Body-for-Life

I re-watched my Body of Work/Body for Life videos.  I once made the bold statement that Bill Phillips changed my life.  Now, obviously I have yet to seriously take up working out, but what those videos did was give me a different perspective on working out.

Body of Work is the original in which Bill proposes a body building contest through his magazine.  He gives you the workout program, you do a before picture, and follow the workout and diet for 3 months, take after pictures and send them in with your essay, etc.  In the video the whole thing is documented.  They describe the contest, and then they fly across the country surprising the ten finalists and tell their stories and show the process of choosing the final champion(s).  Then there are a couple more dvds that show select stories of winners from the years that follow.  Most of them show Bill surprising the people, others are more detailed personal stories. 

The one thing that resonates through all of the winners' stories is that once they committed to this program and succeeded at it, that success had a ripple effect throughout their entire lives.  Not only did they look better and younger, they were happier and more confident.  It saved and strengthened marriages, turned peoples lives around, gave people the confidence in themselves to take on new challenges like quit their shitty job and go back to school, or start their own business.  It wasn't just about not having a beer belly, or having a six pack, or getting off this medication.  It was about the power of committing to something, accomplishing a difficult task and how that one success can change your entire life.

The results of this contest over 3 months are amazing.  3 months!  And even though fat loss is one of the ten categories, the competition is more about regular, out of shape, moderately overweight people.  For anyone not obese, it shows what can really be accomplished in a short time if you commit.  It's pretty epic.

 Check it out.