Family Night

“Other things may change us, but we start and end with family” -Anthony Brandt

Before starting this HCG diet, Friday night was pizza night at our home.   The tradition started years ago when my son was little, but Mr Self Care and I continued to celebrate Fridays with pizza and a movie,or a game, even after the nest was empty.  The evening has just gone from fun family night, to a more intimate romantic date night.  

Sadly, with our new eating plan, "pizza" night will become "salad" night at our home!  You can make this night taco night, or spaghetti night, or choose any food that is easily prepared that your family finds comforting.

The benefits of having this scheduled each week are many, but the highlights for us are time spent together, the reliability and stability that the routine of it brings to our lives and the fact that I didn't have to stress over what to have for dinner on Friday nights.   Make the night as simple as possible so you can focus on the people you are sharing it with!

We are all at different stages of our lives.   Some of us have little ones and some of us live alone.   Whatever the state of your current life I encourage you to add a little bit of routine social self care.   Spend some time with the people you love. 

If you are single, this can be a weekly evening out to dinner with the girls, or a weekly pot luck with your friends, or a visit to your parents home.   Sure you could (and should) also have time alone each week with a spa kit, but the focus of this blog post is on social self care! 

If you have a hubby and no kids in the house, make it a night to use up all the leftovers in the house as finger food and play scrabble or monopoly.

If you have teens at home, you might encourage them to invite a friend or two- but don't let them disappear into their rooms- encourage their interaction with the whole family too.  A Wii tournament might be one way to keep them engaged.

Fostering our family relationships is good self care!

Have fun!