The 21st week of my journey to better health is in the books, and things are still looking good as I inch closer and closer to my goals. Here’s a look at how I did it.

The Successes

It was another relatively uneventful week for me. Walking and working have been my go-tos for a couple weeks now, but they seem to be working. Here’s a look at this week’s small victories:

• Monday: 15 Minutes of Walking
• Tuesday: 60 Minutes of Walking
• Wednesday: 25 Minutes of Walking & 75 Minutes of Lawn Mowing

Lighter meals have helped, too. On Monday, Julie and I enjoyed stuffed peppers from Fisher’s Poultry at the Pennsylvania Dutch Farmers Market of Wyomissing (approximately 650 calories).

Tuesday night we visited the Kutztown Fair and despite eating a chicken cheese steak, a taco and half an order of Dutch fries, I was still 260 calories under my limit.

Friday’s stuffed zucchini (with sage sausage) dinner came in around 600 calories and Sunday’s pulled pork sandwiches with mashed cauliflower were just 435 calories.

And these were filling meals, and I never left the table hungry.

The Challenges

While the week started well for me, it ended without me recording any exercises after Wednesday. However, I watched my food intake so I only had one bad day and one borderline day.

My worst day was Saturday, normally a win for me because I have more opportunity for exercise. The day started at a breakfast with some of my church friends at Wegman’s Reeser Restaurant on Route 61.

Anything flour packs on the calories so I was quickly down 600 before my day even began. I then spent the morning shopping, adding on a hamburger barbecue sandwich for lunch.

For dinner, Julie and I made our first trip to Cosa Pizzeria & Italian Restaurant. I’ll be reviewing the meal in the coming weeks, but let’s just say that I don’t recommend an Italian dinner for anyone on a diet (at least if you’ve already had pancakes).

Thursday was the only other day that I came in over my calorie limit. I didn’t make it out for a walk at lunch and I went right from work to Grandview Speedway for the All-Star Circuit of Champions Sprint Cars.

I haven’t made it to nearly as many races this year as I would have liked but I had this one circled on my calendar because of the appearance of future NASCAR Hall of Famer Tony Stewart. His 14th place finish was disappointing, but it was a great night of racing.

Unfortunately I didn’t have time to go home for a homecooked meal so I had to settle for a mashed potato bowl and half a soft pretzel from Wawa. Still, I was only over my limit by 26 calories, compared to nearly 300 on Saturday.

The Results

Current Weight: 165.2
Weekly Weight Loss: -1.0
Total Weight Loss: 24.2

It’s amazing to me just how accurate the Lose It! app is when it comes to calculating weight loss. I was just a few hundred calories under for the week, and I lost exactly one pound for the second week in a row.

The Week Ahead

Once again there is nothing out of the ordinary planned for this coming week. But the grass is dry and I’ve got two new discs so I think some disc golf courses will be calling my name.