Body for Life  

Body for Life is a 12-week diet, exercise program and annual physique transformation competition created by Bill Phillips. Body for Life is based on principles that have been used in bodybuilding for many years.  Bill Phillips made the Body for Life diet using the principles he learned in competitive bodybuilding, for the average person who wants to loose weight. Millions of people have done this program with great success; it is a tough physical program that can get you in the best shape of your life.  

This is a fast, healthy weight loss, fitness program. It is not one of those diet programs where you take a pill every day and the weight just falls off. This is for people who want to loose weight and get fit, healthy and transform their body.  

With the Body for Life program you will eat six small meals a day to keep your metabolism high. This means eating every few hours, each meal is a balanced mix of protein and carbohydrates. No less than two vegetables are in at least two meals a day and you need to drink at least 10 glasses of water a day. Carbohydrates like potatoes and rice are a part of the diet.  There are a lot of exercises so you will need carbohydrates to keep your energy up.  

Supplements and multivitamins are also a part of the Body for Life program. These are not your average weight loss supplements. This is a complete supplement program. There are great tasting nutrition shakes. Bill Phillips is a former competitive bodybuilder and the founder of EAS, the manufacturer of the nutritional supplements used in the Body for Life program. Another part of the program is the Body for Life competition. Bill Phillips had the first annual Body for Life competition in 1996. It was then called the "EAS Grand Spokesperson Challenge". Entrants write about their experience of the program, and send this to EAS along with their 'before' and 'after' swimsuit photos. Prizes vary each year, but in 2005 the first prize was US $1,000,000. 

The principal focus of Body for Life is an exercise routine that is done six days a week, alternating between a day of weights and a day of aerobics. The workouts start slow and increase the intensity to a peak level.  Once the peak level is reached the workouts slow back down during each session. The exercise program may be tough for many people. Weight training and aerobic exercise increase metabolism so your body will burn fat and build muscles. For 12-weeks, you switch from upper body to lower body. You work on you upper body one day, the next day you do aerobics for your lower body. Each week you alternate the order in which you work the upper and lower body. You work each muscle group with two activities during each exercise session; there is no stipulation for number of sets or the weight you should work out with. Exercise will also make you hungrier so it is important to control portions of some foods to keep yourself from eating too much.  

If you have never been on a fitness program you are in for something new. You will see some rapid weight loss but it will take much motivation on your part. Something you will also see is fitness; if you have never been fit you are in for a treat. You feel different and people see you different, it will be a different world for you. Something that people who are out of shape do not understand, it feels good to move your body around when you are fit. It feels good to pick things up. When you are overweight and out of shape it takes effort to move and to move thing around. It takes effort to just to breath. When you are in shape the body feels good, it takes much less effort to move the body around. Breathing for me is a whole other thing, when I am in shape it is easy and it feels good to take a deep breath. Just thinking about this is enough motivation to keep me in shape for life. 

 It is worth the effort, some days you will feel good and some days will be terrible. You will need to listen to your body to figure out when to push and when to back off. It is better that you don’t over do it and you have to push yourself. Some pain is good but not enough to hurt yourself. You will learn to tell the difference.  Do what it takes to make every workout worth showing up for and you will open up a new world for yourself. 

I recommend getting a consistent dose of weight loss motivation; you should team up with a buddy.  This is not an easy program but the rewards are great and a buddy with some weight loss motivation at the right time can help a lot. Some of the best weight loss motivation I know of is when friends and family notice a difference and ask if you have been working out. 

With this weight loss program you can make fitness a way of life. When you make fitness a way of life magic will start happening for you, people will notice and you will feel your inner power. You will feel great and you will not want to go back to your old way of living. If you have the motivation this is one of the best weight loss programs, it will get you mentally and physically in shape.