Excuse Me, Do I Have Ketchup On My Sash?

A few weeks ago, So Good sat down to talk eating habits and favorite foods with Miss Maryland USA, Allyn Rose. Allyn is representing the state of Maryland in the Miss USA pageant taking place Sunday, June 19th. For the first time ever, the Miss USA pageant is letting the public vote for one of the semi-finalists. If you like what you learn about Allyn after reading this interview, be sure to vote for her to make the semi-finals.

Allyn chows down on a burger stuffed with french fries

While I knew the topic would quickly turn to food (this is So Good after all), I was curious how Allyn first got into doing beauty pageants. She is most definitely not a pageant “lifer” – describing herself in high school as “awkward” and “the weird girl” who played in a punk band and was into underground hip-hop.

Allyn decided to enter a pageant she heard about through her sorority to help raise money for breast cancer research. Having lost her mother to breast cancer while growing up, she thought this would be a great way to honor her mother’s memory and help support a good cause.

Allyn models a Kandy Wrappers swimsuit

After doing well in several smaller pageants, Allyn thought why not give it a shot and compete for the title of Miss Maryland USA? After the victory, she is now representing her whole state on the national level and seems primed to make a run at the Miss USA title.

While there are a few women blessed with perfect genes who can eat anything and still maintain a good figure, for many contestants eating right and exercising is an important part of maintaining a healthy body. Allyn credits her parents with helping her make healthy eating decisions growing up. In preparation for Miss USA she has been working out every day and trying to eat a high-protein, low sugar diet.

Many people try and lose weight simply by eating fewer calories – but Allyn believes its important not just how much you put in your body, but what. She believes you have to eat healthy foods with lots of nutrients to get the benefits you want to see from your exercise routines.

When trying to eat healthy, her favorite foods are fresh fruit smoothies, fish, Fiber One bars and whey protein shakes. But like all of us she has her guilty pleasures, admitting she “loves” McDonald’s and can’t get enough of their french fries. Other vices include pizza “doused in ranch dressing” and “greasy orange chicken.” She also loves Chipotle, Hooters wings and Chick-fil-a, specifically a chicken biscuit dipped in their sausage gravy.

Cooking at home is also important to Allyn. She loves to bake cakes, cookies and other sweets and has created a Chinese dish she loves to make, which she dubs “Ally Chicken.” She grew up with a father who was a “very talented chef” so she likes a man who can cook. If a guy can’t cook it’s “not a deal breaker” – but if he knows his way around a kitchen he will “score a lot of points with me.” When asked what she might cook for a guy she was trying to impress on a date, Allyn says that “unless he’s a hard-core meat and potatoes guy, I’d probably try and impress him with duck or a nice blackened salmon with seasoned asparagus.” Yum!

Keep reading for Allyn’s answers to the So Good quickfire gauntlet….

Much like we did with Presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty, we ran Allyn through the gauntlet of quick fire questions of her food preferences, drawing from many of our classic Would You Rather? questions. Here are her preferences:

Coke or Pepsi? Coke
PB&J or Grilled Cheese? Grilled Cheese
Ketchup or Mustard? Ketchup
Iced Tea or Lemonade? Lemonade
Bagels or Dougnuts? Doughnuts
Apples or Oranges? Apples
Garlic or Onions? Garlic
Miracle Whip or Mayo? Miracle Whip
Coleslaw or Potato Salad? Potato Salad
Cotton Candy or Sno-Cones? Sno-Cones
Croissants or Biscuits? Biscuits
Chicken Wings or Nachos? Chicken Wings
Turkey or Ham? Turkey
Pie or Cake? Cake
Cheese & Crackers or Chips & Salsa? Cheese & Crackers
Cream Cheese or Sour Cream? Sour Cream
Salsa or Guacamole? Guacamole
Carrots or Celery? Carrots
Rice or Pasta? Rice
Nuts or Berries? Berries
Maple Syrup or Honey? Maple Syrup

I hope you all enjoyed this special So Good interview. You can vote for Allyn to advance to the semi-finals and then see if she wins the Miss USA crown on Sunday, June 19th.