75 hard
While scrolling on social media you might have stumbled upon the ever-so-popular 75 hard challenge. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, I’ll break down it down for you. The 75 hard challenge is basically a “mental toughness challenge” created by Andy Frisella (a highly sought after entrepreneur, bestselling author, and public speaker). In the 75 days, you are to follow a diet (no “cheats” allowed), no alcohol, you are to complete two 45-minute workouts daily (one has to be outside), drink a gallon of water per day (~4 litres for all you fellow Canadians out there), read 10 minutes of a non-fiction book a day, and take a progress photo daily. I officially completed the 75 hard challenge on New Years Day and I’m here to spill the tea ☕️🐸 after my experience over the past 2.5 months.
I first heard about this challenge years ago but didn’t think much of it until I noticed recently it getting more hype particularly from TikTok users. I am all for bettering yourself, building healthy habits, and I love a good challenge. However, the more I looked into #75hard the more red flags I noticed.
The challenge is positioned as a program to build mental toughness and abides by the 5 rules I listed above. In sharing my takeaways on #75hard as a whole, I want to break down each rule into bite sized chunks to explain why I think it is just another fad with potentially dangerous implications rather than a legitimate fitness endeavour. So let’s dive right in:
Follow a diet. Any diet. This one is pretty vague. Andy Frisella is not a personal trainer, dietitian, or clinical nutritionist, so he insists you consult a professional about whatever nutritional program you choose. But, he does stress that you can’t have a single cheat meal or drink any alcohol. For starters, the word “cheat” is triggering to me in relation to food. For someone who has struggled with disordered eating, calling anything a “cheat” instills guilt and makes me feel like I’m doing something bad or wrong, when in reality I’m just eating food. I’m at a place in my life where I feel like I have finally found food freedom and try hard to practice eating intuitively, so going on a strict diet really felt counter-productive. I did do it, however, and followed a diet that was recommended to me by my naturopath. The SIBO diet focuses on gradual elimination to reduce inflammation in the digestive tract and bacterial overgrowth in your small intestine. This part of 75 hard wasn’t so “hard” as I've been on a journey to resolve some GI issues for years now and my body reaped the benefits. BUT for those who (like myself in the past) would have quickly jumped on the “keto” train, or decided to go paleo or follow a vegan diet, I can see that quickly turning into a fail. Any diet that severely restricts foods automatically creates a negative relationship between a person and their food. From experience, labelling foods as good and bad or as “cheating” only causes cravings, guilt, and shame and only makes you want whatever that forbidden food is even more. The alcohol portion of this rule wasn’t much of a challenge for me but I’m just not a big drinker to begin with. I will say, it was nice to have some drinks on New Years Day with friends, but I truthfully didn’t miss it over the duration of the challenge. I’m also here to tell you that you don’t need to cut alcohol out of your life entirely if weight loss is your goal. I will never be the personal trainer that says you can’t drink or eat something. It’s not my philosophy; never has been and never will be. Why? Because moderation is key. Yes, I eat chocolate and I love to have a glass of wine at the end of the day, but I also know my limits and I train hard and eat foods that fuel my body. So to sum up my thoughts on rule #1: Crash diets (excessive restriction, no alcohol, no cheats) *news flash* usually don’t work and more often set you up for future weight gain. Slowly adding in sustainable healthy habits and moderation will create long term success.
