| How to Win an Eating Contest Posted: Competitive eating (also known as speed eating) is a popular pastime in the United States and Japan, where the prize money can make it a very worthwhile endeavor. [1] If you're keen to win an amateur eating contest, this article will help you get off to a flying start. Steps Prepare - Be in good physical and mental shape. It is important to ensure that you're healthy and fit before trying an eating contest. Consult your physician before the contest and get their advice. Make sure that you aren't on medication that shouldn't be taken with food. Check with contest officials that EMTs and an ambulance will be present in the event of choking or allergic reactions, or third-degree burns on the roof of your mouth from searing hot taco beef.
- Look for eating contests that are close to you. Find out how to apply and what things you need to know to be involved by phoning or calling in person to see the event organizer. Besides the local news, you can look online at the sites of the professional eating bodies, such as Major League Eating and the Association of Independent Competitive Eaters, to see what contests they are running or supporting. As an amateur, things that you might like to look for in the competition include:
- Short length (no more than 7-8 minutes)
- Food that you like eating (there's not much point eating food you detest)
- Picnic-style eating (this means eating without making a mess, at a good pace and not disrespectfully)[2]
- A fun occasion, with people not taking it too seriously but wanting to enjoy it.
- Practice at home briefly before you enter a contest so that you know how it feels and what to expect when eating the food quickly. Try the same foods that are used in the contest, and importantly, these should be foods that you enjoy eating and are already familiar with. Don't overdo this "practice run"–just treat it as a familiarization exercise. When trialing, it can be helpful to look for ways to make the food go down faster and more easily. For example (and subject to the contest rules):
- Can you fold the food to make it easier to swallow?
- Can you tear it into pieces to make it go down faster? Practice coordinating your hands and mouth so that your hands can be tearing food into more edible portions, while your mouth keeps chewing. You won't have time to think about it.
- Can you make some of the food propel other parts of the food down faster, such as using cheese to help pizza base slide down?
- Check your chewing and swallowing techniques and see if you can do anything to improve these for the contest.
- Train your brain. It can't hurt to do some mental limbering up to help you prepare for the contest. Visualize succeeding and enjoying the occasion in the lead-up. Professionals also train to try and overcome our brain's natural "stop-eating" signals, but this not a healthy approach for amateurs to take and could lead to unhealthy eating habits in your everyday life.
- Eat normally before the contest. Starving yourself is unhealthy for the body, so eat light meals up until the contest day. Fasting can also cause your stomach to tighten up, which you definitely don't want![3]
- Try to exercise regularly before the contest. Exercise will keep you flexible, focused, and in good shape.
- Learn to breathe through your nose if you don't do this normally. You won't have time to mouth breath while you are eating.
- Prior to the contest, consume as few liquids (water, soda, alcoholic beverages, etc.) as possible. Too many liquids will only fill the stomach, creating less room for food. However, some professionals do advise that it is fine to drink up to a liter of water to help expand the stomach, and to have herbal tea for calming and cleansing.[4] In addition, do not drink milk during the contest because you risk vomiting through your nose.
Choose your food - Start out "soft" when you begin. If you're new to eating contests, it can be a good idea to begin with soft items such as pancakes, grits, meatballs, and funnel cakes.[5] You can progress to harder and multiple foods as you feel more confident.
- Avoid entering any competition where the food is not right for you. If it makes you feel sick, if you're allergic to it, if you just plain hate it, where's the fun or sense in that? Be selective!
