Recently, while chatting with my (very fit) sister, she mentioned a "75HARD" challenge she was in the midst of trying. On day 15, she was feeling amazing.
I'm weary of these extreme diets or cleanses, so I was a bit skeptical until I did my own research.
Acclaimed entrepreneur Andy Frisella came up with the challenge and it's not what you might think.
When sharing with a girlfriend I was on day two, she responded surprised: "Why? You don't need to lose weight!".
The reason it appealed to me had nothing to do with the (obvious) physical benefits as a byproduct of being active and eating well. The goal? Mental toughness and discipline.
The 75HARD challenge is comprised of the following daily steps:
- Drink 4 litres of water
- Be active for 45 minutes, twice per day, one of which has to be outside (rain, shine, sleet, snow or anything in between)
- Read 10 pages of an educational book
- Take a daily progress photo
- Stick to a clean diet
- No sugar
- No alcohol
Now, this sounds like an undertaking, and I have to admit, I was intimidated when I tried to grapple how I would fit it all into my daily routine – not to mention for 75 days, with no cheating. Part of the challenge requires you to start over if you miss any steps.
I'm only on day three, but I've already started to notice changes: I am sleeping better than ever, having the most vivid, life-like dreams, which means I wake up super refreshed and excited for the day.
I can't wait to check off all my items. It's created a sense of motivation and accomplishment, and I know with each passing day I am forming great habits that will result in a strong routine based on discipline. Is there any better form of self-care?
Now, I did my own research by reading about other's experiences with this challenge since it is so militant and rigorous. However, what I found is that many individuals simply adapted their lifestyle to the challenge, instead of the other way around.
My sister opts to drink tea as part of her water intake, instead of forcing herself to guzzle a 4-litre jug of water.
A personal trainer shared that he still allowed himself a few drinks at social functions on weekends. When you're drinking that much water, you're metabolizing any liquid or food that goes into your body anyway, so one or two drinks will not have as detrimental of an impact as one might think.
Personally, cutting out sugar is not that hard – it's the alcohol since I work in the wine industry. I've decided to allow myself 1-2 drinks in social situations, or glass with dinner.
Initially, I thought fitting in the two workouts was going to be tough, but instead of scrolling mindlessly through my phone (my recent reports have shown an average daily use of 7 hours – yikes)
I'm working out or walking. I've opted to walk to meetings or for coffee with friends, instead of driving, and have realized how easy it actually is to fit all of the steps into my daily routine.
You can find out more about the challenge here.
Do you think you'd ever try it?
