I had a family-sized pizza to keep me full from noontime to nighttime for two work weeks.
It?s almost impossible to not eat a lot when you have an office-based eight-hours-a-day, Monday-to-Friday regular job; you need those calories for your daily burn because you travel, think, move around the office, and get stressed. Consuming the daily recommended calorie allowance is only vital to keep yourself sane.
Ever since I landed a regular job, I always try my best to eat healthy and eat enough. I am fortunate enough to be able to prepare at least one meal daily. The rest of my daily needs are covered by buying food from restaurants adjacent to my workplace. But I wondered, what if I just ate family-sized pizza every day? Not only is it delicious, but it?s also affordable, with the entire thing costing just a little less than four dollars.
So I set forth on this two-week experiment wherein I replaced lunch and dinner with a family-sized pizza. I retained my daily habit of preparing a complete and balanced meal consisting of carbohydrates, protein and fat source, and vitamins and minerals e.g. vegetables. I also continued to drink the breakfast smoothie (which consisted of fruits) which I always prepare after waking up.
Just to recap, I continued to eat three times daily. The first meal is the meal I prepared, paired with a healthy smoothie. The next two meals though were just pizza, paced appropriately by eating four slices per meal time. Upon getting home, I just drank milk to still be able to sneak in my daily calcium needs, but aside from that, this became my daily intake for two straight weeks.
A pizza slice contains anywhere between 250 to 300 calories, which means a whole box contains easily 2,000 to 2,400 calories ? the same number of calories my body needs for the entire day. Not only is that amount worth of pizza calories unhealthy, but it mean that for the duration of the experiment, I overate by default.
As has been the case since I started working full-time, I tried to sneak in as much exercise as I can in spite of the busy nature of regular work, walking two kilometers a day. That allowed me to burn north of 100 calories. That plus my daily burn (walking, standing up, commuting, and whatever other daily physical movements) and adequate sleep totals about 200 to 250 calories, which is still not enough to make up for the probably 3,000-plus calories I took daily for that week.
That being said, I wanted to see what happened after two weeks. Here?s what transpired throughout the experiment.
Day 1 ? Cheeseburger
Day 2 ? Bacon Hawaiian
Day 3 ?Pepperoni Bacon
For the duration of this experiment, I bought pizza from the same store every midnight (my shift runs from 8 p.m. to 6 p.m. daily, Monday to Friday). I wondered how long will it take them to realize I enter their store every day to make the same purchase: buy the four-dollar to-go family-sized pizza (there are three sizes: the family size, six inches for $1.60, and 10 inches for $3). There are only three flavors for this item, namely Bacon Hawaiian, Cheesy Burger, and Pepperoni and Bacon so I?ll have to basically mix it up.
Right off the bat, I wasn?t really able to follow the pacing I set. What happened in the first few days was I would eat three slices at midnight followed by another three slices two hours from that point before finishing the last two slices around five in the morning. What could I do? Pizza is really delicious. I couldn?t get my hands off of the slices.
Day 4 ? Cheeseburger
I don?t know if it?s the pizza effect already, but four days into this experiment, I couldn?t help but notice that I always felt hungry after waking up. I still went through my daily routine which included drinking lemon water as the first thing I take, followed by my breakfast smoothie and a balanced meal for lunch.
And yet, it felt as if I have not eaten enough ? that?s the thing: our body will look for its owner to feed it right. You can consume 2,000 calories worth of donuts and still feel empty because that?s really what donuts are: junk. On the other hand, you can eat about 1,800 calories worth of lean meats and other protein sources, fruits, vegetables, carb sources, and milk, and feel fulfilled because you have given your body what it exactly needed.
Day 5 ? Pepperoni Bacon
People have begun to notice my experiment. The cashier working the graveyard shift at the pizza place smiled at me as if saying, oh, it?s you again. The front desk person in our office, on the other hand, told me as I passed by her: ?You really like pizza, don?t you??
I expected either of two probabilities at some point of the entire thing when I started it: the first is getting fed up and not enjoying eat pizza slices anymore (law of diminishing marginal utility something); the second is actually getting more addicted to it because? c?mon, it?s damn good.
I wasn?t able to follow the proper pacing during the fifth day, as I gobbled slice after slice after I bought the box. I ate three slices initially then ate another two before eating another two. All that happened in a one-hour span.
Day 6 ? Pepperoni Bacon
Thank goodness I had the weekend to reset or else I?d probably feel either of the two outcomes I predicted. Moving on?
I felt relieved the moment I entered the store to order pizza for the sixth time; the cashier working on the night shift was different from the one last week. Had it been the one from last week, she?d probably already think I?m this weird as hell dude who eats nothing but pizza every midnight. Thank goodness their shift schedule changed.
My appetite towards pizza hadn?t changed drastically; in fact I felt I was craving more of it.
Day 7 ? Bacon Hawaiian
Well look at that, my pizza today even got a that pizza-lid separator thing included. They must have been doing it wrong the last six times!
I was almost tempted to end the experiment but my feet ended up taking me to the same store:
Here.
However, after seven days, I decided to stop my experiment. It was just an impulsive decision ? all of a sudden, I just didn?t want to eat pizza anymore. I went back to normal and bought the usual rice meals and sandwiches. This entire experiment was impulsive too, anyway.
So, after more than a week of gobbling nothing but pies, let?s try to assess things.
First of all, I wasn?t even able to finish the experiment; I wanted to go full two weeks but I was already having a different feeling. I didn?t feel that much hungry in the midst of what I was doing, though. I didn?t gain a lot of weight neither. I just felt I wanted to abruptly stop ? and I did.
I know people have their respective favorite foods and they would do anything to get their hands on them as much as they possibly could. I know people who eat doughnuts, barbecues, or their favorite sandwiches every single day.
I like pizza, but it didn?t work out that much for me. At first, I thought addiction would be the result, but it was more diminishing marginal utility on my end. Bottom line is it works for some people, but I guess I need more variety in my life.?
