Get ready! We are now on the launching pad. Excited? You should be. For some of you, I hope and expect the following pages will be both eye-opening and life-changing!

Here we go. To me, our brains are wondrous things! I see them as the greatest supercomputers in the known universe. In any event, I think most would agree that our brain is, in many ways, very similar to a highly sophisticated computer. As such, learning is analogous to programming. Habits are learned. In my view, they are literally programmed into our brains. If our brains are computers (or at least analogous to computers), then I would say that the mind is actually like the computer screen. The computer screen is where much of the work product of the computer presents itself. But let’s combine them and refer to them as your (or the) “mind.” So our minds can be reprogrammed. How wonderful is that?

Reprogramming is how you enact real, permanent change. It will cause you to see things ever so differently than you have in the past. It is how old bad habits can be replaced with new good habits.

I read in Psychology Today that habits are built through learning and repetition. In the NPB system, we use learning and lots of repetition to help us form new habits, which by design, replace old habits.

For example, a habit that you will learn is to eat delicious fruit for dessert (dessert is acceptable in the NPB maintenance phase with some wiggle room in the candidate phase, but no junk), thereby replacing your old practice of eating a self-defeating hot fudge sundae with disastrous whipped cream.

Therefore, regarding habit formation, you can learn from this book. An example being when we discuss not what you eat or the amount of food you eat, but how you eat. The repetition comes from saying your mantras, doing weigh-ins at least twice daily, looking at your pictures at least daily, and looking at yourself (shirt off) in the mirror every day. As well as practicing how you eat; not what, but rather how.

​Over the period from December 2022 through May of 2023 and as the NPB system was coming into focus, it became more and more evident to me that I was, indeed, reprogramming my mind. I had no recollection of seeing anything like reprogramming one’s mind before, especially in regard to changing one’s body for the good. In May 2023, I started to do Internet searches on “reprogramming the mind for dieting” and for improving the body. I found some things. I want to say that I am not trying to take credit for coming up with the idea of reprogramming your mind for dieting or maybe even transforming your body. Frankly, taking credit is really of no importance. What is important is that you practice and embrace the concepts being offered.

​In addition to using learning and repetition, we add a powerful incentive. The incentive being you thinking every day and more often, if need be, about achieving your NPB.

“Learning Mind” published an article by Lottie Miles, M.A. on October 5th, 2019. She spoke of reprogramming your subconscious mind. In her article was a great quote by Carl Jung. He said, “Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.”

She went on to explain how you could reprogram your (subconscious) mind. I was glad to see many of the things in her article that I offer you in this book. Among her suggestions were:

• Visualize success

• Get yourself a notebook and write down your goals

• Use positive reinforcement

• Be kind to yourself

As I read it, I felt like standing up and applauding her. She and I were so much in sync!