MY CHOCOLATE EATING ADVENTURE

In seven minutes on Monday evening, I probably ate more chocolate than I did in most entire years. Well, probably not when you consider how much chocolate I eat in ice cream and other desserts, but it sure as hell felt like a lot of chocolate.

The challenge, levied upon me by a sadistic co-worker, was to see how much of the "World's Largest Hershey's Kiss" I could eat in a seven minute period. Pat Bertoletti holds the seven minute chocolate eating record with one pound, 15.5 ounces eaten. My total was one pound, one ounce and I washed it down with a tall mug of hot coffee. The coffee (thanks to Pat for the suggestion), really helped keep things clear during the challenge. In retrospect, I should have gone with decaf, but I didn't.



The giant Kiss came in two halves and was thicker than I thought it would be. Some parts were really thick and required a lot of biting and chewing to break it apart. I'm reasonably sure I could have eaten the other half if given 15 or 20 more minutes (and I seriously thought about it), but wisely didn't.

With a little over one pound of chocolate in my belly (the equivalent of 11 standard 1.5 ounce Hershey's chocolate bars) and another 16 ounces of coffee behind it, I was definitely feeling a good buzz. And it didn't take long for the jitters to set in. Fifteen minutes later I was shaky, talking fast and felt a little bit like Tweek from South Park. After half an hour, my resting pulse rate was 104 (my normal is around 70). Three hours later I started getting some painful intestinal cramping, but thankfully no other digestive abnormalities. By midnight, my sugar and caffeine high had subsided and I was able to sleep peacefully.

More pics can be seen here.