The 75 Hard Challenge: Why I Started It and Why I Made the Modifications I Needed
Hello All!
I have kinda sorta started a little challenge for myself. This challenge is called the 75 Hard, which entails 75 days of maintaining discipline with daily tasks to complete. More specifically, the premise and full details of the 75 Hard Challenge can be found here: https://andyfrisella.com/pages/75hard-info and https://parade.com/1077462/brittanyvincent/75-hard-challenge
First and foremost, reading through the original link made this clear to me that this is not a fitness challenge. This was more a challenge I really wanted to do for myself in order to try keeping off my phone and social media throughout the day, and really focus on structuring a daily routine and becoming more disciplined. That, and I mostly wanted to fill my time during the days while I am waiting to hear back from graduate school programs to get my Master’s in Nursing. As of the current moment, I am not working, and not planning on finding a job this summer either before moving away.
Moving on, the daily tasks that are normally associated with the 75 Hard Challenge are as follows:
1. Follow a diet. No cheat meals, no alcohol.
2. Work out twice a day for at least 45 minutes
3. Drink 4 liters of water a day
4. Read 10 pages of non-fiction a day
5. Take a five-minute cold shower
6. Take progress photos every day
7. Perform other unrelated tasks like a random act of kindness or talk to someone in person daily.
For me, in order to realistically adhere to this tight disciplinary program for the whole 75 days, I made several modifications for myself.
1. Be aware of the foods I am eating and how I feel after eating them.
I have a past of being extremely restrictive of the food I eat and can become obsessive regarding my diet to this day. So, I wanted to make sure that I am getting enough proper nutrition following my workouts, but also make sure that I wasn’t restricting myself from foods (or drinks!) that I enjoy.
2. Workout at least twice a day for at least 45 minutes.
Usually I do a “hot girl walk” in the morning and something else in the afternoon, like lifting or an at-home workout.
3. Drink enough water every day to stay hydrated.
I personally didn’t think that drinking more than a gallon of water a day was super maintainable for me, especially since I would like to continue implementing some of these daily tasks into my life following completing the 75-day challenge. So, for now, I drink as much as I need to in order to know that I am well-hydrated.
4. Read at least a chapter or two from any book every day.
I have been using my library card like crazy this summer, and I was thinking of making sure that I try to read something I enjoy, and not just keep the reading to pure non-fiction.
5. I don’t take cold showers…but I try to do one thing to take care of my self every day :)
6. Take a picture every day of either myself or something that made me feel happy each day.
I have never really used progress photos to keep a measure of my fitness or my physique. I’m mostly worried about people finding those pictures on my phone. Also, since this isn’t a physical/”get healthy with me” challenge, I figured it might be best to take a picture or video about something I saw or something I did during a particular day or a picture of me smiling at my own reflection ;)
Here are some pictures I have taken for reference:
7. Perform unrelated tasks (as mentioned above)
I see this challenge as much more manageable, especially with my modifications. Previously, I would have considered myself to be a heavily disciplined person, especially when it comes to my fitness and diet routines when I was a collegiate athlete. However, since I have officially been stripped of my title as a “Student-Athlete”, I have found myself slipping out of my old routines that helped me feel more happy and healthy. In that case, I really wanted to use this challenge in order to establish more of my daily routine sans working and schooling and get back into the swing of things. I’ll make sure to keep you all updated as I get closer to the finish line on this challenge.
Thanks for tuning in! :)
More Updates: justscrubbingalong.blogspot.com
https://medium.com/@justscrubbingalong/one-month-down-on-the-75-hard-challenge-c74df6bf769
