The Reprogrammed Systems Approach to Poor Health and Modern Disease is based on several key principles:
1. The human body is a remarkable design capable of supporting each individual through a long and healthy life.
2. The modern, industrialized world does not support this biological design, and the result is a body made up of systems that become dysregulated, dysfunctional, and on the path to a modern disease diagnosis.
3. The progression from poor health to modern disease has become the norm, yet it is preventable for most individuals.
4. You have the ability to avoid this path to modern disease, and this can be accomplished by using your remarkable human mind.
Your Health, Reprogrammed is designed to help you understand these principles, and then to put into practice effective strategies aimed at achieving and maintaining good health. With the knowledge, tools, and practices provided, my hope is that you will be equipped to consistently make the healthy decision as you navigate the modern, industrialized world.
It is this ability to make healthy decisions that is our focus with this series. By understanding what the healthy decision is, combined with strategies to harness the ability to make that choice, we become capable of taking on our own Reprogramming Process – that is, the process in which we devote a serious effort to consistently make healthy decisions, leading us down a path of good heath and away from the now common path to poor health and modern disease.
With this article, I will lay out what this process for achieving good health entails. Then, in the next article, I will discuss the role your mind plays in driving this process, including the mind’s relationship to your body as it becomes healthier over time.
The following diagram simplifies this process:
Previously, I asked you to consider that achieving a state of good health is completely in the realm of possibilities for you. Each individual is capable of taking on the Reprogramming Process, albeit with an individualized process unique to each individual’s needs. We’ll get started here, with this understanding that change is possible.
The Reprogramming Process:
1. Decide that a change is needed and is possible
2. Find an effective approach that fits your unique circumstances
3. Put this approach into practice.
4. Be consistent
Repeat.
At this point, most of you are probably working on 1 and moving into 2. You have decided that change is possible, yet may still looking for any sort of strategy that could possibly be implemented into your hectic life. Or, it could be that you are completely on board, filled with excitement at the prospect of taking this journey, filled with ideas that you could put into practice. Regardless of your starting point, I ask you to take the time now to appreciate these steps so that you are prepared to accomplish and maintain your goals.
You will find information regarding each specific step elsewhere on this website* – but for now, my goal is to help you understand how this entire process plays out. While you may be anxious to get started, I urge you to take the time to first understand what this process looks like so that you are prepared to take on the entire thing.
So, how does this process work?
First, while these are written as steps, understand that this process is not a linear progression in which an individual must start at the beginning (1) and end with (4). Lifestyle changes are intermingled with the complexity that is the human body, the environment, and life, and this complexity brings with it unique challenges and opportunities.
Moreover, I do not want you getting into this thinking that there is a starting point and a finish line. The starting point is far behind you. You have been living this life for years already, and all of the challenges you have faced present, at this moment, special knowledge that will be useful as you move forward.
More importantly, there is no finish line – there is no specific goal that we are aiming to reach, and there is no time line that we must fit within. Instead, we are learning how to move forward in each and every moment – that is, we are aiming to progress down a long path filled with good health, and as we go along, the idea is to keep learning and improving, forever gaining more insight into how we can improve the health of our bodies.
Get the idea? You have been living the process all your life, and you will continue living it until you die. Whether or not you take each moment as an opportunity to progress forward towards better health is up to you.
This being established, the four steps are better viewed as part of a progressive cycle. As you move forward through each step, know that one will likely feedback into another, helping you progress towards your ultimate goal.

The Reprogramming Process is not a step-wise, linear plan in which you follow along concrete steps until you reach an end goal, usually defined by a period of time or weight goal. Instead, the Reprogramming Process involves the continuous process of identifying a practice that could improve your body’s current state, implementing that practice, and finally monitoring the results.
Note that there are two very different parts to this process:
First, there is the cognitive piece: the steps in which you learn what needs to be done and learn from what you just did. I will refer to these as the mind (or as you) – the being that is driving the direction of this process.
Second, there is a physical piece: the steps in which you take action and your body changes in response. I will refer to this as the body and brain, as these are the physical parts of you that are changing as you go through the process.
Framing this process in with these two categories, let’s see how this plays out with an example of starting where I asked: the understanding that change is possible.

This example of the Reprogramming Process shows how, with small shifts in mindset and simple practices, we can make progress towards good health, so long as we keep moving forward. There is no need to make wild changes to our life – to take on completely different diets with foods we don’t like, while signing up for a gym or a race, while also… no, we don’t need to do this.
Instead, all we need to do is start where we are, find a practice that we understand will likely create a beneficial change, implement that practice, and monitor the changes. Then, from there, we keep moving forward.
Notice that, as you progress, 4 (consistency) arises as an inherent part of the process – that is, consistency arises as we continue to progress: as we find new practices to implement, and then as we experience results, and then as we build confidence in our ability to make this change.
A note on reality:
The above example shows an ideal process as progression towards the goal happens. Now, let’s be honest with ourselves – we all know that this is not how it is going to work out in real life. Life happens, and with it comes extra obstacles. Don’t be surprised if, along the way, you get hit with a set-back that dampens your confidence or takes back your hard-won results. This is life, and if you aren’t willing to accept that set-backs occur, then you are doomed to fall off the wagon and keep falling until you are back where you started.
To avoid this, I encourage you to accept the fact, right now, that set-backs are going to happen – that they are just part of the process. Obstacles are going to show up. No matter how well you plan out a diet or exercise plan, that big event, sickness, or job opportunity will show up right in the middle of it, throwing off your time line and your goals.
Know that this will happen so that you are prepared for it when it does come. And when these set backs do come, don’t let them send you into a pit of despair where you feel like a failure. Instead, just learn from them. Challenges arise in our life so that we can learn from them, improve, and come out the other side as a wiser person. If you spend six months doing great making healthy choices and losing weight, only to be hit with some chaos that throws you off the wagon and results in gaining a few pounds – great, you now have a useful piece of information that you can use in the future so that you don’t see the same set back.

A more realistic projection of the reprogramming process:
With this understanding that there will be hick-ups in your Reprogramming Process, don’t be surprised when you witness miracles. Maybe you expected that a series of practices would take you weeks to implement and months to see results, and yet, when you put one basic practice into place you experienced the full results early. As you celebrate these wins, make sure you take note of what happened so that you are continuously learning from experience as you go along. What was it that you did to achieve such great results? Can you keep moving forward with it? Can you improve upon it and see even better results?
Finally, understand one very important part of this experience: the Reprogramming Process is going to be uncomfortable. You are going to have to give up many things that you want to cling to and you are going to deal with new habits that you are not so open to. You may very well find yourself falling back into old patterns, and you may go through periods of time where you struggle to maintain steady progress.
But understand that this is the process. This is how real change happens – by devoting the time, energy, and resources that are needed to get to where you want to be. The process may be messy, but trust me, it is worth it – given that you immerse yourself in the Reprogramming process, you will find yourself in a new body, with a new brain, and a new, fully functioning mind.
You will be a new you – a you that is no longer on the path to a progressive decline towards modern disease. A you who is capable of running that race, keeping up with your kids, and maintaining that vitality through to old age.
Sound crazy? Let’s give it a try.
*Note:
For help on step 2: Find an effective approach that fits your unique circumstances, refer to the following pages: