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#92 - 75 Hard-Is It Right For You?
34 Plays2 months ago
You've likely heard of 75 Hard. Maybe you've wondered if you should give it a shot or not. Some people love it, others hate it and say it's unhealthy. As a fitness coach, I wanted to have my own opinion on the matter, so I'm doing it to start 2025.
In this episode, we'll discuss:
- Benefits of the challenge
- Cons of this challenge
- 3 reasons I'm doing it
- My experience so far
You'll get some insight into whether this challenge is something you feel is right for you.
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Transcript
Fitish Project Growth
00:00:02
Speaker
Welcome back to the Fitish project with your host Latham Bass, where we make health simple for regular people like you and I. We got another episode coming at you this week. But before I get into that, as always, if you have not, if you could leave a review, just continue to get this show out to more people help it grow. That is one of my goals in 2025 is to continue to grow this podcast that grew from 2023 into 2024, which is really cool to see and that is because of people like you who listen to this and who share this with other people. um And leaving those reviews really helps with that as well.
Power of Podcasts for Learning
00:00:38
Speaker
I'm a big believer in podcasts. I love listening to podcasts. I think it's a really, really good way to learn.
00:00:43
Speaker
And I think even more than that, there's a quote that I've heard from Alex Hormozi, who's like a big business mogul guy. And he says that people need to be reminded a lot more than they need to be taught. And so that is one of my goals here. I try to teach people things, I try to educate people, but a lot of times just having those reminders of you know certain things that we should be doing, maybe a certain way to try a new thing, you know keeping up on your health and fitness just by having content like this to keep you kind of in check can be very, very helpful.
00:01:12
Speaker
And so that is my goal with this whole podcast to help you achieve all those fitness and health goals that you have, feel better, look better, be able to do all those things that you want to do and enjoy life to the fullest. And so, as I said, if you can help with just leaving a review, sharing this with other people, that just continues
Introduction to 75 Hard Challenge
00:01:28
Speaker
to grow the show. But without getting too more into that today's topic, I wanted to talk a little bit about 75 hard.
00:01:35
Speaker
You have probably heard of this. It's a challenge and it's somewhat controversial. Like if you ask certain fitness people, they will tell you that 75 hard is terrible for you. You should never do it. It's super unsustainable. And then you ask other people and they have really positive associations or really positive experiences with the challenge. And so since I get asked this, I've been asked like what I think of 75 hard multiple different times.
00:02:01
Speaker
And I had my opinion before, but like I've never actually done it. So I wanted to actually do the challenge, do the 75 hard. And that way I have a little bit more insight. It can actually speak on my experience and talk about some of the pros and cons kind of going into it. Um, the reasons that I'm doing it. And then maybe as well, like what my experience so far has been with 75 hard. So at the point of this recording, I've only been doing it, this is day eight that I'm on. So I'm pretty new into it.
00:02:27
Speaker
But I thought it'd be good to just kind of talk about a document a little bit at the beginning and give you some insight into that. And then after I've completed the challenge, maybe if anything has changed, some lessons that I've learned, if my opinion on the whole challenge altogether has changed, who maybe this is more geared towards. I'll do another podcast on that as well at the
Purpose and Rules of 75 Hard
00:02:45
Speaker
end of this challenge. so Getting into this one, let's talk about what it is. So if you've ever heard of the 75 hard challenge, it was created by Andy for Stella, who is a successful entrepreneur. He built the brand first form supplements, which is a very, very well-known, very big supplement company. He's a pretty intense dude. And so some people don't like him because of that, but he also has a lot of people that do like him because of his very intense, like kind of brash straight to the point nature. And.
00:03:15
Speaker
So he's a big, big dude on like mental toughness. and For me, whether you like somebody or not, I think that you can always learn from people. And so if you can separate the message from the messenger a little bit, especially people who are successful, like he's built a hundred million dollar plus supplement company. And so obviously he's been able to do some things right and he has some certain skills and some certain knowledge that could be useful, maybe not just in entrepreneurship or business, but in life in general, because I don't think you get to those type of levels without having certain type of skills and knowledge. and
00:03:48
Speaker
Just some insights that maybe he can provide and maybe you can utilize and implement within your life. so And the reason that he said he wanted to create the challenge was not so much as a physical challenge, which is what a lot of people associate this challenge to be. They think of it as like a physical transformation or like a fitness challenge that you do for 75 days.
