#75Hard Anyone?
seubanks7
Posts: 2 Member
Starting 75 Hard challenge with a cousin in feb.. has anyone ever done it or will be doing it? How did it go and if it’s your first time, how you feeling about it ?
2
Replies
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What is 75 hard challenge? I haven't heard of it so now intrigued1
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@seubanks7 how is your challenge going?
Today is day 5 for me and so far so good1 -
75 hard lost me with the requirement for a daily 5 minute cold shower.6
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@Lynnsgoals2020 that is no where in the rules that I have seen?1
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findingmewith3 wrote: »@Lynnsgoals2020 that is no where in the rules that I have seen?
I believe this is probably what Lynnsgoals is talking about:
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Wow, this "challenge" sounds dumb.19
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Redordeadhead wrote: »Wow, this "challenge" sounds dumb.
Agreed! 4l of water is a sick amount, which will probably flush out lots of electrolytes. and the rest is just silly.8 -
This bears some resemblance to a "spiritual fitness" program some men in my church participate in every Lent. It's geared in particular toward young single men who are newly independent and don't have many obligations or responsibilities to help them develop discipline. There's something to the idea that one can willingly take on sacrifices and penance to become a better person (and if you're a person of faith you would believe that doing so could also benefit others as a kind of prayer), but absent that context it seems very strange to me.4
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This sounds like one of those "being fat is sin, so you must suffer to expiate it" things.
NopeNopeNope, not for me. I don't like hard things, because I'm an aging hippie hedonist, and they feel icky.
I want to be at a healthy weight, getting solid nutrition, be strong and fit, while eating tasty things and doing fun stuff.
Thanks to food logging, calorie counting, and sensible exercise selection, I pretty much have that: BMI 20.7 this morning, and just today Garmin updated my estimated "fitness age" to 20, below the age of majority. 🤣 That's a *45 year* age discount. (I think it's nuts, but that's another discussion.)
If doing hard stuff motivates you - as it does some people - go for it. Personalizing the techniques is kind of magical. But I'm pretty sure "hard" is optional, personally. JMO, obviously.9 -
I'm kind of doing it...which probably obliterates the point. I drink the water (i read that it was 1 gal or 128 oz), which isn't that hard...i've always drank a lot of water. I do the reading which is good for me and 10 pages is easily accomplished for me in 10 minutes or less. I don't have 45 minutes twice a day for a workout. So I do one 45 minute workout and get 45 minutes accumulated at 2-3 points in the day walking the dog outside. For the "diet" I am doing calorie counting and macros. I'm on day 8. Again...i'm not following his plan to a T because I don't believe it is necessary, I may do it again and be more militant about his "rules" if I find this to be helpful.1
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I read this a while ago, and it makes sense to me: https://abbylangernutrition.com/75-hard-is-the-challenge-you-dont-want-to-accept/.6
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I read this a while ago, and it makes sense to me: https://abbylangernutrition.com/75-hard-is-the-challenge-you-dont-want-to-accept/.
That just sounds dumb, random, and somewhat dangerous.4 -
I'm in the process of reading this book. In the screenshot above, the cold shower and random act of kindness aren't part of the actual 75Hard challenge. Those are things from the 75 day challenges that follow the actual challenge. Phase 1 and Phase 2 I think he calls them.
That said, I'm really torn about Frisella and this challenge. I WANT to do this, or something like it. However, I think Frisella is a random marketer and not anyone qualified to give out fitness advice. I tried listening to his podcast but can't stand that "tough guy" self-grandizing crap. However, his book is a good read - I'm enjoying it and there are parts in there that make sense of this challenge - good explainers.
As Abby Langer said in her article, linked above, the 75Hard challenge is setting us up to fail. And I've had enough failure with trying to get on track with my nutrition and training.
Again, I WANT to do this challenge but it is kind of dumb in ways. I'd modify it a bit, but Frisella is adamant that if you change one little thing then you're not doing the challenge - you're listening to your "*kitten* voice" as the language filter here puts it.
So for me and the 5 core parts of this challenge:
1. Workout twice per day. Check. For rest days I'll just go active rest and take a walk or ride my bike or go to the pool for 45 minutes. I can work around the weather.
2. Read 10 pages. No problem.
3. Drink 1 gallon of water per day. This is dumb - a random number. But okay, I can do it and this would be one of the more challenging parts.
4. No cheat meals or alcohol. THIS is where I'm set up to fail and I don't like it or subscribe to the challenge.
5. Follow a diet - this is somewhat arbitrary and he leaves the "diet" open to personal choice. He does say macro based diets don't count but I disagree. Macro based diets make you track your food, and that alone counts as good nutrition (because most of us would be tracking so that we eat healthy and smart). So I'll make this change with no guilt.
I get his idea on the challenge - the mental toughness and all. But I don't trust the source (Frisella) and don't like the one M&M and start over - that runs contrary to my beliefs on living a healthy and happy life.
But what are the other options as far as a real challenge that forces you to stick to it?
Just venting. Thanks for listening.2 -
I'm in the process of reading this book. In the screenshot above, the cold shower and random act of kindness aren't part of the actual 75Hard challenge. Those are things from the 75 day challenges that follow the actual challenge. Phase 1 and Phase 2 I think he calls them.
