{"id":1473,"date":"2014-04-09T15:45:03","date_gmt":"2014-04-09T15:45:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.whataboutwatermelon.com\/?p=1473"},"modified":"2017-06-09T15:45:37","modified_gmt":"2017-06-09T15:45:37","slug":"new-years-resolution-update-an-interview-with-a-competitive-eater","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.whataboutwatermelon.com\/index.php\/2014\/04\/new-years-resolution-update-an-interview-with-a-competitive-eater\/","title":{"rendered":"NEW YEAR\u2019S RESOLUTION UPDATE: AN INTERVIEW WITH A COMPETITIVE EATER"},"content":{"rendered":"

My goal of making my New Year\u2019s resolution\u00a0 \u2013 competing in a watermelon-eating contest \u2013 come true has been progressing nicely thus far. I\u2019ve identified a contest to compete in<\/a> and performed fairly well in my first practice run at eating lots of watermelon really fast.<\/p>\n

For the next step, I decided to reach out to someone who\u2019s currently consuming tons of food on a regular basis to ask him a few questions about the art of competitive eating.<\/p>\n

For my interview, I turned to Pat Bertoletti (that\u2019s him above), a 28-year-old Chicago native who was once ranked by the International Federation of Competitive Eating as the #2 competitive eater in the world. Pat retired from full-time competition last year to focus his attention on culinary pursuits, including starting a food truck called Glutton Force Five<\/a>.<\/p>\n

His competitive eating resum\u00e9 is impressive, to say the least. Among some of the highlights of his career is eating 47 slices of pizza in 10 minutes, 275 pickled jalapeno peppers in 10 minutes, and 55 hot dogs in 10 minutes during the annual July 4 hot dog eating contest.<\/p>\n

The most impressive thing about Pat\u2019s career is that he\u2019s won more than $240,000 dollars (that\u2019s right, almost a quarter of a million dollars<\/i>) in eating contests. In other words, he knows a thing or two about winning these things.<\/p>\n

Your Wikipedia page says that, when you\u2019re not training for your next big contest, you spend time collecting rubber bands to add to your rubber band ball. How\u2019s the ball coming?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I gave up on the rubber band ball. It\u2019s only fun in the beginning when the ball grows quickly. At the time I was using a lot of asparagus at work, and I saved the rubber bands from that. When the seasons changed, my source went away!<\/em><\/p>\n

Speaking of training, I don\u2019t want to \u201cover-train\u201d or burn myself out before my contest in July. What should I be doing between now and then to get myself ready?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Burning out is never good. Stick with healthy foods you enjoy eating a large amount of, and top it all off with some water. If you do that, you should be good.<\/em><\/p>\n

You competed in a watermelon-eating contest way back in 2005 \u2013 your rookie year. You ate 12.9 pounds in 15 minutes, so you\u2019re familiar with the food I\u2019m up against. Any general tips for conquering the watermelon?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Watermelon is a great food to eat in contest. It\u2019s high water content makes for a food that\u2019s easy to eat a lot of. Practicing for a watermelon eating contest is a real treat, because you never really tired of it!<\/em><\/p>\n

Last question, and I\u2019m sure it\u2019s something that\u2019s on the minds of competitive eating fans everywhere. You\u2019ve been semi-retired for about a year now. Any plans to make a comeback and compete at the top level again someday?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hard to say. It\u2019s great to be somewhat retired, because I can focus on other things. Who knows, I may come out of retirement for the July 4 hot dog contest after Joey Chestnut retires!<\/em><\/p>\n

Thanks for taking some time to share some of your wisdom, Pat. Good luck with the food truck!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My goal of making my New Year\u2019s resolution\u00a0 \u2013 competing in a watermelon-eating contest \u2013 come true has been progressing nicely thus far. I\u2019ve identified a contest to compete in and performed fairly well in my first practice run at eating lots of watermelon really fast. For the next step, I decided to reach out […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[61,221],"class_list":{"0":"post-1473","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-general","7":"tag-competitive-eating","8":"tag-new-years-resolution","9":"entry"},"yoast_head":"\nNEW YEAR\u2019S RESOLUTION UPDATE: AN INTERVIEW WITH A COMPETITIVE EATER - What About Watermelon?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.whataboutwatermelon.com\/index.php\/2014\/04\/new-years-resolution-update-an-interview-with-a-competitive-eater\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"NEW YEAR\u2019S RESOLUTION UPDATE: AN INTERVIEW WITH A COMPETITIVE EATER - What About Watermelon?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"My goal of making my New Year\u2019s resolution\u00a0 \u2013 competing in a watermelon-eating contest \u2013 come true has been progressing nicely thus far. 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