“It is so important to take time for yourself and find clarity. The most important relationship is the one you have with yourself.” Diane Von Furstenberg

Healthy eating and exercise are both important but it’s important to take care of ourselves in other ways. Today was such a day for this. Yes, I did my running plus the ever dreaded celery juice (disgusting) but I also took time to make me feel good in other ways. First I had a mini manicure (I don’t get polish on my nails) at Quannspa in Summerside, PEI. https://quannspa.ca The aestheticians are wonderful and you leave feeing amazing. If you’re ever wanting excellent skincare products, made right here on PEI, then this is your place. You can also buy their products online. https://www.quannessence.ca/ I can’t say enough about their skincare line. I absolutely ❤️ these products. Thank you Sharon Quann for your vision and excellence in all you do.

What was next?

What everyone loves – a hair appointment. I go to The Style https://thestylesalon.ca/ also in Summerside, PEI. I’ve been a client since 1976. Now that’s a very long time. Obviously I love this salon. They take such excellent care of their clients and I’m so grateful that Jason Arsenault is my stylist. He’s amazing. What a fabulous salon.

Beautiful sunshine awaited me when I got home so I bought two steeped teas plus a Boston Creme doughnut for Richard. It’s sweet that Richard always thinks of my mother (as do all my family) when he has one. My mother absolutely loved Boston Creme doughnuts. But only from Tim Hortons. No where else would do. I only made that mistake once. She promptly informed me that it was awful. Lesson learned. My mother has since died but so many things remind me of her everyday. Hope you’re enjoying Boston Cremes even now Mom. ❤️ I spent the rest of the afternoon sitting on the deck soaking in the sun. Mom would have loved that too.

A bonus was that we had our first hummingbird at our feeder. Yipee! Hope to see more.

Tonight’s supper is courtesy of Richard.

General Tao Tofu

Who knew tofu could be so tasty? Not me, that’s for sure. But this was! It tasted so good. This tasted nothing like any tofu recipes we’ve had in the past. This actually had flavour. Loved it. We will definitely be having this again.

Have you done something to take care of yourself? Big or small things help. Think about it and let me know.

Take Care of Yourself – Maisie Peters

Stay safe and healthy.

As always, thanks for your interest and thank you for reading.

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“EATING HEALTHY FOOD FILLS YOUR BODY WITH ENERGY AND NUTRIENTS. IMAGINE YOUR CELLS SMILING BACK AT YOU AND SAYING: ‘THANK YOU!’” KAREN SALMANSOHN

And that’s exactly what we’re trying to do – eat healthy.

Day 12

I wish this celery juice would start tasting better. 😞 I realize it’s healthy but couldn’t it taste good too? Maybe it’s because I took the last few days off from drinking it. I did drink a green juice those mornings though. And although it didn’t taste great, it wasn’t as awful as the celery juice. Each to their own I guess.

We find it’s much easier to maintain our healthy eating by making a weekly menu. (Actually Richard writes it out but we do collaborate on the choices of meals.) We have a great system: if he cooks I do the dishes and vice versa. Admittedly, he does more cooking than I do. Having that menu posted on the fridge allows us to be more prepared by knowing in advance what groceries to buy. In addition I find it’s less stressful knowing what you’re going to have ahead of time. And I do like lists. 😊

Tonight I made a recipe we received from No Meat May. https://www.nomeatmay.net/

Pea and Avocado Pasta Bowl

And I’m serious. It really was easy. I made Richard’s with regular spaghetti pasta but I made mine with gluten free penne pasta. I added some extra whole peas at the end for visual effect and we had parsley so I added a few sprigs. Next time, and there will definitely be a next time, I’ll use cilantro instead of parsley and add a little more lemon juice. This is a great recipe when you’re pressed for time and need a quick, healthy meal.

Today’s musical selection.

Pass The Peas – The JB’s

Stay safe and healthy.

As always, thanks for your interest and thank you for reading.

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“SUCCESS IS THE SUM OF SMALL EFFORTS, REPEATED DAY IN AND DAY OUT.” ROBERT COLLIER

I read this quote today and I like it. Why? It really got me thinking. Often we think of success in terms of material things. I’m guilty of that as maybe some of you are. Sometimes, maybe with aging, comes a clearer understanding of what is important. We tend to need and want less. COVID 19 seems to have given many of us this realization. I wonder if it will continue once we’re able to have more normalcy in our lives. If this quote is a true representation of success then could we not all be successful? Thoughts?

