Travel - NYE in NYC

I'd like to proudly state that I had the brilliant idea of celebrating New Years Eve (NYE) in New York City (NYC) this year. Well,  guess that distinction belongs to our friends who already live there, BUT I WANT SOME CREDIT, TOO. This trip basically capped off a giant vacation spanning a week with friends in LA, SF, and now NY. As you can imagine, a lot of what we did was eating, and drinking, and eating, then drinking some more.

For those of you who've been there, you already know that NYC is a city unlike any other in the world, in that you don;t need to own a vehicle and bars close at 4AM. We (List: Me, Indi, Chad, Maggie, Zain, Vincent, other people I'm forgetting) took full advantage of that. Our schedule was basically wake up late, eat a bunch, then meet up at some agreed destination to drink the day away. Now, our goal wasn't necessarily to drink all day. We mostly needed a place to meet up so we could do touristy things during the day, and what better place to meet than some great bar that someone knows! As you can imagine, we never really got anywhere or did anything, which was mostly fine because we were there to see people, and not landmarks.

New Year's Eve itself was probably one of the best NYEs I've ever celebrated. Our whole group had booked VIP tickets to a place called Times Scare just off of the main drag of Times Square (meaning a hell of a lot of people, but not as bad as it could have been). Equipped with an open bar with super nice bartenders (for those of us who learned to tip, even if it's an open bar) and a cheesy magic show, we were able to find a great area to sit and enjoy the evening as the clock counted down to 2012.

Not surprisingly, after three weeks straight of partying, I felt like hell. When it was finally time to board the plane home, I was exhausted, sick, and my clothes didn't fit correctly anymore. THen I realized how unhappy I get when I let myself go like that. I've always been a person who's body doesn't do too well when I eat fattening food. Eating poorly for a week will tip the scales in a pretty noticeable way. More than anything, this trip has taught me that even when you're on vacation, your health really matters. Every time I finish traveling somewhere, I get slightly depressed, and poor health is usually one of the causes. Recently in my travels, I've been sticking to paleo (you know, besides beers here and there) and really trying to work in physical activities, and I've noticed it's pretty easy to keep your weight in check. Now, this isn't me trying to be a shining endorsement for paleo, it's worked for me, I don't care what you eat. What I'm trying to come down to, is that even though traveling is usually a time widely thought to put aside health, being good to your body really fucking matters. Why? YOLO. See what I did there? That's what the actual meaning of YOLO should be, "Oh man, I'm being dumb and not taking care of myself!" "Yeah, man, you gotta be more careful YOLO, you know?".

If my belly before NYC were the size of a basketball,
 my belly after NYC would be the size of the Haydensphere!