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The #75 Hard Challenge Taught Me The One Thing That Can Completely Transform Our Lives

by Cole

I was sitting there. In my car. Looking for my next YouTube video to listen to when I saw that Scott Hilse just dropped something new.

He introduced me to the concept of #75Hard, a challenge that took to the next level. Seeing his transformation of body and mind, just hit me. I had lost like 10ish pounds over 4 months or so just by making a few changes to my lifestyle, but I was really struggling to lose the next 10.

I made the decision to give it a shot. I dove into the creator of the challenge, Andy Frisella, over the next 24 hours and learned the basic rules that must be completed daily for 75 days. OR you MUST start over.

THE RULES:

  1. Follow a diet. Whatever you choose — follow it.
  2. Complete two 45-minute workouts. One must be outside. Workouts must be at different times in the day.
  3. No alcohol or cheat meals.
  4. Take a progress picture.
  5. Drink 1 gallon of water.
  6. Read 10 pages of a non-fiction book.
Photo by Jonathan Borba on Unsplash

I’d grown accustomed to drinking some wine daily so that would prove to be a challenge. On top of the fact that the last time I did two separate 45-minute workouts was probably high school. And even further, I couldn’t make myself follow my 2300 calorie plan for the life of me.

Hindsight is 20/20, but looking back, I can see clearly what my struggle boiled down to. The problem had been that I never really made the decision. I always was like eh f*ck it. “I can cut this short.” “What’s a glass of wine?” “Is a Chick-fil-A sandwich really that many calories?” (it is.)

All of these things add up, and it all goes downhill if I didn’t decide “NO, this is what I want to do.”

None of these things are inherently hard. Or they don’t have to be. It’s all about this one freaking word.

INTENTIONALITY

75 Hard showed me the power of being intentional with your time and your goals. Every night before the next day began I had to intentionally think about when I would have time to workout, eat, drink water and read. If I didn’t plan for it, it made it incredibly easy to either forget about it or put it off until the end of the day.

Creating these intentions for the day showed me how much room is actually in my day. How many 10 minutes here, 19 minutes here that I waste? Don’t get me wrong it’s totally fine to relax or to scroll or to ya know…do nothing. But even when it comes to doing NOTHING. I feel like we all, especially me, could be much more intentional about it.

A lot of times when I’m not intentional. I feel like I wander throughout my day. I spend a lot of time thinking: Yeah I should probably be doing this. Or probably be doing that. Oh actually, I’ll just do this instead.

It’s a limbo of sorts. Because I’m not prepared — I’m not living my life ready to take on the day. I’m waking up, finding my footing, and then spending all day building up the courage to step in some direction.

Full disclosure — I failed 75 Hard.

I made it like 16 days. I lost my motivation to fit in the box of the challenge, but I’ve taken a few things with me as I continue to construct a lifestyle I’m proud of. And fun fact, in those 16 days, I lost 8 pounds and read almost 2 books.

Are you up for the challenge? Let me know if you decide to take on!

You can learn more about it here.

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