For those of you who do know what 75 Hard is, you must be thinking, “Gosh, you can do something difficult without talking about it.” But no, in fact, I cannot. For those of you who do not, these are the rules:
- Two 45-minute workouts: One of them must be outdoors.
- Follow a diet of your choice,
- Drink a gallon of water.
- Read 10 pages of a non-fiction book.
- Take a progress photo every day.
- Every day for 75 days.
Now, I did this for the 75 days leading up to my high school graduation. It’s in the name; it was pretty hard, but it was such a rewarding experience. So I plan on going through each rule and what specifically about it was difficult, as well as how I coped or altered my lifestyle to accommodate this challenge.
First is the two 45-minute workouts a day, one being outside. I was already going to the gym for two+ hours a day. I had really gotten into lifting, so the amount of time was not particularly challenging, but finding the time to split it up and be outside for one portion was. I was still in high school, so 8am-2pm(luckily I had my last class period as an off hour) I was not free, then dance from 6ish to around 8:30pm, which didn’t include time to it took to work, complete homework or projects, showering, eating, etc. What I usually did was run in the morning before school, then went straight to the gym after school during my off hour before dance class to lift. Then, I would have my evenings after dance free to relax and finish school work most days. Key word: “most days.” I did my fair share of late night runs or lifting to make up for what I had missed on those extra hard days where getting up at 5am was less than ideal. This was probably the most challenging thing to do. I hated the such early mornings but by the time I was showered and got to school in the morning, I always felt so awake. I did take any chance to sleep in or nap on the weekends, though because it definitely would start to catch up to me throughout the week.
The diet rule is probably the rule I took the most loosely. When I did my research on this, the gist I got was that consistency was most important and not exactly what diet you’re following. My main concern was getting hungry and keeping energy up throughout the day, because I quickly found that this was exhausting. You’re awake for more hours, doing more exercise, more daily tasks, etc., everything takes more energy. I would start with a protein shake every morning and carried a lot of Cliff Bars around with me. I ate mostly the same thing every day which was some form of chicken and rice, but I also committed to no fast food and only water during this time. This wasn’t too challenging as no fast food meant more money for me! But what was also very helpful for this aspect was that my best friend was doing this with me. We meal prepped together on the weekends with Hello Fresh meals and ate those throughout the week during our off campus lunch and I took care of dinner at home. I opted out of counting and tracking my calories/macros and whatnot because 1. it’s hard, 2. I had tried it before and it honestly made eating harder.
Next was the gallon of water a day! This was probably my favorite part. Drinking that much water a day was a little hard to get used to at first, and I was peeing every 20 minutes the first week(seriously..). But after that, it was the easiest part and I didn’t even have to track my water intake because the amount I craved just from executing my daily activities was well over a gallon. It also made my skin so clear. 10/10 do recommend this part. Taking a progress photo everyday was also easy, obviously, so I’ll add it here. Not much to that besides remembering to do it.
The book I decided to read was The Age of Magical Overthinking by Amanda Montell. The book combines cognitive research, cultural critique, and witty humor to examine how the abundance of information in the digital age contributes to irrational thought processes. According to Montell, individuals are turning more and more to “magical thinking”—cognitive biases and mental shortcuts—to deal with complexity in the face of information overload. While it was interesting, I didn’t end up finishing the book when the challenge was over and I felt as though the challenge made this part feel like a chore. It was hard to slow down to read when I actually had no time to because I was so focused on completing the other aspects.
Overall, this was very transformative, and I would do it again. I felt so much healthier and productive while doing this, and I recommend it to anyone who may be considering it. But remember to always do what is best for your own body!!
