Alcohol and Meat Roll-ups

Last Thursday's workout took roughly 45 minutes. I drew from my one CrossFit experience of Fran:
Warm-up: 20 lunges, 20 pushups, 20 squats, 10 minutes elliptical

Thrusters (21-15-9@ 50 lb)

Assisted Pull-ups(21-15-9)
Reverse Curls (2x20 @ 10 lb)

Cycle - 30 minutes

Last Friday was Rabbie Burns Night, so my friends and I went to a Scottish pub to celebrate.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMxIBqpryG0&playnext=1&list=PL76C25FB248957F10&feature=results_video

I drank cider (yes, I know it's not compliant with Whole 30, and I am a terrible person). I had fun though, so I don't feel too bad about it. I did feel bad the next morning when I realized that a few ciders over the course of four hours wasn't even to get me drunk but it apparently was enough to give me a hangover the following morning... or at least hangover symptoms - I woke up at 8 on Saturday with a screaming headache. As a result of the headache, I gave in to medicine and took a couple Advil before crawling back into bed to sleep away the headache. Two hours later, my headache was down to a dull ache and I had started considering how bad alcohol really is for my body.

If three drinks leaves me clutching my head the next morning, is it worth it? I don't have the answer to that. Sometimes I think that alcohol isn't worth it; other days, I wonder what to do when I meet up with friends during the week. Usually we meet up for drinks, but if you're not drinking and you go to a bar where you don't want to eat any of the food on their menu, what do you order? I don't often drink soda (though sometimes I'll let myself have soda water or gingerale), so I probably won't order a soda at the bar. What does that leave me with? "May I have a water, please?" I always feel weird going to a bar with friends who intend on drinking alcohol and then being that one person who isn't drinking because I choose not to for my health. Not to mention if you go to a bar and meet someone new... they'll eventually notice that you're not drinking and then you end up getting into the whole story of why you're not drinking alcohol, because apparently "I choose not to" isn't always a good enough reason for some people. This always leads to me feeling like I'm preaching Paleo.

Anyways, as I had posted previously (http://adventurepaleo.blogspot.com/2012/12/whole-30-peer-pressure-and-alcohol.html?m=0), maybe there are better types of alcohol to drink. Red wine always seems to be at the top of the list for the least-bad-for-you-alcohols. But again, it's one of those things where you personally have to decide if you're okay with consuming something that's still technically bad for you, but just happens to be the healthier option. That's like saying, I'm allergic to dogs AND cats, but I'm more allergic to cats than I am to dogs, so I'm going to get a dog, because I'll still kind of be able to breathe out of my nose instead of becoming my cat-induced mouth-breather alter-ego. Neither the dog nor the cat is a wise idea, but the cat would be MORE harmful to my health. Does that logic make sense to you? Hopefully not. But then again, maybe you REALLY want a pet. Maybe that pet is going to be good for your mental health because you'll have something to take care of and something to love you unconditionally (in the case of the dog at least).

So, to share some lunch love... I had this for lunch at work the other week. I bought some Prosciutto at Trader Joe's, along with some mini heirloom tomatoes and mixed greens. I sliced the tomatoes in half, placed 4-6 halves on one prosciutto slice with some of the mixed greens, and rolled in up. The result? Meat Roll-ups! You can also do this with other types of sliced meat... It was DELICIOUS. Prosciutto is yummy! And to round out my lunch with a little bit of sweet, I added a small handful of blackberries.