Woman eats 173 buffalo wings in 12 minutes

Nestled (read: crowded) in seat 15A on my AirTran flight from Florida to Ohio for my 20-year high class reunion (gosh, that's a long time), I'm thinking, like many of us do when we travel away from structure and routine: How will my diet and exercise fare on this whirlwind weekend trip? And does it really matter? I mean, we're talking two nights and barely two full days. How badly can I mess things up?

And then I happen upon a blurb in Go magazine (the airline publication crammed in the seat-back pocket in front of me) about this woman who stuffed 173 buffalo wings into her tiny body in a mere 12 minutes. One-hundred pounds this woman weighs. And she won the wing-eating contest last year at the National Buffalo Wing Festival in, none other than: Buffalo. OK, so if this gal can down a truckload of festival food in one sitting, I can surely survive an indulgence or two. I'm running on a mini-bag of AirTran gourmet pretzels at the moment -- I've clearly got calories coming to me.

I think I'm headed for my favorite Ohio salad -- I know, not very daring, is it? Usually a no-salad-dressing girl, though, I may douse my chicken salad this time. And I'm definitely eating the pita bread slices that come with the meal I haven't had in 10 years. It must be butter that makes this white bread taste so good.

So, no heaping piles of buffalo wings for me on this trip. Nothing else too crazy either. Nothing too rigid either. Just a little moderation on the road, starting with a second bag of gourmet pretzels. What ever happened to airplane meals? It's lunchtime, people!