As of this writing, I have five days left in my #75Hard Challenge.
For those who haven’t been following along, 70 days ago I embarked on a challenge that consisted of doing the following five things for 75 straight days, and if you miss a day, you start over.
It’s 75 straight days of:
Two workouts every day, at least 45 minutes, at least one has to be outside
Follow calorie limit, track all food, no cheats, no sweets, no alcohol
Drink a gallon of water every day
Read 10 pages of a personal development book every day
Take a progress pic every day
I’ve shared bi-weeklyish updates on the journey, and I’ll do a final recap next week after I complete the challenge.
Right now, I’m hyper focused on not missing a little detail like forgetting to take a progress picture, or missing a bottle of water toward my gallon.
The last thing I’d want to do is miss something on day 71 or 72 and have to go back to day 1 :)
In fact, yesterday we had a family day at my in-laws, a lot of Megan’s family (herself included) have October birthdays, so we celebrated all of them together.
Everybody was sipping on a beverage, and of course there was cake and ice cream after dinner.
My Mother-In-Law, being nice, said, “Doug, can’t you just do a 70 day challenge and have a piece of cake.”
I know she was joking, but I’d be dammed if I’m going to break this challenge at this point for a piece of cake.
I’ll share most of my takeaways for my recap last week, but here are a few big ones…
First, results are always harder than we think.
We think we can just “eat good” and see dramatic results.
The fact is, I’ve seen some decent results (about 15 pounds and 5% body fat), but think of what I’ve been doing?
Can we really expect 20lbs in 6 weeks if we’re still having a daily glass of wine, and working out 3x per week?
Now, don’t get me wrong, I think that’s great balance, and that’s where most of us hang out in maintenance mode, but the fact is, if you want dramatic results, you need to make some dramatic changes.
And just like your house projects, or anything else in life, it’s going to take at least twice as long as you think it is.
Second, I was big on not modifying this challenge for me.
Note, the keywords there….for me.
I know Kim has written about modifying this challenge to fit you, and I like that, but for me, if I modified it, I wouldn’t have lasted.
You see, I believe, for me, if I allow 1% in, just that cheat day on Sunday, just that one beer, just that one day of only one workout, it doesn’t sound like much, but for me, that doesn’t build the pig-headed discipline, it doesn’t allow me to go deep enough into the habit build.
I guess I’m self-aware enough to realize one thing about myself…
I don’t do well with moderation.
I’m either all-in or all out.
So, for this challenge, I was going to do the challenge, I was going to do it exactly as it was laid out by the creator, and I wasn’t going to make excuses.
I’m not saying everyone should take that advice, in fact, I don’t want to position it as advice, I want to position as being self-aware about how you tick, how you function.
Finally, the last thing I’ll add today, as I like things in three, is that I already have a plan for what’s next.
I’m staying focused on these final five days, but I needed to have a plan for what’s next.
I’ll pull back a little, I love the habit I’ve created of doing something, even just a walk everyday.
Will I do two workouts a day?
No.
But I’m going to keep the habit of doing some type of movement, anything, every single day.
I’ve set some lighter goals to finish out the rest of the year, essentially “maintain, don’t gain” during the holidays, and then I’m planning on doing phase two in January.
Those are my big three for this week.
The final five days are tough.
I spend two of them traveling, and two of them in all day meetings.
But I’ll get it in.
You reading this is a big part of why I won’t miss it.
I’ll be damned if I don’t report back on Monday having completed the challenge.
1% Better.
Dedicated to Your Success,
Doug Spurling