Monday, February 11, 2013

The Fat Tuesday Contest Preview

I'm 24 hours away from taking on the 5 pound burger challenge at Fuddrucker's. I have now been prepping for this contest for a week and here's what I've gone through.

Today is Monday, February 11 and I started training last Wednesday. On that day as well as Thursday and Friday, I ate one large lunch as well as two average-sized meals. I believe my lunch was chili and crackers for Wednesday and Thursday. For Friday, I made five scrambled eggs with crescent rolls and a peanut butter/banana protein shake. Then on Saturday, I upped the ante. I had two large meals instead. In the morning, I had a Jimmy Dean lite breakfast sandwich with turkey sausage and egg whites. After my job transition workshop, family therapist appointment, and the gym, I came home. I made 9 chicken wings, two pretzel rolls and some cheddar cheese. To drink, I made a smoothie with spinach, pineapple, bananas, grapes and protein powder. On Sunday, I had a dozen wings at BWW while watching the Knicks get wasted in the fourth quarter against the Clippers. Sunday night was a ton of chicken parmesan and whole wheat pasta. So this morning, after 40 minutes of cardio on the elliptical and a few minutes of chin-ups and dips, I made two turkey sausage patties, three egg whites, two wheat toast slices, and the same smoothie as Saturday. Definitely filled me up, it did the trick.

So tonight, it's gonna be a lot of produce. I don't want to be having any meat or anything that will take a long time to digest. Actually, I have not touched any red meat since Wednesday afternoon. I'm hoping that will give me a crazy desire to eat a ton of meat, I don't know. Maybe, it will turn out I should have been eating red meat all week, we shall see.

But tonight, I'll be eating an entire mini watermelon and a few handfuls of green grapes. The advantage of eating watermelon is that it's 90 percent water, so it'll pass through me quickly. And that will be the last solid food I eat for at least 18 hours, maybe 20. If I have anything that isn't water tomorrow, I'll probably make a protein shake with egg whites and fruit juice in the later part of the morning. I don't want to be completely devoid of energy for tomorrow night.

Can't forget the liquid aspect. Since Wednesday, I've been drinking at least three quarts of water each day, sometimes a gallon. That doesn't even include the water I'm drinking while I'm working out. I have another quart to drink tonight, that would get me up to a gallon today. Tomorrow, I will plan to drink a half gallon in the morning and another gallon in the middle of the day. This is all about stretching my stomach muscles out. I  have no idea how well it is working, the proof will be in the pudding, or in this case, the beef, tomorrow night.

So that's what I've been doing. Now to what I am going to attempt to do and how I will attempt to accomplish it.

I have one hour to finish this burger. The burger alone weighs five pounds, the bun will probably weight another one or two pounds. Now when I took a burger challenge at Urban Grille in 2008, I finished two pounds of beef and the roll in fifty minutes. But there was no time limit. So why would I think that I can finish more than twice that amount in the same amount of time?

Over the last four years, I've learned about a lot more about food challenges by watching Man vs Food and researching them on the Internet. Most of all, I know I need to eat quickly so when I start to hit the wall and feel full, I can have a good portion of the burger already completed. And the last time I tried this, I actually had eaten some Rosa's pizza the night before, since I was at a Ring of Honor show. I finished that burger off with maybe 12 hours of preparation. Conversely, I have been preparing for this challenge for the last seven days.

As for strategy, I think I'm going to cut the burger up into four pieces and try to complete one quadrant every 15 minutes. I think I need to keep mixing the flavors up, so I'll certainly get American cheese on it, and I'll probably top each quadrant with a different flavor like BBQ sauce and honey mustard. Maybe I'll even bring a little remoulade from home, maybe my favorite condiment in the world. I'll also add in some tomatoes, jalapenos, and pickles too. Maybe even a little pico de gallo.

Mom will be there giving me support, I don't know who else will be there. The odds are certainly stacked against me finishing 60 ounces of beef. But I'm going to go at it as hard as I can. I think if I can finish 3/4 of it, I'll go home happy. But if I finish it, I will get a t-shirt and two free future visits to Fuddrucker's. I'm thinking I should also get a package of Tums and Zantac...

Win or lose, we're gonna have some fun with it.

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