If you're not familiar, 75 Hard is a mental toughness program created by Frisella, that he says can also come with physical changes. This Thursday, April 1st, is the official kickoff for the 75 Hard challenge that I mentioned in my previous post. If you didn't read that, let me catch you up. I need to do two 45 minute workouts a day, one of which must be done outdoors. I need to drink a gallon of water a day and follow a diet with no cheat meals. I need to read 10 pages a day from a nonfiction or self-help book.
The last thing is to take a progress picture every day. So I had to be very intentional about how I consume the water. And this was one of the hardest parts for me. The second piece around this is performed to daily workouts, those workouts had to be at least 45 minutes each and one of them had to be outside.
Now there were days where I would do a morning workout and then I would immediately go into a 45-minute walk afterward. And so that really is a two-hour two workouts right together. But you have to do 45 in each and you have to truly you know commit yourself to do one outside you also have to do some reading you have to read 10 pages a day. I didn't have a problem with this you can take notes and whatnot but it really is about you learning to read nonfiction and really challenge your brain.
You have to follow a diet which we talked about before it is any diet you choose you can have some flexibility, but you can't deviate from the diet. And then you have to take a picture every day a daily progress picture so here's the before and after. In the midst of quarantine, it seemed as though the 75 Hard Challenge took over my social media.
Especially on TikTok, I saw video after video of users giving this mental toughness challenge a shot. I was immediately intrigued and looked up what the challenge was all about. The 75 Hard Challenge was created by fitness guru Andy Frisella. He wanted to make a challenge that would show people what effect 75 days straight of discipline could have on yourself. 75 Hard is not a fitness program, even though there are physical benefits to it. One of the biggest things I had to overcome and manage was my body.
Going from working out 5 days a week to working out twice a day for 45 minutes each for 75 days in a row takes its toll on both your mind and body. Because my goal was to complete the program I was more intentional about the variety of my workouts. My goal wasn't to max lift on every exercise I did.
Instead it was to be intentional about my effort and exercises. This included mixing in yoga so that I could keep my body stretched and limber. Before starting, I outlined some goals that I had and wanted to work towards. A big challenge I have is clean eating…I love food, specifically food that is not good for you. I am not big into fast food, but I do love decadent foods…ice cream, cookies, cake, brownies, chocolate; and I do enjoy having a drink with my friends. The working out was never really going to be a super hard part of this challenge because I have been consistently working out for the last 5 or 6 years, but my diet has served to my detriment.
I was very eager on fixing this and hoped that my health, physical appearance, and overall how I felt would be improved simply by adjusting my diet and cutting out all snacks and alcohol. I also wanted my dietary changes to be sustainable so that it would be easy to maintain after this challenge. A big problem I've witnessed with myself and others, is committing to a "diet" that is hard to keep up in the long run which results in the person not being able to stick to it. I'm not interested in a "2 week washboard abs diet plan"…I want something that would keep me healthy for the next 20 years and that I can do without much thinking.
Caroline Apovian, MD, codirector of the Center for Weight Management and Wellness at Brigham and Women's Hospital and a Harvard Medical School faculty member agrees. She says the most outrageous of the 75 hard challenge rules is drinking a gallon of water a day. "I am not sure most people need to drink that much water," she says. Sklar points out that programs like this are "targeted towards beginners," and 90 minutes of exercise can be a lot for those who don't really work out much or at all.
"Even though it's presented as a mental toughness program, the accompanying pictures are mostly testimonial style 'transformation' photos," Sklar says. "As a result, this presents as a fitness program. While there are benefits to mental strength training, there are safer and highly effective ways to create lifestyle change that is sustainable." The #75HARD Challenge is the newest diet and exercise trend all over the Internet. The challenge lasts 75 days of following clearly set rules about your diet, workouts, and personal development.
There are no cheat days allowed, and if participants do break even 1 rule, they start back at day one. On the surface, this may seem like more of a physical fitness challenge, but Frisella strictly rejects this idea. While it's true that switching to these habits will most likely have a physical effect on your body, this challenge was crafted purely to test mental toughness. The point is to prove to yourself that you will stick to the guidelines no matter what — absolutely no excuses or modifications. The catch is that if you don't completely abide by these guidelines even just for one day or have one slip up, you have to start over.
I haven't picked up one dumbbell, kettlebell nor resistant strap yet. Additionally, I also eat clean and drink water – and my body looks like this! Now for the second half of the challenge, I will be adding actual weights to my strength training. I plan to start light and gradually make it hard. I know for me I have a hard time recovering after a heavy workout. So I first wanted to get my body conditioned before going crazy because there are NO DAYS OFF. Let me reiterate, 75 days.
Me and my wife were able to power through this. You've got to really be integrity with yourself. If you really think about it, when you really commit to something that's difficult and outside your comfort zone. It's about who you become as an executive coach to the founder CEOs of fast-growth companies, I'm always talking about who are you being at this moment.
And I forgot to mention this, you can't have alcohol you couldn't have in the entire 75 days wasn't a big deal for me. But it's another one of the things where that can catch you up. Yes, it's it takes a lot of courage to put up there when you're fat. But I knew that I would change externally but I also change internally which we're going to talk about. I lost about 1012 pounds by if you look at the scale, but I know I actually put on some muscle is I don't know if you can tell inside these pictures but I've my shirt stop fitting.
