This article is a love song to all of you out there who still think of those Red Lobster cheddar biscuits as the fanciest, most delicious, bread course you've ever had.
You're not alone.
Honestly, even Beyonce agrees Red Lobster is for special occasions according to the lyrics of "Formation."
Reddit user TactlessLaugher asked:
"What’s a meal as child you thought was fancy, or high class but was really the exact opposite?"
Let's get into it, starting with the obvious.
Luxury Lobster
"I thought Red Lobster was classy sh*t as a child."
"As an adult I ordered 6 soggy small shrimp that came in bowl and they called it shrimp scampi and paid way too much for it."
- _Goose_
"My sons (they're almost 14) still think Red Lobster is the top echelon of seafood."
"We even go to the Outer Banks right on the ocean one week every summer where they both eat fresh, tasty seafood. But they think some $35 pile of rubbery Red Lobster meat is prime luxury."
- orangestar17
"I took one of my sons there to celebrate the end of a successful school year."
"I thought for sure he would realize how not-posh it really was."
"Nope, he thought it was amazing and couldn’t wait to tell his friends he had finally gone to Red Lobster. I kept my mouth shut and let him enjoy the luxury."
- pixygarden
Season 1 Episode 13 GIF by The SimpsonsGiphyPizza Hut Used To Be Awesome
"In the 80s, I can't explain how big of a deal it was to go to a Pizza Hut. It was 30 miles away so it was a big treat."
"These days, not so much."
- Shroom4Yoshi
"Playing Pacman at the arcade table and wearing a book-it pin on my Jean jacket, ahhh the 80's"
- beccasam1
"We didn't have much money so didn't eat out much."
"The Book-It program at school gave those coupons for a free personal pan pizza when you read books and it was like Christmas"
- orangestar17
"Pizza Hut back in the day was a step or two above Pizza Hut today- which is barely a storefront."
"The old ones had funky roofs, salad bars, pizza served in skillets, table service..."
"Today? Nothing special."
- sdcinerama
Pasta-Roni
"I used to think my mom made this delicious angel-hair pasta with a creamy sauce all from scratch."
"It was just boxed Pasta Roni."
"But I’m glad it is because she passed when I was 12 years old and it would have sucked that I never got her recipe. Now I can just whip open a box and feel the nostalgia."
- drekia
"I didn’t come to this thread to cry over Pasta Roni."
- Basghetti_
"My mom died when I was twelve too. I’m still always trying to recreate recipes from childhood. Certain things I’ve got but I’m never gonna nail her sweet and sour pork. 😔"
- taipeileviathan
Because The French Are Fancy
"French toast, because it was 'French' "
- dick-nipples
"That's kind of adorable."
- Ascholay
"French toast is delicious though."
- SkeleHoes
"Same with crepes."
- Grjaryau
Fondue
"When I was a kid my folks would have a fondue night every great now and then. They would have a few different kinds of meat like hot dog pieces and some cut up chicken."
"To this day it seems special."
"We didn’t have much money growing up but this made me feel otherwise. One of my fondest memories as a kid with my parents."
- 1980pzx
"Woah! This brings back warm memories to fondue night."
"We didn't have much growing up, and fondue night always felt like we had something to celebrate. We even had special fondue plates we bought at a flea market."
"It was just one of those rare nights where dinner didn't feel rushed, with dad usually being tired from working all day or having to leave for a night shift."
"Thanks for bringing back that memory."
- Leilavdm
Melting Food Porn GIF by BOSKAGiphyHot Washcloth
"If my parents were going out for the evening, my mom would take us to the grocery store to pick out TV dinners."
"I usually got turkey, with mashed potatoes, stuffing, those miserable peas and carrots, and some kind of cobbler dessert."
"No microwaves then, so the foil trays went in the oven. My mom would put the hot tray on a washcloth on a tv table."
"We got to eat in front of the TV and thought it was fabulous."
- ItsSnowingAgain
"Same down to the washcloth or dish towel!"
"Pre microwave it was a big deal! This was the 70’s for me."
- miahsmama
It's Not Butter
"My mother used margarine in (nearly) everything, but she called it butter."
"So whenever we went to a nice restaurant to eat, I thought the real butter they served was something fancy and French."
- mobyhead1
"Same here."
"We've still never had real butter in our house. Even though it said 'margarine' on the tub it took me until I was at least 12 to realize it was different from butter."
"I was so shocked when I went to a restaurant and the butter tasted so good and different."
- katkeransuloinen
"This!"
"I baked a lot as a child and always wondered why my cookies were never very good. My mum raised me to believe that olive spread is butter."
"Turns out it’s not."