Work out twice a day for 45 minutes. One of those workouts must be outside. Andy, have you ever heard of a rest day? I realize this challenge is all about mental toughness but working out twice a day is a little bit much dude. For an already active individual like myself I knew my body could handle it. But for someone who has never worked out in their life, jumping into 2x45 minute training sessions is going to quickly turn into injury, fatigue, burnout, and added stress on the body. Also where are you getting your workouts from? Are you working with a coach or professional or just picking random workouts that might not a good fit for your body or lifestyle? In saying this, this rule I was actually excited about. Not because of the caloric burn but because I knew I would have to dig deep and find that mental toughness to get outside every day. I’m not a huge fan of winter and this forced me every. single. day. to face the elements for 45 minutes. Despite it being -15 degree weather or a hail storm, I was out there. This will be a habit I continue long after the challenge. It provided so much benefit for my mental health. Toward the end of the challenge I realized I craved my daily walks as it gave me 45 minutes to decompress and be with nature. The second workout, however, turned out to be a burden. I love strength training.. so much so that I never thought I would “dread” a session. But it turns out having to train vs. wanting to train makes all the difference. After years of listening to my body and following specific strength training programs that ALLOW room for rest days, I started to hate the fact that I “had” to workout even when my body was screaming to just chill. Any time I could hear my telling me to pump the breaks, I’d opt for a yoga session or something lighter as my second workout rather than jump into a high intensity training session. BUT for someone who might not know or understand their limits, I’m not a huge fan of rule #2. I truly believe in having at least 1-2 active rest days per week to allow your muscles to recover, adapt and become stronger. Your nervous system also needs a chance to regenerate. Including appropriate rest in your training program is also going to prevent a plateau and overtraining from happening, and this challenge just does not allow for rest days. Feeling “forced” to work out takes away the fun in training and I would never want any of my clients to feel this way. Plus, If you’re new to fitness, it is going to feel like you’re taking on wayyy too much at once and probably lead to failure quickly.
Drink a gallon of water daily. This one also bugged me. There is no “gold standard” for how much water one should drink. It’s going to differ for every body so it just felt as if this rule had zero science to back it up. I personally didn’t have a problem drinking a gallon daily but there is no magic formula for hydration — it depends on age, weight, level of physical activity, general health and the climate you live in. The more water you lose to sweating, the more you'll need to replace with water. For someone to say “You need to drink a “gallon” of water a day” and having no educational background or knowledge on this individual’s actual needs is doing a disservice to many, especially those on fluid restrictions for health reasons. A more accurate general rule of thumb (but still leaving lots of room for error) would be to aim to drink half your body weight in ounces per day. Again, some may need more than that, some people may require less, it is so individual based. Overall thoughts: the intent is there because most of us probably ARE dehydrated, but a big thumbs down for rule #3 because of it’s lack of specificity.
Read 10 pages of nonfiction daily. Audiobooks don’t count, and the book must fall into the personal development category. Sorry but audiobooks definitely count IMO, sir. When it comes to audiobooks, some people believe they are a lazy alternative to reading. But there are actually so many recognized benefits of audiobooks that make them suitable for many situations. You can listen to audiobooks while driving, cleaning, walking, etc. and save a good amount of time. It actually has been proven to improve pronunciation and reading and speaking accuracy and fluency. They’re known to build critical listening skills, improve memory/focus/attention span, and for the obvious reasons, they’re highly beneficial for those with visual impairments. I’m not saying audiobooks are better than reading, lol. I’m just playing devils advocate because I think think Andy’s strict rules are a bit much. Bottom line, audiobooks and physical books both have their own importance but, alas, I followed the rules. 10 pages of non-fiction every day ✔️. There was actually one night I was staying at my dads and I went to bed around 10:30 pm and woke up about an hour into my sleep in a panic realizing I hadn’t done my 10 pages of non-fiction yet that day but had a half hour to spare. Knowing my dad, I figured I would have had to give up on #75hard and start the challenge back at day 1 because the chance of me finding some non-fiction in his house other than the bible was slim to none. I stormed into his room, turned on all of his lights and made a scene. Of course he was wondering what the hell I was doing. I thankfully found a book I let him borrow that was non-fiction. Cha-ching. That’s the insane part about #75hard — sometimes it seems like you’re just doing the task to check it off the list. But I guess that’s what habits are all about, eh. So to sum up rule #4: I can truly say it made me fall back in love with reading and developed a habit of picking up a book anytime I have the urge to scroll my phone. I did complete 10 pages of self-development a day but that often prompted me to dive deep into some good ol’ trashy romance or suspense novels which I sometimes enjoy more.. there I said it!!! There’s a time and a place for self help; and sometimes you just need to escape reality.
Take progress pictures daily. Most of the focus in this challenge is only on physical progress. Not once do they account for how you feel mentally, spiritually or emotionally. Questions I always ask my clients: Are you sleeping well? Do you have energy? Is your stress level low or high? You need to learn to lean into and connect to your body and what it’s telling you. Instead, I found myself standing in front of my dirty mirror every morning for a progress picture that looked the exact same as yesterday’s. If you’ve been coached by me before, you know how much I focus on the non-physicals. Instead of x lbs of weight lost, we look at strength gains, clothes fitting differently, confidence levels, energy levels (lots of non-scale victories). Besides, it’s going to take at minimum around 1 month to actually SEE a physical difference so taking a silly flex selfie every day seems redundant and can often be discouraging when you don’t see a difference right away. Now this sounds like I'm against taking progress pictures but I am definitely not — just taking them every couple of weeks or every month is a bit more realistic and allows you to see big picture changes. Rule #5: the intent was there but the delivery was poor.
So, that’s my two cents. Oh, and I subtly mentioned starting over when I was explaining rule #4 but I forgot to go into detail — if you don’t follow any of the five rules, you must start over from day one. Yup, you read that right.. if you mess up even on day 74 you have to start over again at day 1. Seems doable right?
Challenges like this can be exciting and give you purpose and structure. There is a definite draw for those who like to push themselves, but #75hard isn’t for everyone, and that’s OK. I think for many, it’s biting off more than you can chew. Too many changes at once and creating an “all or nothing” mentality can make you feel like a failure even when you have made progress. I think 75 hard can be harmful to your mental and physical health. There are no professionals or accountability making sure you are making diet and fitness choices that are good for your body. Excessive exercise and restrictive dieting can have serious harmful effects. And guess what: you can still get results without these extremes! You can get results with a plan that fits into your lifestyle instead of changing your life to fit the challenge. Another downfall is that there is also no plan for when you complete the 75 hard challenge. You finish… and then what? As cliché as it sounds, life isn’t about the destination, it’s about the journey. This challenge doesn’t prepare you for the road ahead or a life after 75 hard once you finish. The other tough pill to swallow is that if you DON’T finish… then what? You’re left feeling like a failure. Either way, it is not a victory.
I believe life should be enjoyed, I believe in moderation, but I also know that stepping out of your comfort zone, practicing discipline and pushing your limits is where the biggest growth happens. I thrive from challenge. I believe so many people thrive from challenges too. I’m all for getting outside, drinking more water (if needed), eating a nutrient dense diet, and reading to learn. However, I would not recommend the 75 hard challenge for the average Joe.
If 75 hard is something you want to commit to then do it full-heartedly, there are NO shortcuts or excuses. Many people try and tweak the challenge to meet their needs or say they do not have time. To be honest.. You think you don’t have time? Last time I checked, you had the same 24 hours in a day that anyone has, and there are some pretty insane stories of people who have done the 75 hard challenge who have a lot more on their plate than you (and I) do. I’m not saying you aren’t busy, but it is all about sacrifice and commitment and if it’s not for you, it’s fine to admit that.. but don’t say you don’t have “time”.
I also do not mean to come off as heartless or uncompassionate to the roadblocks life brings, thats why i’m saying this challenge isn’t for everyone. Personally, I believe the best way to have sustainable weight loss (if that is your goal) is to create healthy habits that become a part of your lifestyle. The 75 hard challenge is not a way of life most people can keep up long term.
Do what’s best for you in this season of your life for both your mental and physical health. This looks different for everyone! What is important is that you show up for yourself, not tomorrow, not starting on Monday. Not in January. RIGHT NOW. Every second is a new opportunity to start showing up. You don’t need an extreme #75hardchallenge to be the catalyst.