There are a lot of ways I can tell someone’s not ready to succeed on the Code Red Lifestyle™.

At the top of that list is when they try to negotiate the foods list.

Instead of just following the foods list, they devote exorbitant amounts of time and energy into seeing “what they can get away with.”

Then they have the nerve to insist Code Red “doesn’t work.”

That’s like putting diesel fuel in your car that runs on unleaded gasoline and saying the car’s defective.

Code Red’s foods to eat/foods to avoid list is what it is for scientific reasons. I didn’t pin the names of foods up and throw darts at them to see which foods went on which side.

I get that when you’re used to eating certain stuff, and you spot it on the “foods to avoid” side of the list, it may be alarming. It means a change, and that the discomfort that comes along with change is in store for you.

Plus, eating is a pretty emotional experience for most people…which is a BIG part of the problem.

Instead of eating to fuel our bodies, we eat for every other reason under the sun – to celebrate, to feel better, even to punish ourselves.

NONE of that changes the fact that the best results on Code Red come only when you follow the foods and rules lists to the letter.

I remember a client from three years ago who, while half-assing her custom program, spent two hours wandering supermarkets in search of microwave pork rinds. Imagine if she’d put all that time and energy into actually FOLLOWING her program. She’d have crushed it!

If you’re someone who’s pouring time and energy into seeing “what you can get away with” on the foods list, I want you to stop and examine why you’re doing it, because you’re doing yourself a real disservice.

Seriously, have food workarounds helped you before, or are you right back where you started?

That blind devotion to finding “the best way to cheat” and asking, over and over, “can I have ________” is getting you exactly NO WHERE.

Either surrender your grip and follow the foods list, or acknowledge you’re not ready to succeed with Code Red, and go back to what you were doing.

The decision’s 100% yours, but there’s no gray area. Do it or don’t do it.