My thoughts regarding a feeling of success with my own health need work; a switch in my thought process. My best friend often tells me it’s more important to be healthy on the inside. Sadly I’ve always regarded being healthy in terms of the numbers on the scale and dwelt too much on those numbers. If my scales say I’m down then I feel elated but if they say the opposite I feel upset with myself. That’s where my head is. Time to regroup and really think about today’s quote – sum of small efforts. That’s what I will try to concentrate on, my small efforts.

Day 3

Will this celery juice ever taste good? Maybe not but I am making the effort to drink it each morning so that’s a positive. Richard made it last night so I’d have it to drink before my early morning hot yoga class. I thought it might make a difference but with it being cold it was harder to drink. Then again the coldness did require us to drink it more slowly which is how we’re supposed to drink it, so that’s good.

Don’t worry I won’t post about it everyday. I know it’s not that interesting reading about my juice.

By the way, apparently I got the name wrong for the online challenge. It’s actually called No Meat May. But I like Meatless May so I’ll stick with that.

Tonight’s loaf recipe was one that my daughter shared with me a few years ago. When she made it, it tasted delicious. She’s a fantastic cook.

BBQ Chickpea and Sweet Potato Loaf

Now I must be honest. My daughter’s was better. Mine was delicious but wasn’t quite firm enough.

Sweet Potatoes by Odetta

Stay safe and healthy

As always, thanks for your interest and thank you for reading.

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“IT IS HEALTH THAT IS REAL WEALTH AND NOT PIECES OF GOLD AND SILVER.” MAHATMA GANDHI

A little music for you: Booker T & The MGS “Green Onions”

Day 2

Unbelievable! I slept so well last night. Could it be the celery juice? Mmmmmm. Or is it a mental thing that I think it will help me sleep 💤 so it does? Mmmmmm. I have no idea but I’m enjoying the benefits of a good night’s sleep.

Celery juice Day 2 and sad to say it doesn’t taste any better. I was so hoping I’d try it today and love it. Nope. I’ll keep trying.

So this month we’re making some nutritional changes (not that our diet was really bad before) to improve our health. But we haven’t forgotten exercise. We are still continuing with our regular exercise regime.

In April 2020 when PEI was in a severe lockdown and everything nonessential was closed, Richard came up with the brilliant idea to change the spare bedroom into an exercise room since we couldn’t go to gym or yoga. He is the idea man. So we moved the bedroom 🛌 furniture to the basement and bought a treadmill (a huge thanks to my son Jared for putting it together).To the room we added our 5, 10, & 15 lb. weights, yoga mats, bozu ball, medicine ball, resistance bands, and a fan. We also put up a TV that was previously stored in the basement (I can’t do treadmill without a TV). Perfect. It’s been great. When it’s right there you do it every day (or almost every day 😉).

Gyms have since opened and now Richard goes to his gym twice a week. My membership expired but I’m fine with using our exercise room.

We especially love that we can now go to our yoga 🧘🏼 classes. We feel very safe as all Covid 19 protocols are followed. This class is held once a week: Summerside Afternoon Yoga with Greg

https://www.facebook.com/Smooth-Yoga-with-Greg-907796292574920/

https://gregs.fitness/

And I also attend two hot yoga classes every week at Modo Yoga

https://modoyoga.com/

Thank goodness for the internet. I’ve been searching online for vegetarian recipes, using Pinterest a lot. https://www.pinterest.ca/ Often I find recipes and then modify them as I did with tonight’s supper. We had Black Bean, Corn, and Avocado Burritos with a raspberry/grapefruit side salad.

What are your favourite vegetarian meal recipes? I’d love you to share them with me. I know I’ll be needing them.

Stay safe and healthy.

As always, thanks for your interest and thank you for reading.

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May 1, 2021 and the beginning of a month long, maybe longer but hopefully not shorter, personal health journey.

Two clues to help you guess one thing we’ll be doing.

And since I’ll always think like an elementary school music teacher:

I’m sure you’ve got it.

Our first change is that first thing every morning we’re going to drink fresh celery juice. Why you ask? A friend and holistic practitioner recommended we try it to improve our complexions, digestion, sleep, and overall health. So we thought, why not.

Our second change this month will be Meatless May. Yes, you read correctly. This is new for us even though we usually have at least one vegetarian meal a week. I have no idea if we’ll make it through the whole month or if one of us will crack, but here goes nothing.

Richard saw a Meatless May challenge online and since he’s always interested in trying new things he thought we should go for it. A plus is they’ll share a new recipe everyday.

And away we go.

After hearing about the juice I did some online research. Celery juice contains vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin K, folate, calcium, potassium, sodium, magnesium, phosphorus, electrolytes, water and smaller amounts of other vitamins and minerals. Sounds healthy, right? But there are so many online articles regarding the benefits, or lack there of, regarding this juice that it boggles my mind. What’s true and what’s not? I figure it’s just celery so it can’t hurt. We’ll give it a try for a month and see what happens.

