Make Some Lemonade

I have always been a "glass half full" kind of guy and tried to find a way to make any situation work to my benefit even if it was a bad one. Point in case is the situations that my family and I currently find ourselves in.I am deployed overseas for at least two months, my son has just gone off to high school boarding school, and my wife and daughters have to continue the hectic "you have three teenagers" schedule on their own.Instead of complaining about it night and day (OK I complained a little) we all took it on as a time to try and set some short term goals and try and achieve something during this time.My goal is to try and work out twice a day, track my food carefully to make sure I am in the fat shredder zone (this is straight from the P90X meal plan) so that I can lean out and get ripped, and try and get some sun so I am not so pasty white. My plan to achieve these goals is that I am getting up and going to the Wake gym every morning at 5 am (I know that sound early, but my body is use to central time so I wake up early anyway and if I never shift to this time zone then it stays easy to get up). I am doing BODY BEAST so I have a program already set and know exactly what I am suppose to do each day to achieve my goal of bulking up. For my meal plan I am restricted by having to eat in the Wake Island chow hall so I am making healthy choices (getting a serving of veggies, fruit, and one small serving of fish/chicken/beef) and keeping my portion sizes to one small plate. I am also making sure that I track everything that goes into my mouth with MyFitnessPal. I have the mobile app on my cell phone and even though there is no cell service in the middle of the pacific (I use the phone as an mp3 player) it is always with me and makes it easy to put in my information. After work I am rotating between running, kayaking, and biking. I am trying to get outside and get as much sun as I can to take the "bright" out of the white that is my skin.My wife has also decided to set a short term goal of getting in shape during the time that I am away. She is taking a class at a local gym and working with a trainer for extra motivation. She is monitoring her food and has a specific meal plan to put her body in the fat shredder zone. While this puts even more pressure on her already busy schedule, she has decided to make it a priority for the short term to try and achieve something while I am away.My son has just started Baylor College Prep School as a boarding student in his junior year of high school. He has a lot of changes going on in his life right now as he changes schools, changes teachers, changes where he lives, and changes a lot of his normal routine (such as doing his own laundry now). He has already stated that one thing that is really helping with all the changes is his decision to continue to work out. He continues to go to the gym (although instead of it being our home gym it is now a much bigger and nicer gym on the campus) and has taken up running and biking around the campus.My daughters continue to work towards their goals of improving on their competition cheerleading team. Although not a new short term goal for the next couple months they are hard at work with gymnastics three times a week and team practice every day after school.So how you handle a new stressful situation is up to you. You can complain and be angry and depressed or you can look at it as an opportunity to do something new or different. It really is just like the old saying "when life gives you lemons, make lemonade!"