That said, I'm really torn about Frisella and this challenge. I WANT to do this, or something like it. However, I think Frisella is a random marketer and not anyone qualified to give out fitness advice. I tried listening to his podcast but can't stand that "tough guy" self-grandizing crap. However, his book is a good read - I'm enjoying it and there are parts in there that make sense of this challenge - good explainers.
As Abby Langer said in her article, linked above, the 75Hard challenge is setting us up to fail. And I've had enough failure with trying to get on track with my nutrition and training.
Again, I WANT to do this challenge but it is kind of dumb in ways. I'd modify it a bit, but Frisella is adamant that if you change one little thing then you're not doing the challenge - you're listening to your "*kitten* voice" as the language filter here puts it.
So for me and the 5 core parts of this challenge:
1. Workout twice per day. Check. For rest days I'll just go active rest and take a walk or ride my bike or go to the pool for 45 minutes. I can work around the weather.
2. Read 10 pages. No problem.
3. Drink 1 gallon of water per day. This is dumb - a random number. But okay, I can do it and this would be one of the more challenging parts.
4. No cheat meals or alcohol. THIS is where I'm set up to fail and I don't like it or subscribe to the challenge.
5. Follow a diet - this is somewhat arbitrary and he leaves the "diet" open to personal choice. He does say macro based diets don't count but I disagree. Macro based diets make you track your food, and that alone counts as good nutrition (because most of us would be tracking so that we eat healthy and smart). So I'll make this change with no guilt.
I get his idea on the challenge - the mental toughness and all. But I don't trust the source (Frisella) and don't like the one M&M and start over - that runs contrary to my beliefs on living a healthy and happy life.
But what are the other options as far as a real challenge that forces you to stick to it?
Just venting. Thanks for listening.
If I wanted to train myself to do hard things, I'd make my own list, with hard things that had outcomes I personally actually wanted to achieve. But I'm a "buck other people's rulesets from the get-go" kind of person. 🤷♀️
Despite joking up-thread about not liking hard things, I do set myself some challenging challenges (in addition to handling hard things that life just delivers whether I want them or not). Sometimes they even retain my interest long enough to accomplish them (joking again . . . kinda 😆).
A key thing I personally don't like about 75Hard is the sheer arbitrariness.
With the context that I'm a 65 y/o lightweight woman, one example right now is that I'm working on chin-ups (not pull-ups, yet - maybe later). I got one right after my initial weight loss, but hadn't really followed up working on it. I'm back doing the prep forms I can do at home, without a particular timeline or numeric goal, just trying to progress. For me, that's reasonably difficult.
As an aside, I think two daily workouts a day would be fine for some people who are already somewhat active, but not really a great plan (in terms of fitness progress or injury avoidance) for someone with quite limited exercise activity in their recent past. IMO, people with serious fitness goals use structured training plans, tailored to the sport(s) or activities they want to improve at. Those can be plenty hard, and do require consistency for best results.
FWIW, I think striving to live a balanced, healthy and happy life is a fair challenge in itself, including figuring out ways to manage/moderate treats, get good nutrition, establish a regular schedule of enjoyable and productive exercise, stay economically and socially engaged in positive ways, etc. Population statistics about weight re-gain and exercise abandonment suggest those things might be kind of hard to accomplish, for some definitions of "hard". 😉 But maybe that's not hard enough for the Frisella-motivated folks, people who may need more dramatic stuff to feel motivated. (I'm not criticizing folks like that: We're all different, and that's part of what makes life fun.)8 -
I know this is an older post but thought I'd offer my perspective for anyone thinking of trying it. A friend of mine was doing 75hard and it sounded interesting, so I gave it a try with her. I suppose it was more because I was bored in quarantine than anything else. There were components I found very helpful (drinking water, for one) and other things that I found to be more annoying than helpful.
The pros:
-You are supposed to use your own food plan but be 100% faithful to it in that time frame, so it is flexible that way
-Getting in 2 workouts a day helped me to diversify some of my workout routines
-On more difficult workout days I ended up hiking for my 2nd workout, and my dog became very good on a leash
-I read some interesting things I wouldn't have given the time of day to before
-The daily progress pics really helped me to visualize the changes I was making
The cons:
-If you make any mistakes at all, you have to start completely over. Forget to drink 2 oz of water on day 72? Start over at day 1
-He specifically mentions no cake or alcohol, which seemed really arbitrary to me. I ended up having no cake or cheat meal on my bday
-It's a very all or nothing mindset, which set off some unhealthy behaviors in my friend
I managed to finish the whole thing but didn't really feel that I got as much from it as I put in. I restarted twice, so it was 100+ days in total for me. My friend made it to day 71 and gave up, but she was happy about that. I'm a very goal oriented person and I have a hard time quitting something once I've started, so it was worth it to me to gut it out but in retrospect I would have been better off putting that energy into something more sustainable.
For people already on a good program who are looking for a bit of a challenge it might be good, but I can see it being dangerous for someone who doesn't work out daily already, or anyone with disordered relationships to food (which is a lot of us).
