The new normal

Well friends, the dust seems to have settled a bit after the wild wild summer we had.  The moving boxes have all but disappeared, most everything has been placed, the school year has started, the job is steadying...In other words our lives are going back to normal.  However, the new normal is quite different, and that is what I want to discuss a bit today.
The biggest change has been my employment, as in being employed.  My daily schedule has to be a lot more managed.  For starters, I get up early.  I mean early early, like 4:30 am.  I get there before my guys and leave after they do, adding about 45 minutes to my 10 hour days. Yes we work 4 days/week [with a few Fridays here and there in the summers for good measure]. So on most days I get home a shade before 5:00 pm.  I may not have an event to train for [at the moment], but I made the commitment to stay active and fit no matter what. I run or elliptical during the week, around 40-50 minutes and shift my longer drills for the week-end.  I envision doing more indoor activities as the days get shorter, and I hear the High School pool is set to re-open very soon after renovations for evening  public lap-swim sessions.  My legs will be happy for that! I'm also planning on getting a bike trainer so I have variety. The seasons also dictate what I'm able to do.  I have been doing more running during the week now that temperatures are no longer ridiculous...
The new logistics of my workdays have also challenged my eating, after all there are only so many hours in the day...However, much like my fitness and activity, my commitment to healthy eating has not wavered. We have had to plan a lot more because there is no Costco in town, the nearest one in Wenatchee is about an hour away. We still have the same basic plan, whereby breakfast and lunch are always the same [bar & smoothie for breakfast, ginormous salad for lunch] and dinner varies. We have reduced the size of the salad somewhat, making 3 salads when we used to make 2 with the same amount of stuff.  We haven't noticed any changes in hunger, and it has the added benefits of reducing our cost a little AND affording us the luxury of not having to make them each and every day.  It really helps the precious post dinner / pre-bed time we get after Tristan goes to sleep and it is just the 2 of us. We found a big enough insulated lunch carrier and so I lug my heap of food to work every day...I swear I have at least one person every day that comments on either my smoothie or my salad.  I think most people aren't as blown away by the size of the salad as much as the fact that I have it every day.
We are also having to adjust to our new surroundings, especially how dry it is around here.  It's a desert climate, and you can pretty much count on it NOT raining, which for us is a huge change. There is also much to do outdoors.  We had a taste of it after we rented a kayak a while back and went to the lake [not Moses Lake, there are better ones nearby] and we can't wait for next spring to start going again! Coupled with 3-day week-ends, there is a real potential for some serious fun!
So that's about it in a nutshell.  The new normal still has all the same components, they are just adjusted a little bit. In the end the most important thing is that it works!

Until next time,

Oliver P.