In October, I made the decision to take on the 75 hard challenge. I thought about doing it for a while, but never felt the need to “prove myself” or join the bandwagon. I’m a pretty disciplined and healthy person. However, when my roommate said she wanted to do it, I saw it as a confirmation to begin myself. Now, I can’t tell you if my roommate continued (all I know is I stopped seeing her do her daily walks and cooking–her diet was to not eat out).
As for me, however, I was determined to finish. So let’s give a recap. While I’m quite disciplined, the organization I desired in writing this post isn’t happening, so I’m going to start with the challenges.
Progress Pictures
While I was able to do this, I do not think it’s a healthy task to do on a daily basis. Yes, I understand it’s purpose, but for anyone who could have body image issues, the daily observance of your body cannot be healthy. I don’t have this struggle, but every day you take a picture, you will automatically analyze what your body looks like and if it measures up to your ideal/realistic image.
My challenge when it came to pictures, was the specifics of “how” to take the picture. I remember listening to the podcast and the guidelines suggesting it needed to be revealing. I believe he suggested that ladies needed to be in underwear (I may be wrong). I did this the first week, but then seeing these pictures in my camera roll frequently was embarrassing, especially when I wanted to show people pictures of other images I had taken. Sure, I could’ve made a separate folder and hid them all in there, but I already had 7 other mandatory tasks to complete in a single day–that was not my priority.
Water
This is the one task that kept me up later than anything else, and the one thing I woke up in panic attacks wondering if I completed. I’m going to be honest here: I probably failed the challenge with this one, but I continued the 75 days. Let me explain: One day I did not finish my gallon of water before I went to sleep, but I did finish before I woke up. It wasn’t “necessarily” that I didn’t finish that night, but rather that I get hot during the night and like to drink water if this happens so I didn’t know if this counted towards the previous day’s intake or the new day. This was probably day 10. From there, I made the decision that as long as I drank it all before I woke up, it counted. 24 hours is 24 hours for me.
Andy Frisella also says that you can’t add anything to your water such as protein shake or electrolytes. I get those because, to an extent, they add flavoring. However, I take a butt-ton of supplements and a few of them are in the powder form. Many of them are unflavored or just plain disgusting. The water I used to consume them was going to be counted in my 128 oz. I was not adding on top of my required amount when nothing about the flavor encouraged me to drink more water. To give you a better understanding, the supplements I mixed my water in with were Emergen-C (this is the ONLY one I could say didn’t count–but it was 4oz of water out of 128 oz.), collagen, creatine, lysine, and spirulina. IYKYK–NONE of those are tasty in and of themselves.
I decided to use two 32 oz. water bottles to complete my daily intake. I wanted to buy the big gallon or half-gallon bottle, but I realized I wouldn’t use it past this challenge; I often lose or forget items, and such bottles weren’t conducive to travel as I often book the cheapest flights which only allow a personal bag. No way I would let such a container take up my precious limited space.
Another challenge I had with the water was if it happened to spill or if I went out and had a glass of water rather than drinking from my containers. UGH! Did I measure accurately? Did I fail the challenge unknowingly?
Workouts
These were probably the easiest tasks in my day since I already workout daily. The time requirement was definitely an inconvenience and the outdoor requirement just made it frustrating. When the weather began to change, I couldn’t do my workout in the morning as it would be around 50 degrees. I, personally, wanted to do outdoor workouts when it was warmer. Also, if I had a busy day, I found myself completing my outdoor workout late at night which may not have always been the safest. One day I was traveling and the 2-hour difference made it so that I essentially had to workout at 12AM! I chose to walk and as soon as I began walking, a dog started barking and next thing I know, 4 other dogs came out barking! I walked away as calmly as I could back to my house and did a workout outside in the cold. I chose to do yoga instead of walking and the stillness of the moves in yoga constantly made me aware of the coldness.
Although I got over this, I was always worried if I used all 45 minutes adequately. On the podcast, Andy Frisella stated if you stop 1 minute short, you’ve failed. I would think: “I stopped to take a picture. Does this not count?” “Does stretching count as part of my workout time?” “I took a phone call during my workout and slowed down. I’m not going as hard. Does this count?” He also said that if you chose to walk outside, it couldn’t be a leisurely stroll. Did this mean I had to granny-style powerwalk? What was the difference between a stroll and a paced walk? I finally let this go and just determined 45minutes alone was going to be the standard.
Diet
My “diet” of choice was no sweets or coffee (caffeine was okay). While this wasn’t as challenging because I believe I eat pretty healthy, it was just so restrictive and saddening. Halloween, Pumpkin Spice season, and Thanksgiving all occurred during my challenge (on top of randomly supplied sweets in the teacher’s lounge). It was easy to say no, but it wasn’t always easy to determine what counted as a “sweet.” Was my protein shake or bar which had chocolate in it a sweet? It wasn’t delicious, but certainly did have flavor added. A cake and a pie are certainly sweets, but what about a muffin or a pancake? Breakfast or sweet? If it was not something I would normally gravitate towards to quench my sweet tooth, I allowed it.