I ended up losing 10 lbs but could have done that with MFP and running alone, so I would consider it more of a mental challenge than a weight loss one.
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I know this is an older post but thought I'd offer my perspective for anyone thinking of trying it. A friend of mine was doing 75hard and it sounded interesting, so I gave it a try with her. I suppose it was more because I was bored in quarantine than anything else. There were components I found very helpful (drinking water, for one) and other things that I found to be more annoying than helpful.
The pros:
-You are supposed to use your own food plan but be 100% faithful to it in that time frame, so it is flexible that way
-Getting in 2 workouts a day helped me to diversify some of my workout routines
-On more difficult workout days I ended up hiking for my 2nd workout, and my dog became very good on a leash
-I read some interesting things I wouldn't have given the time of day to before
-The daily progress pics really helped me to visualize the changes I was making
The cons:
-If you make any mistakes at all, you have to start completely over. Forget to drink 2 oz of water on day 72? Start over at day 1
-He specifically mentions no cake or alcohol, which seemed really arbitrary to me. I ended up having no cake or cheat meal on my bday
-It's a very all or nothing mindset, which set off some unhealthy behaviors in my friend
I managed to finish the whole thing but didn't really feel that I got as much from it as I put in. I restarted twice, so it was 100+ days in total for me. My friend made it to day 71 and gave up, but she was happy about that. I'm a very goal oriented person and I have a hard time quitting something once I've started, so it was worth it to me to gut it out but in retrospect I would have been better off putting that energy into something more sustainable.
For people already on a good program who are looking for a bit of a challenge it might be good, but I can see it being dangerous for someone who doesn't work out daily already, or anyone with disordered relationships to food (which is a lot of us).
I ended up losing 10 lbs but could have done that with MFP and running alone, so I would consider it more of a mental challenge than a weight loss one.
Thanks for posting such a balanced, nuanced report of your experiences. That was really informative! 🙂2 -
" I tried listening to his podcast but can't stand that "tough guy" self-grandizing crap."
I know I am way late in responding to this, but I am on the FB page for 75hard, on day 1, plan on completing it, I listened to his #75HARD podcast, and started listening to some of his other podcasts, his most recent one (referencing Will Smith in the title...) comes across as very anti-woman and anti-minority, I was disgusted (and I'm pretty lenient on people), I had to stop listening.1 -
I'll offer an alternative perspective - no, Andy's style isn't for everyone, but I find his authentic approach (yes, even when it offends me) refreshing. I don't follow his most recent podcast (RealAF) very closely as it's a lot more cultural/political which isn't what I'm seeking, but I listened to the MFCEO from start to finish and probably will again at some point as I got a LOT - and I mean a LOT from it. Crap no one else in my life would have said or told me, and I appreciated his candid approach to things. His way of explaining things also helped me integrate some things that are proving to be life changing (not kidding - career moves, major health improvements, etc) all because of how he said it versus how I've heard the same things many times before.
75 Hard - I did it last year, and was glad I did. I gained from it, but not in the areas people seem to think they will when they look at it.
Gains:
-Strengthened my "I'm doing this for me" and "no" voice - literally, and it is still paying off dividends as I'm going through another pivot point in my life, and being able to tell people no (and being okay with all of their protests) is huge to making these changes.
-Reminded me that even when the going gets miserable, I can and will finish things I put my mind to - even when it sucks
-I read some amazing books that really had me examining my life and some of the screw ups I've made, and created an interest in a genre of books I have otherwise never picked up (always been a reader, but never finished a "motivational" or "self help" book - ever - until this challenge). Extreme Ownership; Can't Hurt Me; You're a Bada$$ among others.
-Doing it all, and finishing it all, helped reset my mind and get me back on track after a very toxic job situation whittled away at my sense of self to the point I hardly recognized myself. It's been a little over a year since I finished and I'd say I'm pretty close to feeling like "me" but this challenge was the catalyst I needed to kick start things and remind me of who I am.
-Realized I could enjoy life without things like alcohol
-I got more creative with workouts, rediscovered my love of hiking. Dog got in great shape too!
Issues:
-I think the gallon of water is too much for some people - I had to add electrolytes to my diet because it was over flushing my system, and a more petite person would have an even harder time of it
-Some of the rules are a bit arbitrary IMO - for example, a bite of chocolate, even if included in your diet, isn't okay, but diet soda (which is horrible for your body) and weed is fine? Um, sure, okay, IMO, anything that offers no benefit whatsoever shouldn't be allowed if a bite of chocolate isn't.
-It's someone else's rules and ideas
-Some work schedules will require being shorted on sleep for the entire challenge, and I don't think it's realistic just from a time perspective for everyone out there
All that said, I got what I needed from it, and am glad it was there. I wouldn't have stuck to creating my own "challenge" - yes, just a dumb mental difference (since there's no actual accountability for the challenge, either), but I just wouldn't have done it on my own when the going got as tough as it did sometimes. I was just one of those who needed the extra kick in the pants.
I wouldn't blanket recommend it to people - but for some people it might be a great match depending on what they are hoping to get from it.3
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