The New Year is here and with it comes a handful of empty promises we make ourselves about bettering our health, lifestyle and overall way of how we carry out ever day after the ball drops in Times Square. There are many classic resolutions one has. Work out more, become more professional and serious about work, but the one that reigns over all is to eat well and lose weight. I find this one entirely ironic because it is impossible to carry out after coming back home and being surrounded by family members that pay for your meals and drinks time and time again. In my particular case it is an even harder mission to achieve as I live in Mexico, and if there is something that this country does right, it's food and drink.

During my internship, I had to give up on what I liked to think was a very healthy routine. Going to the gym every day and eating incredibly well went out the window when all I could do was eat like crap and fall asleep hoping I would wake up in time to catch the van at 6:30 am to then catch the next train out of town into the city. I thought to myself it would be easy being home, away from all the junk food and mid night snack rampages where I would assault the vending machine as I binge watched Bob’s Burgers and The X-Files. Not only was I lying to myself that I would eat healthy whilst in Mexico, but coming here with my girlfriend who had never been in Mexico City as well as my cousins from Florida’s first time here was sure to be a path of eating everything in sight, and drinking anything I could get my hands on.

Tacos, Tortas, Gorditas, Sopes, Tlacoyos, Beer, Micheladas, Wine, Pan Dulce, all around me and practically begging me to eat them, mixed in with not going to the gym because I am showing everyone around has turned this stay at my home into a glutton’s paradise. Don’t get me wrong, I am loving it. But I can’t help but feel my love handles grow more and more, as what was a pathetic excuse for abs to be shadowed by pudge day after day of eating and drinking like kings. The economy hasn’t made it any more difficult for my waistline to grow, as now one dollar is equal to twenty pesos. Full meals for two suddenly come out to be no more than fourteen dollars, and drinks, don’t even get me started on those.

No surprise at all, my girlfriend is obsessed with fresh corn tortillas, tacos, molletes, and pretty much anything with melted cheese and salsa. If you don’t know much about Mexican cuisine, that is about fifty percent of it all, with the other having sugar and bread and pretty much a body builder’s nightmare. Furthermore, as I mentioned before, the amount of alcohol available feels good on the way down, but the regret in the morning as I take a shower is the price I must pay.

Mix all of this great food with holidays built to offer immense amounts of food and drink and I can already see myself starring in my very own “Supersize Me” where I throw away months of gym routine in just four weeks. I guess I am lucky in that my girlfriend assures me that I am not fat and still handsome, but I cant help but feel my past overweight self from high school emerge from the deep caverns in which I left it after become a gym addict. There is a silver lining though, in that after having my four wisdom teeth removed in my last week that I stay here, my diet will have to change drastically. Sadly that means that a sadistic bastard of a dentist will have the pleasure of cutting me up and stitching me up after an hour of surgery, I where I will probably just sit on my ass and work on thesis as I feel my gums pulsate all around my mouth. So, in the end, I guess I ought to stuff my face as much as I can, not only because the year is almost up, but because my mouth will be out of commission for a while. Either way, if any of you feel you are getting fat, I will be right with you, with pounds upon pounds of tacos in me, and a beer in my hand. So let’s see if we can get fit this 2017. ~ad astra ultraque