00:04:09
Speaker
But I read his book and he talks about it a little bit more in depth. And he says it's much more about the mental transformation that you make within this 75 day challenge. Because as I'm about to explain to you, it's pretty difficult. It's called 75 hard for a reason. It's not called 75 easy. And so the rules are as follows. You have to follow a certain type of diet.
00:04:28
Speaker
It doesn't really matter what type of diet you can pick. It could be a vegetarian diet, it could be like a paleo diet, it could be a carnivore diet. Whatever you choose, keto, it doesn't really matter. You just have to follow a certain type of diet. The second task is you have to do two 45-minute workouts and one of those workouts has to be outside regardless of the condition. so Right now I'm living in Iowa and it's winter and it's cold. So I've been having to get some workouts outside when it's been five degrees, 10 degrees, wind blowing. And that has not been super pleasant, but that is part of the mental toughness aspect of the challenge.
00:05:00
Speaker
And with the workouts, it's not like you have to do like two crazy extreme workouts every single day. So you could be doing like yoga one session, you could be walking, you could be doing like strength training or different things like that. So you can kind of mix up the sessions and it doesn't mean that you're absolutely beating your body down for 90 minutes every single day because I don't think that's sustainable for anybody and you're probably gonna feel like trash. and could even hurt yourself. So you have to be smart about how you do that. So two 45 minute workouts. The third task is you have to drink a gallon of water per day. And so this is one of the things he talks about with this is just making sure that you focus on little things. So drinking water is obviously important for your health and feeling good digestion, your skin health, like mental focus, all that stuff benefits when you drink plenty of water. But
00:05:47
Speaker
On top of that, it's just something that you have to stay on top of throughout the entire day. Otherwise you're going to end up at the end of the night, you realize you haven't really been drinking water. Now you have to chug a bunch of water just to hit that goal for the day. And so just a reminder of just like being aware and just staying on top of the little things. The fourth task is you have to take a progress picture. And the reasoning behind this that he says is for a lot of people when they start this challenge, they're not really where they want to be. And so this provides some accountability. And I think this is actually pretty important and something that a lot of people do really struggle with is actually just looking at themselves and just being really real and honest with themselves about where they're at and what they're doing. Because if you're not aware, you're not honest and you're not just like taking full responsibility for where you're at and where you want to go, you're never going to get to those certain goals that you have. If you're just continuing to ignore.
00:06:35
Speaker
Maybe you put on some weight and you're not really stepping on the scale because you know, that number is going to be not what you want to see. Or you're always wearing bigger type of clothes because you know, the clothes that you actually used to wear and want to wear have gotten really tight and you don't feel good about that or your diet sucks. So you're really afraid of like counting calories or just honing in on being more disciplined with your food choices. And so a lot of people will just continue to ignore those things that they really need to pay attention to in order to make the changes that they want to make. And so.
00:07:03
Speaker
I think this is actually a pretty good thing to include in the challenge as well. Uh, the fifth task is read 10 pages of a book and it has to be a nonfiction book. So just the whole idea here is just continuing to grow, not only physically, but also just making sure that you put an emphasis on growing mentally as well, which I'm a big reader myself. And so that's something that I really like about this challenge as well. I think you can learn a lot in the more that you can learn, the more that you can grow.
00:07:28
Speaker
And you can always learn, like I said earlier in the podcast, you can learn a lot from just reading from different people's perspectives because we all have our own perspective on just the world in general and just things in general. And if you always stay in your own lane and you never get perspectives outside of your own, it's really hard to learn. And you might miss a lot of good things that could be added to your life in different ways to do certain things or different things that you could add, or maybe a different perspective shift that could just kind of change the whole way you think. So.
00:07:55
Speaker
Big fan of that task as well. And then the last thing is you cannot drink any alcohol for the 75 days and you cannot have any cheat meals for the 75 days, which is also just a discipline thing. So any slip ups on any single day where you do not complete any of these tasks means that you fail and you have to start back at day one. And so it's really the ultimate test of just consistency because doing all those things by themselves, not really that challenging. like you know, do following a diet, a couple of 45 minute workouts per day, drinking a gallon of water, taking a picture, reading a little bit, and then not having alcohol or a cheat meal. Like doing that in a single day, not that big of a deal. Doing that every single day for 75 days straight, pretty difficult because obviously we know we have life going on, things get stressful, you get overwhelmed, all that different kind of stuff. But again, that is part of the challenge is learning to prioritize, learning to plan, learning to be disciplined,
00:08:48
Speaker
Learning to just do all these things while also having to do all the other things that you have to do in life with your job and your family and friends and social life and all that different type of stuff. So it definitely forces you to prioritize and plan and really just think about how you're going to manage your day. Which again, I think can be a positive thing.
