75 Hard Days 1 & 2

Third times the charm right?

It’s my third time trying to complete the 75 Hard Challenge. I am determined to get it figured out and completed this time around. No more excuses, just results. I was ready. I even had my boyfriend ready on the sidelines to help push and motivate me when he needed to.

For those of you who don’t know 75 Hard is a challenge created by Andy Frisella and it is a physical and mental toughness challenge. There are 7 tasks you must complete daily. If you do not complete every task you go back to day 1. These tasks are:

45 minute workout indoors or outdoors

45 minute workout outdoors

Drink 1 gallon of water

Read 10 pages of a self development book

Take a progress picture

Do not drink alcohol and no cheat meals

Follow a diet

For my diet I am just eating as healthy as possible and following my macros. I have a history of eating disorders and restrictive eating so I did not want to do anything that would put me at risk of falling back into that. I wanted to do this challenge while protecting my mental health.

I had made the mistake previously of making both of my 45 minute workouts intense. I ended up getting so burnt out that I had to take a rest day and start over. This time, after seeing others do it, I decided that my second workout would be low impact and relaxing. I will do either yoga, walking, stretching, bike riding, stuff like that. This way I will not burn myself out and I will still be getting some benefit of exercise and enjoyable movement.

Day 1 I woke up ready to start the challenge. I did a 45 minute HIIT workout in the morning, so early on in the day, workout 1 was done! I did my usual 15 minute walk on my lunch with my dog, and then a 30 minute yoga workout after dinner on my deck. I honestly did not want to do my yoga at all. I’m typically not a huge yoga fan as I tend to get bored and want to give up. I made myself stay committed and actually ended up enjoying the workout as a whole! I may even start incorporating yoga into my fitness routine after this challenge!

I was able to get my water in fairly easily which was honestly kind of strange. I tend to struggle to get a gallon of water in and end up chugging a couple of water bottles before bed. I actually was able to finish my gallon before I got off work at 6! It was nice going home knowing that I was done with that task and could just focus on getting my other tasks checked off. I didn’t drink alcohol and I ate well all day! It was a really strong start to the challenge and got me excited for the rest of it!

I got my reading done in the afternoon and I am loving the book that I am reading. It is called the 5 AM Club by Robin Sharma. It is a different approach to self help, self development books but it is a great read so far! I’m loving the different format of it, it is such a nice change of pace.

Day 2 I woke up and did a 45 minute strength training workout. It felt so nice because that previous week I had been in Hawaii and didn’t have access to weights so I mostly walked since I had left my knee brace at home. I usually walked for 45 minutes to an hour every day and I also went surfing one day. (Surfing was super fun and made me incredibly sore the next day. I highly recommend it) It felt nice getting back into strength training as I got back into my daily routine. I did wake up extremely tired and I was not thrilled to do my workout. Thankfully, I was able to force myself out of bed and drink some pre-workout so I had the energy to complete my workout. I felt great after and was excited to get back into my normal lifting routine.

I went for my normal walk on my lunch with my dog, and as soon as I got back to the door after 15 minutes I realized that I had actually locked myself out of the house. Thankfully, my mom is an angel and was willing to drive 30 minutes to help me get back into my house. I took advantage of the extra time and decided to walk for another 30 minutes so that way my workouts were done and I was all set for the day. Gotta make the best of a bad situation!

Getting my water in wasn’t as easy as it was the day before but I was able to get all of my water in. I was again able to get in my gallon before I got off of work and my 10 k step goal was very close to being reached by the time I got off of work and then my watch died so I had to charge it when I got home but I did it! I got my reading done in the morning as well and 2 days into this challenge I am tired but excited to see what I’m going to accomplish in the next 73 days!