When it comes to losing your weight and keeping it off on the Code Red Lifestyle™, the most hard and fast rule is this:

The program works when you work the program.

Rebels who work the program prove this over and over, with astonishing results–not just in weight loss, but in the way they feel.

And yet, there are people who join the Code Red Lifestyle™ and decide they know better than Cristy does, AND better than all my successful Rebels who worked the program and got their weight off.

Sometimes it happens on “first contact” with Code Red, before they understand how freaking serious I am, and that Code Red is a way of life, not a “diet.”

But other times Rebels who’ve enjoyed success with Code Red let life get to them, and it sends them off the rails.

I remember a post from a Rebel who admitted to playing Dr. Frankenstein with Code Red and Weight Watchers. She go sloppy with Code Red’s simple rules, and rather than tighten up and follow them to the letter, she tried doing “mostly” Code Red, but incorporating some Weight Watchers rules (which allowed for foods we don’t eat in weight loss mode in Code Red).

All this was done in the hope it’d shortcut the weight loss process on Code Red.

So what happened?

She GAINED five pounds.

Plus, in addition to weight gain, her rheumatoid arthritis flared up from the return of inflammation caused by the foods she re-introduced.

She was pretty upset with herself for falling into the “quick fix” mindset–a mindset the diet industry is happy to perpetuate, because it keeps you hopelessly circling the weight loss mountain.

Look, if quick fixes were gonna work for LASTING weight loss, they’d have worked.

The fastest way to lose your weight is to follow the Code Red program to the letter, because Code Red gets your weight off faster than just about anything else there.

But you still have to follow the rules. Period.

That means getting your sleep in.

That means drinking your water.

That means being meticulous with your food, instead of grabbing a little bit of this and a little bit of that, and telling yourself, “Oh, just one bite won’t hurt.”

Learn from this Rebel–who posted about it to help herself get back on track–instead of learning the hard way.

The program works when you work the program. So work the program!