Once the tweaks start, especially if there are several of them, the program becomes less and less recognizable as body for life. Someone doing daily cardio, working abs every day, eating a low carb diet, and also trying to work in some other routine such as kick-boxing, or jazzercise, or P90X is spending most of their spare time doing exercise routine after exercise routine.

Eventually, it gets down to the point that about the only thing they share with the original routine in the book is that they still say they are “doing body for life.” The book has simply become the impetus for all this activity rather than the template for it.

Is this bad? Is this good? I think it all depends on the trainee. For me, exercise and diet are a means to an end. They take up little of my time, only about 4 hours for exercise, and very little time for food prep, and they allow me to enjoy life. Not that I don’t like working out–I do–but certainly I’d rather be doing other things most of the time. So, body for life really works for me best if I do it by the book. For those who desire to spend much of their times in a gym, or pounding the streets in running shoes, or bouncing around a kick-boxing class, good for you! But, I came to body for life because it is efficient; it’s good science; and it really works. I’ve stayed with body for life because it’s efficient; it’s good science; it really works; and it has transformed me both outside and inside as well. It has enabled me to become a better person, to enjoy life more, and to prioritize my life in a way that works best.

So, when I think about tweaks, I think, “why mess up a perfect system?” And I don’t!