You may have heard about the 75 Hard Challenge through social media or other friends doing it and if you’re like me, it peaked your curiosity. I will admit, it peaked mine enough to try it out starting this Saturday, August 1st.
What Exactly Is the 75 Hard Challenge
Even though there’s a physical transformation you will, undoubtedly go through by altering the things you eat and working out daily, the point isn’t to lose weight. The point is to alter your way of thinking. It’s really a mental challenge for your mind. Can you remain consistent and give up the old you, to become a better version of yourself. Can you be intentional with your choices and avoid excuses. “Reasons” are still excuses with a friendlier label to make you feel better about yourself.
Everyone seems to be jumping on the bandwagon, including me … obviously … but how do you know anyone is really doing it? You don’t and, honestly, it doesn’t matter if anyone else is. This is the kind of challenge where you answer to yourself and hold yourself accountable. There are no cheat days, no break days, so if you take one, it’s up to you to own up to that and start over at day 1 even if you’re mishap happens on day 74. You can lie but why bother starting if you’re not going to show up for yourself?
What Are the Rules
It’s a 75 day challenge where you perform each task every.single.day. There are no cheat days and you don’t take days off to rest. Everyday you will:
- Take a progress picture
- Drink a gallon of water
- Read 10 pages of a non-fiction and no, audio books do not count
- Follow a diet of your choosing; alcohol must be eliminated
- Workout 2 times for at least 45 minutes per workout. One of your workouts must be outside regardless of the elements.
What Diet Will I Be Doing
I don’t care for the term “diet” and don’t want to find myself eating a certain way strictly for a challenge and abandoning it as soon as the challenge is over. I was previously a vegetarian and just kind of fell out of it. It’s something that made my body feel better and I’ve been wanting to get back into it, I just keep eating chicken fingers and grabbing burgers putting it off and feeling like crap after having meat that ends up feeling heavy on my stomach. I’ll be returning to a vegetarian lifestyle with plans for it to stick or transition into a vegan lifestyle, especially because I’m quite sure I’m lactose intolerant anyway.
How I’m Managing (2) 45 Minute Workouts a Day
Typically, you would workout and incorporate some rest days in the mix. With 75 Hard, you’re not supposed to do that. What it doesn’t tell you are the kinds of workouts you have to do. With this in mind, I’ll be using a combination of walking/jogging, yoga, and weighted strength building exercises that target either full body or certain areas. This will allow me to rest certain body parts when needed and get in additional stretching that I’m sure my body will be craving. I love the Peloton app for workouts I can either do on a replay or with a live class.
What’s on My Reading List
I do tend to read more fiction than non-fiction but here are a few I’ve actually had on my list as of recent.
- The Devil in the White City
- Evicted
- Educated
- It Didn’t Start with You
- The Vanishing Half
- Childhood Disrupted
Is there anyone else out there taking on the 75 Hard Challenge? What are some things you’re doing to make sure you avoid excuses?
Shop my 75 Hard Challenge books from the post and read along with me!