- Know how to eat the food the best way possible. Knowing how food behaves when eaten is important, and if you've practiced at home already, you should have a good idea of what works and what does not. For some additional tips:
On the day - Read up on the rules before attempting the eating contest. There are some basic things that apply to many competitive eating competitions:
- Find out if "chipmunking" is permitted - this is the practice of stuffing in as much food as possible before chewing it and swallowing - usually there will be a time limit on how long you can keep this in your mouth;
- Find out if "dunking" is permitted - this is where you are allowed to dunk your food in water to make it softer and easier to swallow; be aware, however, that doing this is considered fairly disrespectful of the food;[7]
- Know whether or not you can make a mess eating. Some contests insist that you keep the area clean (picnic-style), others let you make a mess. It all depends on the type of food you're eating and how much mess you think you might make. Picnic-style is probably better for amateurs, as it encourages you to pace yourself and be conscious of the eating process as it is happening, rather than simply gorging yourself silly.[8]
- Understand that vomiting is considered to be a disqualification in most eating contests. If you get to this point, you're probably not enjoying yourself anyway!
- Take it easy. While that may sound odd, it is important not to panic or rush, but to eat steadily with speed. If you panic or rush, you will make mistakes and be less successful.
- Enjoy yourself. While it's competitive, it's meant to be "fun competitive" and if you're taking it too seriously, then it's probably better to play a ball game to release your pent-up energy.
- Relax that evening and eat very lightly, if at all, and drink only water. Let your body settle back into its normal routine and eat as usual the following day, or when you feel ready.
Video Tips - Professional competitive eaters train their stomachs to expand with a regime of exercise, drinking a lot of water, and eating high fiber foods, especially foods like cabbage.[9] Boiled cabbage is considered a staple of many competitive eaters[10], and many professionals often go on a three or four day diet of nothing but cabbage to allow the gases in the cabbage time to expand the stomach. It's not recommended that you go down this path as an amateur!
- Try this little-known technique to make more room in the stomach: After eating, when you begin to feel slightly full, stand up and wiggle your hips from side to side for 5-10 seconds. Apparently, this makes the food go down your esophagus faster and squashes it up in your stomach.
- If you're eating anything with bread, try dipping it in water first. It sounds strange, but it works! It makes the bread and anything else on it easier to eat, swallow, and digest.
- Think seriously if you ever want to involve yourself in competitive eating as a "sport". A once-off try for fun is one thing, but the treatment of competitive eating as a sport has major drawbacks, including social and health problems. A lot of criticism has been leveled at competitive eating as being a display of gluttony at a time when many people are starving, and it is also source of bad role modeling for children suffering from obesity.[11] In addition, to undertake this as a sport for any length of time can endanger your health, especially if you have a predisposition to such diseases as diabetes.
Warnings - If you can't possibly eat another bite, just stop. Force-feeding yourself can cause choking. Also, food begins digesting in the stomach as you eat, and a soupy, liquid mixture called chyme starts to form as the result of stomach churnings and chemicals that aid in digestion. All of this could back up the esophagus and cause vomiting, but food and chyme piling up on top of each other could cause them to spill over into your air tube. It's better to lose the contest than become sick over it.
- Don't go five days without eating before the contest. It could cause you to become sick, and then you won't be ready for the eating contest at all.
- You can't possibly eat anything dry continuously, no matter how long you try, so take little sips of water as you eat to aid digestion. Even Kobayashi, the greatest eating contest legend,[12] can never finish any eating contest without drinking water.
- Eating too much of anything is very dangerous and unhealthy. It is also a waste of good food! Be very careful and know the risks of eating contests.
- While the contest organizers should be stopping anyone who is intoxicated, you should still be aware that it is never appropriate to go to an eating contest drunk; you can die trying to compete in an inebriated state.[13]
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| Leaks in your house are leaks in the pocket. 6+ ways to find them Posted: In most cases the water line running to your home is "metered" for accountability and billing purposes. A leak on your line can be very costly. Yet, even a very small leak can be found through trying a few simple techniques and can save you from a nasty surprise from your local utility company. If you have been notified that you have a leak, here are a few steps you can do before calling a plumber. The more you do, the less it will cost you in the long run! Steps Hot water tanks Check the Pressure Relief Valve on the hot water tank. Sometimes these valves are plumbed directly into a drain and may be leaking without your knowledge. If you can't remove the drain pipe to check for a leak listen for a hissing sound, it may be leaking. Toilets - Check the toilet for leaks by removing the top off the tank and listening very closely. If you hear any hissing at all, try to locate where it is coming from. If you locate the area where the leak is coming from, assess it and determine if you can fix it. If you can't, then call a plumber.