Personal Fitness Journey and Mindset
00:09:07
Speaker
So I think with any challenge and with any like diet or with any kind of like training program or anything like that.
00:09:14
Speaker
I think what's really important is the intention that you take into something. And so like for me, when I first got into fitness, I tried a ton of different diets. Like I tried intermittent fasting, I tried low carb, I tried the paleo, I tried Um, low fat, like I tried a bunch of different stuff before I ended up finding what worked for me. And same thing with training. Like I've done so many different styles of training. I've done kettlebell stuff. I've done CrossFit type stuff. I've done your traditional strength training. I've done like calisthenics with body weight. I've gotten into running recently. I've done some, uh, cycling. Like I've tried a lot of different things and the way that I think of it is just finding these different tools that I can put in my tool belt and use at different times. And so like for certain diets, like there may be certain things that I find.
00:09:58
Speaker
from doing that specific diet or maybe certain things that I find from doing a certain style of training that I really like. And I'll use that ah periodically throughout different times. And sometimes you'll try different diets or you'll try different things and you'll absolutely hate it. But even then you still learn a little something like, okay, that's not something that I want to do.
00:10:15
Speaker
And so that's kind of my thought process going into certain challenges and just trying new things. And that's the same way that I'm approaching this. I think that if you approach this as like your lose weight quick, and this is your solution, your long-term solution to losing weight and keeping it off, you're probably going to not get the results that you want. You may lose weight, but again, this style of a program is so unsustainable that if you don't have a good exit plan,
00:10:42
Speaker
getting out of this challenge, you're probably going to end up where you started because this, you know, two 45 minute workouts a day, doing all these things like every single day of the week is just not something that you're going to do. And so think about what you can get out of the challenge and what skills can you learn? What mindset things can you take away from this challenge? I think if you go into it with that mindset, it's going to help you a ton. And with anything, I always think about it as like a trial and error type of process. So like I could go into this whole challenge and Absolutely hate it. Think it's terrible. But like, if you don't try certain things, you never really know. And so like, again, I have my own opinion before going into this 75 heart challenge, but I think actually going through it, experiencing it, I'll be able to learn a lot and get some positive insights and be able to give a better opinion and just have an overall better view of what this challenge is and maybe who it's for. And so getting into the pros of this program, I think the number one
00:11:40
Speaker
positive thing about this program is probably that it forces you to build discipline and consistency, which are two of the most critical things when it comes to really any kind of success in life, but especially when it comes to like fitness and health goals.
00:11:56
Speaker
discipline and consistency are extremely important. When you talk about consistency, consistency really is a superpower because it's just one of those things where like you're doing all these small little things daily and it doesn't really seem like it's that big of a deal. But those things start to compound on each other over time and then you look up you know six months down the road and you've lost 30 pounds or you put on muscle or you feel way better, you can move way better, you gain strength, you've built
Establishing Health Habits
00:12:22
Speaker
muscle like all these different things but like when you look at a single day or even a couple days it never really seems like that big of a deal so it's like easy not to do but then it's also you know as you start to add those days days up as you start to stack those days it ends up making a really big difference and it works on the opposite spectrum as well like if you're constantly not doing those little things those things start to add up too because with fitness it's like
00:12:46
Speaker
you don't see the results within that day or within that week, you see them further down the road. So like if you look at where you're at right now, just physically and health wise, like those are based on habits that you were doing three, four or five months ago. Like the way that you look right now is based on the habits that you were doing three months ago, the way that you how fit you are right now, how strong you are right now that that's based on you know, three, four or five months ago, maybe even longer, it could be years ago to build up that strength and to build up the body that you have right now and so understanding that that consistency is such a big piece of that this challenge really forces you to be ultimately super consistent because if you're not consistent well then you fail the challenge so you have to be consistent for 75 days in a row.
