Pass the ham, hold the stroke

I LOVE ham.  Even though I ate sliced-honey-ham-on-wheat-with-mustard sandwiches five days a week for most of my college career (well, sometimes I went really crazy and opted for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches), I still love, love, love it.  That's probably why I was extremely disappointed to not have it for Christmas dinner this year, but with the dramatic change in family dynamics, combined with an abundance of turkey and my elders' eating preferences, I had no choice.

Tonight my mother cooked up a beautiful ham for our meal.  She noted that it was quite salty, and I had to agree but I think that goes back to my original point. I have always been a fan of the salt shaker and using it to "make it rain" all over my plate but recent health concerns have led me to breaking up with it - I haven't picked it up since November 2.  Naturally, since ham has so much sodium, I think that's why I crave it and love it so much. Yet, when you've been eating foods that are relatively low in sodium for two months, ham really puts a smackdown on the tastebuds.

Furthermore, while tracking my nutrition on the SparkPeople web site, I noticed that I had consumed WAAAAYY too much sodium. Like three days worth of it. Not cool.  And it pretty much all went back to the ham.  I'm not going to trash it as a food and denounce it from my diet, since I do still like it and it's a good source of protein. It is just another example of the importance of moderation and how it allows us to enjoy things we like without paying too high of a price.