Today I want to talk about the 75 Hard Challenge. 75 Hard was created by Andy Frisella and it’s a mental toughness challenge. A couple people I knew were doing it and I watched them thinking maybe I’d do that someday. My friend, Brett, finished his challenge and that week I had a truly awful, really bad week in real estate. I figured getting some mental toughness might be exactly what was needed. Over the course of 75 days, I:
Drank 75+ gallons of water. When I got my real estate license, I basically stopped drinking water. But in the past, I would drink a gallon a day so I knew I could do it. I actually ended up drinking at least 154 oz every day. 💦
I did 150 workouts, two a day for 45 minutes each. One each day was outside. I only had to workout in the pouring rain once but some days the humidity nearly did me in. Mostly I did a dance/walk video from @uptothebeatfit. One of the things I love about 75 Hard is that it’s completely scalable. You don’t have to do the very same thing as someone who has been training years longer than you or you don’t need to start at a beginner level if you’ve been working out. You can do the two workouts that work for YOU!🏋🏼♀️
I took a progress photo every day. From where I started to now, I don’t see a lot of change but I know it’s there because I have measured. I lost 42 pounds and 29.5 inches. For the very first time in my life, my upper arms and thighs are the same size as each other. Weird? I don’t know but definitely remarkable. 📸
I followed a low carb, mostly carnivore diet. I ate 5 meals in restaurants where I chose a salad with meat because I couldn’t figure out an entirely carnivore option. I had no cheat meals or alcohol. I feel amazing! 🥩
I read 10 pages of a self-improvement book every day. I read:
Can’t Hurt Me by David Goggins
Becoming Odyssa by Jennifer Pharr Davis
Eat and Run by Scott Jurek (I became fascinated with ultra running!)
Ask by Mark Victor Hanson
David Goggin’s book made me want to be a superhero and thus the books I read after that were mostly by extreme sports athletes.
The hardest part of this challenge for me was reading this last book. It just doesn’t speak to me and although my motto has always been life is too short for bad books, I pushed through because I can do hard things. 📚
The coolest thing that happened was that my ankle feels good! I broke my ankle in November of 2018. I had tried to do 75 Hard a little bit before I actually did it but decided not to continue after the two a day workouts bothered my ankle so much. This time, I pushed through it and guess what? My ankle feels better now that it did since before I broke it. I’m not sure if I broke through some scar tissue or what but that was amazing and I’m super happy it turned out like that.
I’m not sure I gained any mental toughness because on Day 64, a client delivered some extremely harsh words and it affected me just like what happened that made me start the challenge. But I definitely gained clarity and was able to make some hard decisions.
Andy has created a whole Live Hard plan and it’s a year program to do hard things. I’ve tried a couple of times to get going and haven’t made it but I’m determined. Brett has just finished Phase 2 and I’m so proud to watch his success. I want that for me!
Leave a Reply