You see that picture on the front of the article? That's the face of misery. And, misery loves its company. Its company today? Nathan's hot dogs.
Now that I've taken a food coma related nap, I can finally write this blog. I told you guys yesterday how the challenge started. I said I brought up the idea of eating as many hot dogs as I could during our show (The Sean Salisbury Show from 6a-10a). Sean and Michael were all for it and Sean agreed to throw in $200 if I could consume all 24 hot dogs. Well, I came up short. Here's how it went down.
By the time I hit hot dog #10, I was starting to really feel it. My downfall came as a result of a 3 key mistakes. Oh, wait, I should probably start before that. It actually started last night. I was thinking, "which way do I eat them? Do I just boil them tonight and take them in in the morning or do I go out and buy a little campfire grill and grill them in studio (yes, I have seen this done before). My decision led to....
Mistake #1: Boiling them over grilling them
This was bad. Grilled always tastes better but I decided that in order to make it easier on myself, boiling them and then re-heating in a microwave at work would make more sense. And, in a way, it does. But, it sacrifices the taste and texture. Which is something that, honestly, makes all the difference. So, I went ahead and boiled them and re-heated them in the microwave as I had planned. This was a failed plan as was my plan to eat them which leads me to....
Mistake #2: Too much, too fast
This one I blame mostly on Michael Connor for the bad advice. Feel free to blame him (@MC790 on twitter). Anyway, his advice was that I should eat as many as I could in the first hour so I'd have less to eat in the last 3 hours. A great idea going in. A terrible idea when executed. I filled up so fast by knocking out 10 dogs in the first hour, that, at that point, my mind started to say, "WTF ARE YOU DOING DUDE?!?!" I should have spaced it out, one every 10ish minutes. That would have given me time to survive and really slow down instead of mowing them down. Speaking of time, that brings me to my final main mistake...
Mistake #3: Looking at the clock
When you look at the clock for anything you're waiting for (ex. work day to end, a package to arrive, etc.), it just makes the time drag by slower. Im sitting there with hot dog #10 in my stomach and realize, "hey, I have 3 hours left. That's not bad." Literally, as I thought this, the last hot dog hit and I realized I bit off maybe a little more than I could chew. Yes, pun intended. At that point, I would look at the clock and then look at the hot dogs. And, each time I did it, the feeling of fullness got worse and worse. Still, I powered through. 11,12,13...at this point, I'm just thinking, "Hi, my name's Tyler and I'm an idiot." Still I powered through #14. But, then I looked at the clock again. At this point, I tweeted this...
Still, I decided to power through. I knew people were listening. And, I didn't want to not finish. Hell, even other morning shows in the building stopped by and asked how I was doing. That, I didn't see coming, but, at the same time, that was kinda cool. I decided to keep going. But then, glorious #15. That was torture. By this point, the hot dogs just taste bland. The bun is a chore to just chew through. And, to top it all off, I got that puking feeling. The warning in my esophagus that's letting me know that I better stop or I'm about to puke in studio. I wanted to try my best to avoid that because, well, that's gross. So, I stopped and decided to let it sit and see how I'd feel for a possible #16. But, that puking feeling never went away. So I stopped. Nine short of the goal but hey, 15 hot dogs in 4 hours starting at 6am, that's not bad for a pure amateur. I'm proud of that. And, I'll probably never do that again. Thanks to eveyone who tuned in and was rooting for me! Everyday I realize just a little bit more that you Houstonians are pretty freakin awesome people. Tune in to the show next week because I have another challenge that I'm prepared to take on. Don't worry, it's not food related. Later guys!
P.S. After the challenge, someone on twitter suggested I do the next challenge with Big Macs. To the guy who suggested that, sorry bro, I choose life.