She recommended the Omega Horizontal Slow Juicer but as I already have a Vitamix we used it.

Day 1

To make the juice we used a full stalk of celery cut into pieces, a Swiss chard leaf, plus we added some water as I was worried about ruining the machine. We used the smoothie cycle and then strained it into a measuring cup to extract the juice. It made about 16 ounces. Richard really liked it. Me? Yuck, yuck, yuck. Even made my stomach queasy. I sure hope it gets better. And let’s just say it sure cleans you out, if you get my drift.

For those who don’t know, Halloumi or haloumi (/həˈluːmi/) (Greek: Χαλλούμι Turkish: hellim) is a semi-hard, unripened cheese made from a mixture of goat’s and sheep’s milk, and sometimes also cow’s milk. It has a high melting point and so can easily be fried or grilled. This property makes it a popular meat substitute. Wikipedia.

Well we made it through Day 1 and for me, it was all good except for the celery juice. Fingers crossed for tomorrow.

“One day or day one. You decide.” Unknown

As always, thanks for your interest and thank you for reading.

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What a difference a year makes, 8760 little hours. Well, really it’s been over a year and I wouldn’t say the hours have actually felt “little”.

It’s been over a year since my last post. It was when we returned to PEI from Gulf Shores, Alabama . March 17^th to be exact. What a year! Nothing you nor I could ever have imagined.

This pandemic has affected everyone, not all in the same way, but it has affected us. I remind myself everyday that I am very lucky. I am able to look at the water everyday, walk on the beach, attend yoga classes, eat out! Have hair cuts, etc. I am thankful that here on our small island we feel relatively safe. But as our PEI Chief Health Officer Dr. Heather Morrison said, “We are only one bad decision away from a serious outbreak”. Scary times.

This blog began in 2018 as a documentation of my trips and adventures after having retired from 37 years of teaching elementary school music. It was a way to share with friends and family what we were doing, especially during winter our trips south. 

I struggled with choosing a name for it before deciding on “Debi’s Junket Journal”. 

Merriam Webster ‘s definition for  ‘junket’:

1a: TRIP, JOURNEY: such as

(1): a trip made by an official at public expense

(2): a promotional trip made at another’s expense a film’s press junket

b: a festive social affair

Well, our trips certainly aren’t paid by anyone other than ourselves but I enjoyed the alliteration for the title so I went with it. 

This past year I’ve had zero trips. I have not been off the island and just couldn’t get myself back into blogging. 

But no more. 

I’m sure there will be some small, local journeys for me to share but more importantly there will be personal journeys. 

And that’s where I’m starting. 

May 1, 2021 will be the beginning of these personal journeys. 

What you ask?  

Well now, you’ll just have to stay tuned to find out.

Enjoy this Dinah Washington version of “What a Difference a Day Makes”

As always, thanks for your interest and thank you for reading.

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This is how we started the morning. On the way home we took a slight detour to Old Orchard Beach. Beautiful sunrise.

Feels good to be back on PEI.

Two weeks self isolation – I can do that. I’ll make lists tomorrow of things to get done and then start tackling them.

I’ll post more of today’s adventure tomorrow. Too tired now. Just wanted to let you know we made it back.

Sleep well everyone.

Unbelievable!

I know.

10 states in 1day – well really in 12 hours

Virginia,

West Virginia

Pennsylvania

New Maryland

New Jersey

New York

Connecticut

Massachusetts

New Hampshire

Maine

Hmmmm. How many provinces could you drive in during 12 hours?

What a day.

Left a bit later this morning. 6:00 am. Light rain 🌧 for a while but it cleared. Traffic was heavier today. But at least no traffic jams. Smooth that way.

Something we’ve noticed these last two days is that for all the TV, radio, and newspaper reports on COVID-19 the drive has not seemed very different from last year. A few differences: gas stations’ shelves are toilet paper free (guess there’s a run on it here too), Starbucks won’t fill refillable mugs anymore, and we saw one person putting on latex gloves to open the door of a Service Centre.

I wonder if people are taking it seriously. I, on the other hand, had my Clorox wipes with me at each rest stop and the hotels.

Off the road just before 7:00 pm. We made it to Saco, Maine.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saco,_Maine

Staying at the Ramada Inn.

https://www.wyndhamhotels.com/ramada/saco-maine/ramada-saco-old-orchard-beach-area/overview?CID=LC:RA::GGL:RIO:National:36788&iata=00093796

Happy to be in for the night and sit and relax with a cup of green tea 🍵

Nite y’all

As always, thanks for your interest and thank you for reading.

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