- Dragon_Sluts
Missing The Point
"Ratatouille because I had completely missed the point while watching the movie"
- maedayborowski
"Totally true! The movie does make it look super fancy but in reality 95% of ratatouille is a mess of mushy vegetables."
"It has a fancy sounding French name though."
- bambooshoot
"And I just now realized the point."
- Rin-Tohsaka-is-hot
"Same dude I was really young when I watched Ratatouille and completely missed the part where they said it was a peasant dish."
- NHK21506
ratatouille GIFGiphyAffording Ramen
"My mom told me 'We can't afford to eat ramen all the time.' "
"She meant that it wasn't healthy and that I should eat a vegetable or something. I spent years thinking instant ramen was expensive."
- pm-me-racecars
"SAME but I thought it was expensive just because I loved it so much."
"I got a job at a grocery store when I was in high school, realized how cheap it was, lost my damn mind."
- Remarkable_Squirrel3
"It was expensive for my roommate in college who ate nothing but instant ramen for so long that he felt like crap for weeks. Finally went to the doctor when his gums started bleeding."
"He had scurvy."
"Aaaand we talked to him like pirates for the rest of the year."
- victimless_lime
A Precious Commodity
"I always thought oyster crackers were super expensive and fancy because I only had them at restaurants with my clam chowder. And the waitress would only give me one tiny packet and it was never enough."
"Sometimes I would screw up the courage to ask for one more packet if I was extra brave or hungry but I always felt like maybe that was selfish of me because clearly this is a precious commodity."
- logcabinfarmgirl
"Yes! Lol"
"I remember finding them in the grocery store and being blown away you can just buy a big box of them! Hahaha."
- j33pwrangler
"This cracks me up because whenever I go drinking at a seafood joint I slam those crackers. Pinchers Crab Shack usually has a little basket of them at your table"
- FTMorando
IYKYK
"Golden Corral. If you know you know."
- Kasmanian_devil
"Yes!"
"We would eat there when we went to go visit my grandfather. And I thought it was the coolest thing that I could get 'ice cream' with different toppings."
- elanrach
Hungry Nom Nom GIF by LAIKA StudiosGiphyStill Love
"Chicken and rice!"
"Growing up I loved it and thought my mom cooked it so often because she loved spoiling me. Eventually found out mom cooked it a lot because it was cheap and went a long way."
"Still love it though."
- AbductedMind
Layers Make It Fancy
"Vienettas."
"They were special, because they were sold from the yellow Family Frost trucks and as I try to remember, they were one of the most affordable big package ice creams from there."
"Sometimes I got the money and felt important when I could go buy it from the truck. I still like the memory of thin chocolate plates between the layers. Supermarkets were very scarce back then."
- Ziriath
"That 'Viennetta' frozen ice cream cake. I saw commercials for those all the time as a kid and I thought it was faaaancyyy."
- CPOx
"Those Breyers ice cream cakes... vienetta"
- MichiganMulletia
Moms Tamales
"My mom used to make me tamales every time I visited her on the weekends cause she knew how much I loved them."
"It took me years to discover she did not make them from scratch. They were the frozen ones you can buy at the grocery store."
- msphelps77
Soup For My Family
"I remember when I was about 11 and I stayed with my dad in the winter. To stock up on food he bought like 50 cans of Chunky soup and I thought he was rich when we walked out of the store."
"but it’s just soup, lol."
- Awpss
Adam Driver Soup GIF by VON GRAMBUSCHGiphyA Gift From God
"Pizza rolls."
"My mom never bought them for me, but the neighbor kid's mom would occasionally make them whenever I was over there and they were like a gift from god."
- Eyjovin
Taco Sh*ts
"Taco Bell."
"Even when we had fast food as a kid, it was rarely Taco Bell. So I always thought it must be more expensive, even though it never felt 'fancy.' "
"Now that I’m older and my guts can’t handle all the junk that I used to eat, I can see why my parents never wanted to get Taco Bell."
- FTMorando
3 Minutes
"The first time I had spam was at a Chinese restaurant during our Chinese New Year celebrations."
"I was like maybe 6 years old and my mum gave it to me and I actually thought it was the greatest thing I’d ever eaten."
"Fast forward to a few days later I ask my mum when’s the next time I can have spam (called it luncheon meat) and she just took it out from a metal tin, fried some white rice and the spam in 3 mins and gave it to me."
"Mind blown."
- Throws_for_Dayz
spam GIFGiphy"Lunchables."
"Since my mom would never buy them unless there was some special occasion like a field trip, I guess I sort of associated lunchables with the good memories of elementary school field trips."
- ivcy24
It's your turn now, fam. What's your fancy-but-not-really fondest food memory?
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Experiencing death is a fascinating and frightening idea.
Who doesn't want to know what is waiting for us on the other side?