00:13:30
Speaker
The discipline part is also really important because, again, you're going to have days where you don't want to do this. You're going to have days where you're not feeling it. You're going to have days where maybe you're a little tired, maybe you're busy, maybe you're stressed, maybe you're overwhelmed, and you just don't want to do things. And so having that discipline is very, very important. It's much more important than that motivation because we know that motivation is nice, but it just comes and goes. and so When you start to think about discipline and consistency going hand in hand, I think it really helps to really put this all together and use them for what they're worth. Because at the beginning, like you have to use a lot of discipline as you do these things. And it sucks a lot. like It really sucks in the beginning because like you're not going to want to do these things. You're not used to doing these things. They're not super comfortable.
00:14:14
Speaker
And you just don't really want to do them. So at the beginning, you really have to focus on building that discipline. But then as you start to build on those habits, it turns more into something that just seems a little bit more automatic and it starts to suck a little bit less. So like a couple months down the road, you start to build those habits and now getting a workout in, getting your water in.
00:14:33
Speaker
making sure that you're getting steps in or different things like that that are going to help with your health no longer seem like such a struggle and that's when discipline doesn't have to play such a large role. It doesn't feel like such a struggle and then that consistency becomes almost automatic because now it's just a habit that you do and so those two things kind of work hand in hand because we've all had those experiences where like Maybe we didn't have a certain habit in place that we wanted to have. And then as you start to build on that, like a couple months down the road, like it just seems easy. Like it's something that you don't even really think about. Like if you've ever gotten into a really good groove with just working out like on a consistent schedule and a consistent routine. And then like at first it kind of sucks and then you get in shape, you feel better. Like you build a routine, like you get all that stuff in place and then you feel good. Like it's easy. It's on autopilot. And then you take a break.
00:15:23
Speaker
Like maybe you go on vacation, you take some time off and do things like that. Whenever you come back, you always have to use a little bit more of that discipline because, you know, you took a break and there was a little bit of inconsistency in there. So just understanding like at the beginning, it's going to suck a little bit, but the more that you can cultivate that discipline, the easier consistency becomes. And so just realizing the importance of those two things. And I think this challenge forces you to do that.
00:15:47
Speaker
ah The second thing that I'll say about this challenge, one of the big pros is it just establishes better habits. So kind of building on what I was just saying, like drinking water, working out, reading, following a certain type of diet, all essential to leading a healthier and more enjoyable life. And so this challenge forces you to do those really basic things because I'm big on just very simple tasks, like very simple things that you can do daily to help build you up to get to where you want to get. And I've talked about this on other podcasts, but a lot of this stuff is like it doesn't seem like it's very groundbreaking. And these habits may seem kind of boring. But when you do those things consistently over time, these are the things that really add up and make all the difference. So like
00:16:29
Speaker
making sure that you're staying hydrated, getting your steps in, eating mostly whole foods, working out on a regular basis. And obviously you don't have to do these things 100% of the time, but when you can be in that 80, 90% consistency range, like you're going to have really, really good results. Like I have three things that I always focus on, like even outside of this challenge that I've been doing for years, that if I know I do those three things, I call them my daily disciplines. I know if I do those three things consistently most days, like I'm going to be able to stay in really good shape, feel good.
00:16:59
Speaker
look the way I want to look all those certain things, which is just making sure that I get eight to 10,000 steps in per day. I'm eating around 175 grams of protein to make sure I'm holding onto muscle and feeling good, staying full and just nourishing my body the way it needs to be nourished. And then making sure that I get at least four workouts in per week. Like I know if I check those three things off, I'm never going to have to worry about gaining any of the weight back or getting way out of shape or feeling like crap because I know that those things are going to get me to where I want to get and make sure that I'm maintaining or even making progress in certain areas of my health and fitness. And I get that, you know, some of these habits may seem very boring, may seem very mundane, but there's a lot of things like that in life that we just have to do that aren't necessarily the most fun thing. Like maybe you're a person who doesn't absolutely love exercising. You're not super passionate about exercising or you're not super passionate about getting your steps in or work
00:17:51
Speaker
maybe even your diet, but you know the benefits that come with those things. And so you just really force yourself to build those habits. And then again, once you build those habits, you don't have to rely on that discipline as much anymore because it just becomes automatic. It's just things that you do. I mean, there's certain habits that we do every single day that like, they're not the most fun and exciting. Like brushing your teeth isn't the most fun and exciting thing. Taking a shower, like cleaning your house, like doing those certain types of things aren't necessarily the most fun and exciting things to do, but we know the importance of those things.
00:18:19
Speaker
And that's the same way that I think about health and fitness. And I encourage other people to think about health and fitness. Even if you don't love doing those things, like you know how much benefit you get out of those things. So focus on building habits around things that you know are going to improve your life for the better.
