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I Let My Instagram Story Poll Pick My Meals For a Weekend

This article is written by a student writer from the Spoon University at FSU chapter.

This weekend proved to me (and everyone else in my life) that I am, without a doubt, a millennial. I let my followers vote in multiple Instagram story polls a day to choose what I ate for the entire weekend. Here’s how it went…

Day 1, Friday

I was SO excited to start this experiment once I finished my on-campus internship on Friday afternoon. Instagram stories are a fun and creative trend right now that I was almost too trusting with for how I would spend my weekend nourishing myself. I started with a decision that I regularly face in college, and that is whether to go home and eat food I have or stop at Chick-fil-A. Today, though, I really wanted to go to my house for a sandwich and a quick nap before going home for the weekend.

My poll’s voters had other plans for me, but thankfully, my boyfriend didn’t need an Instagram poll vote to get him to meet me for lunch. With one last blow to my healthy choices for the middle of the day, a poll sent me trading my kids toy for an ice cream cone, and I already had the sneaking suspicion that my followers had planned for a gluttonous weekend ahead.

For dinner, set in my hometown grocery store, my poll decided between red or white sauce for my entire family’s spaghetti squash dish. They might not have suffered from the choice of Alfredo sauce, but my parents were not exactly thrilled to be waiting at the register as I assessed the poll’s choice in the deciding of their dinner.

Day 2, Saturday

In the most devastating of final results, my Saturday breakfast was voted to be bananas. I was hungry to begin with, but the squishy fruit product is on a short list of foods I avoid at all costs. Loyal to my poll, I ate the banana only to be later betrayed when the poll concluded, and the votes had switched to the chocolate doughnuts! It was this morning that I realized that because I had to eat before the 24- hour poll could finish, that I might be obeying votes that would flip in the end. 

For dinner on Saturday, with the fear that my followers would find my two meal per day average a cheat to this experiment, I posted two considerably different choices. Rather than leftover spaghetti squash for dinner, I warmed up two Nathan’s Famous Hot Dogs to end the second day. 

Day 3, Sunday

While this was the last day, my Instagram story poll did not see much action outside of my morning Cracker Barrel trip. Somehow the poll’s choice of hash brown casserole (mmmm) lasted me well into dinner time. At that point, I forgot to post a poll and I ate a sandwich. I know! I know! I messed up, but the options would have been a sandwich or a sandwich so I saved everyone the trouble, really. 

Tied for Hungry

While the Alfredo or red sauce debacle was the only poll that ended close, the majority of the polls remained close as I was waiting for the verdict to eat throughout the weekend. Honestly, I would pick up the banana to eat it when no sooner the poll would change to the doughnuts and then back.

I didn’t anticipate the overall amount of standing around that was involved in waiting for what others had to say about my diet. And that, kids, is why we should never live for the opinions of others. It’s a waste of time and might starve you to death. OK, not really, but there’s probably a lesson in there somewhere. Either way, others’ meal opinions just aren’t for me. However, Instagram story polls are fun and opening yourself up to new food choices is always an interesting experience. 

Major proponent of iced coffee, Hamilton, reading, and trash reality TV shows :)