Update Your Operating Systems

Does it seem that no matter what diet you try, you cannot seem to lose weight? Or, when you finally do lose weight, you somehow manage to gain it back? Are you a literal encyclopedia of weight loss knowledge and yet you still cannot make it work for you?

The secret to your success — in fact your destiny — lies not in what you know but in what you do. And what you do is determined by your beliefs, thoughts and words.

Gandhi said it best: "Your beliefs become your thoughts. Your thoughts become your words. Your words become your actions. Your actions become your habits. Your habits become your values. Your values become your destiny."

That chain is the whole program in one sentence. Most diets try to change your actions while leaving your beliefs untouched, which is why the actions never last. This program starts further upstream.

Studying his own success and that of thousands of other people, Dr. Russ found that losing weight, keeping it off and becoming healthy required four operating system updates. Most diets concentrate on only one — usually eating.

• The Eating operating system. What you do and do not eat really does have the largest influence on what you weigh. But most diets load you up on nutritional knowledge and food regimens while doing nothing to update the way you think and feel about food. All of your beliefs, thoughts, words, actions, habits and values about eating have to be updated.
• The Fitness operating system. Most fitness-based weight loss programs focus on cardiovascular work, strength training, or both. A complete update includes how you move, how you breathe, your endurance, your balance and your strength — plus mental and spiritual fitness.
• The Betterness® operating system. This one runs the process of change itself. It is what lets some people methodically focus on an area of their life and actually, permanently improve it. It governs how effective and lasting every other update will be.
• The For Good! operating system. Think of it as an antivirus program for your mind. Once installed it runs in your subconscious and performs minor fixes before things get out of control, letting you keep what you have already achieved while you continue to improve.

"Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending." — Maria Robinson

It does not matter if you have failed before. It does not matter if you lost weight only to gain it back. This program was designed so that those past experiences become the building blocks of your future success. Do not let your past haunt you — allow it to empower you.