Benefits and Limitations of 75 Hard
00:18:34
Speaker
And then the third thing that I would say about this challenge and one of the pros is that it just builds resilience and What I mean by that is that you prove to yourself that you can do hard things. And obviously this is called the 75 hard because it is difficult. Like in your everyday normal life, like you don't need to work out two times a day. You don't have to be 100% perfect dialed in with your nutrition and never have meals outside of just eating completely whole healthy, high quality type foods. But once you've been exposed to like a new level,
00:19:04
Speaker
it kind of like sets a new barrier for yourself. Like you have new limits and you have a new perspective on what you can do. It's the whole reason why I'm a big fan of fitness and I'm a big fan of like setting bigger type of goals or like having certain challenges or chasing certain metrics. Because like once you've been exposed to those things, you know that you you're stronger, like not just physically, but like mentally as well. Like, for example, when I ran my marathon, like that was something that I wanted to do so that I could prove to myself that I could do something that was really hard and that was really out of my comfort zone. And then after I did that, I was like, okay, like now I've run a marathon, what else can I do? Like what other big event can I take on? What other things can I do? Same thing with like losing a bunch of weight. Like once I knew that I could do that, it was like, okay, I have confidence that since I could do that, that like took multiple years and I knew it was really hard. What are the things that like, could I try or what other things could I go for? And then it doesn't just apply to like fitness things either, you start to build that kind of confidence within this one area. And it can also start to
00:20:02
Speaker
spread out into other areas. And I think there's a reason why a lot of really successful people always talk about how they stay super fit or they keep fitness as part of their lifestyle because it forces them to steadily do hard things and continue to have that growth mindset and continue to challenge themselves in certain ways. And that also helps them in other areas of their lives.
00:20:24
Speaker
because I'm sure as I'm talking about this right now, you could think of multiple different instances of times within your life where you went through a tough period or you accomplished something that was really difficult and you just felt really good about it. Like maybe you, maybe even just from like a lifestyle, like if you have kids like raising small children, like that's not an easy task and then they get older and then you kind of look back and you're like, man, I really did that. Like that was difficult, but I, you know, I raised these small kids or maybe you had like a super hard health issue. Maybe you got over a really big injury Making it through like a tough financial period or like a really really stressful like time maybe within your family's life or your life like you've been through different difficult times. And every time you go through one of those difficult times and you make it through on the other side it just reinforces.
00:21:10
Speaker
the type of person that you are and just your resilience and your ability to do hard things and make it through hard things. And it just gives you that new perspective that you can do a lot of things that you want as long as you're willing to kind of go through those things and endure a little bit and challenge yourself.
00:21:27
Speaker
And I think this is such a valuable thing because we all know that like life is going to throw us challenges, right? There's going to be more difficult things that come up. Like we've all had difficult things in the past, but we know there's going to be more difficult things that come up, whether it's physically, whether it's mentally, whether it's in our relationships, whether it's financially, we're going to have tough times that come up. And as you start to build this resilience, it's only going to help you get through those things in the future. And I think that doing certain things like this, challenging yourself in certain ways can really help when you do hit those rough times. So those are some of the main pros of this challenge. Some of the cons that people will talk about, I thought it'd be good to kind of talk through these as well. So the first and probably the the most obvious one is that it's unsustainable. Like it's not something that people are going to continue after the 75 days. Like you're not going to continue to work out twice a day. You're probably not going to follow a 100% strict diet the entire
00:22:20
Speaker
the rest of your life so like knowing that these things are unsustainable like I think you really have to just take it for what it is and realize that okay this isn't going to be my new life like but again there's all those positives that we're going to get out of this challenge because the thing about unsustainable is like as I've talked about before it's like if you're using unsustainable methods you're going to have unsustainable results so going into this don't be thinking like I'm doing this challenge and this is how I'm going to live my life for the rest of my life yes you're going to improve your mental toughness and develop these habits and like gain all these other skills but like make sure that you have the right perspective as you go through this challenge and as you leave this challenge that like I'm gonna apply some of these things but it doesn't have to be this extreme because again this isn't gonna be your long-term answer to weight loss and keeping it off you need to have some sort of exit plan as you get out of this plan like what things can you take from this and apply in the future what are you gonna do when this challenge is over like are you gonna go back to
00:23:14
Speaker
a different diet? Are you going to use a similar diet? Are you going to use a similar training program? like Are you going to work out three or four times a week? like What is your exit plan going to be when you get out of this? And again, i like I said before, like having those daily disciplines, just things that you can do on a daily or weekly basis that you know are going to help you maintain these results can be super beneficial. So like maybe it's a certain amount of steps you want to get in per day.
