Horrible Coupon

[Rubystars]

I went to the grocery store and bought healthy foods. I did notice that there was an absolutely horrible promotion on the frozen aisle though. This store likes to have coupon deals every week on various items through the store. There were some coupons hanging there that said if you bought 5 healthy choice frozen dinners, that you got a FREE tub of their store brand ice cream!

What was that all about?

I think it's horrible, They are seriously going to cause people to fall off the wagon with this one. Maybe it's good marketing, after all maybe people who are dieting might be craving ice cream and fighting the battle of willpower not to get it, but then they will see this coupon and not be able to pass it up, or maybe after eating the low calorie dinners they will think that they 'deserve' the ice cream or that somehow the ice cream won't hurt them because the other stuff they ate was relatively healthy.

However, to me this is bad because it's sabotaging the diet.

They could have, if they wanted to do a promotion like this, given a low fat or low calorie alternative ice cream product like sugar free fudgsicles which are only 40 calories (and which I enjoy sometimes) but no, this was a free tub of the high fat, sugar packed regular ice cream.

I'm glad I wasn't that tempted, but it made me kind of angry on other people's behalf.

[cjohnson728]

I agree that it's a stupid juxtaposition between what is touted as a healthy meal (sorry, not that fond of stuff that comes out of a box, personally) and ice cream; that does seem rather nonsensical.

However, I have to speak up to the issue of personal responsibility. It's my belief that the store, or anything else, does not cause people to fall off the wagon. People decide whether or not to put that ice cream in their shopping basket and they decide whether or not to eat it. It reminds me of the people trying to sue McDonald's because they get fat.

I know that may sound heavy handed and argumentative, but I learned long ago that if I let myself make excuses, then I'll never stop making excuses. I have to live in the real world, and there will always be temptations in it, so I have to take responsibility on my end in dealing with them.

[almeeker]

I'm with Cassie on the frozen boxed meal. People that would buy the TV dinner will buy the ice cream. I know that the "Healthy Choice" are promoted as "healthy", but if you read the ingredients and the nutritional info they really aren't that much better than the ice cream. Agreed though that it does seem to be promoting some sort of vicious diet-go-round situation, and as the food retailer, they benefit from those climbing on the wagon and those falling off, so clearly it's in their own best interest to create such a situation. I guess I would recommend that you point it out to their corporate office.

[Rubystars]

Some of them are high calorie like the ice cream (sweet and sour chicken is very high in calories for example) but there are select varieties which are very healthy and low calorie except for the sodium. That's how I get my meat serving for the day a lot of times and to be honest without the variety I think I'd have a hard time sticking to low calorie eating. I have to pick and choose between brands though. There are even a couple of Marie Callenders selections which are under 300 calories. You just have to look for them.

I'm eating a lot less processed food than I used to, and a lot more fresh produce, but I don't know how to cook some of those dishes and have them come out portioned properly so they help me a lot (I've lost 60 lbs so far).

I don't think promotions like the one I mentioned in the original post MAKE people fall off the wagon, but I don't think it's responsible for the store to do that for the same reason I don't think we should have advertisements for Cheez Whiz or Bratwurst on this site. It makes it more difficult for people if they are struggling for motivation, and that can contribute to someone failing.