The 'sometimes carb' weekly challenge - stage four

In stage three of the 'sometimes carb' challenge our intention was to actively think more about what 'sometimes carbs' where dominating our eating plan, and to intentionally eliminate one 'serve' at least of 'sometimes carbs' from your daily eating plan.

Remember to keep your stage one, two and three charts for your reference.

Did you achieve your stage three goal?

Did you manage to eliminate one 'sometimes carb' serve each day from your eating plan during your stage three week? If so I am thrilled for you, and look forward to your continued success in this area.

It is possible though, that you may have succeeded on some days but struggled on others. This is not unexpected when your routine varies from day to day. Often when you work all week it can be easier to keep control of your intake, but on the weekends with a more relaxed routine, and more 'leisure time' activity, it can be harder to keep your focus.

If you have struggled to consistently reduce your daily 'serves', look at your total 'sometimes carbs' serves for the week in comparison to stage one and stage two. If you have reduced your overall weekly 'sometimes carbs' serves by four or five then I would call that a successful stage three.

Any reduction is a good reduction, and the fact that you are even thinking about 'sometimes carbs' is a measure of success, let alone any success in reduction of 'sometimes carbs'.

Even if there was no reduction, if you continued to track your 'sometimes carb' intake for another week I am confident you will be gaining a familiarity with these foods which will stand you in good stead as we try to focus in stage four on particular foods from this group.

Remember … we are looking for a long term change and it's better to take your time to work through this gradually and really take it on board, than for it to be a short term 'fad' that will be forgotten next week, or next year.

Stage four of the 'sometimes carb' challenge

As we go into stage four of this challenge I want you to try again to reduce your intake by one 'sometimes carb' serve each day, regardless of your success or lack there of in stage three.

But this time I want you to focus on eliminating a serve from the 'cakes, biscuits or sweet pastries' area. If you already have these choices down to only one per day, perhaps try to eliminate them completely on three days this week, and the other days eliminate another sometimes carb serve of your choice.

If you are using appropriate portion control you may record ½ or ⅓ serves

If printing this chart is not an option for you
pencil, paper and ruler is a quick fix

I do not expect you to be eliminating cakes, biscuits and sweet pastries entirely from your eating plan at any point (see to choose or not to choose cake - that is the question - 15 August), let alone at this stage of our challenge, but it is important for long term success that we learn that they are not ideal 'daily inclusions' and that we can actually live without them.

We also need to practice saying NO. It is something that - in my experience - gets easier with practice, and I must admit, as I watched some of that unhealthy weight start to fall away I found it increasingly easy to say no.

Helpful tips for this week

If you are struggling to get into the 'appropriate' portion sizes, try choosing one 'sometimes carb' (perhaps one that you struggle to say NO to) and try to manage that one 'sometimes carb' with appropriate portion control rather than a reduction in 'serves'.

Now would also be an excellent time to try slotting some extra physical activity into your week, while you are focusing so diligently on improving your eating habits. Even 30 minutes once this week, if it is an increase on your usual regime, would be phenomenal.

As you endeavour to reduce your 'sometimes carbs' serves this week do remember to try to increase your choices of food from the 'anytime food' group rather than just depriving your self of food. 'Starving' your self is not a strategy likely to achieve long term success.

I was never very good at going hungry so making the most of those 'anytime foods' was invaluable to me. If you haven't already read it, Healthy weight loss - why I choose to 'eat' not 'starve' - July 14th might be worth a read at this point

Next week in the 'the sometimes carb weekly challenge'

The original 'sometimes carb challenge' only had four official stages, but I don't think an extra week will go astray. So see you next week with a little more encouragement.

Appendix A:

For your information if trying appropriate portion sizes (approximately 15 gram carbohydrate)

• ½ cup Weeties or Cornflakes 
• ⅓ cup Sustain, Fibre Plus or Just Right 
• 1½ Weetbix or Vita Brits 
• ¼ cup raw oats 

• 1 small potato or ½ cup mashed potato 
• ½ cup polenta 
• ½ cup green peas or sweet corn
• ½ cup cooked rice, or pasta, or cous cous, or lentils

• 1 normal slice of bread 
• ½ English Muffin (breakfast style) 
• ⅓ Bread Roll
• 1 flat bread (many are 2 portions)

• 3 Sao Biscuits
• 4 Corn Thins
• 1 Cup (loose) potato chips (not hot potato chips!!)
• 5 water crackers

Pizza, pastry, cakes and biscuits vary too much to give an exact amount. Packaged items will have labels (in Australia) and you can work it out for your self from that … or...

… as a rough guide and for the purposes of this exercise

allocate 1 portion per

• middling wedge of pizza
• middling portion of savoury pie
• slim (2cm/1inch) wedge of plain cake
• 2 small biscuits
• 1 medium biscuit

allocate 2 portions per

• modest wedge of sweet pie
• slim (2cm/1inch) wedge of rich/fancy cake

Anything not listed just try to reduce your usual portion.