00:23:38
Speaker
certain amount of workouts you want to get in for a week like I do or maybe it's eating in a certain way following the 80-20 rule like whatever the case may be have some sort of exit plan as you get out of this otherwise yes it can be a very bad thing because it is not going to be sustainable as you exit this challenge.
00:23:55
Speaker
The second thing is that there's no flexibility. Yes, I am a big advocate of having flexibility when it comes to like health and fitness goals. Like obviously this is called the fit-ish project. It's not called the perfect project, like are the perfect fitness project. I believe that you should have some balance within your life. Like you should have a social life. You should be able to do some things and you should be able to enjoy yourself and your whole life doesn't have to evolve around fitness or health or like checking these boxes off every single day because that's not very fun for a lot of people and that's not how most people want to live their lives and me included like I don't want to do this stuff every single day and never have a day off and never have a day where I can just go chill on the beach or just lay on the couch and just watch the movies like I want to have days where I can just do that kind of stuff too so
00:24:40
Speaker
Understand again, that isn't the goal when you exit this challenge is to just stay super rigid and stay super consistent 100% of the time. I'm a big fan of like flexible dieting. I'm a big fan of taking rest days and having those things within your schedule.
00:24:54
Speaker
I'm a big fan of going on vacation and enjoying yourself. like If you talk to any of my clients that I work with, they'll tell you that I'm ah i'm a big fan of this. like i'm not the like You need to be on this 100% of the time, 100% perfect. like That's just not my philosophy because I believe there's a lot more to life than being like super into fitness and like worrying about every single calorie and working out seven days a week. I just think there's a lot more to enjoy than that. And so understand that as you're going through this, like that's not the goal is to continue to just have no flexibility because that's not the way that you're going to live. And I think as you start to go through life, as you start to make fitness more of a priority, and it's something that you do on a regular basis, you start to understand that
00:25:37
Speaker
there is a little bit of flexibility in within just how things are in certain phases of your life. For example, like there may be certain times of the month, like certain or times of the year where like you're super locked in, like maybe you have a little bit more time to put towards exercise, you have a little bit more time to put towards your fitness goals, things like that, where you're just like super locked in, like locked in with your diet, fitness routine, all those certain things. And you may have other times like where you don't have as much time like if you just had a new child like if you just took a new promotion at work like you just had took on like some new project like there may be certain seasons in life where you just don't have quite as much time and I think understanding that that flexibility is something that's gonna come and go in phases a little bit and that you don't always have to be like super super locked in and that may wane a little bit like you can always come back to it I think just understanding that is important.
00:26:31
Speaker
Now again, that doesn't mean that you just completely let everything go and like you fall off and you gain a bunch of weight. You never work out. Like I think having those daily disciplines in place where you can even still do those things, even during your busy times is super helpful, but you don't have to work out, you know, six, seven days a week, every single week of your life. You don't have to be locked in.
00:26:51
Speaker
for every single meal all the time. And I think understanding that that that flexibility changes a little bit and can move and be different at different times within your life can be helpful with thinking about this as a long term thing. Because for a lot of people, if they think about like, okay, I need to like just be super locked in forever, it's like, that's not sustainable. And that just turns people off from this completely. But when you realize like,
00:27:14
Speaker
Okay, there's certain times where I am going to be a little bit more invested in my fitness. And there's certain times where maybe that's not going to be quite as big of a priority, still a priority. Like we want to make sure that again, we're not falling off and health is important because we know, you know, we want to feel good, we want to look good, all those certain things. But like, there's just different times and just understanding that. And I think going through a challenge like this kind of shows you the extreme end of that. And then from there, you can kind of figure out, okay, obviously, I'm not going to be on that extreme spectrum all the time.
00:27:41
Speaker
but like where can I dial it back to where I can feel like this is a good balance for me. And then the last one, the third con that a lot of people talk about, which is kind of similar to what I was just talking about is like this perfection mindset. Obviously with this challenge, you have to be 100% with it. Like there's no deviation from the plan. There's no like shortcuts. There's just like, you have to do these tasks. If you don't do these tasks and you fail a challenge. And so a perfection mindset is definitely something that I,
00:28:07
Speaker
try to get people out of because that all or nothing mindset will just crush you. like it's not It's not realistic to think that you're going to be perfect all the time. And so you definitely don't want to fall into this trap. And I think this is where a lot of challenges do get a really bad rep.