I had to give Some of my shorts I had to my son who's much smaller than me. And even in this shirt, I feel it feels tighter than that I really want it to be as not as comfortable because of the muscle growth that happened. Now, this is a very hard challenge to do. If you don't have the right support and accountability, my wife and I did this together. So we really support each other, it does take a lot of energy for you to think about how much water you're drinking, I keep looking at my water bottle. But it is really something that I enjoyed doing.
I started with an extreme diet, NOT EATING SWEETS, CARBOHYDRATES during the week, this radical change led me to binge eating because it generated a very bad anxiety. My perspective of this is that, when you feel free in any aspect of your life you can make any decision, without pressure, without being radical, but evaluating all scenarios. Now, my life is healthy but including all kind of foods that I have always liked and have given me peace`s mental.
I am super excited for this challenge, especially as I am now seeing this everywhere and people of all fitness levels are trying it. My biggest struggle throughout all of this will be my time management from day to day. I expect that I may have to start over multiple times but eventually I will make it through to the finish line. April is going to be a crazy month for me as I have school yet and work and Camp NaNoWriMo starts Thursday as well.
I also fully intend to continue reading 50 pages a day of fiction books. I recently reread childhood favorites such as the first Harry Potter book and Twilight. I still haven't decided on my April TBR but hopefully that will be posted soon.
The first one is the power of being intentional. But you've got to have that you've got to have it available to you got to be intentional about drinking your water. If you wake up late and you start drinking at 11 am, you're gonna have a tough time getting all the water in looks I did one morning when I did that and never did it again. So you have to be very intentional, you have to be able to plan for the next day, you have to follow that plan. You know the challenges of doing hard things. Well, today, I share with you a recent challenge I encountered.
The lessons learned by doing 75 Hard are transformational. Inside this video, you will discover the rules of 75 with some tips to make it easier for you. I also give you the wisdom I gained by completing this challenge.
I will provide you with the before and after results of losing 12+ pounds in 75 days. If you are thinking about the 75 Hard Challenge, you will get a glimpse of what to expect. During the height of the pandemic last year, I set a personal record of eating ice cream every single day from May 1st 2020 to December 27th 2020 when I started this challenge.
Who wasn't treating themselves a little extra when the world shut down, right?! I was addicted to the hard stuff (mint-chip) and had no idea how tough cutting it out was going to be. This is a mental strength program no matter how you look at it. If you complete the program correctly then you'll understand why I say this. 75 Hard isn't a challenge that you do one time and forget about. The positive tasks become a part of your life, and you're a better person because of it.
The most challenging task for me was following a diet. The reason was because it never went away. If you slip up even once you go back to the beginning. The absolute nature of the 75 Hard challenge never left me. I was constantly aware of everything I ate. At the same time, everywhere you go is temptation.
One night I was out to dinner with some friends and the restaurant messed up our order. To make up for it they gave the table 4 full deserts, including cakes, cookies, and ice cream. I had to laugh at the absurdity of it. There was so much that the rest of my party actually had leftover desert. Things like this happened on a regular basis so I got used to it.
The good news is that discipline is what allowed me to cultivate better eating habits. A crazy thing happens when you are doing 75 Hard. Great things start to happen in your life. You create an energy and aura and way of being that attracts people and things to you. So often someone would come up to me and say "Rob, there's a glow about you." That's no accident.
When you are doing a mental toughness program designed to turn you into the best version of yourself you perform at a higher level. The more you do it the more that you build momentum. It's why I kept things going and completed the entire Live Hard program. I need to clarify a very common misconception. This is a mental toughness program, not a fitness challenge.
For me, the biggest effect it had on me was breaking bad habits and introducing good ones to my life which I have stuck with since the challenge ended. Doug Sklar, a certified personal trainer and founder of PhilanthroFIT in New York City, is also wary of the program. "Exercising incorrectly—poor form, inappropriate intensity, not accounting for rest days—over an extended period of time can be harmful." After a month of routine workouts , no alcohol, and skipping refined carbs, I've lost 6 pounds, feel stronger than ever, and my sleeping patterns and mental focus have improved immensely. I've regained a love of reading – choosing it over Netflix – and my mood has been better too.
We'll see what day 75 looks like, but at this point, the challenge's benefits are well worth the sacrifice. My husband and I started on a Sunday so we could set ourselves to succeed the first day, and from there we told each other that giving up wasn't an option. "I've spent more than 20 years figuring out how to master mental toughness and I'm putting everything I've learned into a program I call 75HARD," he writes in the episode notes. When I thought of doing the entire challenge for 75 Days I wanted to quit before it started. I had the same issue with setting specific goals. It can be overwhelming so the most important lesson I've learned is to show up every day.
One moment at a time and when it feels impossible I break it down to one step at a time. ♥️ 🙌🏼Thankful for my support system who have shown nothing but love and care. Again, if you've seen my last blog where I started training for the 75 Hard challenge, this part will look really familiar.
I had to take the last few days away from fitness because of work and I just wasn't getting enough sleep. So I'm starting 9 Week Control Freak over…….again. I do plan to modify the rest days for this program to work around my menstrual week. I will do the two workouts still, but I won't be doing any intense workouts during that time. Now, there's a lot of different rules that are that have a nuance to them.
