Because it’s a little TOO easy.

Your body and brain know you didn’t put any effort into it, not because you were in a rush, but just because you couldn’t be arsed to. So it punishes you by making you hyper aware that you’re consuming the uncanny valley of food. It’s not NOT food, but it’s not FOOD.

To be clear, I’m just using “you” generically. Absolutely no judgement here lol

Add some love to it. Put it on a plate, add a sprig of whatever, eat with a fancy fork, whatever it is that makes you happy. It’s a little gift of love to yourself. Soon after living on my own I realized I could eat whatever I wanted out of those big wine glasses. So… I did. Juice, yogurt, cereal, mac and cheese. I liked how it looked and it was a small thing that made my day brighter.

its all in your head, your comparing your future food meal to the social options you arn’t exercising and it makes you sad.

Self-judgement; it sucks and is useless and generally bad for you.

Maybe you’re judging yourself for not cooking, but a lot of otherwise functional people can’t cook or simply don’t want to after a busy or tiring day. Enjoy your easy dinner!

Maybe you’re judging yourself for eating a cheap meal on your own, but not every day can be a big party or expensive feast. Don’t compare yourself to other people, especially when so much of what people depict on social media is misleading or exaggerated. It’s fine to eat on your own (loneliness is a separate issue) and it’s good to save money or live within your means.

Maybe you’re judging yourself for eating something that you know is low quality or unhealthy, but health and fitness are much more about long term behavior patterns than any single day. As long as we’re trying to be active and eat healthy on a regular basis there’s nothing wrong with occasional junk food.

Anyway, the point is this: if you feel bad or depressed about something as small as what you’re eating for dinner, it might be a sign of deeper problems with depression and self-judgment. And if you find yourself judging yourself, it can be very helpful in my experience to really think about why you’re doing it, whether it’s a reasonable critique, and whether you’d judge someone else for doing the same thing in your shoes.

You probably wouldn’t judge someone else for eating a microwave dinner, so why judge yourself?

Record an album. You’ll feel better.

In part because the time we devote to something is felt as representative of how important it is - the sink cost fallacy can be visceral.

When you spend the minimum possible time feeding or looking after yourself, it’s easy to feel like you’re not treating yourself as important .

You could be focusing on “it’s amazing how easy it is for me to make food!” But you’re not. Your emotions are leading you somewhere, instead of your rational mind. Next time you recognize that you feel like that, pause, and pay attention to what exactly it is that you are feeling, without judgement. Use your rational mind to observe your emotional state. Just observe it, don’t control it or try to change it. Hopefully you’ll discover something, maybe even the answer you’re looking for.

I’ve been poor before but I’ve always had access to food and decent shelter. I use to eat ramen noodles, chili and rice, and baloney sandwiches. I could really stretch out a $20 a week food budget.

When I eat a microwave meal I’m just happy I can afford to enjoy variety in my meals now though I still like sandwiches.

I just wanted to say I love how you phrased the question and un upvote was not enough to express that

My biggest issue with them is they always say for 2 yet there’s no way I could consider one a full meal. (might be a UK portion thing maybe).

I’d say a contributing factor could be tv/films. It’s very common to see the divorced/dumped/bereaved/generally lonely people heating up frozen food and pushing some meat puck around with a fork, feeling pretty close to ending it all… it’s just dumb social commentary but I think it shares some blame for the “universal view” of one person heating up a frozen dish being kind of pathetic

Because there was no reason to try any harder, no one to impress, not even yourself.

Eating is a social deal in every culture (as is smoking, doing edibles, or partaking in any other consumable, generally). It might even be an instinctive thing. I know when my wife isn’t around (often due to business) I’ll just make something simple for myself (like the stereotypical can of tuna) and when she doesn’t want to eat (migraines, etc.) then I feel disappointed that I won’t be making dinner for us.

Curiously, when it comes to dessert, I am a little sad if we don’t eat it together, if say, there’s pie and she had her slice while I was dogwalking or something.

And I say this as someone who’s eaten alone for most of my life. My usual thing was just to make myself one of a few staples and snack while playing video games. (This also led to a preference for food I could handle without flatware but also wasn’t greasy. Things wrapped in tortillas and carrotsticks.)

Now that I’m in the habit of prepping dinner every night, it feels weird when I don’t.

Because it’s low quality and stuffed with trash.

If it’s real food you freeze and reheat it’s different.