What I learned from doing 75 Hard

You don't know what you are really capable of until you push yourself.

When I first heard about the 75 hard challenge, I wasn't sure what I was really going to learn if I did it. What was I going to get out of it? A lot of the things I almost did after all. I already worked out every day, I drank a fair amount of water. But I also knew that you can't judge things until you try them out yourself. So I to give it a try.

For anyone who has not heard about it, 75 hard is a mental toughness challenge. You have to do certain things every day for 75 days, no cheating.

Those things are: drink a gallon of water, complete 2 workouts at 45 minutes each (one of each have to be outside), follow a strict diet (no cheating & no alcohol), take a progress photo and read 10 pages from a non-fiction book.

When I decided to do it, I had to look at my life and what was really possible for me. The point of any challenge is to challenge yourself, but people are all very different. It takes different things to challenge you. So I made a few changes to it.

I committed to doing 2 workouts at 45 minutes each. However, living in Canada, I knew that I wasn't going to do 45 minutes outside. It was in the middle of winter, after all. So I committed to being outside at some point. Usually I would do a 45-minute workout, then a 30-minute workout and then 15 minutes walking outside. And instead of taking a progress photo each day, I committed to filming each day. To me, really, it was the same thing.

I wasn't sure what I was going to get from it, what it was going to accomplish for my life. I was surprised at just how much that I learned.

It really took time and energy of me focusing on myself, and only myself. Being a wife and a mother, you always focus on everyone else. On everyone else's needs, and very rarely your own.

Making the commitment to read every day, made reading a part of my every day life again. I had forgotten the joy that I got from reading and trying to expand my mind. It made me focus on it once again.

Doing 2 workouts every day, no skipping, did a lot for me as well. It made me stronger, and had me find a great joy in working out. If you find joy in it then you will do.

I learned that moving my body often helped my mind as well. Before the challenge, I would work out, usually in the morning for about 30 minutes. But then I would go about the rest of my day. This challenge made me realize that I had to get my body moving often, as often as possible, not just once a day.

The diet I followed was calorie counting and simply making sure that I was under my calorie limit. Even though I did it for 75 days, I didn't see a large change in my body from it. What I learned was that I have to follow a strict plan in order to see any changes and feel good about myself.

The challenge is a mental toughness challenge. It teaches you about yourself, what works for you and what doesn't. It will make you be able to make a plan that will actually work and challenge you for who you are.

When it was done, I had to think about what I was going to do next. How was I going to take this information for my life going forward? I knew that I wanted more of a challenge, I wanted something to push myself. I couldn't just live my life like nothing happened.

So I made my own 75 hard challenge: 2 workouts, 5 minute of visualization, 5 minute cold shower, get outside, 20 minutes of quality time with my daughter, follow a strict diet, read 15 pages, 15 minutes of cleaning and drink a gallon of straight water. I am making the commitment to do these things every day without fail. And we will see what I learn from it.

-T