It’s week 11 of my journey to better health, and we’re talking Home Chef, volleyball and desserts.

Note: I have moved my weigh-in day from Saturday to Monday to be closer to the blog’s publish date.

The Successes

This week’s successes were twofold.

First, Home Chef continued to deliver with well-portioned meals that helped me make it under my calorie limits.

On Wednesday, Julie and I enjoyed pork tacos al pastor. The three tacos were filled with ground pork, cilantro, shallots and pineapple. With three tacos each for Julie and I, it was plenty of food to where I didn’t need a side. And at 956 calories, it fit right in line with my allotment for dinner.

Friday was the lightest Home Chef meal that I have had so far. The chicken Kiev was delicious and just 496 calories. The pan fried chicken was topped with parsley butter and served with a side of green beans.

Sunday was a grilled sirloin steak salad. Most of the time, Julie is charge of cooking. Sunday was my turn.

It was listed as “intermediate” skill level. I think that just means it uses more dishes and pans because it wasn’t a hard dish to prepare, but it made quite a mess.

The salad dressing was not my favorite – a mixture of mayonnaise, buttermilk, olive oil and dill that didn’t get as thick as I think it should have. But the steak was good and so was the grilled romaine lettuce (I grilled lettuce and I liked it).

My second success was my weekend. The week was light on exercise (see below) but I made up for it starting Saturday night with a 2.8 mile walk along the Union Canal Towpath trail at Gring’s Mill.

Saturday I really let loose with nine holes of disc golf in the morning followed by an afternoon volleyball game at my cousin’s high school graduation party.

I’m not very good at volleyball to begin with. Couple that with the fact that I was 13 to 14 years older than my teammates and opponents, and it was a recipe for a lot of aches and pains. But it was worth 125 calories so at least I had that going for me.

The Challenges

It was hot. Really hot.

That made it hard to get exercise through most of the week – walks at lunch were just not happening. If not for an evening of lawn mowing on Thursday, it would have been a really bad week for me.

I had calories to spare most days, but I didn’t spend them wisely. Instead, I ate a lot of junk:

• Monday: Whoopie Pie
• Tuesday: Popcorn
• Wednesday: Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Thursday: Baklava and Carrot Cake (They were mini desserts, okay?)
• Friday: Whoopie Pie
• Saturday: Banana Cake and Ice Cream Sandwich
• Sunday: Strawberry Shortcake

Basically, I need some non-sweet snacks around the house to take the place of dessert.

The Results

Current Weight: 172.8
Weekly Weight Loss: -0.8
Weight Loss Since Start: -16.6

I was just shy of my one-pound weekly goal, but coming off a week where I lost 1.4 pounds, it was still a great result.

The Week Ahead

This is shaping up to be a crazy week. I have various meetings and events Monday through Thursday, and Friday will likely be a bloggable meal so that doesn’t leave a lot of opportunity for evening exercise.

It’s also still hot. So lunchtime walks, if they happen, will be short.

Also, I’m going to make a pig out of myself on Saturday at the annual “The Truck Stops Here: Mobile Madness” food truck festival at the Boyertown Museum of Historic Vehicles. If you love food, cars, local history or any combination of the three, I hope I see you there because it really is a fun event with some creative food trucks at an amazing hidden gem of a museum.