00:28:21
Speaker
is because they do do things that are very unsustainable. They do preach this perfection mindset. And then when people get out of these challenges, they just completely revert or they completely fall off. And so understanding going into this, yes, this is the challenge for the next 75 days, but as I get out of this phase, like it's not going to be that. I don't have to be perfect, which is why I talk about 1% better all the time, because I truly believe that if you are doing things And just just slowly getting better over time every single day in small little ways that you will be able to accomplish all the goals that you want to hit.
Incremental Improvement over Perfection
00:28:55
Speaker
And that doesn't mean that you have to be perfect in every single area. But we do want to make sure that we're trying to grow in certain areas because
00:29:01
Speaker
You can do that, stack that over time and just continue to be consistent. Good things happen. You know, that's how people lose big amounts of weight. That's how people get in a really good shape. That's how people achieve all these big goals that they have. And so understanding that perfection is not the end goal, like it is for this challenge, but that's not what you want to strive for when it comes to your life. It's more so just focusing on these little things and just getting a little bit better every day.
00:29:25
Speaker
And I think when you take that approach, it really takes the pressure off the whole perfection thing because like I said, trying to be perfect, it's just not realistic. And there's no reason to put that kind of pressure on yourself because you don't need to be perfect to get the results that you want to get, to be healthy, to feel good, to look good, all those certain things. and so Why put that added stress of trying to be perfect when you don't have to? And then when people get into that really bad cycle of like the all or nothing being perfect type of mindset, it's just really, really destructive to achieving the kind of goals that you want to get to. so
00:29:56
Speaker
Understand that you don't have to be perfect. There's going to be days where you fall off a little bit. Maybe you don't do quite as much as you want to. Just getting back on track, making sure that you're trying to improve just a little bit each day and doing that consistently over time. That's how you get to be in a place where like you're super healthy and you're hitting all those goals and you feel good. Your health is in a good spot. All that good stuff.
Personal Experience with the Challenge
00:30:15
Speaker
So next I wanna talk a little bit about why I'm doing it. So I already touched on this a little bit, but I wanted to do it just because a lot of people ask me about this challenge as a fitness coach. Like people ask me, should they do 75 hard? Is it a good idea? What are my thoughts on it? And so like i like I said, I've had my thoughts on it, but I wanted to do it so I could create a better opinion of it and just have my own experience about what the challenge actually entails, how it is. Like, because it's one thing to like read about something. It's one thing to like talk to other people about something. But I think when you do it, you get a whole different experience. and Like I said, I'm a big fan of just trying different things and just going with that whole trial and error type of mindset. And so I wanted to try this and see how it was. Along with that, I just wanted to build a little bit more routine and more structure within my day. And since this really forces you to plan and prioritize things, I think that this will help me do that as well. and
00:31:04
Speaker
Third, I wanted to have some sort of mental challenge. Like I'm just big on goals and I like trying new things. I like forcing myself to do certain things, certain giving myself certain mental challenges, you know, with the marathon. and then I had a goal to dunk a basketball. I had a obviously the weight loss goal. And so I like to give myself different challenges because I think that it gives you something to strive for. And when you're trying these different challenges, when you're setting these different goals, it can just keep things more engaging, more motivating, and give you a reason to train or a reason to do certain things. And so if you're like me, you're very achievement driven, very goal driven, then having certain challenges or giving yourself certain goals to strive for can be super helpful in helping you to just progress and get better.
00:31:46
Speaker
And then the last thing is just taking a little bit of a break from alcohol. So I like to drink every once in a while. you know I like to have a good cocktail. I like to have a good old fashioned. I like to have a nice gin and tonic with my friends. like I like to go out and do the social thing. But alcohol affects my sleep and it affects everybody's sleep quite a bit. And there's just certain times where like I wake up the next day and like my heart rate is up 15 to 20 beats on my resting heart rate, my sleep was trash, my recovery on my whoop is really bad. And so like I know the effects that alcohol has. And I think there's ways that you can do it in a moderate way where it doesn't affect your health as much. But also just kind of stepping back and taking a little break from that I think can be helpful as well. It's similar to like
00:32:26
Speaker
When you go on a diet, maybe you want to cut out like you know some processed foods for a while. Maybe you want to keep that stuff out of your house. Maybe you want to refrain from going out to eat a bunch because it just allows you to stay take a little bit of a step back and just reflect a little bit on whether or not you want to continue to have those things. Maybe you want to reintroduce those things in smaller quantities and create a little bit better relationship with those things. And I think this is no different. It's just one of those things where you can kind of take a little break from it, step back, see where you're at with it, and then you can reintroduce that stuff.
