All images courtesy of Andrew Hawryluk’s Chipotlife blog
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Every day for the past 153 days, LA-based freelance animator Andrew Hawryluk has been going to Chipotle and ordering the rice bowl with chicken, guacamole, and lettuce. It started as a joke with his brother, but it has turned into a bona fide lifestyle – he’s spent over $1,500 at the popular Mexican eatery, where he rarely deviates from his rice bowl order, and consumed over 100,000 calories in the process.
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The 23-year-old, who believes that Chipotle is “objectively the best restaurant,” keeps an online food journal, Chipotlife, and documents his excursions to the “unburritable” establishment by photographing all his homogenous receipts next to his homogeneous meals. The blog even features meditations on various locations’ quality and his diet’s impact on his health. (He claims that his Chipotle-only regimen has lowered his cholesterol.)
He plans on continuing his routine until he either gets a modelling contract from it or hits a full calendar year of daily Chipotle consumption. I called him up to chat about all this and learned he doesn’t even like Mexican food.
VICE: Why do you order the same thing every time? I get the same restaurant, but why not tweak the meal to keep things interesting?
Andrew Hawryluk: All this originally started after I jokingly told my brother I’d do it for the 40 days of Lent. But I kept ordering the same thing because I’m into weightlifting, and a big thing in that world is that you have to keep a macronutrient diet and keep a certain ratio of calories and proteins to carbs. Beyond thinking it’s the best combination of food, it’s all about my macros.
I’m already in pretty good shape, and I don’t need to lose weight or anything like that, but I’m doing this whole weightlifting thing because it’s another hobby or activity to have. I’ve been approached about doing modelling before, but never anything related to bodybuilding. I’m open to the possibility of anyone who wants to scout me for modelling, especially if they found me because of my Chipotle love.
What are you favourite Chipotle menu offerings other than the rice bowl you order?
I really like the barbecoa hard shell tacos. It’s a huge departure from what I regularly get. It’s rare how frequently I order the tacos, and you can see that on my blog. I’ll get them with white rice, fajita veggies, mild salsa, and lettuce. I’ve ordered every ingredient on the menu at least once – minus the burrito and the quesarito.
This will sound really dumb, but I don’t like Mexican food. I’ve eaten super authentic Mexican food in California, New York, Miami, etc., but there’s something about Mexican food that is so wheat and carb centric. There’s rice and beans and so much stuff. The option of streamlining your meal and specifying what you want to a T is what makes me keep going to Chipotle. I’m going to get the exact same thing for the same price with the same ingredients. I don’t like Mexican restaurants and that whole concept of authentic cuisine is not appealing. Burritos are like the fucking thing here in LA, but I’ve never ordered a burrito from Chipotle in my entire life. They have 300 extra calories and carbs that are empty. Plus, burritos fall apart every time you eat them – which is tragic – and I don’t like eating with my hands.
Have you brought a date to Chipotle?
I have brought a date to Chipotle, yes. I’ve gone on a date where we went to a bar, and then brought her there after. You better believe I’ve posted Chipotle photos to my Tinder moments. It’s not somewhere I’d bring as like a romantic thing, though. Girls like Chipotle. It’s trendy. It’s a fact girls like it. It’s GMO-free, it’s organic, and everything is so transparent. Transparency is such a hot thing in food culture. There’s no reason for girls not to like it.
Have you ever seen that episode of South Park where they watch a commercial for “Chipotlaway,” a fake product to remove stains from Chipotle-induced diarrhoea?
I can single-handily can dispel that myth. So many people ask me about my shit. People even ask me about that on Instagram. I joke that my bowel movements look, smell, and taste exactly the same as they did before this diet.
Besides the food, what else do you like about Chipotle?
Before Chipotle, I wasn’t really into GMO-free food, or aware of how food chains treat animals. Now, because they pimp that shit out so much at Chipotle, I’m drinking the Kool-Aid. I love that the décor is exactly the same, the exact same menu, exact same everything – that’s one of the best things about it.
How much longer do you want to do this for?
I don’t want to keep this going because it’s entertaining, I’m just so comfortable with it and it’s nice not having to think about what I want to order. Maybe this is a bad comparison, but it’s like how Steve Jobs wore the same shirt every day.
Next Lent I might exclusively eat Chipotle, but that may be a bit much. Right now, the next milestone is 200 days of Chipotle, and then after that it’s 365. It’s a long haul, but 365 is the destination. My motivation is to make this the funniest thing possible. I think doing it for a full-calendar birthday year would be the best. I’d be able to look back 50 years from now and think, I ate this every day for a year when I was 23. I want to remember the year of my life I just ate Chipotle.
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