The $13 that severely kicked my ass

Well, the "Wendy's Dollar Menu Challenge" is in the books and, in the end, it was the damn vegetables that did me in. Stupid salads. (Video here.)

For the contest, it was me and my 13 dollar menu items versus Jenn and Megan who split the 13 items amongst themselves. First to finish wins. Here's what was on our plates:

Granola yogurt cup
Crispy chicken sandwich
Cheeseburger
Bacon cheeseburger
5-piece chicken nuggets
Small french fries
Mandarine orange cup
Bowl of chili
Small drink
Chocolate frosty shake
Sour cream and chives baked potato
Chef salad
Garden salad

After mentioning something about "extreme abdominal pain," Jenn passed her potato and chocolate frosty to Megan, who stepped up and polished them off at the 30 minute and 30 second mark, leaving me with two salads virtually untouched and half a baked potato. I have to give huge props to Megan. I think she ate about 8 of her team's 13 items and really pushed through the pain and discomfort for the win.

The items are listed in the order in which I attempted to eat them. The yogurt was definitely a good idea to eat first. I should've polished off the chili second, because by the time I got to it, I was in no mood to eat that cold, chunky bowl of crap. I ended up pouring half of it on my baked potato, but that worked only somewhat. The small diet Coke was gone somewhere near the beginning of the potato, leaving me with a very melted frosty to wash the remainder of the meal down. The frosty also worked as a palate cleanser, especially while eating the chili.

Overall it was kind of a disappointing showing (for me). The story that inspired this contest came from these seven college guys, who attempted a similar challenge with the goal of finishing 11 Burger King dollar menu items in one hour. Only three of the seven were able to get the job done. With 30 minutes left, I like to think I'd be able to get those salads down, but who knows.

One thing that was interesting about this contest was the constantly changing variety of flavors and textures of food. Typical eating contests involve one food, which usually loses its taste (that can be a good thing) around the five or six minute mark. That wasn't the case here. Also, I'm still feeling rather uncomfortable even though two hours have passed since the contest ended. Must be due to the "fast foodiness" of it all.

Actually, laying down right about now might be a good thing. A full set of pictures can be seen here. Don't forget to check out "the many faces of Megan."