The (Food) Hangover

Last night Zach and I were lucky enough to be invited to eat dinner at The Palm, an absolutely fantastic steak and seafood restaurant in downtown Dallas. This is the third year we've gotten to go, and each year it's a no-holds-barred eating fest.

Even though we've been on a health kick, I decided to go ahead and have a steak, because...c'mon. It's The Palm.

Here's a rundown of all the stuff we ate:

• Appetizers: stuffed mushrooms, fried cheese ravioli, and mini crab cakes
• Mixed green salad
• 9 ounce fillet mignon
• Cheesy potatoes
• Asparagus
• Green beans
• Dessert sampler: carrot cake, chocolate cake, key lime pie...I even had a taste of the strawberries and whip cream that I'm pretty sure was only there as a garnish.

Oh man, was I ever stuffed. And that food was so good...the steak was so tender and was cooked perfectly. The Palm's carrot cake is out of this world. Since it was a dessert sampler I grazed all over that platter, but kept having to have more bites of carrot cake so that it could be "last" in my mouth.

Fast forward to this morning. I felt terrible! And it had nothing to do with the knowledge of how much I ate. I think it has to do with the salt! We don't go out to eat that often due to a combination of children, cheapness, and dietary paranoia, but when we do, I feel it big-time. I'm always so thirsty, puffy, and headache-y the next morning. It's as if I took one of those navy blue containers of table salt and just started guzzling.

I guess in some ways that makes me feel good, though. If I'm sensitive to salt overload, I must not be doing too bad in the salt-intake portion of my usual diet. By cooking your own food instead of relying on prepared foods or restaurants, you have so much more control over your salt intake. Otherwise it's incredibly difficult to manage how much salt you're getting.

Despite the salt binge from the night before, we did wake up and do yoga this morning. I just had to guzzle about a gallon of water first.