10 Pages a Day
This was by far my favorite and semi-easiest task. I love to read and keep a stack of self-help books around. I can’t say I ever was close to failing in this area **One day, I don’t think I read, but I happened to have went to church and received a pamphlet that contained 20 pages and I skimmed through that. If the Bible counts, this should too 🙂 **. I did wonder if blank pages counted as completed pages, but in the book, blank pages were counted in the page numbers so I considered a sweet blessing to add a page without having to actually “read” the page. My only challenge was traveling knowing I would finish a book. I was not going to bring two books (limited space), so I would bring a new book to ensure I didn’t experience falling short of pages without anything else to read. All-in-all, this was my favorite task. I often found myself reading more pages than needed (which I’m sure is normal) and having to force myself to stop so I would go to sleep.
Alcohol
This was not a challenge for me at all! I don’t like the taste of alcohol. I only drink occasionally and get fruity drinks. It was only semi-difficult when I was on dates and they wanted to drink or I went to a new place which had a cute drink I would have loved to try.
Takeaways
So here are my takeaways. Would I do this again or recommend it to anyone else? No way! It’s unnecessary. Life happens. I get that that’s the point. However, I believe I got sick three times on this challenge. Getting up to workout when you don’t feel good and not being able to count herbal/medicinal teas as part of your water intake is just stupid. Also, the amount of time you lose sleeping so your body can recover and still meeting each task requires fitting a lot of things into a small period of time.
While I think not eating sweets was beneficial, I missed out on “moments” just to meet a challenge.
I do understand how it is a mental challenge, though. I did want to give up, but it wasn’t in the sense of “I just can’t do this” but rather “I don’t want to do this.” I’m tired! I’m sad. I’m heartbroken. Yes, life happens and sometimes you just want to crawl into your bed and cry. During this challenge, I experienced so many ups and downs relationally, it was more than I could take. Such events made me think: “This challenge doesn’t matter!” “So many things in life don’t matter!” Of course, this was my depression talking, but I will say, I never regretted completing any of the tasks. I always felt good towards the end or after.
It is a good challenge if you’re doing it for yourself and no-one else. Saying no to alcohol “in the name of 75 hard” made me realize not drinking is not something I have to be afraid to admit. I was also able to observe dates who did and realize I’m just not someone who really wants a partner that prefers to carry an alcoholic beverage around with them or experience it as a pastime hobby. Everyone has their thing–that’s just not for me.
I also found great joy in walking. It’s so therapeutic. It was a great space for me to grow as well rather listening to podcasts, audiobooks (no, these weren’t counted towards my 10 pages) or music and singing along. This is the one thing I wasn’t doing before that I’m sure I would continue; however, I probably won’t maintain the 45 minutes. I’d rather walk a total distance or just however long and wherever my feet chose to go.
My Biggest Lesson
I definitely wouldn’t say this challenge wasn’t beneficial. I think I learned just how much my own brain and thinking makes life difficult. Looking back on all the things that gave me anxiety: Does this water count? How long can my rest period be? Must I wear a specific attire to take this picture? And on and on and on…. helped me see that I’m too hard on myself. I’m not lax and I don’t give myself enough grace. Scripture says:
For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. For he who said, “You shall not commit adultery,” also said, “You shall not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker. Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
James 2:10-13
For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. For he who said, “You shall not commit adultery,” also said, “You shall not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker. Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
Ironically, stumbling at just one point in this challenge does forfeit it all, but I digress.
It’s simply not possible to get everything right, always. I’m going to miss something intentionally, but often unintentionally. Unless I want to live in a constant state of anxiety, I cannot do this. For this reason, I would say I don’t regret this challenge. Moving forward, I’d continue all of the tasks except for taking the progress pictures and not eating sweets, but I would not put a time or amount requirement on them.
P.S. I did purchase the app (I actually purchased a different one first that I regret), but I wouldn’t say it’s necessary. I would simply use Google Calendar and put each required task into your calendar set for 75 reoccurrences. Each time you complete it, simply delete it from your calendar so you know you no longer need to complete it.
If you choose to partake in this challenge, good luck! If you have any questions, I’m here to answer them as best as I can. If after reading you choose not to, don’t stress. You are still such a valuable and worthy human being.
Results
I just so happened to be wearing the same bra top on day 1 and day 75. Sorry I wasn’t wearing the same shorts or at the same angle, but as I stated, I just took these to get through. LOL
Weight: 154.3
Lean Body Mass: 111.8
Skeletal Muscle Mass: 65.9
Total Fat Mass: 35.5
Total Body Fat Percentage: 23.0
Weight: 147.9 (~145 initially)
Lean Body Mass:118.4
Skeletal Muscle Mass: 67.7
Body Fat Mass: 29.5
Percent Body Fat: 19.9
In total, I lost 6.4 pounds and 6 of those pounds were strictly fat, not muscle! 🙂
Until Heaven or Sooner,
Adri Michelle 