Red meat when eating out and headaches? Or overthinking?

[CaJenGirl]

I am on day 13 (first W30). Have had almost no issues since starting (yay!).  The last few days I was traveling and had to eat out for dinner two nights in a row.  Two nights ago I ordered a beef burger from Applebees.  Extra patty.  Only ate 2 patties, pickles, and a side salad with very little of their balsamic vinaigrette. Woke up yesterday with a splitting headache. It took several hours to go away.  Last night at airport, I went to a mexican restaurant, ordered a side of their fajita steak (verified no butter), and a small side of guacamole.  Woke up again this morning with a splitting headache.  

There are two common denominators... both nights I had read meat while eating out (I had a steak at home last week and had no problems). Also, the last two days I had a good breakfast, but a very light lunch because of outings with not much in compliant foods. So maybe I didn't even enough on those days? Although neither day was I feeling any terrible hunger pains.  It was more that I knew I needed to eat more so I found a dinner solution. 

Is it possible it's something in the meat when eating out? Or maybe it is just allergies and climate changes (I was in Louisiana and now back in Colorado - so two very different climates)?

Thanks for any advice or help!

Jen

[Timboishere]

16 hours ago, CaJenGirl said:

I am on day 13 (first W30). Have had almost no issues since starting (yay!).  The last few days I was traveling and had to eat out for dinner two nights in a row.  Two nights ago I ordered a beef burger from Applebees.  Extra patty.  Only ate 2 patties, pickles, and a side salad with very little of their balsamic vinaigrette. Woke up yesterday with a splitting headache. It took several hours to go away.  Last night at airport, I went to a mexican restaurant, ordered a side of their fajita steak (verified no butter), and a small side of guacamole.  Woke up again this morning with a splitting headache.  

There are two common denominators... both nights I had read meat while eating out (I had a steak at home last week and had no problems). Also, the last two days I had a good breakfast, but a very light lunch because of outings with not much in compliant foods. So maybe I didn't even enough on those days? Although neither day was I feeling any terrible hunger pains.  It was more that I knew I needed to eat more so I found a dinner solution. 

Is it possible it's something in the meat when eating out? Or maybe it is just allergies and climate changes (I was in Louisiana and now back in Colorado - so two very different climates)?

Thanks for any advice or help!

Jen
From my experience, I've been eating whole lot of wild game and fish(nearby outdoor store  https://gritroutdoors.com/ has some decent gear so I fish very often, on top of usual red meat and venison) and I've only encountered headaches when I was oversalting something.

Most likely its just climate change or jetlag. Other options are 1) red meat was heavily salted, much more than you do at home - don't know specifics of your order, but maybe. Or 2) it's just unrelated headaches that just randomly happened after eating out like this. 

[RaleighBob]

So I know you posted this awhile ago but maybe you are still with the forum so here goes. I am about to post a question sort of like this about grass fed vs conventional meat and I noticed your post. I have had similar issues when eating clean for a little while and then eating out. Just last night in fact! A simple grilled chicken breast, sautéed Broccoli and side salad with Olive oil and vinegar... bam very little sleep and I felt agitated. Headaches sometime too. My belief based on my experience over time is that eating out is the problem... and I love to eat out! Even trying to eat as best you can is problematic due in my opinion to the many many added ingredients in the food we eat. Especially the big chains. They all add "spices" in the name of flavor to get us to like the food. So your burger and fajita steak and sides were probably tainted with additives. The list is long and they are good at hiding various flavor enhancers. Like last night at Carrabbas Italian Kitchen. The chicken breast I had was basted with "Mr C's Baste, herbs and Olive oil. Sounded ok to me ...wrong. Something in that Mr C's baste I suspect. No sleep. 

So not sure this helps but the issue is junk additives in our food and eating out is just tough. Stay away from the chains, like that is possible at an airport, ha, unless you bring your own all the time. The key is to find things as unlikely to be tainted as possible but it is very hard. Good luck.