The effects of salty, meaty, indulgence

Inspiration took hold after watching yesterday morning's rerun of the Tour de France so, despite threatening rain, I jumped on my bike and headed for a ride around the north half of Lake Washington. Despite feeling a bit sluggish in the beginning, the over sized portion of spaghetti for dinner the night before seemed to be doing its job because my energy felt like it grew with each mile - for the first half of the ride anyway. Three hours later I was home and had ridden 49 miles on a route that took me past Bill Gates' driveway in the hilly neighborhood of Medina.

Just before dinner, about three and half hours after completing the ride, my bp read a stellar:
119/68

Then came dinner with two old friends from Visio at Brauer's in Fremont. The menu is chock full of meaty goodness, and it all sounded so good! Knowing I've been paying close attention to sodium and potassium while exercising regularly, it seemed a good time to indulge in the mixed grill platter. The platter arrived with a healthy portion of roast duck, a giant sausage, and a juicy medium-rare chunk of steak. It was mighty tasty, and, after doing all I can to eliminate sodium, man did it taste salty good!

After indulging in meal so bad for one who has a low tolerance for salt, I was eager to see how it affected my blood pressure the next morning. The answer:
126/83

As stated before, I am no doctor, so am not sure what to make of the diastolic increasing by 15 points from the night before. I'm guessing that the low 68 from the day before is partially due to exercise temporarily expanding the capillaries, thus decreasing blood pressure. The bottom line, however, is that it is still better than readings I would get months ago when I was taking a daily dose of a beta-blocker. My change in habits appears to be working well enough to handle an occasional culinary setback.

Last night's mixed grill was good, and I'd be lying if I said I will not eat a meal like that again, but staying off big business meds to me is much more important than an ephemeral meal that is pooped out the next day. Today the diet returns to a tasty and healthy mostly-vegetarian fare.