75 Hard
On January 1st of this year, I began doing the 75 Hard challenge. Before you roll your eyes, no, it wasn’t one of those New Year resolution pledges or anything like that. I just so happen to start this challenge over again on 1 January because I failed my first attempt after 44 days and because someone had asked me if I’d do the challenge with them.
Back in December I commented on a FB post made by a woman from Ireland about her desire to lay off alcohol and focus a little more on her health and fitness goals. Of course, me with my big mouth had to chime in and recommend that she tried the 75 Hard challenge. This was because one of the requirements is to not drink and to incorporate two workouts a day. Since this 75 Hard challenge isn’t trending in Ireland, she asked what it entailed and then invited me to do the challenge with her. My intention was to never do this again, but I agreed anyhow because of how nice she was and the fact that I would be making a new friend in another country. So, my new friend Gwen, aka Doc, picked a date and together we began our challenge from 6400k apart.
What is this challenge about, you may be wondering? Below are the ‘rules’ and my personal experiences from each category. Keep in mind, each of these items are to be done daily for 75 days straight. If you fail at any of of these categories you either have to begin over at day one or not at all. In my case, the first time around I completed 44 days and failed to drink my gallon of water on the 44th day. It wasn’t until 5 months later that I started this challenge over.
Two 45 minute workouts. One workout must be outdoors.
I enjoy working out, so this would be a seemingly easy task. However, the body gets burned out and doing two workouts a day can get tiresome. The real challenge for me here was to be creative with my workouts so that I didn’t burn myself out and plateau in any way. The most difficult thing of all ended up being the daily outdoor workouts. Living in the south, you never know what to expect for weather. Sometimes it would be pouring out and so I’d have to do my workouts under the covered deck or just suck it up and get dumped on. Other times it would be freezing cold and I’d have to wear a ton of layers, a winter hat and gloves. Even though I am from Maine and have lived through Lake Tahoe and Alaska winters, I still despise the winter and being cold. So, the outside workouts during the months of January until now were the trickiest for me.
Follow a diet (no cheat meals)
For most of my life my nutrition/diet has been well dialed in. If you read my blog What's for Dinner, you can see why following a ‘diet’ was relatively easy for me. The last time I did this challenge I was part of an accountability group. Some people would post photos of their ‘healthy meals’ for the day which to me would be considered an absolute cheat meal! It’s rather interesting to see what the definition of healthy eating is from person to person. In many cases their ‘healthy meal’ would be my cheat meal. Therefore, having an accountability partner like Doc is beneficial. We defined early on what following a diet meant and what actually defined a cheat meal.
No Alcohol
If you read my most recent blog All Partied Out you’d know that I stopped partaking in the sport of drinking over a year ago, so missing out on the weekend drinks was not difficult. This challenge, if nothing else, is a good way to reset yourself on the drinking thing and give your liver a break!
Drink one gallon of water
I have to say that this was hands down the most challenging of all. I have never been much of a heavy water consumer, so this was difficult for me to do for 75 days straight. It felt like I was constantly drinking water and if I wasn’t keeping up on it, I’d be consuming large amounts before going to bed. Result: no sleep! I also got a lot of headaches for the first couple of weeks because the overhydration was throwing off my pH balance. Basically, the salt and electrolytes in my body were becoming too diluted which was causing nausea and severe headaches. Sounds great, right? The solution to this issue was adding an electrolyte supplement to my water. After a few weeks the headaches were gone.
Benefits: helped maximize and boost my physical performance, increased energy levels by delivering more oxygen to the body, noticeable change in my skin, and aided in better digestion overall. I cannot say I will continue to drink a gallon of water a day, but I will drink more than I use to from now on and will drink absolutely none before bed. Ha!
Read 10 pages, non fiction. Audio books don’t count.
My commitment to reading has always gone in phases, so this part of the challenge was a great way to get me back on track and back into the habit of reading again before bed. Books that I read included:
a. We Were the Lucky Ones, by Georgia Hunter
b. Introduction to Judaism, by Stephen J. Einstein and Lydia Kukoff
c. The Soul-Sourced Entrepreneur, by Christine Kane
d. The Source of All Things, by Reinhard Friedl
e. Undetermined Book Title, by Michael S. Burke (this book will be a great read for you all when it releases!)
I actually ended up reading a lot more than 10 pages per night because the content in these books were so interesting, especially Mikes book.
Take a progress picture
I enjoy taking an occasional photo with my husband, my son, or with my dogs, but taking a ‘selfie’ or a progress photo every day is not really my thing. This is because pictures don’t lie, which is the purpose of this task. Its real accountability to your own progression and lets you visibly see if you need to step things up or not. Some people hope to lose weight during this challenge. For me, my goal was to pack on more muscle, so having the pictures to look at was both frustrating and encouraging. I’m happy to share that my day 1 photos compared to my day 75 photo have very definitive results. I’m much more cut, leaner, and have more muscle definition which was my goal.
Was the 75 Hard challenge worth it? Yes and no. I say yes because it helped me to form some good habits again and forced me to work on self-discipline. Most importantly though, it challenged me to work on my metal fortitude and attitude. Speaking of attitude, the biggest reason why I’m able to write about my completion of the 75 Hard challenge is because of the support that I had from two amazing people: Doc and Mike. Doc and I checked in with one another a few times each week and helped to keep one another on track and tweak things as needed. Mike, of course, was an innocent bystander who pretty much got pulled into this challenge by default. Not only did he help keep me motivated and ask me every night before bed if I took my picture, drank all my water, etc., but he also sucked up all the outdoor workouts with me every night and helped keep my attitude in check when I was ready to quit the challenge.
On the note of wanting to quit the challenge, it’s not because the actual tasks were difficult. The difficulty was managing all the tasks along with my everyday life. I was also getting burned out from working out every day and extremely sick of drinking so much water.
There is no doubt in my mind that I’m writing about my success today because of the support my husband offered daily and because of my new friend in Ireland. I’m grateful for their encouragement and support to finish this challenge. This challenge also served as a great reminder that it’s okay to lean on others for help when you need it most, so thanks for your support, Doc and Mike!
My final message to you going into the weekend is that people are always willing to support you in your pursuits if you just ask. Don’t be too proud to reach out to them for help, support, and encouragement when you need it most, even if they are 6400k away!
~Sarah