- If nothing is noticeable, add some food coloring and put a couple of drops in the tank (not the bowl). Wait several minutes and if you have coloring in the bowl, you have a leak in the flapper at the bottom of the tank that is allowing water to seep through. At this point you can assess if you want to do the repair yourself, or call a plumber.
- If you have more toilets, go ahead and repeat the process with each toilet to make sure you don't have more than one problem.
Meter line - If the toilets are fine, check the line running from the meter to the house. While this may sound difficult, you can save money if you can locate the leak for the plumber.
- If you know you have a shut-off valve by the house, shut it off temporarily and check the meter by removing the lid and watching the dial on top of the meter.
- If you can't see the meter head, try digging around because they sometimes have dirt or grass covering the top of them. Once you locate it and the valve is turned off by the house, watch the meter to see if is turning. If it is still turning, then the leak is between the meter and the house.
- At this point, walk the area between the meter and the shut-off valve. Look for signs of a leak such as: soft muddy areas, grass that is greener than the rest or growing much faster than other areas. If you see such an obvious sign, call the plumber or assess if you can make a repair yourself.
- If you have the valve shut off at the house and the meter has stopped moving, then the leak is somewhere in the house. Try some other techniques to try to locate the problem.
Hose bibs -
Hose bibs under the kitchen sink - Once you have located them, take a screwdriver, preferably one long enough to give yourself room to work, and put the metal tip of the screwdriver directly on the metal part of the hose-bib. Put your thumb knuckle on the top of the screwdriver, and then place your knuckle on the side of your head, immediately in front of your ear. The sound will travel directly to your ear drum. The idea, here, is for the solid screwdriver to work like a stethoscope. This works for most metal valves, as well.
- Listen carefully for any sound emitting from the hose-bib. If you hear anything at all, remember where it is (perhaps mark it with chalk), and go to the next one. If the sound emitted gets louder at any of the other hose-bibs, then the leak is closer to that particular unit. Note that and contact your plumber: Giving the plumber this information will save the plumber loads of time in finding the leak, which in turn saves you money.
- If you survey all the hose-bibs and still find no sound, go into the house and follow the same process with the screwdriver on your house fittings such as faucets in sinks, shower valves, washer, hot water heater (be careful to avoid being scalded when working around the hot water heater). If you are still not sure, just contact the plumber.
Other leaks - Check the garden. Look at hoses, taps, and drip irrigation systems.
- Check the shower head for leaks. It should be a fairly straightforward home repair if this is a source of leaking.
- If you have a swimming pool, it is important to check to see if it has any leaks.
Near enough is helpful - Recognize that in many cases a leak can be very hard to locate. Not all of the leaks outlined in this article can be located and if you're not used to plumbing positioning, you may miss something easily. All the same, if you try these steps, you should be able to find an approximate location and this is a most valuable exercise in itself because it will help the plumber (many plumbers do not like searching for a problem so anything you can do they will appreciate), making it time saving for the plumber and that translates into savings for you.
Video Tips - If you are able to locate the general area of a leak, plumbers will have a listening device that enables them to pinpoint it exactly.
Warnings - Very important! If you do find the leak and decide to try and dig it up please make sure you call your other utilities and ask them to mark their utilities on the property! Most states in the U.S. have a utility locate center just for this purpose.
- Never dig without the proper locate as it very dangerous and can cause you physical harm, as well as financial. If you are not sure, always call the expert, your local plumber!
- If you suspect the offending leak may be in the water heater, call an expert. Don't stick a screwdriver in there. You may cross wires or puncture the tank.
Things You'll Need - Screwdriver
- Repair tools and items (optional)
- Internet or Yellow Pages to find a plumber - it's helpful to ask other people who they trust as plumbers, along with checking online sites that allow consumers to rate tradespeople
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