live life like a champ vs live it like

Some examples from the web:

• Father, you don't have to live life like the rest of us.
• I feel like that's my responsibility, Like, my duty now, to live life like you did.
• I'm a sophomore and studying communications, TV and mass media, and basically trying to live life like a normal kid, which I always wanted growing up.
• and basically trying to live life like a normal kid, which I always wanted growing up.
• If you eventually become a champ, you'll be a champ for your country.
• You handled that one like a champ.
• The woman went out like a champ.
• Vera says you're a champ.
• I played like half a champ.
• No, Leelu's a champ.
• She's holding her pressure like a champ.
• I hear you're a champ at bridge.
• If you can, you're a champ.
• Lucky took his microchip like a champ.
• Be a champ... like I never was.
• And she pulls it off like a champ.
• I eat like a champ, believe you me.
• No, Leelu's a champ.
• Heard you held up like a champ.
• You're handling this like a champ.

Some examples from the web:

• I decided to start my life over and live it like the real me.
• Don't live it like this. I'm not worth it.
• But I still live with it like it was yesterday.
• Your life and watching you live it... is like a gag reel of ineffective bodily functions.
• You will just have to live with it, like the parents of all those kidnapped girls.
• How do people live like it?
• People spend their whole lives chasing it, like it's the most important thing in the world.
• I can't live through it, not like Salvatore.
• Live every day like it could be the last.
• It lives on surfaces like cell phones for hours.
• While I live, it already feels like the moments I'm living are far away.
• I just think you should live every night like it's your last.
• You can't train a hunting dog and then expect it to live like a poodle.
• Every single time she sees the message "John May lives," It's like a dagger in her eye.
• For Sunnyvale Trailer Park to be a nice place to live, just like it used to be.
• Now you have to live with it, just like we did.
• What your father did, it lives in me like it was yesterday.
• You're awesome and I'm proud of you and just live every day like it's your last.
• I know what it's like to live someplace where it feels like no one cares about you, let alone understands you.
• We just barely escaped ~with our lives... and it seems like we ought to be living them.