But so many of us want to know and then come back and live a little longer.
It would be so great to be sure there is something else.
But the whole dying part is not that great, so we'll have to rely on other people's accounts.
Redditor AlaskaStiletto wanted to hear from everyone who has returned to life, so they asked:
"Redditors who have 'died' and come back to life, what did you see?"
Sensations
Happy Good Vibes GIF by Major League SoccerGiphy"My dad's heart stopped when he had a heart attack and he had to be brought back to life. He kept the paper copy of the heart monitor which shows he flatlined. He said he felt an overwhelming sensation of peace, like nothing he had felt before."
PeachesnPain
Recovery
"I had surgical complications in 2010 that caused a great deal of blood loss. As a result, I had extremely low blood pressure and could barely stay awake. I remember feeling like I was surrounded by loved ones who had passed. They were in a circle around me and I knew they were there to guide me onwards. I told them I was not ready to go because my kids needed me and I came back."
"My nurse later said she was afraid she’d find me dead every time she came into the room."
"It took months, and blood transfusions, but I recovered."
good_golly99
Take Me Back
"Overwhelming peace and happiness. A bright airy and floating feeling. I live a very stressful life. Imagine finding out the person you have had a crush on reveals they have the same feelings for you and then you win the lotto later that day - that was the feeling I had."
"I never feared death afterward and am relieved when I hear of people dying after suffering from an illness."
rayrayrayray
Free
The Light Minnie GIF by (G)I-DLEGiphy"I had a heart surgery with near-death experience, for me at least (well the possibility that those effects are caused by morphine is also there) I just saw black and nothing else but it was warm and I had such inner peace, its weird as I sometimes still think about it and wish this feeling of being so light and free again."
TooReDTooHigh
This is why I hate surgery.
You just never know.
Shocked
Giphy"More of a near-death experience. I was electrocuted. I felt like I was in a deep hole looking straight up in the sky. My life flashed before me. Felt sad for my family, but I had a deep sense of peace."
Admirable_Buyer6528
The SOB
"Nursing in the ICU, we’ve had people try to die on us many times during the years, some successfully. One guy stood out to me. His heart stopped. We called a code, are working on him, and suddenly he comes to. We hadn’t vented him yet, so he was able to talk, and he started screaming, 'Don’t let them take me, don’t let them take me, they are coming,' he was scared and yelling."
"Then he yelled a little more, as we tried to calm him down, he screamed, 'No, No,' and gestured towards the end of the bed, and died again. We didn’t get him back. It was seriously creepy. We called his son to tell him the news, and the son said basically, 'Good, he was an SOB.'”
1-cupcake-at-a-time
Colors
"My sister died and said it was extremely peaceful. She said it was very loud like a train station and lots of talking and she was stuck in this area that was like a curtain with lots of beautiful colors (colors that you don’t see in real life according to her) a man told her 'He was sorry, but she had to go back as it wasn’t her time.'"
Hannah_LL7
"I had a really similar experience except I was in an endless garden with flowers that were colors I had never seen before. It was quiet and peaceful and a woman in a dress looked at me, shook her head, and just said 'Not yet.' As I was coming back, it was extremely loud, like everyone in the world was trying to talk all at once. It was all very disorienting but it changed my perspective on life!"
huntokarrr
The Fog
"I was in a gray fog with a girl who looked a lot like a young version of my grandmother (who was still alive) but dressed like a pioneer in the 1800s she didn't say anything but kept pulling me towards an opening in the wall. I kept refusing to go because I was so tired."
"I finally got tired of her nagging and went and that's when I came to. I had bled out during a c-section and my heart could not beat without blood. They had to deliver the baby and sew up the bleeders. refill me with blood before they could restart my heart so, like, at least 12 minutes gone."
Fluffy-Hotel-5184
Through the Walls
"My spouse was dead for a couple of minutes one miserable night. She maintains that she saw nothing, but only heard people talking about her like through a wall. The only thing she remembers for absolute certain was begging an ER nurse that she didn't want to die."
"She's quite alive and well today."
Hot-Refrigerator6583
Well let's all be happy to be alive.
It seems to be all we have.
Trying to lose weight is a struggle understood by many people regardless of size.
The goal of reaching a healthy weight may seem unattainable, but with diet and exercise, it can pay off through persistence and discipline.
Seeing the pounds gradually drop off can also be a great motivator and incentivize people to stay the course.
Those who've achieved their respective weight goals shared their experiences when Redditor apprenti8455 asked:
"People who lost a lot of weight, what surprises you the most now?"
Redditors didn't see these coming.
Shiver Me Timbers
"I’m always cold now!"
– Telrom_1
"I had a coworker lose over 130 pounds five or six years ago. I’ve never seen him without a jacket on since."
