be very proud as that is a sign of personal growth. I always feel proud when I refuse something that the old me would gladly eat. Good for you

I enjoy watching Man vs Food! I actually went to two places he showed on the show because he made the food look SOOOO yummy (which it was ). I never did any of the challenges though. I'm not a fan of the food hangover feeling I get if I eat too too much in one sitting..

You did a great job making the right choice!
I don't watch any "TV" only movies on vhs or dvd. I used to love watching cooking shows and then I'd want to make (and EAT) what they were making.