00:32:55
Speaker
if you want to as you get back into it. So those are kind of some of the reasons that I wanted to do it. And my experience so far has been pretty good. Like I said, I'm only a week into this thing, but a lot of these tasks are things that I do on a pretty regular basis. Like I drink a lot of water because I always keep a water bottle with me. I read pretty much every day, not every day, but I try to read Monday through Friday is always my daily discipline. But obviously, this is every single day, seven days a week. So I read a decent amount. I work out some days I do work out twice a day because I would do weights and then I would do cardio or walk something like that, like in the afternoon. So a lot of days I was working out twice per day, like maybe three or four days a week because I would do
00:33:35
Speaker
cardio three or four days a week, and then I would do weights three or four days a week. So like there are certain days that I would work out twice per week, twice per day, excuse me, but obviously doing that for 75 days in a row is a little bit different than doing that three or four times per week. So that will definitely be a little bit of a challenge. But yeah, so so far things have been all right. Like I mentioned, doing some outdoor workouts in the cold Iowa winter is not the most fun, um but it has been good so far. I like having the the task to check off. I've noticed my sleep has already started to get better just because I'm getting more activity in my day. So I'm more tired and I don't want to wake up the next day and be groggy and low energy and things like that. So notice some benefits already. It's been fun so far, but I also know that 75 days is a lot longer than seven or eight days. So I know that I'll probably have some challenges in there. Maybe I'll have some ah new insights as I work through this and maybe I'll just absolutely
Conclusion and Learning Opportunities
00:34:27
Speaker
hate it. But
00:34:28
Speaker
I look forward to kind of just continuing to document it a little bit. I've been doing that on my social media. It's just sharing my experience so far. I'm trying to put out video every day or so, just kind of with a little lesson, a little overview of each day. But yeah, I'll come back and I'll do another episode like this at the end, just to give my thoughts and any lessons or insights that I've taken away from this. but I think just kind of wrapping this thing up, one of the main points that I think you can really just understand from challenges like this or and that you can take away from this pod podcast is just you can always get something out of a new dieting protocol, a new exercise program, a new challenge, a new book, a new podcast, a new whatever. Like there's always ways that you can learn. And I think when you go on with that intention of like
00:35:11
Speaker
Okay, what are the things, what are the outcomes that I want to get from this? What kind of things do I want to learn? What are maybe some tools that I'll be able to use later on? I think you get a lot more out of it versus just like going into this thing blindly and just being like, I don't really know I'm doing this. Like, you know, kind of seeing where it goes type of thing. So just take a take a good intention into these new things that you approach and it doesn't have to be like a sink or swim type of thing like a pass or fail type of thing obviously in this instance it is like you have to do all this stuff perfect but when you're going out there and you're on your own fitness journey when you're on your own health journey figuring out you know new things to try and just
00:35:46
Speaker
trying new training programs or diets or things like that. Just think about what things you can learn and take away from those things. And I think as you start to build some of those things and learn what works really well for you, that's where this whole fitness and health thing starts to become really easy. And it starts to just become a natural part of your life because you have all these tools and you've kind of personalized it into a way that you can stick to long-term because ultimately that's the goal that we want to get to. We want to get to a place where we feel like I can sustain what I have going on.
00:36:16
Speaker
for the rest of my life. And obviously, if you can do that, then you're going to have no issues with just staying healthy, feeling good, looking good, all those different things that we want to achieve. So hopefully this was helpful. With that being said, ah have some one-on-one coaching available. I know it's the beginning beginning of the year and people are always looking to get their fitness ramped up, maybe looking to lose some weight, things like that. So if you want some one-on-one coaching specifically with losing some weight, want some accountability, want somebody to help you with the plan,
00:36:45
Speaker
want to make sure that you're doing things in the right way and actually getting the results you want to this year. You can always check the link in the show notes for that, but I appreciate you listening and we will see you next week.