– r7ndom
"140 lbs lost here starting just before COVID, I feel like that little old lady that's always cold, damn this top comment was on point lmao."
– mr_remy
Drawing Concern
"I lost 100 pounds over a year and a half but since I’m old(70’s) it seems few people comment on it because (I think) they think I’m wasting away from some terminal illness."
– dee-fondy
"Congrats on the weight loss! It’s honestly a real accomplishment 🙂"
"Working in oncology, I can never comment on someone’s weight loss unless I specifically know it was on purpose, regardless of their age. I think it kind of ruffles feathers at times, but like I don’t want to congratulate someone for having cancer or something. It’s a weird place to be in."
– LizardofDeath
Unleashing Insults
"I remember when I lost the first big chunk of weight (around 50 lbs) it was like it gave some people license to talk sh*t about the 'old' me. Old coworkers, friends, made a lot of not just negative, but harsh comments about what I used to look like. One person I met after the big loss saw a picture of me prior and said, 'Wow, we wouldn’t even be friends!'”
"It wasn’t extremely common, but I was a little alarmed by some of the attention. My weight has been up and down since then, but every time I gain a little it gets me a little down thinking about those things people said."
– alanamablamaspama
Not Everything Goes After Losing Weight
"The loose skin is a bit unexpected."
– KeltarCentauri
"I haven’t experienced it myself, but surgery to remove skin takes a long time to recover. Longer than bariatric surgery and usually isn’t covered by insurance unless you have both."
– KatMagic1977
"It definitely does take a long time to recover. My Dad dropped a little over 200 pounds a few years back and decided to go through with skin removal surgery to deal with the excess. His procedure was extensive, as in he had skin taken from just about every part of his body excluding his head, and he went through hell for weeks in recovery, and he was bedridden for a lot of it."
– Jaew96
These Redditors shared their pleasantly surprising experiences.
Shopping
"I can buy clothes in any store I want."
– WaySavvyD
"When I lost weight I was dying to go find cute, smaller clothes and I really struggled. As someone who had always been restricted to one or two stores that catered to plus-sized clothing, a full mall of shops with items in my size was daunting. Too many options and not enough knowledge of brands that were good vs cheap. I usually went home pretty frustrated."
– ganache98012
No More Symptoms
"Lost about 80 pounds in the past year and a half, biggest thing that I’ve noticed that I haven’t seen mentioned on here yet is my acid reflux and heartburn are basically gone. I used to be popping tums every couple hours and now they just sit in the medicine cabinet collecting dust."
– colleennicole93
Expanding Capabilities
"I'm all for not judging people by their appearance and I recognise that there are unhealthy, unachievable beauty standards, but one thing that is undeniable is that I can just do stuff now. Just stamina and flexibility alone are worth it, appearance is tertiary at best."
– Ramblonius
People Change Their Tune
"How much nicer people are to you."
"My feet weren't 'wide' they were 'fat.'"
– LiZZygsu
"Have to agree. Lost 220 lbs, people make eye contact and hold open doors and stuff"
"And on the foot thing, I also lost a full shoe size numerically and also wear regular width now 😅"
– awholedamngarden
It's gonna take some getting used to.
Bones Everywhere
"Having bones. Collarbones, wrist bones, knee bones, hip bones, ribs. I have so many bones sticking out everywhere and it’s weird as hell."
– Princess-Pancake-97
"I noticed the shadow of my ribs the other day and it threw me, there’s a whole skeleton in here."
– bekastrange
Knee Pillow
"Right?! And they’re so … pointy! Now I get why people sleep with pillows between their legs - the knee bones laying on top of each other (side sleeper here) is weird and jarring."
– snic2030
"I lost only 40 pounds within the last year or so. I’m struggling to relate to most of these comments as I feel like I just 'slimmed down' rather than dropped a ton. But wow, the pillow between the knees at night. YES! I can relate to this. I think a lot of my weight was in my thighs. I never needed to do this up until recently."
– Strongbad23
More Mobility
"I’ve lost 100 lbs since 2020. It’s a collection of little things that surprise me. For at least 10 years I couldn’t put on socks, or tie my shoes. I couldn’t bend over and pick something up. I couldn’t climb a ladder to fix something. Simple things like that I can do now that fascinate me."
"Edit: Some additional little things are sitting in a chair with arms, sitting in a booth in a restaurant, being able to shop in a normal store AND not needing to buy the biggest size there, being able to easily wipe my butt, and looking down and being able to see my penis."
– dma1965
People making significant changes, whether for mental or physical health, can surely find a newfound perspective on life.
But they can also discover different issues they never saw coming.
That being said, overcoming any challenge in life is laudable, especially if it leads to gaining confidence and ditching insecurities.
